Dominant Howard Breaks Through With ASA At Hickory

Colby Howard celebrates in victory lane at Hickory Motor Speedway. (Jacob Seelman/Race Face Digital photo)

NEWTON, N.C. – In his Carolina homecoming, Colby Howard came out on top of a fierce duel with Cole Butcher to win Thursday night’s Appalachian Sucker Punch ASA STARS National Tour stop at historic Hickory Motor Speedway.

The Simpsonville, S.C., veteran dominated both early and late, leading 126 laps – including the final 40 – en route to victory for Anthony Campi Racing in the Ross & Witmer 255.

After starting from the pole, Howard led all but one lap in the opening 80-lap segment with a dominant No. 18 Mobil 1 Chevrolet, but saw Butcher close on his rear bumper late in the run.

The Canadian veteran then outsmarted Howard via the outside lane on the restart that kicked off segment two, with Butcher taking the lead for the first time on lap 88 and clearing Howard outright two circuits later.

Though Howard remained close, Butcher dominated segment two from there, holding a lead of more than a second at the lap-160 benchmark and appearing to have the track position he needed for the run to the finish.

What Butcher didn’t count on, however, was a rear axle breaking aboard his No. 28 Wilson Motorsports Toyota at the end of a lap-212 caution period, shortly after Derek Thorn’s cut tire and meeting with the turn-two wall.

That sent Butcher’s crew scrambling, but they managed to complete a full axle change in three laps before sending their driver back out on track, though Butcher dropped from the lead to 13th as a result.

Butcher spent the rest of the race trying to fight back through traffic, while Howard held off NASCAR Cup Series star Chase Elliott up front for his first career ASA STARS National Tour win in just his fourth start.

“This is huge,” Howard said of the victory. “We’ve had some tough races up to this point. We’ve just been off past three or four races. I’m not sure what it was. I went home upset and mad at myself [recently] over all this stuff, asking myself if I can do this, and I really locked in this week and focused hard.

“Me and Cody (Glick, crew chief) worked hard this week. I did my thing, and he did his, and here we are. This is huge and what I need more of to pick up by the end of the year.”

It wasn’t pure happiness for Howard, though, as he wanted to best Butcher in their late battle – and not solely because of the mechanical gremlins that set the latter back in the closing laps.

“It does take away from [the win] a little bit, what happened to Cole, because I did want to beat him straight up,” Howard said. “It took away a little bit from it. At the same time, [it’s my] first win of the year, so you still have the excitement of getting out of the car and all the celebrating.

“We had a fast car. I think we had a faster car than Cole, but it was just so hard to get under him and stay under him with these cars,” Howard continued. “I roughed him up a little more than I should have, but I felt like the only way to get by him was to have moved him … and I didn’t want to do it that way.”

Colby Howard (18) chases Cole Butcher Thursday at Hickory Motor Speedway. (Scotte Sprinkle/Race Face Digital photo)

Butcher agreed that track position was the key in he and Howard’s tussle, and that once he lost it due to the broken rear axle and subsequent repairs that there was no denying an equally fast competitor.

“I was just trying to clean my tires like I’d done every other restart, and I just had no grip and knew something was wrong,” explained Butcher, who led a race-high 128 laps, after missing out on what would have been a third-straight ASA STARS National Tour win.

“Hats off to everyone with Wilson Motorsports to get me back out and salvage a top-six finish,” he added. “I knew if anyone could make those quick repairs and get us back out, my team could. They reall thrive under pressure. I knew my only defense was to keep Colby behind me, because if he got into clean air ahead of me I think he might have checked out.

“I guess we’ll never know exactly what might have happened straight up like that, at least this time.”

After being involved in a lap-three incident with Kyle Steckly and Gavan Boschele that caused an early tire rub which needed repairs, Elliott came back through the field for a runner-up finish.

“We were solid,” Elliott said. “When it came time to push, to keep pace, I was really needing to work really hard. I just drove over the tires more than I wanted to compared to the first part of the run. I wanted to settle in but I couldn’t find a great rhythm.

“We just kept chipping away at it and got it much better today than yesterday (in practice) which was nice. I’m sure (Butcher) would have been really good and hard to beat too but fun to be in the mix. We had a shot at it and looking back at it, I could have managed my run differently.

“I debated that in my head. I wanted to try to push and get control of the race and pushed myself out of the race. That’s how it goes sometimes.”

Teenage Toyota Racing Development driver Boschele made a similar rally to Elliott’s to come home third, followed by outside polesitter Carson Brown and Bubba Pollard.

Butcher fought back to sixth, with Spencer Davis, Camden Murphy, Dawson Sutton, and George Phillips closing out the top 10.

It’s a quick turnaround for the ASA STARS National Tour, which heads to Newport (Tenn.) Speedway Friday and Saturday, May 23-24 for the second leg of a doubleheader weekend.

The finish:

Race (255 laps): 1. 18-Colby Howard [1]; 2. 9-Chase Elliott [5]; 3. 24-Gavan Boschele [4]; 4. 81-Carson Brown [2]; 5. 26-Bubba Pollard [10]; 6. 28-Cole Butcher [9]; 7. 96S-Spencer Davis [7]; 8. 20-Camden Murphy [12]; 9. 26S-Dawson Sutton [14]; 10. 22-George Phillips [19]; 11. 9K-Derek Kraus [17]; 12. 14P-Chase Pinsonneault [16]; 13. 96-Derek Thorn [13]; 14. 14N-Austin Nason [11]; 15. 30-Kyle Steckly [8]; 16. 51-Stephen Nasse [18]; 17. 54-Matt Craig [3]; 18. 5T-Brandon Turbush [20]; 19. 43-Nick Loden [6]; 20. 32-Caden Kvapil [15].