Drew Brannon Victorious at Nashville Superspeedway

08.16.2009 - Nashville, TN

Drew Brannon took advantage of several others misfortune to win his second ASA Late Model Series Challenge Division of 2009 Saturday at the inaugural Music City 100 at the Nashville Superspeedway. Series point leader Brian Campbell finished second, preventing Brannon from cutting into the points lead. The victory is Brannon’s eighth feature victory in 2009.

Earlier in the day, Brannon drew the first qualifying slot and could only post the fifteenth quickest time of the 22 qualifiers giving him the inside of the eighth row in the starting line-up. Crew Chief Butch Miller used the poor starting spot to his advantage and called Drew to the pits during the warm-up lap for a stagger and track bar adjustment, dropping the Florida teen to the rear of the grid for the start of the 100-lap race.

The adjustments improved the handling of Brannon’s ASI Limited Chevy and Drew steadily moved through the field pressing to get into the top ten by the first caution on lap 24. Brannon continued his move to the front and soon he caught Campbell. The pair raced each other clean and hard for several laps before Drew finally cleared the point leader on lap 44 moving into fourth place.

At the halfway mark, Brannon followed Dillon Oliver and Peter Cozzolino to the competition caution. After the restart, Drew got passed Oliver, but Landon Cassill drove by Drew and then Cozzolino to retake the top spot. On lap 61 Brannon would slip past last years ASA Late Model Series Challenge Division champ for second, but could not catch Cassill. Drew would race back and forth with Cozzolino until lap 76 when the 11 would finally pass Drew for second.

On lap 79 Cassill, would be forced to the pits as he was having troubles with the fuel pick-up and had to come to the pits for fuel, leaving Cozzolino and Brannon to fight for the victory. All that would change as the window net on Cozzolino’s car net fell down and on lap 92, he was black flagged and forced to come down pit road to get his window net put back up.

As Cozzolino attempted to get on the access road, he lost control of his car and slid back into the racing groove. Hal Martins had to go high to avoid Cozzolino and crashed into the outside wall. Richard Johns spun down into the infield grass to avoid contact. Josh Hamner was not so fortunate. As Cozzolino sat broadside in the racing groove, Hamner slid into Cozzolino causing Hamner's car to flip upside down bringing out the red flag. Drew made is through the melee cleanly taking the lead. All of the drivers involved in the accident were ok.

When the green flag flew again, Drew cruised to a six-car length lead where he would finish in front of Campbell and Chris Eggeslton. Drew now has eight amazing wins so far this season.

“The car was really good after Butch made the final adjustments, especially in one and two,” Brannon said. “Landon had the fastest car, but we were fast enough to move through the field and avoid that mess. This is a brand new car I want to thank the guys in the SS Green Light shop, they did a great job getting ready for this race.”

“We need to keep working at it, chipping away and move ourselves back into contention with Brian in the points,” he added.

Three-time ASA National Series champion Butch Miller knew that the car was not perfect. “We didn’t have the fastest car today, but we put ourselves into contention and had a few breaks go our way." Miller said after the victory. “Drew kept his cool when we struggled in the early practices and we just kept working on it. The whole SS Green Light team did a great job today.”