Hunter Robbins wins the Disturbing the Peace 100 at Montgomery Motor Speedway

Published: May. 28, 2023 at 11:19 AM CDT
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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - On the biggest weekend of motorsports in the world with Formula 1 racing at historic Monaco, the Indy 500, and the Coca-Cola 600 in NASCAR, Montgomery Motor Speedway took their little chunk of the weekend and put on a show that didn’t disappoint.

Hunter Robbins who is no stranger to the famed oval in Montgomery took the lead on the restart with 64 to go and never turned back dominating the Disturbing the Peace 100 and capturing victory in the second Show Me the Money Pro Late Model race of the season at MMS.

Robbins qualified 5th for the race and a 6-row invert saw the Shorter, AL native starting 8th in the redraw for the night’s main event. Zach Dixon drew the pole with Josh Hicks starting outside front row.

Hicks quickly jumped out to the lead, and the top four cars jumped out to a significant lead in the opening 20 laps. Hicks led fast qualifier Dylan Fetcho followed by Christopher Tullis and Hunter Robbins. The fifth-place car of Jim Wall found himself nearly two and a half seconds back of the lead pack and desperately needing a caution to catch back up.

That caution would come on lap 34 and when the pack bunched back up for the restart race leader Josh Hicks chose the outside line to restart despite the bottom line seemingly being the quickest way around the track. It took two tries to get the restart off but Hicks was able to hold off a hard-charging Fetcho to maintain the lead.

Fetcho finally found his way around Hicks with 65 to go and then the caution came out once again. Right as the pack was heading into turn 3 to get things going again Fetcho abruptly stopped at the entrance to turn three causing the caution to come back.

Fetcho went to the pits for repairs and the team worked tirelessly on the top qualifiers number 89 machine, but ultimately, Fetcho would not be competitive the rest of the night and went on to finish 29 laps down in 14th place.

With Fetcho out of the picture that, moved Hicks back to the lead, Robbins also found himself on the front row for the restart. Robbins rocketed his number 18 Toyota out front on the restart, and Hicks found himself struggling to keep second place.

Tullis, who was in contention for the win in the Alabama 200 before getting into it with Carson Brown in turn 4, taking both the leaders out of contention for the win, overtook Hicks with 49 laps remaining. It was beginning to look like a two-car race for the win, and then disaster struck with 36 to go.

A five-car wreck in the middle of turns three and four brought the race to a red flag and bunched the pack back up again. The wreck collected Allen Gordan, Zach Dixon, Dustin Smith, Jolynn Wilkinson, and Hudson Bulger. Bulger and Wilkinson were able to get their cars fixed under the red flag and continue, while the rest of the cars just had too much damage to continue.

Robbins and Tullis got things back going from the front row when the green flag dropped again, and Tullis gave Robbins everything he had trying to find a way around that 18 machine. However, Robbins had different plans and slowly began to pull away.

Late in the race, the number 27 machine driven by Chase Spradlin passed Hicks for third place and began running down the leaders. Spradlin just didn’t have enough time but would go on to be the biggest mover of the night after starting 12 and finishing in third.

When the checked flag dropped, it was all Hunter Robbins, with Tullis finishing second, nearly two seconds behind last year’s Alabama 200 winner.

“We had a good car tonight,” said Robbins. “We started getting really tight towards the end of the race. The 12 was really good. I knew he was going to be good at the beginning. I just wanted to get to the lead.”

Next on the schedule is bring dad to the races night on June 17, and that race will feature the Show Me the Money Pro Late Models once again in a 100-lap feature along with Late Model Sportsman, Street Stocks, and Outlaw Late Models.

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