Eleven cars took the green in American Iron, including former Teen Mazda Challenge standout and current Pirelli World Challenge driver Alec Udell.
Udell started from pole followed by Corey Weber and Ryan Walton. Udell took advantage of a well-developed car to establish a gap early in the race. He stretched that gap little by little with each lap, eventually going on to win the American Iron National Championship.
“We were looking to get out in front and just get a gap and that’s exactly what happened. The car couldn’t have been better,” Udell said. “The week leading up to the race was a bit frantic. We were scrambling to get everything worked out with the dyno and power and weight. We threw a couple of hundred pounds in the car just to make sure we were legal every single time and it came together in the end.”
Behind Udell, the race of the race was taking place. Elliott Fisher, who started from the 10th spot due to a penalty earlier in the week, fought his way forward into second place, then had to battle with Mark Smith to keep it till the end.
“We had a fast Mustang all week,” Fisher said. “We overcame some problems early on, but we just kept fighting. My crew chief Dave Buck just kept working on the car and it just kept getting faster and faster. We knew we had a good podium car and we just had a great start, and just kept digging and digging. It’s one of those things, you just keep moving and you never give up. We just hit our marks and didn’t overdrive this track. It’s a very technical track.
Smith, who started from the fifth spot, was beaming after his third-place finish.
“Number one, it was a blast,” he said. “Thanks to Stewart at Motorsports Development Group and Ford Racing. It was an awesome car. It helped because the car’s better than I am. Elliott and I played almost the whole race together. He had his fast spots and I had mine so we’d gap a little bit and I’d catch back up. It was a blast. That’s the most fun racing I’ve ever had.”
