Story by: Corey Latham ~ [email protected]

Winston-Salem, NC(November 15, 2011) — Well, I guess I have been quiet enough this year … maybe it’s time to unleash all that’s been bottling up inside me.

People have said that I haven’t been expressing my opinions enough this season, I have become too “pc”(Politically Correct), if you will. Those that know me, know I haven’t changed a bit, and those that have doubted me I’ll just go ahead and let loose a little, I don’t want anyone ever to think that I’m ‘politically correct’.

Martinsville is the Best:
We’ll start out with the best race of the year, the “Virginia Is For Lovers 300”. Once again it was one for the ages, complete with a last lap bump and run. The race itself was outstanding with beating and banging being the norm, some drivers trading paint more than others as always. The last lap incident between Lee Pulliam and Matt McCall will be remembered for years. Matt was pissed and Lee was happy, each in their own right having those feelings, the way it should be at the end of a big race.

This is my take on it … people say it was dirty, maybe it was from a broad “racing handbook” standpoint, but it was the biggest race of the year, with the most money on the biggest stage and I’d put my own mom four rows deep for a grandfather clock and $25,000. Of course Matt was upset, but if he was in Lee’s spot and didn’t do what Lee did, I would be riding him about it years from now. Well, maybe not a lot considering he walks on fire and can kill me with two fingers … no seriously he does and he can.

Speaking of that, kudos to the Martinsville Speedway staff and NASCAR officials for letting Matt go to victory lane and voice his displeasure with Lee as most other tracks would have had 400 cops come out and made a spectacle out of it. Anyone that knows Matt, knew that nothing was going to happen, he is trained in martial arts to one of the highest levels there is and his personal beliefs would never allow him to engage in a fight unless provoked…………..although knocking him out of the way on the last lap would be provoking enough I guess. I’m glad Matt is doing well in his job at RCR(Richard Childress Racing) working as an engineer on the Joey Coulter truck team, but wish we could see the #23 or the Pig Rig a lot more in 2012 to shake things up.

As far the race and the winner, it was cool to see Lee win it although if things were different I’m not sure it would have happened that way. Philip Morris was a beast there, in all my years at Martinsville, I have never seen a car do what he did. While he was leading he was just staying about four car lengths in front of the field, that’s to be expected, this is the best of the best and nobody ever runs off and leaves, the cars are too close. But, when Morris went a lap down he caught the top three, passed them and then pulled them by a straightaway in 20 laps, amazing at Martinsville. It turned out to be a great finish but if the ole’ #26 Clarence’s Steak House car had not had problems, it may have been a runaway.

Also thanks to Clay Campbell, Mike Smith and the entire Martinsville Speedway staff. Always our favorite race of the year, the facility and our freedom there is unmatched by anywhere, and most of all they treat you like they want you there. There is no other track on the Cup series schedule that you can just go and see the track president, but at Martinsville Clay Campbell is always available and is in the pits with the teams or in the stands with the fans. Being that he is a racer himself helps out a lot and just a tidbit here for ya, word is Clay will be racing Late Models full-time once again in 2012 after spending this past season in the K&N East series.

Then we have Mike Smith. I can promise you, he is scared as hell reading to this point because he gives me so much crap, I’m bound to give it back. I’ll be easy on you Mike, truth be told he is a breath of fresh air at a track in the position of Martinsville, he can do big business and he also understands about having a good time and just being your friend. Thanks for all you do Mike, Martinsville gives the Late Model guys the same seriousness and respect as the Cup guys, not many other tracks would even have them much less give them respect………I won’t even go there about those other two Cup tracks right now.

What A Mess:
Ace Speedway has had a resurgence, two years ago they were being accused of bouncing checks, thought to owe everyone money and were on the brink of closure. Then they hired, Brad Allen to bring it back, a tall task for anyone much less a guy that was a simply a racer and knew nothing about running a racetrack. Well Brad and his staff worked a miracle, I think the “not being a promoter” is what saved it. Brad and the gang just did what they thought was best, the way they thought racers and fans would like to be treated, unlike the thinking of some tracks still stuck in 1975.

The result was nothing short of a miracle, the crowds have come back, the car counts rival or beat most tracks and the racing in my opinion is hands down the best anywhere on a weekly basis right now. But, of course there was a reason it went to crap so many times to begin with in my opinion, the same guy still has the deed to the track. Now we have a mess once again and a pissing contest. The season had been a great success and the 2nd annual “Fallout Invitational” 150 lap, $5,000 to win Late Model Stock Car race was coming up as Brad was at Martinsville and gave out nearly 80 entry blanks to drivers and teams. The response was good, it looked like they were going to have a 23-25 car field

 which for the type and size of track Ace is would be perfect.

But, the perfection ended the day before the race.

Weather here has been mild to say the least, beautiful and in the mid 70’s every day. Of course when race weekend comes up they have a cold front come through with rain, practice on Friday was a wash, but race day on Saturday looked beautiful with sun and highs in the upper 50’s. I get a phone call from one of the racers there saying the race had been cancelled a little after lunch on Friday. Knowing that this certain person sometimes tells me crazy stuff on purpose, I call Brad Allen and learn the bad news is true. He is pretty much at a loss for words, he had talked with the owner Abraham Woidislawsky and the owner told him to cancel it.

This is where it gets messy.

I have known Brad for some time and even to this day and in this situation I feel I can trust what he says. We have had numerous talks about the race track and he has called on occasion to run ideas by me, a lot of things that I will not talk about. I call Brad and he tells me the owner called it, that he was upset about the weather forscast and that he was losing money by not having practice on Friday. He tells Abraham that he simply can’t do that, the race is been on the schedule for a year and it’s the day before, he tells him it will be the death of the track. According to Brad, Abraham tells him it’s his track and the race is cancelled. I’m not afraid to tell what was told to me because at some point somebody has to save face, I hate to see another track promoter there get crucified by a guy who lives in Pennsylvania and rarely attends his own race track or even knows what is going on there.

Brad goes and tells the drivers in attendance the news and gives their money back, needless to say they were not happy. The loudest may have been Frank Deiny, Jr. so Brad gives him Abraham’s phone number to call him, he didn’t want it on him, so he told Frank to call and ask him about it. Deiny did just that and Abe put the blame back on Brad, saying he told him it would be a good idea to call the race for financial reasons. Around the same time, Abraham was called by another driver and that driver stated that Abraham told him he called the race himself, he had called the weather channel (had no idea you could call them directly) and they told him the high was going to be in the 30’s(it was going to be 57 that Saturday).

He also told him he was tired of losing money, he was losing money on practice getting rained out (even though a 2 day pass was $35 and race day was $30, he would have lost maybe $50 tops on the gate) and thought it was the best thing to do. He then wanted to put the race back on for later that day, showing in my opinion that he has no idea what he is doing. He then called this same driver this week to see if he was coming to race this weekend, apparently the owner didn’t even know that the season was over as his own racetrack according to this racer’s account of conversations with him via telephone.

As to who’s fault it was, I have to lean on the side of those who answer their phone, which is Brad Allen. I will get in touch with Abraham eventually but I already know how that is going to go, it’s going to be more frustrating than anything. Fact of the matter is, I have been to every race, but two at Ace for the past two years and have yet to see the owner there, to my knowledge he has only been to the track about 5 times in the last two years. In September the track was on the verge of shutting down again and now it’s in maybe even worse shape.

So what happens next? Only time will tell.

Pulliam vs Morris:
Well let’s beat this dead horse some more. We all know the deal, Lee Pulliam spun Philip Morris after the race then hit him head on after they wrecked, he was then suspended indefinately by NASCAR. Now we get into the debate if the punishment was right for the situation and our own editor in chief, Langley Austin gave his take on it and while I agree with him on many points of course I don’t agree with all of them, what fun would that be?

First off let’s get the obvious out of the way … yes it was wrong what he did, just a bonehead move to do things like this after the race then hit them head on. I agree there should be some punishment, mine would be to suspend him the rest of the year seeing how he wasn’t racing anymore this year and a fine, I’m sure many would have been fine with this. To sit him out indefinitely(only NASCAR suspends people without knowing exactly what the time frame is) is just ridiculous to me. It had been boiling for a long time with these two and this is the time it boiled over.

Pulliam lost his cool and what he did was pretty stupid. But, myself and every person reading this has done something stupid in their lives, some of you do it every day. The head-on hit was what really did him in, a suspension for the rest of the year and a fine would have been sufficient in my opinion. Now they are talking about it being an entire year, just when NASCAR finally has a rivalry on the short track level between the two best in the business they totally kill it. People might not want to start the year out at South Boston knowing Philip is going to sit on the poleand lead every lap, but they possibly would come out in droves to see Lee and Philip race together just because of what happens. Make it clear to both drivers not to touch each other, it doesn’t matter if they never do, people will see come out to watch just for the “chance” that they might.

Now don’t let this turn into a me not liking Philip Morris … he’s a great guy and will go down as the best Late Model driver of all time when It’s said and done, I really love his style and consider him a friend at the track. He does what he needs to to win races, sometimes that involves getting your bumper a little dirty, I can’t fault a man for that. When your at the top you always have people shooting for you and the greats always have to ruffle some feathers getting there, Philip does that, but does it gracefully.

For years drivers have been saying they owe him one cough’frankdeiny’cough, and Lee was finally the one that did it (well since Jason Lawrence did it in 2006). It was bound to happen, they are the two best right now, I just hope NASCAR is smart enough to see their business side of this and how it will help racing if Lee does get to race, with their track record though I’m betting not.

The Live Coverage Debate:
I’ve been hearing it from just a few people in the past including a couple of tracks themselves, “Live coverage hurts our attendance”. You never see websites give their opinion on it, for some reason it’s kind of like the elephant in the room we aren’t supposed to talk about, then again I don’t give a damn so I will.

Live coverage has become popular here at RACE22.com, and with only one other REAL racing site even coming close and they

don’t really cover what we do, so we get pretty much free run of the live coverage scene in our area. Nearly all tracks and series understand that we can help them, but there will always be people that will say different, at least in America we do get to agree to disagree. I just can’t figure out the disagreeing part.

I can go ahead and say this, for those tracks and handful of people that think having racing coverage live from a track allows people to stay at home rather than be at their track …. here’s a news flash, those people weren’t coming anyway. I can’t for the life of me see any true race fan say “You know, it should be a good race today, I think instead of going I’ll just read about it on the internet”. If anything it draws more fans to your track, people that read our live coverage always say “Man, that sounded like a heck of a race, I’ll for sure not miss that next year”……your welcome in advance tracks and series.

Also, not everyone can make it to the race track, whether It’s for financial reasons, sickness, prior commitments or just distance. We help the tracks and series, people from all across America read RACE22.com, in this day and time tracks need all ther advertising help and exposure they can get. Just thought of a great example, this weekend I kept up with coverage from the World Crown 300 on Speed51 and I’ve never been to Gresham, but after reading about today’s race, I want to go there next season for sure. Tracks need to get with the times, attendance is dwindling everywhere and it started way before racing websites even did stuff like this.

Who’s The Best Ever?
Me and Langley Austin(the webmaster here at RACE22.com) debated about this subject the other day on the phone and came up with a dead heat between Barry Beggarly and Philip Morris on who was the best Late Model Stock Car racer of all-time. Being that I was a modified guy till just a few years ago and Langley is still wet behind the ears, we only know what we have seen or heard about from back in the day with mine starting about the late 80’s even knowing anything about Late Models. Whatever peoples choices are, it has gotten to the point where It’s like the Petty vs Earnhardt thing, it’s different era’s so it’s hard to call.

When Barry was winning all the time (and he still does) he did it at different tracks all over the region. His battles with Setzer, Prestwood, Hill, Canipe and Blankenship were classics, you didn’t stay at one track and you sure as heck didn’t worry about car count, you just came to race and take the trophy and money. It wasn’t all about technology, it was just hard work, mechanical tricks and mostly just getting up on the wheel. Barry’s 1993 season will go down as the best single season ever in Late Model racing with a National Championship and a mind boggling 32 wins at various tracks. Another thing that gets Barry points on the deal is that he is still winning today, he’s the 2011 ASA National Champion and 2011 Ace Speedway Champion……oh, and he still builds his own cars which to me is one of the coolest things ever.

Then we have Philip Morris, who is the man of the hour right now and has been for about the last decade. He too has won at various tracks over his career, but now it has become mainly just two tracks …. Motor Mile and South Boston. You simply can’t race around anymore like back in the day, if you do you will get your rear handed to you, with technology and testing every week, drivers rarely come into any track and set the woods on fire. Right now LMSC racing is the most competitive it has ever been, the slightest little adjustment can mean the difference between winning and a 15th place finish, back in the day that same small adjustment may have gone unnoticed. Philip has it going on right now, with the Sellers working on his ride, Jim Dean funding his team and him behind the wheel, he is doing things we have not seen in many years. Aside from his track championships and four National championships, just the fact that he won aroudn 20 races in dominating fashion at South Boston and sat on the pole at Martinsville by nearly 2 tenths, is just crazy.

You can never really truly judge something like this about who is better, there are just so many factors that come into play. We finally agreed on one thing, until Barry retires or quits winning, right now he has the edge and then it’s probably going to be all about Philip.

Myrtle Beach Here We Come:
It’s that time once again, the racing season for Late Model Stock Cars officially comes to a close this weekend after the Myrtle Beach 400 race. It’s always a good time, one final race at a super cool race track and a vacation all mixed into one. Let’s just hope this year we can actually RACE other than whatever that was last year.

We all know the track eats tires, there isn’t a track in SC that doesn’t really, but last year the drivers took it to the extreme. You always want to save your stuff until the end, but whatever that was, let’s hope we don’t have it again. As Kyle Grissom said, “Just stupid, everybody just fiddle farting around”………for the first 3/4 of the race the entire field rode at about 45%, most of the time three wide, it looked like a slow motion lap at Talladega. We did shake it up a bit when Garrett Campbell repaid Jason York from a incident earlier in the season at Ace, unfortunately since they were all riding around on top of each other it collected like 17 other cars.

The Beach is a game of chess, I thought Greg Edwards had a great idea last year, everyone else thought he was crazy. He jumped out to nearly a half lap lead in just the first few laps, if I was him and they all wanted to ride like that, I would have lapped the entire field then spun someone out for a caution, then I could of rode while everyone tries to get their lap back. Sure as the world some of you crazy drivers are reading this right now and thinking hard, it was a joke fellas, I don’t need to have a meeting with Lynn Carroll first thing when I get there.

Does it even matter? Can anyone beat Frank Deiny there?

He is the man at the beach and this year again, he is for sure the one to beat going in. I was talking to him on the phone this week and he told me why he was good there, “At all these tracks you turn the corner and mat the gas, there you have to actually think and I’m pretty good at thinking”…… I’m going to start saving these quotes from Frank, some of these in the past are just classic. He has a point, go there and go balls to the wall and you’ll be picking them out of the wall or have the paint sucked off your car as the other drivers fly past with better tires. I have had a few drivers tell me their gameplan, follow Frank, please don’t do this. I can see it now, they throw the green and every car gets behind him, it’ll never work, but im really excited to see how all this plays out.

I’m done ranting for now. Sorry folks, this was about 15 minutes of your life you’ll never get back. See ya at “The Beach”!