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Little Rock, Arkansas – (April 13, 2002) Odie Green not only got the monkey off his back, he knocked it out for the count as he topped the O'Reilly SUPR Late Models at I-30 Speedway. Green, the 2001 Late Model America/B&K Underground/ Ashley Brothers Rookie of the Year, has struggled to find the handle on his new 2002 GRT Chevy Monte Carlo. So he elected to bring out last year's car for the weekend.
He brought out last year's car with an eye on I-30 Speedway, site of his first ever O'Reilly SUPR Late Model victory last year. "We wanted to bring this one to this track, the car likes this track, so we brought the old one back out." The victory was particularly sweet for Odie who won in front of a large group of family and friends and this weekend also marked the beginning of a new sponsorship program for Green who is now running the colors of Directional Services of Bossier City, Louisiana. Odie started on the outside front row and shot right into the lead ahead of B&K Underground Top Qualifier Tommy Surrett. Green quickly built up a sizeable lead on the field and by lap 10 he began to work his way through lapped traffic. By the halfway mark, Green had 4 lapped cars between him and the second place car of Ronny Adams. That lapped traffic would prove to be the downfall of Adams who exited the race with a broken front suspension following contact with Chris Wall on lap 27. The contact caused Wall to spin and brought out the first of 3 cautions. Wall continued but Shane Harris exited with motor problems joining Adams and Curt Lipsey who exited the feature at the start with a faulty MSD as the only drivers to not complete the feature. Odie continued to set the pace up front and his ability to work through traffic kept a gap between himself and eventual second place finisher Ryan Plaisance. Plaisance was upbeat following the race despite his being mired in the lapped traffic. "There's nothing you can do, you don't know who's behind you and you've just got to roll with it and try to hold your ground." Plaisance can take some solace from the event as he has emerged with a share of second place in the standings, a spot he shares with the third place finisher David Ashley. Ashley made a late race charge to the front, entering the top 5 just after the halfway mark and he climbed to third by lap 32. This marked a turnaround weekend for Ashley, who had slipped to 9th following a stretch of bad luck at Lone Star Speedway and Baton Rouge Raceway. "We had a very good weekend. We needed to get back on track, be consistent, run good. We know we can run good, we have the equipment to run good. I feel tonight lapped traffic played a really key role. I think we had a very good race car. We started a little further back than we wanted in the feature and it was just tough to pass. But it was good racing." 31 O'Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand. Jon Mitchell, Odie Green, Tommy Surrett, Ryan Plaisance and Rob Litton claimed the heat race wins with Kennith Crowe and Rodney Wing topping the Last Chance races. Michael Coleman passed 10 cars en route to a 10th place finish to claim the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger award.
Official Results: 1. Odie Green O'Reilly
SUPR Late Model Points (as of 4/13/02)
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