Clark used a fantastic late-race pit stop and capitalized on the troubles of Louie Mechalides on pit road to win the Bastille 200 for the PASS North Series at Lee USA Speedway. It was Clark's third win of the season and helped him put a stranglehold on the top of the series standings. "Pit stops won the race, absolutely," said Clark, who pitted on lap 118 with most of the rest of the leaders and was out front just six laps later. LEE, N.H. -- Johnny Clark had a good race car on Tuesday night. He had a better pit crew.
"It sounds bad, but (Mechalides) had a horrible pit stop. If he hadn't gotten mired that far back with a bad pit stop and had to repit and stuff, we never would have been second."
Mechalides led every lap from the pole until he, too, hit pit road when Clark did. But while Clark emerged from his stop in fifth place -- behind four cars that pitted 34 laps prior -- Mechalides fell all the way to 16th in the running order.
Further complicating matters, Mechalides, who was making his first start of the season and first in a Super Late Model in two years, had to pit a second time after the crew had trouble fueling the car.
"A lot of these guys practice pit stops and everything," said Mechalides who settled for second after he couldn't capitalize on a green-white-checkered restart at the race's end. "We're just getting going, having fun. We didn't even know when we were going to come in for tires. I had to tell them, 'OK, now!'"
Mechalides tore through the field and was running as high as fifth in just 28 laps. He was second, almost a straightaway behind Clark with 15 laps remaining in the event with a car that wasn't as good after working so hard in traffic.
"Of course I'm worried, it's Louie. Louie is so good on restarts," Clark said. "He's really good at using up every inch. Not being abusive, but he's very, very competitive, and he knows what he's doing. He's been doing this for a long time. He does what he needs to do.
"I knew that if I just drag raced and beat him to turn one -- and he was behind me (with a lapped car on the outside), so he would have had to hook me out, which I knew he wasn't going to do -- we'd be fine."
But Clark's team was equally fine in the pits -- beating everybody by several seconds off pit road, including Michael Pope, who didn't even take on tires on the stop.
"We had an unbelievable stop. I don't care if everyone had a good stop, Louie and whoever, there was no one that was going to beat us," Clark said. "The guys are all athletic guys. It's not like I've got all guys that are overweight. They're all old hockey players, baseball players, football players."
Cassius Clark rallied up to third after pitting early and having sway bar issues. Matt Frahm was fourth with his best career finish, and Eddie MacDonald rounded out the top-5 in a break from the NASCAR Camping World East Series.
Part-time Sprint Cup Series driver Aric Almirola was caught in a wreck -- when rookie Steve Legendre ran over the back of him under caution -- and retired after only 19 laps.
Clark's closest competition in the points chase also struggled.
Adam Bates, in a car borrowed from Distance Racing after a wreck at Thompson International Speedway last weekend, was 13th, two laps down. Ben Rowe was 20th after he hit the wrecked car of Harry Olson on lap 117 while running third. Rowe was done for the night.
Like he did in the PASS 300 at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway last September, Clark let his pit crew make up for a deficit on the race track to earn the victory.
"I had nothing for Louie. Louie was the best car," Clark said. "He was the best car with 25 to go. I don't think he was the best car with five to go, but I think he burned it up just trying to get to me like that.
"I think that this is the worst place that you can do that at, because it really makes you pay for it."
-- TRAVIS BARRETT, GWC Editor
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