Cole Butcher Makes History, Continues Undefeated Run in Blizzard Series

Cole Butcher continued a historic start to the Road to the Snowball Derby, winning Friday's Deep South Cranes Blizzard Series event at Five Flags Speedway.

Butcher led every lap of the Tibbetts Lumber 100, taking the victory in the third Super Late Model race of the year at the Pensacola, Florida half-mile. The win now gives him an unprecedented three Blizzard Series wins in the first three events.

Butcher briefly battled side-by-side with Jake Finch in the opening laps before clearing Finch on lap three. That was as close as anyone came to stopping Butcher on Friday night.

The Nova Scotia driver now has six wins under the ASA banner this year, with the three Five Flags wins joining ASA STARS National Tour victories at Dominion Raceway and Slinger Super Speedway as well as an ASA Southern Super Series win at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.

"Just hats off to this Wilson Motorsports crew," said Butcher in victory lane. This one goes to Randy's father. He passed away the other day. We're thinking about him.

"Just goes to show how hard they work at the racetrack and at the shop. It's not just the 28 team, it's the 24, the 22 and the 20. I can't thank everybody on this team enough."

Before Friday night, the last time a driver won three of the four Blizzard Series events in a year at Five Flags was 2018, when Bubba Pollard won the first, second and fourth race on the Road to the Snowball Derby.

Pollard is also the most recent to win three consecutive Blizzard Series races, as he won the Blizzard finale in 2017 before winning the first two Blizzard races in 2018.

Matthew Craig passed Finch for the second position on lap four, and remained in the runner-up spot for the duration of the Tibbetts 100 thereafter. Coming off a win at Montgomery Motor Speedway, Craig once again showed plenty of speed on a hot, summer night, but needed just a little bit more to challenge Butcher for the win.

"It's pretty good. It's a tough field of cars to race against," said Craig. "Cole's a great competitor, a very good driver.

"We'll just keep working on the car, getting it better. We've got to find some grip, they have a little more grip than we do."

Stephen Nasse has been the model of consistency in ASA Southern Super Series competition this year. The Pinellas Park, Florida driver tallied his third consecutive podium finish with a third-place effort on Friday.

Nasse now has seven top-five finishes in the first 10 Southern Super Series events of 2025, but is still searching for his first SSS victory since April 26, 2024 at Five Flags.

"It was not exactly what we wanted," said Nasse. "We wanted a little better car there. Just when you get in that dirty air, it's hard to do anything. Like Matt said, it's just a lack of grip. Congrats to them guys. We just have to go back to work."

Finch finished fourth, with Jett Noland rounding out the top five.

The next event on the schedule for the ASA Southern Super Series comes at Mobile International Speedway on Saturday, August 2.

-Photo credit: Will Bellamy

Tibbetts Lumber 100 Unofficial Results