Bubba Broderick Blasts Cushion to Bring Home ASCS Patriot Win at Stateline

A night after having what his team termed an “embarrassing outing” at Ransomville, Bubba Broderick took advantage of a visit to one of his best racetracks, as well as a competitors misfortune, to win.

Broderick, making the long tow from Brookfield, CT, became the first repeat winner of the 2010 season on the ASCS Patriot Tour, claiming the 25-lap Paul Johnson Memorial at Stateline Speedway to kick off the Insinger Race Fuels King of the Southern Tier. Broderick used his mastery of the cushion to outduel defending series champion Bryan Howland for 20 straight laps.

“I love this place! This is my favorite track,” Broderick reverberated after a wild 25-lap excursion. The 20-year-old had also made that declaration earlier in the night.

Scott Bonnell drew the pole position and led the first five circuits of the feature by running the bottom lane. Broderick, who started third, hung close to the No. 3B by using the top until the first caution flag of the event flew for a spin in turn three collecting Shayne Ely and Doug Bowman.

On the lap six restart, Bonnell’s car had a part fail in the steering and sent his No. 3B across the track and straight into the outside wall. With Bonnell out, it was now up to Broderick to hold off Howland, the most recent winner at Stateline.

“I wish I would have been able to race with (Bonnell),” admitted Broderick after the race. “He was running real strong on the bottom and it would have been a good battle.”

In what would turn out to be the final restart of the event, Broderick got a good launch off turn two, as did Howland, allowing the youthful duo to break away and sort it out between themselves.

“I could hear (Howland), but I felt like I had a good lead mid-race and started to relax,” said Broderick in Victory Lane, where in reality he was only about two car lengths ahead. “On about lap 20 I saw the 51 peak underneath me, but I figured I’d be best to stay up top since I had not seen how I was on the bottom. I also thought that if I was able to drive around him on that lap that it was were the momentum off the corner was.”

The former Rookie of the Year recipients hit lapped traffic with about five laps remaining, but with all of those cars on the bottom lane, they were clear to swing on by on the top. On one occasion, Howland get a drive off the middle of turn two and made slight contact with the left rear of the Northeast Carpet/ Pink Monkey Water No. 5, but they sorted it out.

In Victory Lane, Howland was quick to come over and congratulate Broderick on his win. The winner was quick to reciprocate the sentiments as he mentioned to Howland how fun it was to battle with him for 20 straight laps.

The win was important for Broderick on a number of fronts. He had come very close to his first career win at the 1/3-mile oval last June but when the cushion got too close to the wall, Jared Zimbardi was able to get underneath him. This year, the cushion, as well as the final result, was different.

“I couldn’t stay on the cushion too long around the corner,” admitted Broderick. “I had to just lean on it briefly. The car was handling great on it because any time I felt it was pushing too much, I could jump right off of it.”

It victory was also critical for the third year sprint car regular as he bounced back from an 11th place showing a night earlier at Ransomville.

“This definitely just lifts us back up and proves to us that we can come in to any track and put together a great run.”

For the full story by Rich Vleck got to http://www.ascspatriotsprints.com/fullstory.php?newsstory=Story157_stateline619.txt