Newton, NC(April 6, 2010) -- Preston Peltier overcame a spin, bided his time, and came on strong in the last twenty laps to win the PASS Super Late Model Easter Bunny 150 at Hickory Motor Speedway.

Two time track champion Andy Loden set fast time but started eighth on the re-draw, with Chase Elliot and Cassius Clark leading the field to the green. Clark led early followed by Elliot and Colt James. The first yellow flew on lap seven when Kenzie Ruston was spun, stacking up the field. On the restart Clark held his lead but Elliot faded and two laps later was punted out of fourth place, with another melee in turn four.

It was Clark and James out front but that only lasted two laps when George Gorham Jr. went around. Again Clark and James went out front with Ryan Blaney slotting in for third until the rear of the field piled it up again in turn four on lap eighteen. James rocketed away from the outside on the restart, followed by Clark and Blaney, with Joey Coulter
 

and Alex Fleming rounding out the top five.

Clark retook the lead on lap twenty four and held it until the next yellow on lap thirty-nine. Once again James took the first position on the restart and held on until Gorham spun again on lap forty five. This time it was Clark's turn to take the lead back with a strong run on the outside. The battle was for third between Coulter, Blaney, Jeff Choquette, and Fleming.

On lap fifty three Loden and Peltier made hard contact in turn one as the pair battled for ninth, stacking up those behind them. Clark held on at the restart, and by lap sixty-five Blaney had taken over second spot. The caution was out again on lap seventy three when Dylan Presnell walled it in turn four. On the restart Blaney was strong and he and Clark went side by side until Blaney finally took over the first spot on lap eighty-four.

On lap ninety six Gorham and Ruston spun in front of the leaders in turn one, but everyone made it by clean. Clark went back to the lead on the restart with Blaney and James hot on his tail. On the move was Jay Fogleman taking over the fourth spot from Choquette on lap one hundred one.

Blaney took back the lead on lap one hundred seven while Fogleman went to third. By lap one hundred eleven he was second.

With thirty laps to go Justin Wakefield oiled the track, causing Ruston to go around again. Blaney held onto the lead but two laps later Jake Crum went around in turn four.

Blaney held the lead on the restart but on lap one hundred twenty three Gorham, Crum and a host of others got crunched for yet another yellow. The restart didn't go any better as Coulter ended his good run spinning in turn two. Among the cars involved was James, who also had to start from the rear of the field.

Fogleman made good on the restart and took first. Preston Peltier had methodically picked his way through the field after his spin with Loden and sat third behind Blaney. Clark still held onto fourth while Chase Elliot made his way back to fifth.

On lap one hundred thirty five Peltier made it to second and one lap later made an outside pass on Fogleman and never looked back. Blaney was third at the checkers, followed by Clark, Choquette, Alex Fleming, Elliot, Ben Rowe, Heath Hindman, and Clay Jones.

Blaney was visibly dejected after the race. "Something broke under the car and it was dragging really bad. We just gave it away I guess."

Fogleman, who made his way to the feature by winning one of the B-mains and started twenty-first, knew he didn't have anything for Peltier at the end. "At the end of these races I didn't expect those long cautions. We were good on long runs but just had the bleeder set to low and the car was bottoming out a bit, just really weren't set up for back to back cautions. You know with this many cars ten of them are going to be real good. If I could have had one caution and then a long green that might have been the perfect scenario, but you never have a perfect scenario."

But the strategy belonged to Peltier. "In 2007 and 2009 I led the most laps in the PASS series. This year I don't plan on leading the most laps, but I plan on winning the most races. I was very deliberately conserving the car. I was getting bumped around and actually getting very frustrated. We got spun around on the front stretch, I came in, made some adjustments, and then slowly and methodically made my way back to the front."

EASTER BUNNY NOTES: Forty-nine cars took time trials. The first qualifier, David Quackenbush, ended his second lap against the frontstretch wall hard and was done for the night. Three B-mains were held, won by Fogleman, Choquette and Ryan Lawler, respectively. The last chance race went to Lonnie Somerville. First car out of the race was twentieth fast qualifier Sam Watts, who retired on the pace lap. Andy Loden's fast time was 14.902. Watts' speed was 15.082. If all you could do was a 15.1 around the Hickory 1/3 mile, you were running a B. Main. Sprint Cup driver Max Papis was on board Kyle Busch's car, setting ninth fastest time. He was as high as fifth in the feature before getting caught up in one of the many wrecks, retiring with under thirty laps to go.
 
Results:
1 - 26 - Preston Peltier - 150
2 - 4 - Jay Fogleman -150
3 - 10 - Ryan Blaney -150
4 - 8 - Cassius Clark -150
5 - 70 - Jeff Choquette -150
6 - 08 - Joey Gase -150
7 - 9 - Chase Elliot -150
8 - 48n -Ben Rowe -150
9 - 91 - Heath Hindman - 150
10 - 15 - Clay Jones - 150
11 - 99c - Jake Crum - 150
12 - 05 - Alex Fleming - 150
13 - 29 - Andy Loden - 150
14 - 10s - George Gorham Jr. - 150
15 - 39 - Kenzie Ruston - 149
16 - 35 - Devin Jones - 149
17 - 83 - Dylan Presnell - 143
18 - 56x - Kyle Bonsignore - 139
19 - 48 - John Batten - 136
20 - 115 - Colt James - 131
21 - 16 - Joey Coulter - 123
22 - 6x - David Ragan - 122
23 - 98 - Justin Wakefield - 119
24 - 51 - Max Papis - 119
25 - 23 - Lonnie Sommerville - 99
26 - 54 - Johnny Clark - 56
27 - 74l - Ryan Lawler - 51
28 - 74 - Ryan Moore - 33
29 - 56 - Tony Jackson Jr. - 18
30 - 55 - Brad Leighton - 18
31 - 20 - Steve Legendre - 17
32 - 20x - John Stancill - 6
DNS - 73 - Sam Watts