Brent Crews Wins Orange Blossom 100, World Series SLM Title

Brent Crews closed out Super Late Model competition at the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing with a walk-off win.

Crews won the Orange Blossom 100 on Thursday evening, picking up both his first World Series win and the Super Late Model championship for this year's World Series. With Saturday's program cancelled due to a poor weather forecast, the Orange Blossom had been moved to Thursday and served as the Super Late Model finale.

Crews took the lead from Conner Jones on lap 52 of the 100-lap Super Late Model event after working his way through the field from the eight starting spot. Crews had set fast time in qualifying for the Orange Blossom 100, but an eight-car invert left him with plenty of work to get back to the front.

Nevertheless, Crews worked his way through the field during the first half of the race and built up a winning margin of nearly three seconds over the final 48 laps.

"First of all, I want to give all thanks to the Lord above," said Crews in victory lane. "Second of all , I have a bad fast Toyota Camry. Everybody at Donnie Wilson Motorsports worked their butt off. Bond Suss made some adjustments today and that thing was a rocket ship.

"The second I was able to drive this Super, I knew it was a good fit for us. I think it showed here."

Crews has established himself as one of the top prospects climbing the racing ladder, with a Trans Am TA2 championship and wins in ARCA and on the dirt in the Xtreme Outlaw Midget Series to his credit.

However, Crews has not enjoyed as much success as he'd like while competing in pavement Late Models. Putting together several competitive runs and making the trip to victory lane Thursday has increased Crews' confidence in this discipline.

"I feel like I haven't had the most success in a Late Model. I feel like jumping into the Super gave me some confidence with a great race team and a lot of great people behind me to spot my way through it and give me advice the whole way."

Jones finished second, followed by Crews' Wilson Motorsports teammate Gio Ruggiero. Ty Fredrickson and Gabe Sommers rounded out the top five.

After winning the John Blewett, III Memorial on Wednesday, Matt Hirschman made it back-to-back wins in Tour-type Modified competition in Thursday's 50-lapper. Hirschman took the lead from Patrick Emerling on lap eight and led the rest of the way for his 19th career World Series win.

In an attrition-filled Pro Late Model feature, George Phillips took the lead from R.J. Braun with five laps to go and scored his first career World Series victory. Many of the top competitors, including title contenders Dawson Sutton and Hunter Wright, were collected in a massive lap one incident. Sutton was unable to rejoin the field, while Wright soldiered to a ninth-place finish to give him a significant points lead entering Friday's 100-lap finale.

-Photo credit: Will Bellamy/Racing America

UNOFFICIAL RESULTS

SUPER LATE MODELS - ORANGE BLOSSOM 100

TOUR-TYPE MODIFIEDS

PRO LATE MODELS

FLORIDA MODIFIEDS