ELLISVILLE, Fla. — There are no guarantees that Cory Hedgecock would have won his first two Powell Family Memorial starts at All-Tech Raceway had he not had a couple of untimely miscues. The only thing that’s certain is that he did indeed fall short in both 2020 and 2022. No worries. The Loudon, Tenn., driver took care of business during this year’s 28th annual version of the race at the Wendell and Patty Durrance-promoted track.
Leading 60 of 67 laps, Hedgecock cruised — most of the way — to win Saturday's Crate Racin' USA Series race at the halfe-mile oval in north Florida. He pocketed a career-high $28,000 while remaining a perfect 6-for-6 in the tour competition this season.
In 2020, Hedgecock ran second most of the way before getting into the outside wall exiting turn two while trying to make an outside move on leader Mark Whitener on a lap-48 restart. The result was a crashed car and 17th-place finish for Hedgecock, while Middleburg, Fla.’s Whitener went on to win. Last year Hedgecock rallied from 14th to lead lap 40 and laps 48-56 before settling for the runner-up spot behind Milton, Fla., driver Joseph Joiner.
Both times Hedgecock felt like he missed out on an opportunity to win an event he was expected to win. With his third try delivering the victory, Hedgecock feels like he can finally exhale.
“It feels very good,” Hedgecock said. “I don't think I really gave one away the first time we was here to the Whitener deal (in 2020). But I mean, I think I could have raced with him. I still think I could have done something, but I wasn't sure about that one.
"Last year, for sure, I gave that one away. So, just glad to finally get it in the bag and move on. It'll make next year a whole lot calmer for me. I mean, I was a nervous freaking wreck, man. I've won a lot of big races before, but I just felt like I should win this one. I felt like we had the car the whole weekend, which then in turn puts more pressure on me to go out there and get it done, because I feel like it's my race to lose. So I’m glad to finally get it out of the way.”
Hedgecock, who started outside the front row, led laps 4-5 and laps 10-67 and finished 3.6 seconds ahead of Tyler Millwood of Kingston, Ga. Kyle Bronson of Brandon, Fla., rallied from 19th to finish third, while Joiner improved one position to place fourth. Polesitter Tyler Clem of Pinellas Park, Fla., completed the top five after leading laps 1-3 and laps 6-9.
Despite Hedgecock’s wide margin of victory, it wasn’t alway smooth sailing. He first dueled Clem and then had to turn back Millwood. Restarts were especially troublesome, and the team discovered a partially burned piston during technical inspection.
“I just couldn't get going, Hedgecock said. “I mean, I just got my ass kicked down the front straightaway for some reason. But I felt like it was (how we were starting) more so than it was me. They were threatening us on the (start zone). I feel like you should be able to start anywhere you want to in turns three and four area, not where you're coming up off four and you're out to lunch. As the leader, you’re going to be the worst one because everybody's able to start rolling you and stuff like that.
“I had to set my pace and fire and Millwood is running a mile per hour quicker than me, kinda coming down to me, which is what he should be doing. I’d be doing the same thing as him. It shouldn't have been that treacherous for me on restarts, but we were able to overcome it, and make it work anyways.”
With both Clem and Millwood able to get by him after he had the lead, Hedgecock had to work to get back ahead, though Millwood never officially led a lap.
“The Clem one I wasn’t as worried as much because we were racing and that was early enough that I didn’t think it was a big deal because I just knew we were better than him,” Hedgecock said. “Millwood had a good car on restarts. He couldn't run with us on long green runs, but I just didn't know how long ... we’re Crate racing, so I don't know how long of a run we'll ever get. I know we had a good car. I knew if we could ever get through lap one on restarts, I knew we had a good enough car. I could stay in the lead. I mean, this thing was on point and just stuck and was glued (to the track). We made a good tire choice, and all around it was a good night.”
Millwood felt like his best shot came on a restart following one of the six cautions that slowed the race. He stole the lead away, but another caution came out just as he was completing the lap, negating the pass.
“I was going to lead that lap,” Millwood said. “I had a good car. Just needed to get in front of him to have track position there. I felt like we was probably equal race cars there. I cut him a little break over here, sliding across my nose. Anyways, we had a good night.”
Bronson, who finished third for the second year in a row, was in danger of missing the starting grid altogether, but rallied through the consolation and then improved 16 positions in the main event to lead three Floridians in the top five.
“We found a couple of issues there right before the B-main and we kind of figured it out,” Bronson said. “We had a brake switch that’s been bad all weekend and we got that fixed and I felt like we had a pretty good race car all day today. The track got real slick like it normally does every time I come here, and it puts the driver back in the seat.”
