BRL SLM S18 R8 Recap

13 August 2022
Bootleg Racing League | Season 18 | Round 8
Super Late Model Series | Lanier National Speedway
Photograph by: Michael Goodman
Sim Racing Software: iRacing

Kenny Kibbey with Nocturnal Gaming took the checkered flag tonight in the Bootleg Racing League Super Late Model Series presented by Gargamel’s Kitchen at Lanier National Speedway ahead of Justin Morton and J R Shepherd. “I just really like Lanier so expectations were decently high coming in here”, Kibbey commented before announcing a potential return to the series in the future, “I should expect to be racing full time or at least really close to it next season.”

Joe Segalla was in control of the 17-car field at the top of the night with Michael Goodman to his outside on the front row and took the green flag starting off the 100-lap event around Lanier National Speedway. J R Shepherd struggled early after being involved in an early race incident and falling back in the field while Chris Davis was up to 4th, 9 positions up from where he started the night after only 15 laps. Segalla continued to hold the lead under pressure from Donny Moore.

Justin Morton was quietly moving up to the front following a wide wake left by Kenny Kibbey’s charge through traffic. Kibbey got a nose to the inside of Davis pushing him far back in the field as he found himself stranded on the outside, finally sliding down behind Shepherd in 7th. Going into lap 35, Kibbey dove deep beneath Segalla clearing into the lead with Morton following him forward into 2nd place. Shepherd had climbed up to 4th and started pressuring Segalla for the final podium spot as Kibbey and Morton started to pull away from the rest of the field.

Coming up on the halfway point, Shepherd made his move overtaking Segalla for 3rd almost 1 second behind Morton on track. Shepherd was able to build up a gap ahead of Segalla but struggled to match the pace of the leaders with 40 laps remaining as Kibbey held the lead over Morton by 0.6 seconds. Lap 65 saw Kibbey reaching the first signs of lap traffic as he continued to outpace the field while negotiating through the rear of the pack. Austin Boelke, who was caught up in an early incident and had to restart from the back of the field, had climbed up to 7th going into the last 25 laps aggressively pushing back toward the front of the pack.

Morton had fallen off the pace from Kibbey and had been caught by Shepherd over 2 seconds behind the leader. Shepherd stayed on the rear bumper of Morton, but Morton was cautious to not leave an opening for Shepherd to take advantage of while Kenny Kibbey crossed the finish line to take the checkered flag with a 2.6 second lead tonight at Lanier National Speedway with Justin Morton, J R Shepherd, James Lowe, and Joe Segalla rounding out the top 5 finishers.

J R Shepherd is again tied for the lead with Justin Morton in the point standings tonight with 305 points each. Austin Boelke holds onto 3rd place with 298 points. Donny Moore stays in 4th place with 276 points and Michael Goodman rounds out the top 5 in the points with 259 points. The drivers of the Bootleg Racing League now set their sights on Martinsville Speedway August 20th for round 9 of season 18 with all of the action broadcast live at 8:55PM ET exclusively on the Virtual Grip Network!