Jake Garcia Wins 40th All American 400 at Nashville Fairgrounds

Jake Garcia has a new title to add to his resume as of Monday morning.

All American 400 champion.

It was far from a dominant performance from the 19-year old on Sunday. Garcia led only two laps on the day. But they were the most important two as he took home arguably the biggest Super Late Model win of his career.

Garcia spent much of the day hovering around the 10th position, but came to pit road for fresh tires on a late-race caution.

That ultimately proved to be the difference maker. With the help of fresh rubber, Garcia got a great launch on the green-white-checkered restart, snatching the lead away from Giovanni Ruggiero. The Georgian controlled the final two circuits from there to take the checkered flag.

He was quick to admit this ranks among his best achievements to date after the race.

“It’s definitely up there,” Garcia said. “I’ve had a lot of good runs, a lot of good wins. But this is definitely a crown jewel event against a really good field of racecar drivers.”

Rounding out the podium was polesitter Casey Roderick and Dawson Sutton, the latter having dominated the second half of the day.

Roderick was fast early but quickly faded after a restart on lap 61, running as far down as 19th around the halfway point. Much like Garcia, late race cautions allowed the veteran to battle back into the fight.

On the opposite end of things, Sutton may view the 2024 All American 400 as the one that got away. The Tennessee native led nearly every lap from lap 123 until 286, when the win slipped away on a restart.

Ruggiero seemed to have the win wrapped up on multiple occasions. He was the driver to steal the lead from Sutton late in the going and began to drive off into the sunset. But a crash with five laps to go between Albert Francis, Derek Thorn and Connor Okrzesik erased Ruggiero’s lead.

On the ensuing restart, Ruggiero jumped to the lead once again only for the yellow to fly in turn 3 of the final lap, as Jonathan Knee had come to a stop on the front stretch.

Under ASA rules the white flag doesn’t end the race, so the field was bunched back up one more time. Garcia got the better of Ruggiero on the ensuing restart, leaving his No. 22 to fade to fourth.

Rounding out the top five was Stephen Nasse, who also took advantage of fresh tires to have a late chance. It was an overall quiet day for Nasse, who spent much of the day running in the fourth-to-seventh range.

Matt Craig and Cole Butcher both had strong runs going early on, before each suffered from a plethora of issues down the stretch.

Craig suffered from a mechanical issue while leading on lap 54, as his No. 54 shot up the racetrack on the exit of turn 4. He later spun the car in turn 1, going a lap down. He eventually recovered to ninth at the end of the day.

Butcher assumed the lead from Craig and went on to win the first stage at lap 110. But much like Roderick, his car suddenly faded on the ensuing restart. He spent the majority of the race’s second half in the back half of the field, finishing 14th at race’s end.

With Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway’s crown jewel complete, most of the Super Late Model teams will now start preparing for the biggest event in all of short track racing: the 57th annual Snowball Derby at Five Flags Speedway.

The event is scheduled for December 6-8. It’ll air live on FloRacing.

40th All American 400 Results

1. Jake Garcia
2. Casey Roderick
3. Dawson Sutton
4. Gio Ruggiero
5. Stephen Nasse
6. Austin Nason
7. Dylan Fecho
8. Jake Finch
9. Matt Craig
10. Tyler Tanner
11. Kasey Kleyn
12. Kyle Steckly
13. Albert Francis
14. Cole Butcher
15. Dylan Bates
16. Jonathan Knee (-1)
17. Josh Stade (-5)
18. Blake Rowe (-6)
19. Billy VanMeter (-17)
20. Connor Okrzesik (-19)
21. Derek Thorn (-19)
22. Chase Burda (-35)
23. Hunter Wright (-40)
24. Boris Jurkovic (-71)
25. Michael Hinde (-116)
26. Haeden Plybon (-159)
27. Johnny Brazier (-281)
28. Mark Day (-284)
29. Brett Robinson (-306)