Bubba Wallace dominates to win MudSummer Classic at Eldora (updated) - MotorSportsTalk

Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. and Kyle Larson put on a spectacular battle in the final 40-lap segment of Wednesday’s second MudSummer Classic at Eldora Speedway, but it was Wallace holding on for the win.

Wallace took the checkered flag by nearly an entire straightaway after Larson hit the wall several times in the race and finally broke on Lap 147, three laps from the finish and ending any last chance of a rally.

“I didn’t think (he’d ever win a race on dirt in his career),” Wallace told Fox Sports 1 in victory lane. “God, that’s so cool, on dirt and at Eldora. … Really? Eldora? It’s awesome here. The cool thing is I came into this kind of skeptical, that we’d finish top-5, maybe top-7.

“This team, they never give up. … I said after Iowa we were going to bounce back … and this is a hell of a way to bounce back.”

Caught up in the excitement, Wallace even cracked a few jokes, including one that will likely have his mother calling him soon — if she hasn’t already.

“I wish my mom was here, but this is a good luck streak,” Wallace laughed. “She wasn’t at Martinsville (last fall, his first career win), she wasn’t at Gateway (his second win, earlier this season), she ain’t coming no more.”

Larson gave it all he could but that final contact with the wall with three laps left did both him and his final hopes of winning in.

“It sucks, but Darrell did a really good job,” Larson said of Wallace. “He was fast all day today and ran close to the wall almost the whole time and didn’t hit it. … It’s frustrating but I’m glad to be able to come here and race on dirt for probably the only time we’ve done this year.

“… I didn’t think we were really that good, so I guess I was a little surprised that we were battling for the lead there at the end.”

It was Wallace’s second victory of the season and the third of his career. He dominated the 150-lap event, leading 97 laps around the ½-mile track in western Ohio. He also led all three segments, being at the front of the field after the first 60 laps, then at the 110-lap mark and finally at the finish.

It was the eighth of 10 wins this season for Kyle Busch Motorsports (five by Kyle Busch, two by Wallace and one by Erik Jones). KBM has also now won 11 of the last 15 NCWTS events since Wallace’s first career win at Martinsville last fall.

Ron Hornaday Jr. finished second, followed by Ryan Blaney, Ken Schrader and Ty Dillon in fifth.

“I beat the heck out of my truck, I can’t believe it stayed running,” Hornaday said. “It is so fun to come out here. … Bubba definitely had his (truck) really hooked up.”

Added Schrader, “We (he and Hornaday) messed up the youth brigade, that’s for sure. As much fun as it was running, I hope everyone enjoyed watching it because we were running all over the place.”

Sixth through 10th were John Hunter Nemechek, Jeb Burton, Johnny Sauter, Matt Crafton and last year’s race winner, Austin Dillon.

Tyler Reddick was 11th, followed by German Quiroga Jr., Ben Kennedy, Joey Coulter, Tyler Young, Timothy Peters, Chase Pistone, JR Heffner, John Wes Townley and Gray Gaulding in 20th.

The rest of the field from 21st was TJ Bell, Mason Mingus, Bryan Silas, Korbin Forrister, Michael Annett, Larson, Norm Benning, Jody Knowles, Erik Jones and Michael Affarano.

There was also a shakeup in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series points standings after the event.

Series rookie Ryan Blaney, 20, took over the lead in the standings for the first time in his career. He leads former points leader Matt Crafton, who dropped to second, by four points. Johnny Sauter remains in third, 10 points back. Hornaday moved up to fourth, 19 points back, and German Quiroga fell back to fifth, 26 points back.

With the win, Wallace jumped from eighth to sixth, 28 points back, Ben Kennedy is seventh (-37), Timothy Peters is eighth (-42), Joey Coulter remains in ninth (-57) and John Wes Townley stays in 10th (-65).

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Perhaps the best part of the race came on Lap 128, when Larson and Wallace got into a classic beatin’-and-bangin’ segment battling for the lead.

Wallace was in the lead but then Larson did a slide job in front of Larson. But at the same time, Larson also kept sliding into the outside retaining wall, sustaining some damage, but he was able to continue on.

After a brief caution for a spin out of another truck, Larson led briefly on the restart but Wallace quickly regained the lead on Lap 133, 17 laps from the finish — and held on the rest of the way.

John Wes Townley, Tyler Young, Jody Knowles, fan favorite Norm Benning (62 years old, by the way) and Michael Annett made the main event in the “last chance race.”

Four drivers failed to make it into the big race: Cody Erickson, Jennifer Jo Cobb, Joe Cobb and Jared Landers.

NOTES: Wednesday’s race marked the end of one era and looking ahead to the start of a new one for broadcaster Rick Allen. He has called 278 NCWTS races over the last 12 seasons on SPEED TV and its successor Fox Sports 1, starting with the season opener at Daytona in 2003. He’s broadcast from 32 different tracks, called 61 different winners and nine different series champions. Allen has witnessed 43,048 laps run and a total of 53,143 miles of racing. He will become the lead Sprint Cup Series play-by-play announcer for NASCAR on NBC telecasts next season.

Follow me @JerryBonkowski

Vicki Golden has earned a career worthy of a thousand stories and 805 Beer tells at least one of them, as “Inverted Perspective” premiered March 30 on the company’s website and YouTube channel.

Golden did more to break the glass ceiling in SuperMotocross than she ever thought possible. She knows this because riders have never felt the need to explain any of her accomplishments with the disclaimer, “for a girl”.

At this point in Golden’s career, she’s been the first woman to finish top 10 in AMA Arenacross Lites, the first woman to qualify in the Fast 40 in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and the first woman to compete in freestyle Moto X competition, earning a bronze medal by doing so.

Her love for moto came from childhood while she watched her dad and brother ride. By seven she was on her bike and making waves throughout Southern California.

Golden, 30, is still madly in love with the sport and has no plans on moving away but her career is already one to talk about. 805 Beer’s film series wanted to do exactly that.

“I’m taken aback by it all,” Golden told NBC Sports about the documentary. “It’s just crazy to see your story, it’s one thing to live your life and battle everything that comes about but it’s another to just sit there and talk about it.”

805 approached Golden about the feature by asking, “Do you even realize that what you do, and your story is special?”

Golden took the question as a blank canvas to map out the highs and lows of her career and life.

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The title “Inverted Perspective” came from a brainstorming session with Dominick Russo and it highlights Golden’s outlook on the sport of SuperMotocross and her life in general.

“My whole life, my whole career was thinking differently and looking at things that shouldn’t be done and aren’t there, while being able to make a place for myself, where no one thought there should be a place,” Golden said. “It’s inspiring someone to think in different ways. It sums up my life.”

*Vicki Golden is not “fast for a girl”; she’s just fast. – 805 Beer*

While Golden is no stranger to the spotlight, this was the first time she’s been fully involved with the storytelling and creation of a feature about herself.

“It’s not like a full new experience,” Golden said. “Obviously, you get your standard questions about your upbringing and accomplishments, but I’ve never really put into perspective things that happened in my past with my dad and putting that to light. Also, certain other things that maybe got overlooked in previous interviews or films. I wanted to touch on these and Dom wanted to create a story. It’s just cool to see it come to light, it’s a nearly impossible thing to tell somebody’s life story in 40 minutes.”

Golden’s father was left paralyzed after an ATV accident, robbing him the opportunity to ride again. This happened a few months before the father-daughter duo was set to compete in the Loretta Lynn’s Amateur Nationals when Vicki was 12. While she might have been unable to grasp the severity at the time, it’s something she carries with her. Golden continues to ride in his honor.

Years later, an accident in 2018 nearly sidelined the then 25-year-old Vicki when a freestyle accident almost resulted in the amputation of her lower leg.

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Golden 805 Beer — *Vicki Golden has ridden a variety of disciplines in SuperMotocross, which gives her a unique perspective. – 805 Beer*

“Inverted Perspective” highlights her father’s diligence in helping Vicki continue with her career and the kindness and strength he carried while fighting his own battle.

“My dad was the entire reason that I started riding in the first place,” Golden said. “So, to honor his memory and to honor what we went through and how hard he pushed to keep our dream alive and keep everything going – in that sense then, it was really special to be able to honor him and talk about him.”

The 40-minute feature was filmed entirely in black and white, a stark contrast from the oversaturated world of motocross where the brighter the suit the easier it is for fans to find their rider and follow him in the race. By filming in monochrome Russo and Golden had the chance to focus on the race and track from a different perspective.

“It was cool to be able to film it differently,” Golden said. “It created a challenge in the sense of what was going to be more visually impactful for the film.

“I couldn’t be here without the companies that back me but at the same time, it’s not like the logos or colors disappeared, it’s just different lights shed on different spots. It’s just a cool way to do it and to take color away and still be impactful. When you think of black and white, you think of old school, the OG way of doing things.”

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