August 2020 -- Vol 4 -- Issue 8 August 2020 | Page 114

On The Pegs 114
prepared there with ten seconds to go. But I worked
my way through the pack and was leading by the end
of the first lap. I knew if I got out and pushed hard I
could get out front and kind of ride my own race, and
that’s what I did. I felt good and I’m happy to get it
done.”
Jordan Ashburn brought his Babbitt’s Online/Monster
Energy/Team Green Kawasaki home for sixth. The
Tennessee-native has been running right around the
top-five all year.
Russell’s win was the 66th GNCC win of his career.
“I didn’t feel that great right off the get-go.,” said
Russell. “The track was icy and it had a lot of traction
in certain spots, but you would get your momentum
going and then you would lose traction and start
sliding and skating. I just kind of rode into it the first
lap. Made a mistake in the John Penton section. Me,
Josh, and Ben almost hit head-on. We blew this turn
and I was turning around. We kind of made a cluster
right there. Ben got in the lead. I felt good as soon as
we started the next lap. When we got in the woods, I
felt really good. I got up to Ben and I can’t remember,
I think I passed him. I kind of bonsai’d the creek section
over here. Like I said, I just felt really good and
really smooth at the time. So I wanted to try to gap
Strang because he was right behind me. He was like
five seconds back. I knew if I could get that 20-second
buffer it would be a lot easier. I was able to kind of
stay right there at that 20, 15, 13 to 20 seconds. It was
like yo-yo-ing. I was really good on this side of the
track and not as great in the John Penton section, but
it was hard to charge over there. So I was just riding
really hard where I felt comfortable, and I would kind
of maintain over there and lose a little bit. Like I said,
I was just kind of not wanting to throw it away over
there because it would be really easy to get tangled
up in a vine or blow a turn and go down over a hill.