Pollard Sweeps His Way Through the Weekend for Gulf Coast Championship

Pollard Wins Both Ends of Gulf Coast Weekend, Sweeps Miller Lite Series and Gets GCC Crown

A season of breaking records and dominating Deep South

Super Late Model racing reached its pinnacle for Bubba

Pollard. 

Pollard moved his season win total to 16 after sweeping

both ends of the Gulf Coast Championship weekend at Five

Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Florida and Alabama’s Mobile

International Speedway, winning both in dominating fashion. 

Saturday’s win at Mobile made it another sweep of all five

Super Late Model races at the high-banked half-mile facility

as he clinched his second-career Miller Lite Series title there. 

Combined, his two wins this season in the Buddy’s Home

Furnishings Blizzard Series at Five Flags and the five at

Mobile earned him the honors of the 2011 Sunoco Gulf

Coast Champion.

“This is cool,” said Pollard after his win Saturday at Mobile. 

“I’ve been trying to get this Gulf Coast Championship for the

last two or three years and we’ve been so close.  To finally

get it now, and to cap off this season we’ve had is pretty

cool.  We still have a lot of racing left, so hopefully we can

get some more wins, but it has been a great season so far

and I’m happy to have won this championship.”

Pollard’s eighth and ninth Super Late Model wins, which add

to his seven Pro Late Model wins on the year, came with

dominating perfection on September 23rd and 24th.  The

Atlanta Thrifty Nickel/Ronnie Sanders Racing team earned

fast time at Five Flags Friday night.  After an invert, Pollard

started eighth, but he used the outside groove to get into a winning position.  When the door opened for Pollard to make the move on lap 41 of 100 in the Blizzard Series finale, he drove right to the front and never looked back in an event that went 100 laps without a caution.

“You don’t see 100 green flag laps here, ever,” said Pollard.  “I wasn’t expecting that at all.  I was almost expecting a caution with at least three laps to go.  The car stayed the same from lap one to lap 100.   It got free, but that’s part of what this racetrack.  All in all, the car just drove so good. 

“The shocks from last week and this week are going up on the wall now and we’ll see what we can do in the Snowball Derby in December.”

After Friday night’s victory, Pollard made the venture to Mobile International Speedway, where he had won all four of the Miller Lite Super Late Model Series races in 2011.  While the Five Flags race went smoothly for Pollard, Saturday’s event wasn’t nearly as calm.  Pollard qualified second, but an invert of six had him starting fifth.  He patiently worked his way forward for a second night in a row and took the lead when early-race dominator Mike Garvey was taken out in an incident with a lapped car on lap 57.

From there, Pollard had to withstand several late-restarts, which closed several worthy adversaries up to his outside door and back bumper.  As the laps clicked off, Pollard had his hands full on those restarts and with an ill-handling car due to a tire going flat.  Still, Pollard was able to hang on and bring his No. 18 to another victory, the track title for a second time in his career and the overall Gulf Coast Championship.

“You can have good racecars, but just like tonight, you need luck,” said Pollard after Saturday’s race at Mobile.  “The right-front tire was going flat from the beginning.  That’s all luck and it’s been on our side.  We’ve had good racecar, but luck has to be there as well.

“I can get around this place pretty good.  I enjoy it.  Certain people like certain places, and this is definitely a place I like and really enjoy getting around here.”

With the Super Late Model season at both Five Flags and Mobile now complete, Pollard will focus his efforts on growing his season win total beyond 16 when he competes in the Lee Fields Memorial Pro Late Model race at Mobile on Saturday, October 1st.

Pollard celebrates his decorated weekend on the Gulf Coast.