Austin, TX 6/27/08- It was many years in the making but Texas native, “Outlaw” Casey Smith was finally knocked out of victory lane at the South Alabama Speedway located in the small town of Opp, Alabama. It took a race where track owner/promoter John Dykes placed a $500 bounty on any driver who could knock Smith out of what has become a second home for him over the years, South Alabama’s victory circle.
Luckily enough for the twelve contenders who were looking to take home the extra $500 cash, Smith had a terrible qualifying run and had to start at the back of the thirteen car field. This forced Casey to push his tires and equipment a bit harder than he desired in order to get through the field, but just like many of the victories Casey won over the years, leader and eventual winner Augie Grill sailed away from the competition.
For Smith who extended his Viper series points lead with a second place finish it was both satisfying to finish runner-up and relieved the whole bounty ordeal was over.
“It was great to come away with a solid second place finish after qualifying that bad. I mean you want to win every time you buckle in the car but you have to have realistic goals at the same time, and your goals change once you’re staring at the back especially when you are chasing points like we are there (South Alabama Speedway). The whole bounty deal was a neat deal but I have to admit I’m glad it’s over and I can just get back to racing like always,” stated Casey.
The attention of the Texas based team will now turn towards the Five Flags Speedway, a track in which the team has struggled at in the past but have made significant gains as of lately including one top ten finish in two starts in 2008. Smith also happens to be sitting fifth in Blizzard series points at the track against some stiff competition.
“We struggled all year at Five Flags but this year we found some stuff that made our cars handle a ton better. The most help we had all year was to not have to spend all week fixing a wrecked race car. Almost every race up until this weekend we’ve come away from the racetrack with a torn up car and that makes things add up pretty quickly,” said Smith.
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