Bristol, TN – A 36-car starting field of would-be gladiators rolled to the high banked ½-mile Bristol Motor Speedway, also known as the Last Great Colosseum, for the Short Track US Nationals 40 with the CRA Street Stocks Powered by JEGS. Goshen, Indiana’s Austin Maynard started on the outside of the front row with former All American 400 Champion, Dillon Oliver. Former Short Track US Nationals winners Brett Hudson and Chuck Barnes, Jr weren’t far behind as the race progressed into a thriller.
An invert of 8 helped put Maynard on the front row after qualifying 7th earlier in the day. In a highly anticipated result after practice, Barnes, Jr broke his own Bristol Motor Speedway Track Record, turning in a 17.152, blistering his previous record set in 2020 of 17.637. Eleven drivers broke or tied the track record on Saturday, with Tyler Nicely as the 11th car running a duplicate time of the September 2020 track record.
The initial start was called back with a start violation and warning, however, Dan Banker got crossed up entering turn one and slapped the outside wall. The next restart was nearly picture perfect but the race was again quickly slowed with one lap in the book after Jamie Sites’ No.98 spun at the exit of turn four; the incident also collected Duane Damon’s No.2. One final caution with just two laps complete came when Jimmy Kirby had a driveshaft failure in turn two.
The next restart allowed the field to stretch out and put laps on the board. Austin Maynard put his No.29 out front but had Jeff Lane close behind in No.21. Lane challenged Maynard for the lead for several laps, but Maynard was able to open up a few tenths of a second gap on Lane. Meanwhile, Hudson and Barnes, Jr, and Heath Helton were working their way through the field and well into the top five, displacing Barnes, Sr and eventually Jeff Lane.
Maynard looked to be well on his way to a Bristol Motor Speedway win with less than 15 laps to go, he held over a one-second lead on Lane, but a caution with 12 laps to go when Joseph Muldoon lost a left front tire exiting turn two. With the field bunched back up, Maynard was forced to defend his top spot harder than he had all night. Restarting fifth, 3-time Bristol winner, Barnes, Jr quickly jumped up to third on the restart. Barnes had to fight for second with Lane which allowed Maynard to pull away by over four-tenths of a second.
With two laps to go, Barnes made a final push to get to Maynard, closing the three-car length gap and getting right to the back bumper of Maynard on the final lap. Maynard, however, was able to defend and Barnes got loose on the exit of turn two on the final lap to secure Maynard’s win in his first-ever trip to Bristol Motor Speedway.
“I don’t know if there was such a thing as saving tires, but Chuckie [Barnes, Jr] has helped me a lot,” Maynard told Rich Frantz in victory lane. “I owe it all to him. He gave me the set-up and he told me what to do; I appreciate him more than he knows.”
Maynard’s win came in his first-ever appearance at Bristol Motor Speedway and he says he didn’t feel like he had a good enough notebook to get the win.
“We only had one good practice session,” Maynard explained. “I was skeptical. I didn’t know what it was gonna do, but I knew we had to make it happen.”
Maynard now joins Barnes, Jr and Hudson as CRA Street Stock Powered by JEGS winners at Bristol Motor Speedway and solidifies himself atop the CRA Street Stock overall Championship Points standings and becomes the leader of the King of the High Banks Series. The next event for the King of the High Banks is Saturday, June 8th at Salem Speedway in Salem, IN before wrapping up on Saturday, August 31st at Winchester Speedway in Winchester, IN.
The next event for the CRA Street Stocks Powered by JEGS is Saturday, April 27th at Anderson Speedway in Anderson, IN for the Spring Fling 75. For more information on the CRA Street Stocks or Champion Racing Association, log onto CRA-Racing.com. Find CRA: Champion Racing Association on Facebook and follow @CRARacing on X.
