Southern Super Series: TJ Reaid scores upset victory after Bubba Pollard crashes late

PENSACOLA, Fla. -- TJ Reaid had been looking for redemption at Pensacola Five Flags Speedway ever since the Snowball Derby last December. He had led the early stages of that race before getting intentionally spun and eliminated by his former mentor, Kyle Busch.

That redemption was realized on Friday night in the Rubber and Specialties 125 at Five Flags Speedway as Reaid took full advantage of a late-race accident involving a dominant Bubba Pollard to score his first victory in the Southern Super Series (Late Model Tour).

Pollard had led the most laps until that point and appeared destined to cruise to a casual victory until he came upon the lap-down machine of Junior Niedecken. The No. 99 car drastically shot right, as if something broke and slammed directly into Pollard’s No. 26.

The leader made hard contact into the turn four outside retaining wall and destroyed both his chances to visit victory lane and to maintain his championship lead. With Pollard left to finish 17th, Reaid was able to escape Chris Davidson, Casey Smith and Daniel Hemric over two final restarts and score one of the most improbably victories of his career.

Hemric’s top-five was also enough to wrestle the championship lead away from Pollard prior to Saturday night’s race at Mobile International Speedway - the fifth of 16-races across five Southeastern short tracks.

“I hated to see it go down that way for Bubba,” Reaid said. “He was strong all night. You never want to get taken out by a lapped car. But, man, this is awesome. We’ve been waiting to win here for a long time. I’m glad I could add Five Flags Speedway to my resume.

“It was sort of a Romeo-Juliet story after the Derby.”

Pollard was left steaming, not knowing what to think, and was unwilling to talk to reporters immediately after the race. Upon getting out of his car after the crash, he walked straight to his hauler audibly said, “You don’t want to know what I think.”

Race director Dan Spence concluded that the accident was a racing mistake and the result of poor communication between Niedecken and his spotter. No further action is expected.

The first Gulf Coast swing of the season will continue of Saturday as Southern Super Series teams travel one hour east, across Mobile Bay to compete at Mobile International Speedway in the Miller Lite 125.

Complete Southern Super Series Race No. 4 Results can be found below. Additional post-race stories can be found on the author’s Twitter account.