{"id":16996,"date":"2017-03-28T09:56:56","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T13:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maineracing.com\/wp\/?p=16996"},"modified":"2017-03-28T10:28:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T14:28:42","slug":"craig-prevails-wild-pass-super-late-model-return-orange-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/2017\/03\/craig-prevails-wild-pass-super-late-model-return-orange-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Craig Prevails In Wild PASS Super Late Model Return To Orange County"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Craig Prevails In Wild PASS Super Late Model Return To Orange County<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"ROUGEMONT, NC (March 25) \u2013 Matt Craig came out on top of a controversial last lap battle that saw both he and third finisher Preston Peltier slap the wall to win the 10th Running of the Orange Blossom Special on Saturday night at Orange County Speedway. Craig\u2019s second straight Pro All Stars Series (PASS) South Super Late Model win also guarantees him a starting spot in the 44th Annual Oxford 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway in Maine.
\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur car was really good, but we got really loose when it was time to go,\u201d said Craig, driver of the C&C Boilers Sales & Service Chevrolet #54. \u201cI\u2019ve raced with Preston [Peltier] for a long time and I knew if I would have stayed on the outside on the last lap, it wouldn\u2019t have been any different than what I did. I don\u2019t feel bad about it. He\u2019s raced me dirty and I\u2019ve raced him dirty, that\u2019s how we get along.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Peltier, with the chance to end a nearly two year winless drought in PASS dating back to the 2015 Easter Bunny 150 at Hickory Motor Speedway, coming up short was a hard pill to swallow.<\/p>\n

\u201cI figured at Southern National that he won the race and I thought man, the kid\u2019s turned a corner, but I changed my mind on that deal,\u201d said a disappointed Peltier afterwards. \u201cThe kid\u2019s wrecked a lot of cars and it\u2019s gotta stop. I just hope he gets focused because that\u2019s pretty uncalled for.\u201d<\/p>\n

In qualifying, Craig and PASS rookie, Tanner Thorson ran identical fast laps, but the quick qualifying time was awarded to Craig by virtue of having a faster second lap. Following the top 10 qualifiers redraw, Craig would start fifth, while Kodie Conner and Jeff Batten would move to the front row.<\/p>\n

At the drop of the green flag, Batten got the edge over Connor to lead the opening laps. But, on lap four New Hampshire\u2019s Derek Griffith was able to make his way by Batten for the lead. While Griffith stretched his advantage to over a straightaway over second place, Peltier was on the move from tenth, bypassing Thorson to move into the top five on lap 29.<\/p>\n

The first caution of the night would not wave until lap 69 when Terry Horak would go for a minor spin in turn two. On the restart, Griffith continued to lead with Peltier moving past Craig into second. After restarting seventh, Conner flexed his muscle, making the low line work to move all the way up to third with 63 laps to go.<\/p>\n

Griffith and Peltier stretched their advantage over third by 15 car lengths as they began working slower traffic. Using the car of Bradley McCaskill as a pick, Peltier was able to power his way by Griffith for the lead with 37 laps to go. The yellow flag would fly again when Ryan Moore cut a tire and slapped the wall entering turn three with 18 laps to go.<\/p>\n

Peltier took the advantage on the restart over Craig and Griffith. Unfortunately for Griffith, he would spin on the front stretch and fall from contention for the win. The final caution of the night would wave with six laps to go after contact between Thorson and Dave Farrington, Jr. would send Farrington for a spin off turn four.<\/p>\n

On the final restart, Peltier and Craig raced side-by-side for the lead on the high-banked, 3\/8 mile speedway. With two laps to go, Craig ducked under Peltier entering turn three and slid up the track into Peltier. The two cars made hard contact, with Peltier making slight impact with the wall. With smoke pouring from the right side of his machine, Craig held off a fast charging Ben Rowe to take the win over Rowe, Peltier, Conner, and Tate Fogleman. Rounding out the top 10 were Dalton Armstrong, Thorson, Joey Polewarczyk, Batten, and Spencer Davis.<\/p>\n

The PASS National Championship Super Late Models will be in action again, along with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Modified, as part of The Icebreaker on Sunday afternoon, April 2 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park in Connecticut. PASS South will it the track again on Saturday, April 15 at Hickory Motor Speedway for the 12th Annual Easter Bunny 150. Entry forms are currently available at ProAllStarsSeries.com. Be sure to \u201cLike\u201d the Pro All Stars Series on Facebook or follow us on Twitter at @PASSSLM14.<\/p>\n

PASS Super Late Model \u2013 Orange Blossom Special \u2013 Unofficial Results<\/strong>
\n54 – Matt Craig 150 12. 7 \u2013 Dave Farrington, Jr. 150
\n4n \u2013 Ben Rowe 150 13. 12 \u2013 Derek Griffith 150
\n33 \u2013 Preston Peltier 150 14. 51 \u2013 Eddie Fatscher 148
\n45 \u2013 Kodie Conner 150 15. 99 \u2013 Sarah Cornett-Ching 148
\n8 \u2013 Tate Fogleman 150 16. 118 \u2013 Bradley McCaskill 148
\n74 \u2013 Dalton Armstrong 150 17. 24 \u2013 JP Josiasse 143
\n55 \u2013 Tanner Thorson 150 18. 28 \u2013 Terry Horak 141
\n97 \u2013 Joey Polewarczyk 150 19. 74x \u2013 Ryan Moore 129
\n49 \u2013 Jeff Batten 150 20. 15 \u2013 Roy Hayes III 125
\n 29 – Spencer Davis 150 21. 7c \u2013 Tyler Church 47
\n 2 \u2013 Trevor Noles 150 DNS 59 \u2013 Dustin Dunn<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Craig Prevails In Wild PASS Super Late Model Return To Orange County ROUGEMONT, NC (March 25) \u2013 Matt Craig came out on top of a controversial last lap battle that saw both he and third finisher Preston Peltier slap the wall to win the 10th Running of the Orange Blossom Special on Saturday night at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pass"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16996"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16998,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16996\/revisions\/16998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maineracing.com\/legacy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}