J-Mac Is A High Roller With Greenville, MS NeSmith Chevrolet DLMS Win

GREENVILLE, MS – Justin McRee of Cottondale, AL drove the High Roller Race Cars Special to his first NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series Touring Division win of the season on Friday night at Greenville Speedway. The 40-lap $2,000-to-win race was night one of the Rumble On Gumbo Nationals.

McRee took the lead on the first lap from pole sitter Jeremy Shaw of Millport, AL, and never looked back for his seventh series career win. McRee ran the high line around the ¼-mile black gumbo clay oval, and took the checkered flag with a three-second margin of victory.

“That’s why I call these race cars High Rollers because it worked the best right against the wall tonight,” McRee, who builds High Roller Race Cars, said. “I’m glad they put a wall up at this place because if it wasn’t there tonight like it was a couple of years ago, I would have ended up in the middle of the ball fields next door.”

Josh Adkins of Talladega, AL finished second in the Yellow Hammer Construction Special and was the Rookie of the Race. Shaw ended up third in the Summit Resource Development GRT, and Mike Palasini Jr. of Leland, MS took the fourth spot in the MP Trucking Trak-Star.

Mike Boland of Cuba, AL started 19th in the Burton Racing Trak-Star and finished fifth to earn the Hedman Husler of the Race Award. Johnny Stokes of Columbus, MS drove the Bassett Hound Motorsports GRT to a sixth-place finish, and point leader Ronny Lee Hollingsworth of Northport, AL was seventh in the Sparks Motorsports Special.

National Dirt Late Model Hall of Fame Inductee Ronnie Johnson of Chattanooga, TN finished eighth in the NeSmith Chevrolet Special in his first-ever Greenville Speedway appearance. Hollingsworth now holds a 14-point lead over Johnson in the NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series Touring Division point standings in the battle for the $20,000 Championship.

Tait Davenport of Benton, KY came back from a cut tire while running third on lap 28 to finish ninth in the Murtco, Inc. Special. Shannon Lee of Lumberton, MS rounded out the top ten in the Billy Riels Racing GRT.

Shaw led the field into turn one, while outside front row starter McRee went to the outside and earned the “Greenville Gough” by scraping the second turn wall in the shower of sparks. After bouncing off the concrete, McRee dove to the inside down the backstretch, and raced Shaw side-by-side down the backstretch and through turn three.

McRee was able to slide up in front of Shaw coming off the fourth turn to lead lap one. Behind McRee and Shaw on lap one were Adkins, Billy Tedford of Thaxton, MS in the Billy’s Auto Repair Trak-Star, and Davenport. By lap four, Hollingsworth had moved up from his 12th starting spot to seventh.

McRee pulled out to a half-straightaway lead before encountering the cars on tail end of the lead lap on lap nine. Shaw has able to close to within a few car-lengths, but by the halfway point in the race, McRee had stretched his advantage over Shaw back out to a half straightaway.

Behind McRee and Shaw at the lap 20 mark was Adkins in third, followed by Davenport, Hollingsworth, Stokes, Palasini, Evan Ellis of Plantersville, MS in the Ellis Welding Special, Tedford, and Johnson. The first of three caution flags came out on lap 23 when Greg Fore of Greenville, MS spun the Pesqualies Special in turn three.

McRee had the field doubled up behind him for the “Dixie Style” double-file restart. Shaw choose the inside, which put the third-place car of Adkins to his right on the outside. When the green flag came out, Adkins sailed around the outside of Shaw to take the second spot coming off the second turn. Davenport followed suit, and drove around the outside of Shaw to take the third spot coming off the fourth turn.

Davenport gave up the third spot when he slowed off the pace on lap 28 with a cut tire to bring out caution flag number two. Behind McRee, as they set up for the restart, Adkins choose the outside with Shaw to his left in third. Fourth through tenth respectively were Palasini, Stokes, Hollingsworth, Ellis, Tedford, Johnson, and Michael Blount of Sumrall, MS in the Lamar Auto Salvage GRT.

When the field went back to green, McRee picked up where he left off and opened up another half straightaway lead by lap 30. The final caution came out on lap 32 when something broke on Blount’s car and he hit the fourth turn wall while running tenth. That misfortune earned Blount the Dominator Race Products Hard Luck Award.

Another top ten runner, Ellis, gave up the eighth spot with a cut tire under caution. The top ten lined up single-file for a nine-lap dash to the finish. McRee led Adkins, Shaw, Palasini, Stokes, Hollingsworth, Boland, Tedford, Johnson, and Kyle Bronson of Brandon, FL in the Brandon Ford Warrior back to the green flag.

While McRee and Adkins pulled away from the rest of the field, Shaw, Palasini, Stokes and Boland waged a tight four-car battle for the third spot. Boland’s car came to life in the closing laps of the race on the bottom groove, and he passed Hollingsworth and Stokes to move up to fifth on the restart, and then made it a three-wide battle with Shaw and Palasini for the third spot.

At the checkered flag, it was McRee by a half-straightaway over Adkins, with Shaw hanging on for the third spot, while Palasini took the fourth spot, and Boland rounded out the top five. In preliminary action, Shaw out-timed the 33-car field with a lap in 15.483 seconds. The two 12-lap B-Main Races were won by Ellis and Hollingsworth.

Night two of the Rumble On Gumbo Nationals for the NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series Touring Division at Greenville Speedway will be Saturday night with a 50-lap $2,500-to-win main event, Round 11 of the 2013 season.

For more information about the NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series visit the series all-new web site at www.nesmithracing.com, or visit the series on Facebook at NeSmith Racing. Becoming a fan of the NeSmith Racing Facebook page will make you eligible for special prizes that will be given away each month. You can follow us on Twitter @NeSmithRacing.