Charlotte, NC 9/24/12- Preston Peltier knew what it would take to win at the Hickory Motor Speedway Saturday in the PASS South Series’ fall event, the Over the Mountain 150, and made it happen. Peltier saved his tires in the first half of the 150 lap race, and let his fellow competitors come to him eventually making his way to the front picking cars off one at a time before taking the lead for good on lap eighty-nine and never looked back. The win was the Concord, North Carolina driver’s second of the season dating back to the series season opener at the Dillon Motor Speedway on March 10th.
“It was a special win tonight for us because it broke a tie with Ben (Rowe) to become the all time wins leader in the PASS South Series and that means a lot for a guy like me, “ said Peltier in victory lane. “Wins in this series are so hard to come by these days it makes each one you get a special one. I could tell my guys were a little nervous talking to them over the radio when that last caution came out with five to go for the #47 spinning, but I just told them we’ve been there before and came out on top and with as good as a car as we have tonight, we should do it again and we did.”
Landon Cling, who ended up in the second position when all was said and done, was the final car Peltier needed to pass to secure his victory. Cling’s second place finish, which matched his finish in the Easter Bunny 150 race in April, didn’t come without controversy however. With just five laps remaining a lapped car went for a solo spin-and-go off of turn four causing several cars to check up including the #29 machine of Cling. This allowed Trey Mitchell to make the pass for second, however; Cling made contact with Mitchell as they picked up speed sending the #47 spinning and bringing out the yellow for the final time of the night.
After the race Cling spoke about the incident with Mitchell in the closing laps.
“Trey is not a guy I’m trying to race like that. We had those lap cars kind of jumble us up there a bit, he went high and we made contact. It was just one of those racing deals; he definitely isn’t someone I want to have any bad animosity with. Hopefully we have it all worked out and can move on from here,” stated Cling after the race.
The ruckus up front was the recipe that Ross Kenseth needed to get back to the podium in the PASS South Series after a drought dating back to the Wake County event in May. Even though his team has struggled over the summer stretch of races, Kenseth feels that what they learned at Hickory this weekend netting them a podium finish is exactly what they need to head into Nashville with confidence for the All American 400 just two weeks away.
“I think we finished better than what out car showed. We came here with a little different package than normal that I had a little more input on than normal and we were able to have a good run and some fun tonight. What worked for us tonight we hope will make for a better run at Nashville, I know its two totally different tracks, but overall I think we can put some things that we learned here tonight towards the Nashville’s race and go from there,” noted a satisfied Kenseth.
Next up for the “BIG BOYS WITH THE BAD FAST TOYS” PASS South Super Late Model Series is the highlight event of the 2012 season; the All American 400 at the Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, Tennessee on Saturday October 6th. To pre order your tickets to this historic event visit www.allamerican400.com. For more information on the PASS South Series or any of the PASS sanctioned series visit www.proallstarsseries.com.