Ryan Lawler Now Two-For-Two This Year in PASS South

Throughout his time at the top, some of the best Super Late Model drivers in the Southeast have tried to take Lawler down. When they couldn’t, engine gremlins tried instead to ruin Lawler’s weekend in practice for the second race of the PASS South season at Anderson. Then Mother Nature took her shot at Lawler on Saturday, June 2nd, when weather forced the “South Carolina Clash” 125-lap event to be moved to Sunday the 3rd. Once the weather cleared, it was local Anderson, SC favorite Gary Greenwood, Jr. who took his jabs at Lawler in the 125-lap event.

But in the end, nothing or nobody was going to stop Lawler from scoring his second-straight PASS South victory to start the year. Lawler led the final 13 laps after re-taking the lead from Greenwood late in the race to score his third career PASS South victory.

“I never would’ve thought that it would start like this in PASS South,” said Lawler, who led a total of 88 of the 125 laps in the “South Carolina Clash.” “I can’t say enough about my guys. They changed the motor yesterday morning and it really paid off. The one we actually ran has more power, which usually is a bad thing at tight little tracks like Anderson. The motor we took out is the one that we usually run at the short tracks and the one we ran (during the race) is what we ran a few weeks back at Iowa Speedway, a big, fast track. I guess we ended up alright, though.”

Of all the challenges that Lawler has had to face in the first two races of the 2007 PASS South season, none of them were as tough as the car of former Anderson Motor Speedway Late Model Stock track champion Gary Greenwood, Jr. With plenty of laps around the track, Greenwood was instantly the man to watch in a field full of drivers who had never raced at Anderson in the past. Greenwood was so good, in fact, that his familiarity with the track was the benefit of the man that beat him on his own track.

“Greenwood was down here when we came and tested,” said Lawler. “He was maybe a couple tenths slower than we were, but he was on the ball and we knew he was going to be good at the end of the race. If he hadn’t been here when we tested, we wouldn’t be here in victory lane because we got to see the line he was using then and in practice this weekend. He was a track champion here, so he knows how to get the car around here on the bottom. We saw we needed to get the car going on the bottom and it worked.”

“I think we may have actually practiced a little too much,” said Greenwood. “We were so good right off the truck, but we’re racers and we always think we can get it better. We never really got much better. All we did by practicing so much was show a couple guys the fast way around the track. We had a good car and so did the 31, but he figured out the line pretty good.”

Lawler took the lead from the drop of the green flag and led the early laps after starting on the pole as a result of his win in the Dash heat. His early lead was short-lived, as fast qualifier Preston Peltier took the lead on lap four and showed the way before giving up the lead to Ted Musgrave, Jr. on lap 18. Even as Lawler fell back in the early stages, he was setting himself up for a run at the lead, which he regained on lap 33 and held until Greenwood showed his muscle late in the race as the leaders diced their way through lapped traffic.

“That was tough,” said Greenwood of racing with Lawler among the lapped cars. “I wasn’t sure what to do because they were all over the place. I mean, it was fun, but it was tough. I do have to thank all those guys because they all ran clean. That made it for an exciting race, that’s for sure.”

All the lapped traffic kept Greenwood close, but it also posed a problem for Lawler.

“If I saw a spot where I could go to the high side and get down in front of them, I’d go to the high side. But if there was a line of cars on the bottom, I wasn’t giving up the bottom,” added Lawler. “I was going to stay there until somebody moved up. I think I’m starting to get a little bit of seniority with these guys too. I think some of them are willing to help me out when I come up on them too.

“I knew I was going to have to be good on the bottom because that’s where I was beating them at Hickory. This is the slowest track I’ve ever been on in a Late Model. You just have to putt through those corners. I felt like I was going slow, and then I came up on those lapped cars and I almost ran over a few of them.”

All the traffic that kept the two leaders in a heated battle with each other allowed Lawler to re-take the lead for the final time on lap 112. Then, as much as Greenwood tried to get a jump on the outside lane on several late-race restarts, Lawler proved too strong.

”I tried to get a jump, but he knew I was trying. He would ease up and ease up coming to the green. I don’t blame him, because I probably would’ve done the same thing. That’s just racing. I think if I could’ve gotten around him around lap 75 or 80, I think I would’ve been alright. I don’t know, I got worn out at the end of the race, so maybe I still would’ve given out even if I had been in front of him.”

Lawler pulled away from Greenwood as the laps wound down and went to victory lane for the third time in his PASS South career. Veteran Super Late Model star Johnny Brazier followed the top-two to the checkered flag. Ben Rowe and Jason Hogan, who slid to the finish as they crashed off the final corner, finished fourth and fifth respectively.