BRANNON RACING GETS OFF TO GOOD START AT WORLD SERIES OF ASPHALT
BRANNON RACING GETS OFF TO GOOD START AT WORLD SERIES OF ASPHALT
by Bill Green, Brannon Racing Marketing & Management
NEW SMYRNA, FL - Drew Brannon started with a 2nd place finish in the first Late Model event at the World Series Of Asphalt. He followed that up with a 4th place finish on night two and maintained the top-5 finishes with a 3rd place showing on night three.
Rain washed out Tuesday and Wednesday night's action, but Brannon never gave up and bounced back from an 8th place finish (his worst finish of the over all event) to battle for the title for the second year in a row.
The final event's finish was something else in the Late Models.
Derrick Kelley came into the day with a solid 20 point lead over Drew Brannon. However, a wreck as the field was coming to the green severally damaged Kelley’s car, who had started on the pole.
While he rode around the rest of the night, Brannon was able to finish third. Making up the 20 points and tying Kelley for the Championship.
It wasn’t enough though… as Kelley was awarded the title after his two wins broke the tie in points.
Friday 5:05pm ET - JR McMichael took quick time in the Limited Late Model division. Drew Brannon, a 16-year-old youngster, was second-quick.
Limited Late Models Qualifying 1JR McMichael-18.020 2Drew Brannon-18.039 3AJ Curreli-18.125 4Chad Akins-18.235 5Jessica Murphy-18.253
Friday 8:35pm ET - Chad Akins took the lead from the start and pulled away to lead all 25 laps of the Limited Late Model feature. Drew Brannon finished second. Derrick Kelly was third.
Jessica Murphy got spun on the initial start by AJ Curreli. Both were able to continue, even though Curreli, a former Speedweeks champion in the Late Models, made a pit stop to fix some damage. Curreli was able to finish fourth.
Limited Late Model Results 1Chad Akins 2Drew Brannon 3Derrick Kelly 4AJ Curreli 5Kevin Ingram
Saturday 10:55pm ET - Chad Akins made it two in a row in a dramatic way on Saturday night, winning the Limited Late Model event after hitting a leading Drew Brannon and moving him out of the way on the last lap to grab the win on Saturday night.
“I didn’t have the best car,” said Brannon. “I was just doing all I could to keep him behind me. He ran in the back of me and I lost it. I saved it and I ran into a couple of people. I’m sorry for doing that, but I was just trying to save it. It was just old hard racing.”
Late Model Results 1Chad Akins 2JR McMichael 3Derrick Kelly 4Drew Brannon 5Greg Skyta
Sunday 2:00pm ET - Drew Brannon's Limited Late Model was damaged Saturday after a last lap feature incident with eventual race winner Chad Akins. On Sunday, Brannon told Speed51.com that the damage was only cosmetic and they are ready to roll.
Sunday 8:35pm ET - Racing has finally resumed here at New Smyrna Speedway, where Derrick Kelley took the lead early in the Limited Late Model 25-lap feature and kept it going to the finish, fending off a major challenge from JR McMichael in the early and late portions of the event.
Limited Late Model Results 1Derrick Kelley 2JR McMichael 3Drew Brannon 4Jessica Murphy 5Chad Akins
Thursday 9:45pm ET - Joe Winchell took the win in a caution-filled,50-lap race, shortened to 30-laps, Limited Late Model feature.
An early race accident among leaders Drew Brannon, Jessica Murphy, JR McMichael and Kevin Ingram saw only Brannon return to racing some 8-laps down, finishing 9th.
Limited Late Model Results 1Joe Winchell 2AJ Curreli 3Johnny Clark 4Derrick Kelly 5Alan Bruns 6Ben Bargnesi 7Rob Knox 8Steven Simpson 9Drew Brannon
Friday 12:25pm ET - “Last night, we didn’t have the best car, we were just in the best position. Tonight, we had a pretty good car. We really hit on something. We tore up a Super Late Model here earlier this week. So we went home and got this car put together. We got two of these things now… two in a row… and that is a pretty cool deal.” stated winner Jow Winchell
Limited Late Model Results 1Joe Winchell 2AJ Curreli 3Drew Brannon 4Alan Bruns 5Jessica Murphy
42nd Annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing Point Standings After Night #8 - Friday Night
Limited Late Model 1Derrick Kelley242 2Drew Brannon222 3AJ Curreli206 4JR McMichael166 5Chad Akins162
NIGHT #9
Limited Late Model Results 1Joe Winchell 2Jessica Murphy 3Drew Brannon 4Kevin Ingram 5Kirk Hooker
