Nick Hoffman cruised to victory at Volusia Speedway Park to claim his first World of Outlaw Late Model win of the season.

Hoffman’s night started out strong. He qualified third in Group A only behind Cody Overton and Chris Madden. That put him on the pole of Heat Race 3 and he kept it up front. In the redraw, he drew the two pill and started on the front row outside of pole sitter Chris Madden.

When the green flag dropped, Hoffman went straight to the lead after Chris Madden drifted from the bottom to the top of the track and kissed the wall exiting turn 2. Hoffman drove underneath and claimed the lead down the back stretch and he never looked back and was never challenged. The closest anyone got was a little less than a second behind him and that was Bobby Pierce while Hoffman was working through traffic. However, after Hoffman cleared the lappers he checked out and won by an over 4 second lead.

While Hoffman was on cruise control, the Big Gator points leader Cody Overton suffered some kind of mechanical issue and exited the race on lap five after drawing a caution. The only other caution in the race was on lap 13 for a Ryan Gustin spin after he and Tyler Erb made contact coming off turn 2. They were racing for fourth.

Outside of Hoffman’s win, the other big storyline of the night was Tim McCreadie’s monster run from 22nd to finish in second. On the lap 5 caution. He had already moved up to 18th. By Gustin’s spin he was already in the top 10 in eighth. On the ensuing restart he broke into the top 5 and had even gotten to fourth by lap 15. Other hard chargers were Ethan Dotson who went from 20th to 6th and Josh Rice who went from 19th to 10th. Jake Timm also moved up 9 spots to finish in 15th from 24th and Trey Mills went from 27th to 17th.

With the win Nick Hoffman takes over the lead in the Big Gator points standings from Cody Overton. Hoffman has a 21 point lead over Overton and a 23 point lead over Hudson O’Neal.

In victory lane, Hoffman said, “That race was probably won with the pill draw. Maddox here got me the two. And I watched them later heat races, them guys started the race on the cushion and they were letting that go. So for me it was a no brainer to just try and catch that moisture and beat them down the front straightaway, which I was able to do.”

“It’s so hard to slide somebody in turn 1 here because it leaves yourself hanging off of 2,” he continued. “[Chris Madden] had no choice but to slide me. I just anticipated that and was able to cross and have enough grip down the back straightaway. So then once you get out front, just trying to save my tires just a little bit just in case we get a late caution or something. Was able to stretch it out and just kind of cruise.”

“I just could not figure out turn 3. It took me so long to figure out what I needed to do to get steered in. Then you see the 32 come on the board. You kind of expect it he’s running the top so I started charging the top harder into one. I was like, ‘Man, that ain’t no better.’ And then you start judging off them lap cars and I got behind Brent Larson and he was holding a really good pace there on the bottom. I just kind of moved my line around. But the biggest thing is I brought back my midget skills from Chili Bowl and started wheel spinning in turn 3 to get me turned in,” Hoffman added.

“I was worried about that feature there. This is a totally different track condition. But obviously it paid off,” he said.

Tim McCreadie also assessed his Herculean run from 22nd to 2nd, “I think the track came to us. We struggled when it’s really heavy and it got rough getting into 1 and it made me uncomfortable and I did a terrible job driving it in qualifying. And in the heat it was just so top dominant there wasn’t a lot of passing. We just tried on the track three times, we tried three different things and this one felt more balanced where hopefully the track would come. And it slowed down enough where the moisture mattered more than running through the middle and things like that. And we were able to come forward. It was pretty cool.”

Bobby Pierce rounded out the podium finishing 3rd after starting in 10th. He said, “It felt really good in the beginning, you know that middle portion of the race. I was getting really tight down here. I don’t know some tires going away or whatever. This track is so tricky. I say it all the time. How it just gets that glazy, greasy feeling. Definitely moves around, but they had the track really good tonight. I like how turn 1 and 2 kinda had a top side. So that corner was really wide. If we get 3 and 4 just as wide it would be phenomenal.”

“I feel like we got something to work with now,” he added. “Kinda makes some tweaks to that and hopefully just another good show tomorrow. I’ve got to qualify good. Tonight we did that so we got to do that again tomorrow.”

Official Finishing Order

1. Nick Hoffman
2. Tim McCreadie
3. Bobby Pierce
4. Tyler Erb
5. Chris Madden
6. Ethan Dotson
7. Ricky Thornton Jr.
8. Brandon Sheppard
9. Drake Troutman
10. Josh Rice
11. Hudson O’Neal
12. Ryan Gustin
13. Daulton Wilson
14. Garrett Alberson
15. Jake Timm
16. Tristan Chamberlain
17. Trey Mills
18. Brent Larson
19. Logan Zarin
20. Ross Robinson
21. Dennis Erb Jr.
22. Dustin Sorensen
23. Mike Marlar
24. Tyler Bruening
25. Eli Johnson
26. Brenden Smith
27. Kyle Strickler
28. Cody Oveton

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