He’s 4-for-4: Smith completes second sweep at Kennedale Spring Kickoff

Feature, Modified, Southern SportMod, Sport Compact, Stock Car

Cody Smith completed his second sweep in as many nights, winning both Smiley’s Racing Products IMCA Southern SportMod and IMCA Sunoco Stock Car Spring Kickoff features at Kennedale Speedway Park. (Photo by Mike Frieri)

KENNEDALE, Texas (Feb. 24, 2024) – What Cody Smith described as a good start to the season after opening night of the Spring Kickoff got even better after night two.

Smith repeated his Kennedale Speedway Park heroics Saturday evening, winning both Smiley’s Racing Products IMCA Southern SportMod and IMCA Sunoco Stock Car features.

Both Saturday checkers came from outside front row starts.

Brandon McElroy was runner-up in the $750 to win Stock Car show while Jeffrey Abbey started 12th and finished third.

Hard charger Jerrett Bransom hoofed it from 12th on the original grid to second while Cameron Gaston ended third in the $600 to win SportMod show.

William Gould was in and out of the lead before rallying late to win his second Friesen Performance IMCA Modified feature of the weekend while Randy Martin did some rallying himself to top the Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact man.

Gould collected another $1,000 for IMCA Modified career win number 192, ahead of familiar KSP foes Jacob Pirkle and Jake Upchurch.

“It was challenging,” admitted Gould, who raced from third to the lead with two laps to go. “I started on the pole again but wasn’t able to run the lower line like I was on Friday. It wasn’t as fast so I had to move around.”

During all that moving around, Gould fell back to second before getting the lead back, then found himself in third in the late going.

“We raced 40 feature laps and I got two feature wins and $2,000 and not so much as a scratch on the car,” he said. “It was a pretty good weekend.”

Martin did most of his driving on pavement Friday night, going home to Springtown get his backup car after engine issues in his heat, then racing from ninth starting to second in the Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact feature behind Kyle Sale.

He was back on board the car that carried him to the 2023 national championship, leading to halfway and then regaining the lead from Steven Bevills with five laps left.

“That was probably one of the best races I’ve had with Steven. He’s amazing. He’s one of those drivers that makes you better,” said Martin, talking up Bevills as a national championship contender. “I think that’s the first time I’ve ever passed him back. He’s tough to beat.”

Mark Earl was third in the 4-cylinder finish.

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