Fogleman, Roderick win action-packed IHRA stock car races at Cordele
CORDELE, Ga. — The International Hot Rod Association delivered the kind of stock car racing action that fans have been asking for Saturday night.
Tate Fogleman survived the chaos of 14 caution periods, and made a last-lap pass of Kade Brown to win a 125-lap Late Model Sportsman feature for the IHRA Stock Car Series at Cordele Motor Speedway.
Fogleman, a winner of a 2021 NASCAR Truck Series race at Talladega, took home a $10,000 winner’s purse for conquering the 3/8-mile short track and a field of fierce rivals. He qualified back in 19th, but worked his way to the front throughout the race.
“We were really out in left field, bad in practice,” Fogleman said. “We kept thrashing at it, qualified bad, but kept inching forward throughout the race. We got in an accident early on, but rallied back to the front. I got a good launch on the last restart, and was able to get under him and take the win.”
Runner-up Brown kept his nose relatively clean despite being involved in an intense battle with Nick Loden and Lane Woods earlier in the race. They even went three-wide for the race lead at one point.
“There was a lot going on tonight,” Brown said. “I made a few mistakes that I need to clean up. This stings a little bit, but Tate was a little better at the end and got by me. It was good, hard racing, and a lot of fun out here.”
Woods and Loden kept up a frantic pace earlier and exchanged the lead six times. It culminated with the two getting together less than 10 laps to go. The No. 92 car of Woods crashed into the outside wall, triggering a multi-car accident. There was another major crash to come.
Loden was involved in his own multi-car accident after contact from Dylan Ward with less than four laps to go. Loden finished 13th in the final rundown.
Veteran racer Derrick Lancaster came out of the wheel-to-wheel, paint-trading action to finish third. Dylan Newsome was fourth ahead of Neil Meredith in fifth.
Former NASCAR Cup Series star Jeremy Mayfield finished 19th in the 27-car field.
PRO LATE MODEL
Casey Roderick emerged the winner of an intense battle with Loden where they traded the lead an incredible nine times over the 100-lap race.
Driving the bright yellow No. 62 Toyota, Roderick went back and forth with Loden in the No. 43 Chevrolet five times over a six-lap sequence before capturing the $8,000-to-win victory. Roderick, the pole sitter, passed Loden for the lead with 16 laps to go, but Loden responded with a bump-and-run move to go back out front.
Roderick countered with a crossover move, only to see Loden inch ahead two laps later. Roderick finally took the lead for good with 10 laps to go.
“What a blast it was. Loden put up a good fight and I enjoyed the heck of it,” Roderick said. “It’s old-school racing and that’s what I like. You’re tuning the car old school with shocks and springs. It’s putting the driver back in play. We beat and banged a little bit, but it was still clean.”
Roderick, a Georgia racer, started from the pole and led the first 16 laps. Loden charged from fifth to second over the first five laps. He took over the lead when Roderick stalled on a restart.
The two battled over the next 36 laps before Roderick passed Loden on the inside. Loden made a bid to pass Roderick on a later restart. Although he pulled side-by-side, he couldn’t complete the pass on that restart, but he made a pass on the outside with 23 laps to get back out front.
“That was one of the most fun races I’ve run in years. I’d liked to have won, but that was still a good finish,” Loden said. “He outdrove me at the end. I think our cars were equal. I gave it all I had, but I got the right rear (tire) hot and he got away the last 10 laps.”
Avery Demland brought out the first caution on lap 7 with Mark Day also going for a spin. A couple of cars went off the track to bring out another caution six laps later. Demland had a second spin just four circuits later.
Roderick didn’t get going at the restart, which caused a multi-car accident that collected Pulaski County winner Brandon Carr among others. Carr’s No. 6 Chevrolet was taken by the tow truck to the garage, but he returned to action and recovered to finish sixth.
Day also recovered from his early spin to finish third. Stewart Dutton finished fourth and Palmer Haag rounded out the top five.
“I’d love to get through one of these races without spinning out and having to go to the rear,” Day said. “Our car was pretty tight where we made some bad decisions for qualifying, and it continued to be tight early in the race. It got better, but I figured I’d killed the right front tire. I didn’t expect to be that good at the end of the race.”
The IHRA Stock Car Series returns to action at the high-banked, 4/10-mile Newport (Tenn.) Speedway on Saturday, May 30.