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WINSTON-SALEM, NC — Ryan Robertson didn’t have plans of racing two nights in a row this past weekend, but he came away with a pair of podium finishes in the end.

“I’m just ready to get home and take a shower and be done with it,” said Robertson after the Stadium race.

It all began on Friday night at Concord Speedway (North Carolina) where Robertson ran the 50 lap Mid Atlantic Limited Late Model race.  Robertson came home with a solid second place finish on the night after battling eventual winner Mack Little on a late race restart.

IMG_3231Move ahead to Saturday at Bowman Gray Stadium and Robertson wasn’t even scheduled to compete.  Instead, his dad Mike Robertson practiced and qualified the car, but a last minute change put Ryan behind the wheel for the 100 lapper.  Because of the driver swap, Ryan would have to start shotgun on the field, which was 21st after Mike qualified the car 8th.

The race didn’t begin well for Robertson as on lap 19 there was a huge melee in turn 1 which damaged the front and back end of the Jerry Hunt Auto Sales/PRW #31 Chevrolet.

Robertson went to the pit area and the crew made all the repairs without losing a lap and Robertson rejoined the race minus some body parts.

Another huge crash at the midway point took out some top contenders, and Robertson was able to miss the accident and move inside the top ten.

With 17 laps to go Robertson was up to sixth as the field lined up for another restart, and after two more accidents that he avoided, Robertson found himself up to the fourth position on lap 91.

Then a scoring error was detected by the race officials and they dropped the second place car to the back of the field after they noticed he was in fact not on the lead lap.  Robertson then inherited the third spot on the final one lap restart.

Robertson held station on the green and white finish and came home with an impressive third place finish in a car that looked like it went through a battle.

“It just goes to show you that you never give up,” explained Robertson. “If it wasn’t for my spotter we would have been parked, but what a crazy race.  The car really wasn’t that bad and we were just biding our time during the first fifty laps.  My dad normally drives this car and I hadn’t been in all year and didn’t qualify it so I had to start in the back.  This just goes to show you the kind of equipment and team we have.”

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