Jackson Tovo Earns First Career Late Model Win at Hickory

Jackson Tovo scored his first career Late Model win on Saturday night, winning the first of two 40-lap Limited Late Model features at Hickory Motor Speedway.

In the first race of Saturday evening at "The Birthplace of the NASCAR Stars," Tovo battled with his twin brother Ethan Tovo for the lead before moving into the top spot just before the halfway mark. Jackson led the rest of the way for the win, finishing ahead of Jake Freeman and Chispa Rodriguez.

“It was so much fun," said Jackson Tovo. "I want to thank Lee Faulk Racing for this super-fast No. 31 Toyota Camry. We had some really good pace all weekend. We’ve been learning a lot. It’s been so much fun to finally do it. Thank you to the team for everything they do, it’s been awesome.”

With the win, Jackson Tovo started eighth in the second Limited Late Model race of the evening. With only 40 laps to use to his advantage, he worked his way up to a third-place finish in the race, won by Toni Breidinger.

“We started in the back, so the main goal was to finish up front as best as we could with the amount of laps that we had," Jackson said after the second race. “We had really good pace in race one, so we had a really good mindset coming into this race. I’m still happy with how we did. With starting in the back, I think P3 is a good result.”

Despite his early speed, Ethan Tovo unfortunately fell off the pace with a flat tire after 22 laps in the first race, bringing his No. 13 machine to pit road. Ethan was collected in an incident just ahead of him in the second race, ending his night after 11 laps in that feature.

The Tovo Twins will both be back on track this weekend with the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series. Rounds 8 and 9 for the CUBE 3 Architecture TA2 Series take place on Saturday and Sunday, July 18-19 at Watkins Glen International.

-Photo credit: Chris Clark