Massey breaks through for first national event win

COMMERCE, Ga. - Defending NHRA Division 4 Top Alcohol Dragster Champion Spencer Massey broke through for his first national event win during this past weekend's Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. The win marked Massey's fourth straight final round appearance in as many national events, going back to the O'Reilly Fall Nationals in Dallas last season.

Massey, 24, of Ft. Worth, Texas, qualified his injected-nitro dragster fifth in the field with a 5.331 second elapsed time at 262.64 mph. In round one, he defeated recent Division 2 event winner Bill Evans with a 5.362 at 262.74 mph, then took out Lindsay Wood in the Darien & Meadows ride with a 5.348 at 265.80 mph in round two. Massey then received a competition-bye in the semifinals when his scheduled opponent Marty Thacker could not make the call. Massey soloed to an early-shutoff 5.740 at 204.98 mph to set up a final round match up with the Division 1 Champion, Dan Mercier.

The race was over quickly, as Mercier went up in smoke and Massey powered through to a 5.624 at 249.48 mph for his first national event win. The win moved Massey to third in national standings, where he finished last season.

"Today was just our day," said Massey. "In the past when we've made the finals, we've always ran good and consistent, only to have our final round opponent make a really good run next to us. This race we didn't run as consistent, but we got some breaks finally. It was just like when I was racing Jr. Dragsters and Super Comp, when it's your day, nothing can go wrong. It's just awesome to finally get a national event win. It really hasn't set in yet. We almost didn't come to this race."

"Reichert going out early was our saving grace," Massey continued. "Reichert has the baddest hot rod out there right now and any race he shows up to is his race to lose. That was a big break in both winning the race and points for him to go out early. We're back in third and happy to be in the top ten. We're back where we were last year, and hopefully we can keep this up and make a run at the championship. We were also happy to make a good showing for our sponsors Rucker Performance and Lucas Oil."

The next event for Massey will be back on the Lucas Oil Divisional trail, as the team heads into Rusk, Texas for the Division 4 event there. There Massey battle it out with Brandon Pierce and Morgan Lucas to defend his Division 4 title. Massey won this event last year.

Be sure to catch the team on ESPN2's coverage of Lucas Oil Sportsman eliminations from Atlanta, May 6 at 10 a.m. EST.

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Photo courtesy of Roger Richards, CompetitionPlus.com