Garvey Completes Hat Trick, Holds off Pollard for Third Allen Turner PLM Win of 2012
25 August 2012 | Featured News | |
By Chuck Corder
Mike Garvey looked like he was on a lazy, Sunday drive.
Instead, his night quickly transformed into a Friday afternoon gridlock.
Through all the ebbs and flows of the Allen Turner 100 on Friday at Five Flags Speedway, Garvey kept his No. 1 out front and captured his third Pro Late Model victory of 2012.
Garvey watched his 7-plus second lead diminish when the first of three consecutive cautions came out at Lap 95.
He was able to hold off Bubba Pollard on each restart and rocketed away.
“You really have to be careful here to save something for the end,” said Garvey, who has a commanding series points lead thanks to three wins and a second in the four PLM races. “We were just riding around and then those cautions came out at the end.”
Pollard was the night’s fast qualifier at 17.045 seconds, but started 10th after the invert.
After biding his time early in the middle of the 19-car field, he began to pounce as the race crossed the halfway point.
Pollard’s only problem was he was driving with two of his cylinders missing, causing snapping and popping sounds to echo from his engine.
“If we would’ve had all eight cylinders, this race would’ve been ours,” said Pollard, who was driving a new car with a big-name sponsor in Jegs Auto Parts. “I’m not one to be cocky, but I believe it.
“If that wouldn’t have happened, we would’ve had a (darn) good racecar.”
He would’ve been hard pressed to get by Garvey.
The veteran with NASCAR Nextel Cup Series experience seemed to be loose early as he battled Brandon Bendele for the lead, but he regained the handle and owned the lead by Lap 56.
While Garvey shot away in clean air, plenty of action was going on in his rear-view mirror.
Augie Grill had his hands full with young Zachary Hausler.
The 17-year-old Houstonian was the story of the night, navigating his way through lapped traffic to eventually earn a third-place finish.
Unfortunately, technical inspection officials deemed the front end on Hausler’s No. 91 did not meet the height requirement. That handed the final podium spot to Grill.
Grill has been the only man to top Garvey in the PLM series at Five Flags this year, edging him out in the 100 lapper last month.
Not on this night, though.
“We’ve been pretty good, but you never can tell with this class,” Garvey said. “Nothing’s handed to you. We’ll keep making the car better.
“This was a great field and a precursor to what we’ll see for the Snowflake and Derby.
Allen Turner Pro Late Model 100 Finishing Order:
Pos. Car No. Driver
1 1 Mike Garvey
2 1P Bubba Pollard
3 112 Augie Grill
4 2 Brady Boswell
5 18 Hunter Robbins
6 6 Brandon Bendele
7 71 Kyle Benjamin
8 99 Junior Niedecken
9 41 Chris Davidson
10 79 Kyle Bryant
11 29 Spencer Davis
12 41G Troy Grisaffi
13 19 Ray Black, Jr.
14 45 Dwayne Buggay
15 4 Eddie Craig, Sr.
16 36B Rodney Benefield
17 92 Ron McDonald
18 36 Keith Thorpe
DQ 91H Zachary Hausler
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