Duck River Raceway Park
McCool tops Burroughs, wins $5,000 at the Duck
By Robert Holman
DirtonDirt.com correspondent
McCool gets a winning hug. (Robert Holman)
WHEEL, Tenn. (Aug. 29) — Bub McCool has been close at Duck River Speedway before. This time, the Vicksburg, Miss., driver wouldn’t be denied. Starting sixth, McCool moved to second by lap three and then wrestled the lead away from Anthony Burroughs to claim the Southern Regional Racing Series-sanctioned Slo Moe 50 at the tiny southern middle Tennessee track. Burroughs, of Athens, Ala., held off a fast-closing Tony Knowles of Tyrone, Ga., for second, while series points leader Byron Michael of Florence, Ala., was fourth and Kelly Hanvey of Cullman, Ala., was fifth. | SRRS notebook
The $5,000 victory marked McCool’s richest of the season and helped continue the resurgence that the second-generation driver is enjoying after spending several years away from the sport. It also helped McCool sling that proverbial monkey from his back, one that’s kept him out of victory lane at Duck River in the past. “This is only about the fifth time that I’ve been here, but I’ve led a couple of races here late and had them taken away from me,” said McCool.
Friday night, McCool was able to tame a racetrack that few outsiders could get a handle on. Veterans Ray Cook, Dale McDowell and Randy Weaver struggled, as did youngsters Todd Morrow and Steven Ashby.
Early on, Ashby looked poised to finally put his name in the SRRS record book, but he jumped the cushion while leading on lap three, ending his night after starting on the front row. That handed the lead to Burroughs, who paced the field six laps before McCool took the point.
McCool led the next 21 laps until Burroughs battled back to take the top spot. Three laps later though, McCool stole the lead away again, using a daunting slide job in turns three and four to drop Burroughs back to the runner up spot.
“I knew that if I was going to (take the lead back), I was going to have to do it then,” McCool said of his race-winning move. “It worked once before, so I figured it would work again.”
After a caution on lap 36, McCool raced unchallenged to the win. Burroughs meanwhile had his hands full trying to fend off Knowles. The pair traded positions until Burroughs finally secured the spot with three laps remaining.
SRRS @ Duck River: (1) Bub McCool, (2) Anthony Burroughs, (3) Tony Knowles, (4) Byron Michael, (5) Kelly Hanvey, (6) Jeff Sanborn, (7) Daniel Miller, (8) Jerry Owens, (9) David Seibers, (10) Lamar Scoggins, (11) Mike Luna, (12) Michael Walker, (13) Eric Hickerson, (14) Ben Kittrell, (15) Justin MCree, (16) Jimmy Nowlin, (17) Perry Delaney, (18) Tony Morris, (19) Dale McDowell, (20) Jay Brinkley, (21) Billy Mayo, (22) Scott Cook, (23) Steven Ashby, (24) Brandon King, (25) David Gentry. Fast qualifier (among 47 cars): Burroughs. Consolation race winners: Nowlin, Mayo, Michael, McDowell. Provisional starters: Kittrell, Luna, Miller.
