Randy Weaver is on an amazing roll.
The Schaeffer’s Oil Southern Nationals Series presented by Old Man’s Garage made the seventh stop of its ten race tour on Tuesday night at the Boyd’s Speedway in Ringgold, Georgia for a $3,500-to-win show on the third-mile track located just outside of Chattanooga. And as has been the case so often lately, it was Randy Weaver who put on a dominating performance to claim the top prize.
Weaver began the night by setting the fast time in Group A qualifying and overall with a lap of 14.758 seconds. It was NASCAR Sprint Cup star Austin Dillon who turned the fastest lap in Group B with a time of 14.902 seconds. Those two driver were joined by the respective second place qualifiers from each group, Ronnie Johnson and Chris Madden, in a dash race that set the first two rows on the feature starting grid.
Weaver won the dash race followed by Dillon, Johnson and Madden.
Cory Hedgecock, Dane Dacus, Jason Croft and Dylan Ames won the four B-main preliminaries used to set the remainder of the starting grid for the main event.
At the start of the 35-lap feature, Weaver went to the early lead followed by Dillon, Johnson and Madden. And quite simply, the race for the win was over for all intents and purposes at that point. The only things that managed to impede the Crossville driver’s progress were two brief caution periods that gave the leader a reprieve from slower traffic and the rest of the field an opportunity to at least see the rear spoiler on his Longhorn race car.
Weaver’s lead grew to as much as the length of a straightaway whenever green flag runs would allow for it.
But for what the race may have lacked in competition for the lead, it more than made up for just behind the front runner. Dillon, Madden and Johnson staged an incredible and entertaining battle for the second spot throughout virtually the entire race. On more than one occasion the trio went three-wide and were two-wide with the third man nudging the car in front of him on multiple occasions.
The battle was decided when on lap 29, Madden sliced from the high side of the track to the low side, cutting between his two opponents and passing by both to claim the spot.
At the same time the battle for second was taking place, 11th starting Riley Hickman was doing some slicing through the field of his own. On lap 30 the hometown driver passed by Dane Dacus to secure the 5th position and complete his run through the top-10.
At the finish it was Randy Weaver, Chris Madden, Ronnie Johnson, Austin Dillon, Riley Hickman, Dane Dacus, Jason Croft, Donald McIntosh, Billy Ogle, Jr. and Austin Kirkpatrick rounding out the top-10.
The win was Weaver’s sixth consecutive victory in a variety of series’. Although he has not run the full Southern Nationals Series, he leads the tour in victories with three.
Chris Madden extended his series points lead with his runner-up finish.
The Southern Nationals move next to Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel, Tenn. on Thursday before finishing up with east Tennessee stops at Maryville’s Smoky Mountain Speedway on Friday night and the Tazewell Speedway on Saturday evening.
