Queen Remains Undefeated at South Boston; Claims KeenParts.com 125 Trophy
South Boston, VA - There was a familiar face at the end of the day once again in victory lane as Brenden Queen proves to us all that the fastest car at the start of the day is not always the winner. Queen, who hails from Chesapeake, Virginia, was happy to roll into South Boston Speedway as the historic short track is just a couple of hours away from his home town and the tours headquarters. Only nine cars filled out the entry blank this week as a handful of drivers like Shawn Pierce, Craig Kenny, and Brian Neff all had to use a provisional given to them by league officials as they all had commitments outside of the sim.
Either way we focus our attention back down to the garage where Queen's teammate and Portsmouth, Virginia native Colby Vance showed the way in the hour long practice. Vance would back that performance and speed up when it came time to qualify. If there were a "Mr. Consistency Award" handed out Vance would be able to at least win some kind of hardware over his teammate as he laid down a lap .001-seconds faster in qualifying than he did in practice. A 14.038-second (102.57 mph) was enough to earn himself his first pole of the year. Queen, Burnett, Call, and Vaughan made up the rest of the starting five.
Electing to take the top groove on the initial start as the leader, which in theory is usually a good idea at South Boston but later admitting he should have stayed on the bottom, Vance lost the lead to his teammate and it became a high speed wild goose chase from there. In a race only slowed by four cautions - once late for podium contender Steven Burnett which took him out of the hunt for his first win this season as well as shaking the monkey off his back - Queen was able to set a pace that could be matched by no one at a venue where track position and lane control is everything. Queen would go on to lead all 125-laps.
"This is one heck of a way to start the season out that is for sure," Queen said after the race in victory lane. "It always feels great to win. Especially with the group of guys we race with being so close in times you never know when your last win will be and you just have to enjoy it while its happening."
Queen went on to talk about the start of the race and how he was able to clear his teammate going into one. Later calling it the move of the race.
"Colby took the top on the start of the race and I honestly thought he was going to beat me up there and it was going to be hard to pass him," Queen explained. "To be honest I just kept my composure and when we got going with the brand new tires I just happened to clear him and to be honest I thought that was going to be the move of the race. Without someone wrecking me I knew it was going to be hard to pass. I have to give it to Steven he got up there and made me start running a little harder to create a gap but luckily we saved just enough for that last restart to pull away at the end."
The CorvetteParts.net Super Late Model Tour will stay in its home town of Virginia and visit the hometrack of several drivers on the tour - Langley Speedway located in Hampton, VA. Langley, who has been part of the NASCAR community for decades will certainly be one of the tougher tracks on the circuit. Track position will come at a premium and passing will be difficult. Queen is looking forward to heading "home" as he calls it for win number five on the year while teammate Colby Vance is looking to better his finishing positions by one and land in Dale Lemonds Victory Lane.
Make sure you click the link >> PBR Broadcasting and hit the Subscribe button to get all the news and notifications when the tour goes live on Youtube. You can also find your favorite races of this season and watch replays for free. If you missed any of tonight's action follow the link here to watch the replay >> KeenParts.com 125 at South Boston Speedway.
KeenParts.com 125 Official Results;
1. #03 Brenden Queen; 125
2. #44 Colby Vance; 125
3. #2 Justin Kern; 125
4. #56 Tim Knott; 125
5. #01 Jesse Call; 124
6. #9 Stephen Musick; 124
7. #5 Steven Burnett; 123
8. #23 Mickey Kern; 122
9. #28 Jesse Vaughan; 33 - Mechanical
