Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]

Kingsport, TN(June 25, 2012) — Drama. Controversy. Hype. Three words that describe Kingsport Speedway this season and on Friday night, the fans got another dose of it, but many left disappointed, because there wasn’t enough of either.

Kingsport Speedway has been so good in 2012, that even on a night when there’s a wreck for the lead, the race can be categorized as boring. At the end of the night tempers were flaring or at least from one driver and Nate Monteith found himself in victory lane, despite being willing, in his own words to settle for fifth or sixth. It was a night like no other this season and one that won’t have the fans buzzing like in past weeks, but it was still a great night.

The day started off with the return of one of the championship contenders, as Daniel Pope, who was third in points coming into the night and just two weeks earlier was the points leader. Pope had missed the race the week before due to damage suffered in the infamous lap three crash two weeks ago, but this week he was back and with a new look to his car. The previous damage didn’t seem to slow him down either as he found himself qualifying on the pole.

Pope, Paul Nogradi, Blake Jones, Adam Long and Lee Tissot would make up the top five, with Nate Monteith laying down the sixth fastest time, putting him just one position shy of the five car invert. The invert would put Tissot and Long on the front row with Pope lining up right alongside his bitter rival, Monteith. On this night however, the feud between these two drivers wouldn’t be the headline, nor would the carry over from last weeks altercation between Monteith and Long, but rather a new rivalry was born as Long and Pope would get together going for the lead on lap 50.

Just ten laps shy of the finish and with the duo out in front of the field far enough to settle the race amongst themselves, they rolled into turn one. That would be the last time the two would find themselves at the front of the 20-car field as Long’s car went around from contact with Pope and Pope subsequently found himself black flagged and restarting at the rear of the field. Long would be credited with an eighth place finish, while Pope would finish ninth.

Long was certainly upset after the conclusion of the race, as he felt he had the car to beat.

“It goes to prove that you’ve got a good car when everybody’s got to wreck you to win,” said Long. “We have idiots, who race here every weekend that took us out. I don’t know what to say, I guess I’ve got two to payback now.”

Long was simply in disbelief over what happened as he stated that he figured that Pope would be the last guy to wreck him.

“He just handed his buddy Nate the race. Good move Daniel. Real good move.”

Pope didn’t see things the same way.

“Had the dominant race car and just slowly worked through there trying not to scuff up my new body,” said Pope. “I got to the 3 car(Adam Long) and I followed him around for 10 laps, stalked him and he made a mistake off of four and I got under him. Down the front straightaway, I was under him and he went to chop me and I stood on the brakes. I clipped him and turned him around.”

“I hate it for him, I actually like Adam. I’m sure he’s pissed at me and said some stuff, but he’s a good guy. He’ll get over it and he’ll win more races up here.”

Monteith, who for once this season managed to avoid the drama, had been sick all week with pneumonia and after getting oxygen and fluids from the EMT’s at the track admitted that he didn’t think he could win.

“I was hoping it rained earlier,” joked Monteith. “I was happy with sixth or fifth or third or wherever we was riding. Then I seen Daniel(Pope) get in there and spin, for the lead there and I knew we was going to have the lead there. It was pretty awesome, we haven’t had a lot of luck on our side, sometimes things like this work out.”

Monteith also couldn’t help, but thank his rival for the lead and the win.

“I gotta say a big congrats to my unofficial teammate, Daniel Pope for helping me out and getting in victory lane tonight. That was a good job man, I appreciate it.”

So, on a night that many considered to be boring, it was anything but boring. Yeah, it was tame by Kingsport Speedway standards, but most race tracks would kill to have a 20-car field and great racing. Kingsport Speedway has come to stand above all the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series tracks and even on a bad night is better than most.

With another race in the books, Nate Monteith is inching closer to another Kingsport Speedway title, closer to a second straight NASCAR Tennessee State Title and inching closer to leading the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Standings. While his bitter rival, Daniel Pope added another rival and took some of the heat off of Monteith for his aggressive driving of Long, a week earlier. Things seem to be falling right into the hands of Monteith and right away from his competitors.

His closest competitor in the battle for the championship, Zeke Shell also continued to have mechanical problems and finished 15th, while the NASCAR National Points leader, Anthony Anders missed out on two more chances at victory with a fifth at Kingsport and a third place finish at Myrtle Beach Speedway on Saturday.

Can Kingsport Speedway produce it’s first NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Champion? Guess we’ll have to wait and see ….