Troy, NC(June 27, 2012) — Tommy Lemons, Jr. hasn’t had much good fortune over the past three seasons, but on Saturday night his bad luck turned into good and put the veteran Late Model Stock Car driver back in victory lane.
June 13, 2009, the date of Lemons last victory at Motor Mile Speedway. March 20, 2010, the date of Lemons last trip to victory lane at all, coming in the season opening race at South Boston Speedway. Lemons has been searching for the right setup and a little bit of luck to get himself back into victory lane and on June 23, 2012, he found it in the most unlikely of ways.
Lemons recorded his third straight Pole Award(two at Motor Mile and one at South Boston) on Saturday evening in qualifying around the 4/10 mile track. However, as the pace laps rolled off, Lemons car rolled back down pit road. His team had to reattach the throttle as it had fallen off the car after he entered the track, the pit stop, even before the green flag came negated his pole run and forced the veteran to start shotgun on the field.
Lemons would roll off 21st on the field unofficially and had a long ways to go back to the front of the field, where he was supposed to start. With the pit stop, Lemons thought that his chance at victory had slipped away, but on lap two he got his first break. As the leaders raced off of turn four, they got together, causing a huge pile up and collecting nearly half of the field in the incident. For once, Lemons’ bad luck turned good as the young driver avoided the carnage, that started from the position he was supposed to have started in.
“I thought we were done,” said Lemons of coming down pit road before the drop of the green flag. “Then after I saw the wreck in turn four there, I thought maybe we got a lucky break.”
Lemons was right as the crash put him back inside the top ten and after the red flag for the huge incident was lifted, Lemons went back to making his way through the field and soon after a lap 14 accident involving some other top contenders, Lemons was back inside the top five. As the laps clicked off, the veteran made his way up to second behind the guy who has won the last three out of four races and though he was able to get to his bumper he was unable to get around him.
Lemons knew that he had a faster car, but as the laps clicked off, he thought he’d have to settle for second.
“I stalked Lee (Pulliam) there forever it seemed,” continued Lemons. “I was right on him and about to make a move several times, but I never could get along side him. He did everything right and didn’t make a mistake and as the laps were running out I thought he had it won.”
Lemons, whose career has been riddled with bad luck found himself in good fortune once again as the veteran driver saw the caution lights come on and the yellow flag waving. With seven laps to go, Lemons would restart to the outside of the leader on a double-file restart. Lemons wasn’t about to let this opportunity pass him by.
When the green flag waved and got the race back underway, Lemons stayed glued to the outside of the leader and the leader couldn’t shake him. Lemons gave his car all it could stand and as the white flag flew, there were no fans left in the seats, all they could do was stand in awe of one of the best finishes Motor Mile Speedway has ever seen. In the final set of turns Lemons rallied on the outside of the leader and as they banged fenders off the corner, Lemons came out just a fender ahead for the win.
For Lemons it was maybe the biggest win of his career as he had to fight for it harder than he ever had before and had waited so long to taste victory again.
“Wow, that was a finish,” said Lemons. “That was just good hard racing right there, we both drove our butts off. I had got beat like that in a finish here three years ago and I wasn’t trying to lose this one.”
For Lemons it was a huge weight off his shoulders to be back in victory lane.
“The last two seasons have been terrible for us. There’s no way to sugarcoat that, but this season we came out of the box better and we’ve progressively got better all season. I was enjoying winning the poles these last few weeks, but I wanted this win way more.”
Lemons and his team won’t get to rest and enjoy this victory as they’ll be right back on track at Motor Mile Speedway this weekend for twin 100-lap races. He’ll also compete in a handful of races over the next week including a trip to Myrtle Beach Speedway on July 3rd, a trip to Caraway Speedway on July 4th and back to Southern National Motorsports Park on July 7th.
Lemons is supported by Lemons Backhoe, Hedgecock Racing Enterprises, Kowlasky Racing Engines, and Sellers Racing. For more information on Tommy Lemons, Jr. or the Lemons Motorsports team, check out their new website at www.tommylemonsjr.com.
