Casey Roderick Reunites with Ronnie Sanders, Wins Show Me the Money Finale

Casey Roderick took a trip to memory lane on Saturday night, as well as victory lane at Montgomery Motor Speedway.

Roderick earned his 15th career Show Me the Money Series in the Alabama State Asphalt Championship on Saturday, capitalizing on a green-white-checkered restart. Inheriting the lead after Presley Johnson and John Bolen made contact while battling for the top spot, Roderick held off Jim Wall for the victory.

The victory came in an impromptu reunion with Ronnie Sanders Racing. The majority of Roderick's Show Me the Money wins, including series championships in 2016 and 2017, came while driving the famed No. 18 for Ronnie Sanders during a run of Late Model excellence for the pairing.

With Jake Finch, who piloted the No. 18 to three Show Me the Money victories this season, competing in the NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series event at Phoenix Raceway, Roderick received a mid-week phone call to team back up with Sanders for Saturday's race.

"I appreciate everyone coming and watching us. I've always loved coming here to Montgomery. I want to thank Ronnie for giving me the call Wednesday. It was a last-minute deal, but man, it felt like home. I had a lot of good races with Ronnie back in 2016, '17 and '18, some of '19. I really enjoyed that time of my life. I don't think I'd be who I am today without those years driving the number 18 with Ronnie. A lot of good memories, man. It's kind of surreal that we pulled it off tonight.

"I know the 82 and the 2 had a little better car there at the end. Unfortunately, they got together and it was fortunate for us. Man, what a night. Getting the pole and winning the race, too. It's pretty, pretty cool to have a reunion with all these guys. All the same group, too, it's pretty cool."

After being involved in the late accident, Johnson and Bolen both restarted at the rear of the field. Johnson recovered for a sixth-place finish, enough to claim this year's Show Me the Money championship after entering the night trailing Finch.

"First thing, getting into John, I feel horrible about that," said Johnson. "Hard, hard racing deal. Hats off to those guys. If it weren't for them, GMS Race Cars, Tony [Eury], Jr., Pops, Spencer Davis.

"It's kind of surreal. It hasn't set in yet. We started out last year in this deal and struggled a lot, wrecked a lot of stuff. We started off really good at the 200, ran fourth, and kind of just built more momentum.

"This was one of them that got away right there, but we'll be back next year, for sure."

Last year's Show Me the Money Series champion, John Wall, finished second, unable to get around Roderick on the final green-white-checkered restart. Wall led the most laps in the field, taking the top spot on lap 13 and maintaining the lead until Bolen muscled by on lap 76.

"This is, by far, the best car we've had down here all year," said Wall. "We just had really bad luck down here all year. We had a miss in the 200, and a miss in the second race. Just a really tough year down here. We found speed tonight. Led a bunch of laps, the car was good, even after the break.

"We were just maintaining our gap in front of Garrett there before the break, just trying to set the pace for ourselves and make him try to catch us. We just lost the right-front there at the end, and just really had nothing for Casey. I got a great start on him and had a nose on him getting into one, but he had a better car."

Gage Rodgers finished third, earning his first podium finish with the Show Me the Money Series in his 25th career start.

"We've been coming here for so many years, so many hours of work put into it," said Rodgers. "It's just a great feeling to finally be able to get up here with a third-place."

Keeton Harris finished fourth, with Sally Mott rounding out the top five.

-Photo credit: Montgomery Motor Speedway

Alabama State Asphalt Championship Unofficial Results