Analyze This — October 20

Well … lets get to it. I’ve got a lot to say …

GRANDFATHER CLOCK AT CLARENCE’S …
Clarence Pickurel, owner of Clarence’s Steak House in Ridgeway, VA, just down from the Martinsville Speedway has been a part of Late Model Stock Car racing for a long time, but it wasn’t until three weeks ago that the veteran car owner/sponsor picked up his first grandfather clock. It wasn’t that one of Clarence’s cars had never won at Martinsville, but until recently a grandfather clock was only given to Sunday race winners and one of his cars had never won on Sunday and no one had ever carried the popular restaurant to victory lane in a Late Model Stock Car.

On Sunday, October 3rd, none other than Philip Morris carried the familiar orange and white #26 Clarence’s Steak House car to victory lane in the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300. Morris battled with Lee Pulliam early and then Davin Scites and Matt McCall late before establishing himself as the man to beat toward the end of the race. With Morris’ victory there will forever be a grandfather clock chiming in Clarence’s Steak House, which is something Clarence never got from an all-star list of drivers including Johnny Rumley, Jeff Agnew, David Hyder, Peyton Sellers and Stacy Puryear among others.

WHO’S THE MAN??? …
In the world of Late Model Stock Car racing, there are several driver development programs out there, but this season there seems to be two of them standing up and making others take notice. Those two programs are Frank Deiny, Jr’s, FDJ Motorsports and Jamie Yelton’s Fat Head Racing team. Both programs have seen success in the past primarily with the two namesakes driving the cars, but this season with both out of the seat, both programs thrived with very talented drivers behind the wheels of their cars.

Frank Deiny’s, FDJ Motorsports picked up 16 wins between two drivers(Justin Johnson and Wayne Ramsey) and two tracks, including one track championship(Johnson) with a in-house driver. Another aspect of FDJ Motorsports is the drivers and teams not in-house and of those, FDJ picked up another five wins at two different tracks with two different drivers(Brandon Dean and Joey Mahanes) and a track championship(Dean) at Motor Mile Speedway, the most competitive track in all of Late Model Stock Car racing.

Over at Jamie Yelton’s, Fat Head Racing, they had an equally incredible season with their primary driver, Brennan Poole picking up six wins at six different tracks in the ultra-competitive UARA-STARS Series and falling just 28 points short of the series championship. Matt McCall, who joined Fat Head Racing in June picked up two ‘big race’ wins in the Dwight Huffman Memorial 177 at Hickory and the Mid-Atlantic Championship 250 at Caraway. In addition, rookie driver, George Miedecke picked up a win at Tri-County in his first start in an FHR car and then again in his second start at Hickory in the big, Bobby Isaac Memorial race.

With the kind of success these two guys had this season, it’s easy to see why both teams slots for 2010 are filling fast and why any young or older driver might want to be behind the wheel of a FDJ or FHR car. So, the question is “Who’s the Man?” … In the world of Late Model Stock Car driver development, it’s a toss up between Jamie Yelton and Frank Deiny, Jr. right now.

BUMP, SLAM, BANG …
On Saturday, October 16th, Philip Morris dominated the Danville Toyota 300 at South Boston Speedway, only to have Lee Pulliam all over him in the final laps of the race and this led to last lap contact, which left Morris cashing a $10,000 check and Pulliam angered. On the final lap of the race as these two drivers battled for the victory, Morris’ car made contact with Pulliam as the two raced through turn four and heading for the checkered flag. This resulted in Morris picking up the win and Pulliam vowing to slam Morris into the wall head-on …

Much has been made of the final lap “bump” or “slam” or whatever you want to call it as Morris already isn’t one of the fan favorites as he’s easily one of the winningest drivers in Late Model Stock Car racing history. Many people wanted Morris to be stripped of the win, black flagged in some way or the win given to Pulliam, who they think rightly earned the win. Everyone who reads my columns on here should already know that I’m all about a driver doing whatever he has to do to win and if that means you have to move the guy, wreck him or otherwise … then so be it.

Morris did just that … anyone can put a spin on what happened, you can call it dirty, you can call it chicken $&*!, honestly you can call it anything you want, but the bottom line is Philip Morris has the Danville Toyota 300 trophy and he’ll be cashing the check at his bank. I know everyone wants to make this into a big deal and make more out of it than it is, but that’s the bottom line. Does that mean that Pulliam shouldn’t be upset? Absolutely not, Pulliam has a right to be upset, it’s a tough deal to be that close to a win in a big race and lose that way, but this isn’t going to be Pulliam’s last chance at victory in a big race, he’s going to be a “big name” in Late Model Stock Car racing for years to come, even after the career of Philip Morris is gone.

FIRST TO FOUR …
Winning Four Track Championships in the Late Model Stock Car division doesn’t happen very often and in fact at Caraway Speedway it had never happened before. That is until, Travis Swaim won his second championship in a row on the 4/10 mile track this season, becoming the first Late Model Stock Car driver ever to reach that mark. After winning his third championship last season, Swaim was in a three-way tie with the likes of Dennis Setzer and Steve Loftin as the only three-time Late Model Stock Car track champions at Caraway.

Winning the fourth championship was the reason that Swaim returned to Caraway this past season and while he’s not ready to challenge for a fifth in 2010, it’s a mark that will likely stand for a long time at Caraway Speedway as only a few other active drivers have a chance to catch up with him including, Jason York and Randy Benson, who both have two championships.

LIMITED DOMINATION …
Over the last few years, we’ve had a knack for scoping out guys, who will be talented Late Model Stock Car competitors in the coming years. From Matt DiBenedetto to Brennan Poole recently in the UARA and even some guys we’re still keeping an eye from Clint King to his rivals, Ronnie Bassett, Jr. and Dillon Bassett, among others. Over the last few weeks of the 2010 season in the Limited Late Model division at Hickory Motor Speedway, one name kept coming up in conversation … Austin McDaniels.

Austin, in his first year of full-size stock car racing after moving up from Legends cars, jumped into the Limited Late Models at Hickory and while the first half of the season saw him pick up his first win, it wasn’t until the last half of the season that this young driver really turned up the wick. That was never as evident as it was this past weekend, when he wore out the drivers of the SouthEast Limited Late Model Series, which boasts the best Limited Late Model drivers anywhere. He qualified on the pole and refused to let anyone else lead a lap … it was impressive and we might have been witnessing the birth of another star in the making.

I’M OUT …
Alright … I’ve talked(typed) enough and while there’s so many other topics that I could give my opinion on, these are some of the ones fresh on my mind. Hope this was a good read and I’ll try to give you my opinion a whole lot more often, because after all, I like hearing myself talk and even more so, I like knowing you’re reading what I have to say!