Monday, February 13, 2017

The 3rd Annual Winter Showdown Belonged to Derek Thorn

The 3rd Annual Winter Showdown Belonged to Derek ThornThorn Led Every Lap Beating NASCAR Stars Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, and NASCAR Next’s Noah Gragson. 


The 3rd Annual Winter Showdown Belonged to Derek Thorn

 

The 2017 Winter Showdown was held at the state-of-the-art, Kern County Raceway in Bakersfield, California. 2013 NASCAR K&N West Series champion, and three-time Spears Srl Southwest Tour champion, Derek Thorn started the race Saturday from the pole and led all two hundred and fifty laps. The win came with a $30,000 paycheck.

“Man, I don’t even know what to say. That’s just… I’ve been waiting for this for a while,” Thorn said on the Speed51.com live broadcast. “We’ve had a lot of good runs in a lot of big open shows for some big money and we’ve come up just a little short. To be here at home with Byron and Carol Campbell, Mike Keen, this is our backyard. This is a Victory Circle chassis out of Bakersfield, Brad Peters motor out of California, these guys have worked so hard to get to this point and this is just a relief.”

To earn his victory, Thorn had to hold off some stiff competition including NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch (who came in third), and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series champion Erik Jones (finished fourth). Two-time defending race winner Bubba Pollard finished in sixth place. 2016 Southern Super Series champion Donnie Wilson had to settle for the runner up position.

“Just try not to goof off,” Thorn said regarding his late-race strategy. “I was looking back in my mirror and I was like, those are three of the best short track, if not the best racers in the country — and maybe the world itself — and I just tried not to mess up. Mike gave me a perfect car, I just tried not to goof it up.”

“I don’t know,” Wilson said when asked if he thought he had anything for Thorn. “It’s just so hard to pass here. Restarts are critical, I thought mine were pretty good. The outside line moved pretty good on the restarts, obviously if you were stuck on the inside it kind of hurt. I don’t know, we were kind of even-steven from my vantage point. We did what we could. I’m happy; I’m thrilled.”

“I certainly wish for a little bit more. We come home third there, certainly we wanted to run a little bit better up there with Derek,” Busch stated. “We got up to second earlier in the race and we wanted to try a different tire strategy than the rest of the guys. We felt like coming in on lap 110 and putting tires on it and going the rest of the way was going to be way too long on tires. But those guys made it work, more power to them.”

A limited amount of “Rowdy Roundup” with Kyle Busch ticket packages were available for fans to purchase. This special ticket allowed fans to attend a meet and greet with Busch on Saturday afternoon before the race, get his autograph and have their picture taken with him.

For an on-demand replay of Saturday’s race, visit Speed51.com’s Trackside Now coverage presented by JRi Shocks.



3rd Annual Winter Showdown Unofficial Results

1
43
Derek   Thorn
2
2W
Donnie Wilson
3
51B
Kyle   Busch
4
20J
Erik Jones
5
4
Willie   Allen
6
26P
Bubba Pollard
7
48
Preston   Peltier
8
17
David Mayhew
9
58A
Tyler   Ankrum
10
18
Noah Gragson
11
22E
Chris   Eggleston
12
64
Garrett Evans
13
89
Bobby   Hodges
14
26M
Christian McGhee
15
15W
Lance   Wilson
16
14
Chris Davidson
17
05
Eric   Schmidt
18
11A
Dustin Ash
19
20M
Cole Moore
20
54
Donny St. Ours
21
75
Jeremy Doss
22
36
Luke Hall
23
65
Tyler   Tanner
24
7P
Greg Pursley
25
58R
Kyle Ray
26
22S
Buddy Shepherd
27
99M
Shane Mitchell
28
21H
Eric Holmes
29
21R
Blaine   Rocha
30
51V
Carlos Vieira
31
6U
Dominic   Ursetta
32
16
Jacob Gomes
33
55S
Rod Schultz   Sr.
34
20C
Chris Johnson
35
19
Brandon White
36
7W
Johnny White


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