Grill opens season at Gresham with victory

Augie Grill dominated the Champion Racing Association (CRA) Super Late Model season opening event at Gresham Motorsports Park Saturday.

The Hayden, Ala., driver served notice early that he would be the driver to beat posting fast time in qualifying with a 16.169 second tour of the GMP half-mile oval.

Grill started third on the 26-car starting field after the post-qualifying inversion and wasted little time moving to the front taking the lead from Ryan Lawler on Lap 16.

From there on out, it was smooth sailing for Grill as he survived a series of late restarts to win the 125-lap headliner going away.

Meanwhile, a series of challengers took their turns battling for the runner-up spot. Lawler held on to the position until Chase Elliott inherited the spot on lap 48 when Lawler headed to the pits with rear end problems. Several drivers, including Casey Roderick and T.J. Reaid, all took turns in the top-five only to fall out of contention. Only a late caution made it close as Grill roared to victory over Elliott, Bubba Pollard, Jason Hogan and Mike Garvey. Scott Hantz, Dacula’s Russell Fleeman, Jeff Fultz, Gainesville’s Greg Simpson and Cale Gale rounded out the Top-10 finishers.

Other area drivers included Joey Senter of Jefferson finishing 13th, Jefferson native Ryan Crane finishing 14th and Braselton’s Jimmy Garmon finishing 23rd.

For more on this story, see Wednesday's edition of The Jackson Herald.