During an intense night of racing at Motor Mile Speedway, the two veterans who picked up wins on night one back in April solidified themselves as the drivers to beat in race two splitting wins once again. Philip Morris and Mike Looney each picked up their second win of the season but took entirely different paths to victory in twin 50-lap races.
During the first race of the evening, Philip Morris led the race basically from flag to flag but not without a couple of tough challenges from Ryan Wilson and Kres VanDyke. With the field battling hard behind him Morris pulled away a little at the end with Wilson getting turned off turn four while running second by Looney. Looney would finish second but was later penalized for the contact with Wilson and Kres VanDyke would inherit the second position and it moved CE Falk, who had an incredibly intense battle with Kyle Dudley for position through the final laps, to third.
Following the first race is where the story of the second race for Looney began as officials would review the contact from the final lap incident and would strip Looney of his second place finish and put him at the back of the pack for the start of the second race of the night. After the penalty, Looney shrugged it off and joked how Dale Earnhardt might have faired if he was racing at Motor Mile.
Looney started shotgun on the field and in the most interesting twist of fate, the penalty for Looney put Wilson on the pole for the second race of the night. Wilson with a fast car and hungry for a win was hoping the second race would have fewer cautions and would enable him to drive away. That didn’t happen.
Wilson would get a good jump on the start but the caution would wave soon after lap one was completed as second place starter for this race, Brian Sutphin would get turned around in front of the field. The spin nearly gathered up Morris in it as he slammed on the brakes and made a hard left to avoid Sutphin’s car.
On the restart, Wilson would get a big challenge from Falk, who made the most of riding on the high groove. After a few laps, Wilson reasserted himself as the leader but another caution was right around the corner. Dudley would spin to bring out this caution. This time Falk would get a better restart and would take the lead nosing ahead of Wilson just before the caution waved for the spinning car of James Sweeney.
Falk would lead for a short stint after this restart but Wilson wasn’t going away and by lap 19 he was back in the lead but he had brought first race winner Morris along with him. Behind the two leaders Falk, VanDyke, and Looney, who had already rallied from the rear of the field battled for third. By lap 24 Looney was in third and the battle up front was about to get tighter.
As the laps wound down Morris would mount several challenges to Wilson but was never able to get a run on him. Meanwhile, Looney was rolling and with ten to go Looney took second from Morris. As Morris and Looney battled Wilson pulled away just a little bit but Looney cleared Morris and set his sights on Wilson. After stalking him for a couple of laps Looney makes his move on Wilson and takes the top spot away en route to victory. Wilson would settle for second, Morris third, VanDyke fourth and Dudley rounded out the top five.
Looney in victory lane knew the magnitude of what his Billy Martin Racing team had accomplished not only driving from the back of the pack to win but passing Philip Morris along the way to do so.
“Checkered flag cures a lot of pain,” Looney told RACE22.com. “Everything turns out, we’re here to race. Wow, what’s it like to pass Philip Morris for a win up here any time. He’s stout and I’m kinda beside myself. Really didn’t think I had the car to do it or the ability to do it.”
Looney also knew that when he got to Wilson that he had to race him differently because of the contact from the first race.
“I got to Ryan and I’m like I can’t touch this guy again, I cannot breathe on Ryan. He was a big man, I really appreciate him running me clean, he could have easily been more upset and put up a little better defense. He raced fair and square and I appreciate that.”
For Wilson, it was bittersweet to finish second after leading the most laps and having a good finish taken from him in the first race.
“That’s what we’ve always done when we have a fast race car, we dominate and finish second,” Wilson told RACE22.com. “I just gotta thank everybody for the great car. By far the best car I’ve ever had here, the radios quit during the pace laps so I had no spotter or anything.”
“This rearview mirror is not even adjusted for me so I didn’t know what was going on around me. Got this little side view mirror here and that’s all I knew. I saw when I got a white nose under me, I’m like damn it, man. Sucks finishing second after leading that many laps.”
For more info on both Late Model Stock Car races and the other support division races, you can look back through the RACEDAY LIVE updates from this event here.
Unofficial Results
Late Model Race #1:
1 – Philip Morris #01
2 – Kres VanDyke #15
3 – CE Falk #02
4 – Kyle Dudley #4
5 – Matt Elledge #9
6 – Wayne Hale #19
7 – Brian Sutphin #11
8 – Ryan Wilson #12
9 – Mike Looney #87
10 – Ricky Gillespie #18
11 – Derrick Lancaster #25
12 – James Sweeney #1
13 – Bryan Reedy #17
14 – Joey Phillips #72
Late Model Race #2:
1 – Mike Looney #87
2 – Ryan Wilson #12
3 – Philip Morris #01
4 – Kres VanDyke #15
5 – Kyle Dudley #4
6 – CE Falk #02
7 – Ricky Gillespie #18
8 – Wayne Hale #19
9 – Matt Elledge #9
10 – James Sweeney #1
11 – Brian Sutphin #11
12 – Joey Phillips #72
