RPW Column: Finally, Someone New In Can-Am 358-Mod Victory Lane In The Form Of Jordan McCreadie

Column By: CAN-AM SPEEDWAY – LAFARGEVILLE, NY – After several weeks of rainouts and a pause for graduation weekend and a mid-week running of the Pabst Shootout, it had been over a month since a regular Friday night race took place at the Nasty Track of the North, Can-Am Speedway. For a time, it looked like perhaps fans would have to wait yet another week to see racing action. But after a two-hour delay to condition the track after rain, racing ensued, and fans were treated to a spectacle!

Can-Am Speedway has been dominated this year by Tim Fuller and Billy Dunn, with Dave Marcuccilli standing as the only other victor in the Whitesboro Plow Shop DIRTcar 358 Modified division. With the track running heavy, and even a little greasy in places due to the moisture, and with the start time pushed back, there were plenty of variables in place to open the door for a new driver to take his place in the Bob Johnson Auto Group Victory Lane.

From the outset, it looked as if 31jr Tommy Jock Jr. would be that driver. Jock Jr. started on the pole and ran out ahead of the field for the first thirteen laps. His lead would not last as 21 Max McLaughlin, who started twelfth, charged up through the field to take over sole possession of first place. It wasn’t two laps later that both the leaders, McLaughlin and Jock Jr., succumbed to mechanical issues. Jock Jr.’s car came to a stop on the front stretch right about the same time that McLaughlin billowed smoke out from his vehicle, dumping oil along the track.

With both leaders out of the way, enter Jordan McCreadie in his number 28. McCreadie had been fighting his own battle throughout the first sixteen laps of the twenty-five lap feature. McCreadie started in thirteenth position and had followed McLaughlin up the ladder through the pack as the first half of the race unfolded. As Jock Jr. and McLaughlin were on their way back to the pits, McCreadie found himself in the lead as the green flag unfurled, restarting the race after the caution.

McCreadie never let up and the final nine laps seemed to fly by. McCreadie took the checkered flag uncontested and rolled his way to victory lane for the first time at Can-Am in 2021.

With Marcuccilli’s victory last week and McCreadie’s win this week, it looks as if the Fuller/Dunn dominance may have been broken for the time being. Fuller at least finished in the top five, at number five, while Dunn was further back in the pack, finishing in tenth position.

Granted, none of the drivers had seen Can-Am’s surface in the condition it was in on Friday night. It was a testament to the hard work and determination of the track crew to get the track in racing shape at all, so it’s understandable that it wasn’t an optimal surface.

McCreadie’s victory may have been aided at least in some part to the conditions.

“The track was a little narrow in three and four because of the mud. When Max [McLaughlin] got by me, I thought he was the car to beat. He was fast. But he had some mechanical issues,” McCreadie said. “It’s been a while since we’ve been here [in victory lane]. A little over a year, I think, so we’ll take it.”

With four different winners in the 358 division in the last four races, it could be that Can-Am will become a track where victory is up for grabs any given week for the rest of the season.

Racing will return to Can-Am Speedway on July 16th.