Drake Troutman and his G.R. Smith Motorsports team brought a fast car to the World of Outlaws Late Model Series’ trip to the Mid-Atlantic.

Troutman showcased it on Wednesday night when he drove from sixth to the lead and on the way he had a spirited battle with Bobby Pierce. That battle with Pierce started around lap 10 of the race after he tracked both Pierce and race leader Mason Zeigler down. 

Pierce fell back into Troutman’s lap after he got held up by the lap car of Danny Snyder coming off of turn 2 and heading down the long Georgetown back stretch. Troutman wasted no time and took advantage of it. As the two entered into turn 3, he slid Pierce and was able to clear him coming off of four. The two then raced side-by-side through the next lap and were able to clear Mason Zeigler off of turn 4, who slowed significantly due to a right rear shock issue that began ailing him.

Pierce had a little bit more of an issue clearing Zeigler than Troutman and it allowed Troutman to gap Pierce by a number of car lengths. However, Pierce would track him back down as they both began working through heavy lap traffic. On lap 22, Pierce mounted a significant challenge on the bottom coming off of turn 2 and even got his nose ahead of Troutman. Troutman countered with a good run on the outside and then threw it into turn 3 underneath the lap car of Jamie Lathroum. Unfortunately, it was a tight squeeze and Troutman made contact with Lathroum and it cut his right rear tire down as Lathroum spun.

Troutman was forced to get his tire changed in the hot pit and head to the rear of the field. He would rally back for a fifth place finish, but did not sniff the lead again.

Following the race, Troutman discussed it in a post to Facebook while announcing a new sponsor for the team, Superior Homes, “Had a pretty good run last night. All in all [crap] happens. Can’t really blame anyone just a little misjudgment is all. … As far as last night goes, it’s behind us. Had a little bit of a misjudgment call with the lap car. He was running the top. Obviously, he doesn’t have rear view mirrors so he doesn’t know where I’m coming. So you can’t blame him. And I thought he was going to stay up top so I tried to shoot the gap whenever you got Bobby Pierce behind us. [Crap] happens. It is what it is.”

Troutman was definitely able to put it behind him as he led a significant portion of the race on Thursday night at Selinsgrove, but was unable to fend off Tim McCreadie, who made a late race pass on him to reclaim the lead and get the win. Troutman finished in second.

Following that race he said, “We got a really good car right now. I don’t know. We just weren’t quite good enough. We didn’t have enough drive to get up off the corner like Timmy did. There towards the end after that last caution I was just kinda a sitting duck really. I was just trying to run a line that I could try to break his air and kill his momentum. Obviously, that didn’t happen.”

“I just got to thank all my guys: Hunter, Walmart, and Tom for working really hard. I caused them a little bit of work last night and today. And just happy to get them a good run. And all my sponsors, G.R. and Stacy Smith, just everyone involved, fans for coming out tonight. And the track did an awesome job. This is the first I’ve ever been here and this place is pretty badass,” he concluded.

Troutman’s strong finishes the past two nights in the Mid-Atlantic have moved him up to fifth in the points standings. He’s 213 points behind current leader Nick Hoffman. He’s only seven points behind fourth place Ryan Gustin and has a three point advantage over sixth place Tyler Erb.

Troutman and the Outlaws are back in action tonight and tomorrow for the Connor Bobik Memorial at Marion Center Raceway in Marion Center, PA. They will close out their Mid-Atlantic swing on Sunday at Bedford Speedway for the Billy Winn Classic.

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