Back-to-Back Top-Five Finishes Lift Jamey Caudill's Season

Late Model Stock Car veteran Jamey Caudill entered the CARS Late Model Stock Tour as a pre-season favorite, but the 45-year-old veteran uncharacteristically struggled in the late stages of the first three races.  In the last two races, Caudill has seemingly put those struggles behind him and has become the contender he was expected to be.

Caudill was the most successful driver in UARA-STARS history winning more races in that series than any other driver despite never winning a series championship.  With the CARS Tour allowing bump stops, like UARA did, many expected Caudill to contend.  Caudill has earned the reputation of being a patient driver who saves his car and tires and emerges as a contender at the end of the race.

It’s that reputation that made his results in the first three races surprising.  Despite qualifying in the top-five in those three races, Caudill faded late, scoring 19^th place finishes at Southern National Motorsports Park and Hickory Motor Speedway as well as a fifth place finish at Orange County Speedway.  In the tour’s second trip to Southern National, Caudill finally turned things around, scoring a fourth place finish and backing that up with a third place finish at Tri-County Motor Speedway on Friday night.

“We had a pretty good car up top,” Caudill said after his third place finish on Friday night, his best finish of the season.  “I was hoping to be able to run the bottom and pass some cars down there at the end of the race but I knew early in the race we didn’t have any drive off on the bottom so we immediately had to go to the top.  We were decent up top.  We were there late, just got tight in the center and we lost our drive off.  We had so much wheel in it in the center.  [RD Smith] passed us with about three to go.”

Caudill’s best finish of the season came with his worst start of the season.  He had qualified in the top-five in every race this season but rain washed qualifying out on Friday afternoon and the field was set by points, forcing Caudill to start in the ninth position.

“I wish we could have held on to second,” Caudill stated.  “We weren’t going to beat [Brayton Haws] but that’s the way it is.  Good, clean racing and, I just got beat at the end.  It was good racing.  I wish we could come out with a win but we’re improving a little bit now.  I think our car’s better.  We’re just going to have to improve on it a little bit each race and see if we can get a win.”

After the Southern National race, Caudill and his team continued working to improve their car.  He says they’re continuing to improve and he hopes to be in victory lane before the end of the 2015 season.

“We’ve worked really hard on this thing,” Caudill explained.  “I think we’ve made some positive changes since we left Southern National.  We’ll see what happens here.  I think we’re going to get a little better each week and maybe we’ll slip up and get us a win before long.”

With Tri-County in the rear view mirror, Caudill is now looking ahead to Motor Mile Speedway, the first date on the CARS Tour schedule outside of North Carolina, on July 11^th.  Like Southern National and Tri-County, Caudill has victories at Motor Mile Speedway and, with his recent turnaround, he should be a contender to win at the 4/10-mile speedplant.