Jake Garcia Victorious in Rumble by the River, Return to Montgomery

Jake Garcia's return to Montgomery Motor Speedway was a successful one.

The Georgia native and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competitor scored the knockout win in Saturday's Rumble by the River for the ASA Southern Super Series. It is Garcia's seventh career win with the ASA Southern Super Series, coming in his first race at Montgomery since 2022.

An eight-time winner in the Show Me the Money Pro Late Model Series at Montgomery, Garcia is no stranger to the historic Alabama half-mile. He was excited to return to Montgomery in a Super Late Model, and that excitement translated to a convincing victory.

Garcia took the lead from Dustin Smith shortly after a lap 50 mandatory caution, then maintained the top spot the rest of the way to take home the boxing gloves and the Rumble by the River trophy.

"Ricky gave me a really good car," Garcia said in victory lane. "The first part of the race is just about managing, trying to control the race as much as possible. I want to thank everyone at Fr8 Racing for all their hard work. I had a new spotter this week, Nacho. I want to thank Nacho, Fr8 Racing, Ford Performance, Quanta Services, everybody else on this deal.

"Really awesome to get to come to Montgomery again. It's been, I think, over three years since I've raced here. Been wanting to come back and just hadn't had the opportunity. It's always good when you get to come back to one of your favorite race tracks."

Spencer Davis finished second in the contest, methodically working his way through the field over the course of the evening. He moved up to second by lap 100, but did not have an answer for Garcia in the closing laps, even with a couple of late cautions.

"Hats off to Ricky Turner, Jake Garcia, they were the class of the field tonight," said Davis. "We tried to do what we can on those restarts, starting in second. He could even get better launches than us. Our Surf USA Mobile, GMS Race Cars, Jail Breaker Chips machine was pretty good.

"We worked hard all weekend, man. We turned every nut and bolt on this car, changed shocks four or five times. Qualifying didn't show what we wanted, but we raced really good. We just have to get a little bit better."

Matthew Craig entered the night as the winner of the last two Rumbles by the River, and a three-time winner of the event. Looking to turn around a challenging start to his 2026 season, Craig was content with a third-place effort.

"It was a hard race," said Craig. "I know it wasn't a lot of cars, but it was fun. We were racing as hard as we could. We just missed it a little bit right there. We kind of got off this year, haven't had the speed. The track's always been good to me, so I was hoping we could get a good run and get some momentum going in the right direction.

While the first 100 laps of the race were incident-free, a significant incident involving John Bolen and Hudson Bulger with 21 laps to go led to the end of the night for both competitors. The two drivers made repeated contact before colliding together into the outside wall exiting turn four.

“I never want to tear up race cars, but he was racing like that since lap two, dive-bombing me,” Bulger said. “I haven’t seen the replay, but I’ve been getting pushed around too much in this class this year. I’m not taking anything more off of anybody. Like I said, I hate to tear up race cars, but it is what it is.”

“It’s unfortunate for all of us who put this car together,” Bolen told Short Track Scene. “It takes a lot for us to do that. We don’t get to buy unlimited cars like some people. We have to work and pay for our cars but daddy’s money over there just wrecks cars. I don’t even know if he’s finished a race. That’s life.”

Dylan Fetcho finished fourth, with Tristan McKee rounding out the top five.

The ASA Southern Super Series will join the ASA STARS National Tour for a pair of co-sanctioned events in North Carolina during Memorial Day weekend. The tour will visit Hickory Motor Speedway on Thursday, May 21 before heading to Tri-County Speedway on Saturday, May 23.

-Photo credit: Montgomery Motor Speedway

ASA Southern Super Series Rumble by the River Unofficial Results