Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]
Kingsport, TN(May 31, 2012) — Two weekends ago, one driver thought he was celebrating his fourth victory of the season at Kingsport Speedway, while another and his crew chief had plans to protest him. In the end, the winner was disqualified and the protester inherited the win, but while many thought that, that was the end of the story, it was only the beginning.
The driver who won and was disqualified was Nate Monteith, the driver who protested and inherited the win was Daniel Pope II. These two set off a firestorm with the nights activities and Monteith’s eventual disqualification and RACE22.com had it covered right from the start. We gave you Monteith’s perspective following the disqualication and we brought you Pope’s side through his crew chief, Randy Weaver later in the week.
Monteith claimed that the infraction wasn’t a performance advantage and vowed to win every race the rest of the season. He claimed that he could easily win the rest of the races this season and wasn’t going to help the track put on a “good show” any longer and that he didn’t expect to have the chance to repay Pope by protesting his car, becuase Pope would have to get “lucky enough to finish in front of him”.
Monteith was brash … he didn’t hold anything back and no one who knew him really expected him to. He’s cocky, he’s not very well liked by the fans and embraces that role. Pope on the other hand is from Nashville, TN and the fans don’t really pull for him either, well that is unless he beats Monteith, who they hate. Pope also embraces his role as the quiet, yet agressive young racer, who wants to beat Monteith, just to hear the roar of the crowd.
His crew chief, Randy Weaver isn’t exactly as quiet, though he’s not Monteith brash, he doesn’t mind letting what comes to his mind slip out of his mouth. Weaver didn’t back down from his stance when we interviewed him and even took a few jabs at Monteith by calling the championship battle at Kingsport, the Piston Cup, a reference to Monteith’s Lightning McQueen like paint scheme.
When the teams rolled into Kingsport last Friday evening, a week after the protest and subsequent disqualification, Monteith had playing games on his mind. He first had a nitrous bottle on his rear trunk lid, as a gesture of how bad he’s cheating and later on, his dad, Don Monteith, who sometimes starts and parks a car for points, had $100 bills hanging out of his front shirt pocket. That was symbol to show Pope and Weaver that they too could play the protest game.
While all the games were being played on one end of pit road, about 10 stalls away, it was just business as usual for Pope and his team. No games, no staring over at the 44 car of Monteith, nothing, but being ready to practice, qualify and race. And come qualifying, Monteith’s promises looked to be in doubt as he qualified a dismal sixth place, while Pope put his car fourth and after invert started on the outside pole.
As race time neared, you could feel the intensity rising. You could feel something a little different in the air, for Monteith, this wasn’t just another race, it was time for him to redeem himself from the previous weeks disqualication. Starting sixth didn’t seem to phase the veteran driver either, but you could tell that some of his focus was geared toward catching and passing the 16 car of Pope.
While regional favorite, Lee Pulliam had made the trek a little away from his normal home tracks, the focus really wasn’t on him. People, especially the fans in attendance were glued to Monteith and Pope … it was exactly what track promoter, Robert Pressley could have ever dreamed. The whole controversy stirred the fans and got many of them who weren’t at the track a week earlier, to come to the track to see what ‘might’ happen between the two.
From the drop of the green flag, Pope went to the lead and looked to have one of the strongest cars in the field, but another outsider, who had made the trip to Kingsport, TN was looking to make the most of his nearly three hour trip from Catawba, VA. Mike Looney, a winner already this season at Motor Mile Speedway was pressing on Pope’s back bumper until a slip on a restart, where the veteran missed a shift, put Monteith behind Pope. From there Monteith worked Pope until he got around him and asserted himself in the lead.
Fans were anxious to see if Monteith really could pull away while leading and soon enough, the veteran driver would grab a five to six car length lead and seemingly ride ahead of Pope. That was pretty much how the entire race went and much to the dismay of the crowd, Monteith was back in victory lane. Monteith had made good on his promise and he was happy to show Pope that the advantage they thought he had the week before didn’t mean anything.
As Monteith rode around to celebrate his win, passing Pope, who was parked on the front straightaway awaiting an interview with the track announcer, Monteith shook his fist in celebration while looking right at Pope’s parked car. Then as Monteith exited the car, he barely acknowledge the crowd and looked right in the direction of Pope, who was no more than 12 feet from him on the front straightaway. Monteith appeared to be talking to Pope as he exited the car, though Pope never even acknowledged him.
The show of emotion following the race and the games played during the course of the evening leading up to the race, made the three hour trip for this reporter worth while. And, I’d love to be returning this week to see a continuation of this saga, especially given that there’s twin Late Model races and we all know what crazy stuff can happen in those races.
Hopefully for Pressley, who is getting bang for his buck right now, the controversy will continue on and maybe just maybe Pope will out run Monteith and the officials will get to spend a little extra time going over his car with a fine tooth comb. We’ll have to wait and see, but two things are certain in this deal, one Monteith wasn’t slowed by the disqualification and two …. we haven’t heard the last of this episode.
