by Tim Packman / RacingAmerica
When the checkered flag waved after the 100-lap CRA Street Stocks event on Saturday night, Michael Pannell claimed victory in a perfect dominating fashion.
Sunny skies greeted fans in the stands and stars in the cars at the famed Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway. After a caution-free first half, Pannell let the other 20 drivers know the No. 07 was the one to beat after leading every lap. During the halfway break, teams took the time to make adjustments.
Once the race restarted, Pannell repeated his earlier performance by leading every lap in the final 50 laps, as well. A borrowed motor, lap traffic and lack of cautions didn’t slow the Portland, TN driver’s pace one bit.
“This is a dream come true and biggest win of my career,” Pannell said in Victory Lane, holding his guitar trophy. “We blew a motor at Bristol (Motor Speedway) in qualifying a few weeks ago and really wanted to make this race. Kenneth Baird loaned us a motor, so shout out to him.
“Big thanks to my dad, he’s the one who puts the blood, sweat and tears into this to make it happen. I couldn’t do this without all of our great sponsors. My spotter, Luke Harrison, jumped on last minute to spot for us and did and incredible job of keeping my focused and calm in the car.”
Following Pannell across the stripe was the No. 44 of Chuck Barnes, Jr., No. 20 of Dalton Conner, No. 03 driven by Dillon Oliver and Brett Hudson rounded out the top-five finishers in his No. 00.
After the aforementioned first half of the race, teams made tire pressure and chassis adjustments to ready themselves for the final 50 laps. Once the race restarted, it didn’t take Pannell long to continue his dominating lead bolting out in front of Connor.
With 20 laps remaining, Pannell had a 2.2-second lead over second place. Behind the leader, Conner and Barnes started to slug it out for second and third place.
As the pace of the race wore on, the back ends of several Street Stocks started to get sideways out of Turns 2 and 4. Oliver in his No. 3 took advantage of that and started to gain on the top-five runners running smoothly through the turns. Following him into the fray was Hudson to gain a top-five finish.
Even as he worked his way through lap traffic in the final 15 laps, nobody was even close to catching Pennell. He hit his marks, kept the competition at bay and made his way to a huge hit in Music City leading every circuit around NFS.
CRA STREET STOCKS AT NASHVILLE – UNOFFICIAL RESULTS
| FIN | NO | DRIVER | LAPS | DIFF |
| 1 | 07 | Michael Pannell | 100 | — |
| 2 | 44 | Chuck Barnes, Jr. | 100 | 1.396 |
| 3 | 20 | Dalton Conner | 100 | 1.594 |
| 4 | 03 | Dillon Oliver | 100 | 2.851 |
| 5 | 00H | Brett Hudson | 100 | 3.134 |
| 6 | 19 | Cole Baxter | 100 | 3.465 |
| 7 | 21 | Jeff Lane | 100 | 7.535 |
| 8 | 84 | Gus Moody | 100 | 12.027 |
| 9 | 05 | Blaine Akin | 100 | 12.459 |
| 10 | 3C | Chad Chaffin | 100 | 13.305 |
| 11 | 73 | Colby Lane | 100 | 15.216 |
| 12 | 58 | Danny Smith | 100 | 15.226 |
| 13 | 4 | Michael Neidert | 99 | 1 Lap |
| 14 | 282 | Phillip McCord | 99 | 1 Lap |
| 15 | 357 | Tyler Hagan | 86 | 14 Laps |
| 16 | 29 | Austin Maynard | 84 | 16 Laps |
| 17 | 99 | Brian Bayer | 82 | 18 Laps |
| 18 | 25 | Tyler Nicely | 76 | 24 Laps |
| 19 | 97 | James Swan | 56 | 44 Laps |
| 20 | 3A | Travis Arms | 50 | 50 Laps |
| 21 | 64 | Kenny Vetetoe | 4 | 96 Laps |
| 22 | 00E | Marcus Elliott |
