Stephen Pedulla will never forget The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
After a year of frustration, the Kannapolis, NC driver finally had everything go his way, leading all 20 laps to win the Fox Factory Pro Late Model Championship Feature Thursday night at the seventh annual World Short Track Championship.
Pedulla grabbed the lead from the pole position while trying to pull away from challengers Ricky Greene and Jeremy Steele.
Greene hounded Pedulla for the first 14 laps until a yellow flag flew on Lap 15 for Timmie Harrelson, who slowed in Turns 3 and 4.
From there, Pedulla held off a final stand from Steele on the restart to earn the 20-lap triumph—the first Late Model win of his career.
“Man, I’ll tell you what, we’ve struggled so much this year, and to get it up here, I can’t say enough,” Pedulla said. “I’m thankful to my parents. Fox shocks, they support me, DEI, they support me, everyone that supports me. I can’t say enough.
“To get this up here is just phenomenal. Absolutely phenomenal. The best of the best are up here. We were junk the other day, and we threw the kitchen sink at it, and here we stand.”
Despite leading the entire race, Pedulla knew a challenge was coming on the restart. However, he scouted his opponents well and stated he knew what to do to keep the field behind him.
“Jeremy Steele’s been tough all year,” Pedulla said. “I saw Jeremy go to the high side, and Jeremy is usually really good on the high side. So, I knew I had to go up high since we got a Dover, Delaware, start. I knew I had to get up high and block his start because I was scared he was going to get around me on the top side.
“But they told me he wasn’t as good as I was anyway, so I knew if I beat Jeremy, I had it won.”
Steele settled for second, while Greene finished third. Cody Cubbage crossed the line fourth, and Dillon Brown rounded out the top five.
UP NEXT: The Fox Factory Pro Late Models return to action on Friday, Oct. 28, for day two of the World Short Track Championship at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
TICKETS: CLICK HERE
If you can’t make it to the track, you can watch every lap of the World Short Track Championship live on DIRTVision – either at DIRTVision.com or by downloading the DIRTVision App
FOX Factory Pro (604) Late Models
Championship Feature- 20 Laps- 1. 31G-Stephen Pedulla[1]; 2. 22-Jeremy Steele[4]; 3. 18-Ricky Greene[3]; 4. 12C-Cody Cubbage[5]; 5. 6-Dillon Brown[12]; 6. 114-Jordan Koehler[7]; 7. 55H-Benji Hicks[13]; 8. 00-Kendal Tucker[2]; 9. G4-Trent Ivey[20]; 10. 615-Colton Trouille[9]; 11. 27H-Justin Hudspeth[6]; 12. 66-Jody Knowles[18]; 13. 74-Mike Franklin[10]; 14. 5Q-Colby Quick[11]; 15. 08-Layton Sullivan[14]; 16. 20G-Chub Gunter[15]; 17. 29-Dale Moore[17]; 18. 89-Timmie Harrelson[8]; 19. 55-Matt Long[16]; 20. 215-Jamison McBride[19]
Qualifying Group A-1. 5Q-Colby Quick, 00:16.262[7]; 2. 18-Ricky Greene, 00:16.266[9]; 3. 114-Jordan Koehler, 00:16.339[18]; 4. 55-Matt Long, 00:16.393[6]; 5. 20G-Chub Gunter, 00:16.428[5]; 6. 7J-Dalton Jacobs, 00:16.502[16]; 7. 24-Jacob Brown, 00:16.534[8]; 8. 00-Kendal Tucker, 00:16.586[17]; 9. 7-Daniel Breuer, 00:16.674[11]; 10. 136-David Pangrazio, 00:16.816[20]; 11. 22-Jeremy Steele, 00:16.895[1]; 12. T20-Taylor Wood, 00:16.979[21]; 13. 08-Layton Sullivan, 00:17.016[14]; 14. 17-Jeffrey Johnson, 00:17.263[15]; 15. 10-Matt Ashworth, 00:17.286[2]; 16. 15M-Gary Mabe, 00:17.418[4]; 17. 17M-Billy Martin, 00:17.556[3]; 18. 25M-Marc Berzowski, 00:18.281[10]; 19. 70-Roger Lankford, 00:19.020[12]; 20. 10E-Patrick Evatt, 00:19.051[13]; 21. 615-Colton Trouille, 00:19.051[19]
Qualifying Group B –1. 215-Jamison McBride, 00:16.225[11]; 2. 6-Dillon Brown, 00:16.313[3]; 3. 12C-Cody Cubbage, 00:16.336[1]; 4. 31G-Stephen Pedulla, 00:16.598[20]; 5. 89-Timmie Harrelson, 00:16.612[7]; 6. G4-Trent Ivey, 00:16.614[16]; 7. 29-Dale Moore, 00:16.635[14]; 8. 5S-Joey Johnson, 00:16.710[15]; 9. 55H-Benji Hicks, 00:16.717[9]; 10. 2-Shawn Martin, 00:16.733[12]; 11. 27H-Justin Hudspeth, 00:16.754[17]; 12. 555-Brock Pinkerous, 00:16.977[19]; 13. 66-Jody Knowles, 00:17.005[21]; 14. 228-William Russell III, 00:17.085[6]; 15. 12-Randy Pinnix, 00:17.261[8]; 16. 57-Keaton Smith, 00:17.287[4]; 17. 74-Mike Franklin, 00:17.364[18]; 18. 15-Chuck Melton, 00:17.423[10]; 19. 62-Jacob Lehn, 00:17.636[13]; 20. 143-Brian Ledbetter, 00:17.826[2]; 21. 37-Tommy Eastridge, 00:18.108[5]
Hot Laps-1. 6-Dillon Brown[24]; 2. 55-Matt Long[6]; 3. 7-Daniel Breuer[11]; 4. 20G-Chub Gunter[5]; 5. 5Q-Colby Quick[7]; 6. 12C-Cody Cubbage[22]; 7. 24-Jacob Brown[8]; 8. 55H-Benji Hicks[30]; 9. 7J-Dalton Jacobs[16]; 10. 18-Ricky Greene[9]; 11. 31G-Stephen Pedulla[41]; 12. 22-Jeremy Steek[1]; 13. 555-Brock Pinkerous[40]; 14. 62-Jacob Lehn[34]; 15. 08-Layton Sullivan[14]; 16. 615-Colton Trouille[19]; 17. 5S-Joey Johnson[36]; 18. G4-Trent Ivey[37]; 19. 27H-Justin Hudspeth[38]; 20. 29-Dale Moore[35]; 21. 66-Jody Knowles[42]; 22. 215-Jamison McBride[32]; 23. 2-Shawn Martin[33]; 24. 00-Kendal Tucker[17]; 25. 10-Matt Ashworth[2]; 26. 17-Jeffrey Johnson[15]; 27. 136-David Pangrazio[20]; 28. 57-Keaton Smith[25]; 29. 89-Timmie Harrelson[28]; 30. 15M-Gary Mabe[4]; 31. 12-Randy Pinnix[29]; 32. 228-William Russell III[27]; 33. 143-Brian Ledbetter[23]; 34. 74-Mike Franklin[39]; 35. 25M-Marc Berzowski[10]; 36. 17M-Billy Martin[3]; 37. T20-Taylor Wood[21]; 38. 70-Roger Lankford[12]; 39. 37-Tommy Eastridge[26]; 40. 10E-Patrick Evatt[13]; 41. 114-Jordan Koehler[18]; 42. 15-Chuck Melton[31]
