BRISTOL, Tenn. — Ricky Weiss and Tyler Bare raced to victories in their respective late model classes Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway in the inaugural Bristol Dirt Showcase.
The race featured dirt late model racing action in the Steel Block Bandits and American All-Star Series and gave BMS officials a glimpse of their dirt-covered high banks in action a week before the NASCAR Cup Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series rolls into town, April 7-9.
The race was broadcast by SPEED SPORT affiliate Dirt2Media.
Bare earned the 30-lap Steel Block Bandits feature victory when he passed the leaders with 14 laps to go. Bare led the rest of the way in his red and black No. B8 machine. Bare, who earned $5,000 for the victory, passed pole-sitter Austin Neely in a three-wide move.
“We had a good car all night but midway through the race I knew we had to do something and it worked out,” said Bare about his daring move to take the lead. “I’ve had some wins on big tracks, but nothing like this one right here. To win here in front of all those people, it just means more.”
Ryan King finished second and Tyler Arrington claimed third place.
Weiss claimed the 30-lap American All-Star Series win in his black and red No. 7W machine. It was Weiss’ second victory at Bristol Motor Speedway, a track where he’s ran well at in the past. He also earned $5,000 for the victory.
Weiss started on the pole and led the majority of the race and finally pulled away in the closing laps to finish in front of Dillon Brown and Benji Hicks, who were second and third respectively.
Racing was halted with a big crash with 10 laps to go. Seven cars were collected in the incident which brought out the red flag as officials cleared the track. Weiss just picked up where he left off when it went back to green.
“It’s huge for me, anytime you can run at a big facility like this and there’s so many people watching it’s great,” said Weiss, who won the Late Model portion of the World of Outlaws Bristol Bash at Bristol one year ago. “I definitely never thought I’d be here, I just thought it was awesome to come down and watch a NASCAR race here. The speed of this place and the G-forces bring a different feeling. Talking about having success here, this track just suits my driving style, the high-banked tracks we go to I tend to do super good at.”