LUCAMA, NC :: Brayton Haws made sure the Late Model Stock Car racing world took notice to his presence by scoring the victory in Sunday’s $10,000-to-win Autumn Classic at Southern National Motorsports Park.

Nick Smith started on the pole but Lee Pulliam took the lead from Smith early and dominated the first half of the ace but was forced to drop out of the event with transmission problems during the scheduled intermission at halftime.  That put Matt Bowling in the lead to start the second half.  Haws made his move for second on lap 156 and then ran down Bowling to take the lead on lap 161.  Haws never looked back, pulling away from Todd Gilliland and Jamey Caudill to score the victory, the second of his short career.

“Lee McCall, my spotter, just kept telling me to save and save and save,” Haws said in victory lane.  “I ended up saving until 15 to go.  I couldn’t do it without him and everyone else.  I’m just speechless.  This is definitely the biggest check I’ve been presented yet.  I couldn’t do it without my sponsors, Rheem and Mechnical HVAC Services, my mom and dad, everyone who came out and definitely the team, Hawk-McCall Motorsports.  Day in and day out, they work on the car as hard as they can to get me out here so I can do what I did today and come to the winner’s circle.”

Gilliland looked like he’d have the car that could win the race but lapped traffic late in the race proved to be his undoing when the entire second half of the race ran caution free.

“I think, if we had an open track, we could’ve caught him but the lapped cars were kind of hard to pass,” Gilliland explained.  “It’s part of it and to finish second is pretty good.  I thought I did pretty good with tire management but I wish I had a little more at the end there.”

Third place finisher Jamey Caudill, driving a car prepared by Charlie Long, said the second half of the race running caution free also put a wrinkle in his plans.

“We saved a lot today, had a really good racecar, we were just counting on a caution,” Caudill remarked.  “If you get out ther and go, those guys were on the right plan.  If we would’ve got a caution with 10 to go, it was goingto be a race.  They had used their stuff more than we did to get out there that far.  It was a good run for us.  We had a car to get up there with them to race; we were just on the wrong plan.  I just appreciate Robert, Charlie and all the guys working on the car to get it together so we can run out here.”

Kaz Grala had a strong car for much of the race and was in the mix for the lead in the later stages of the race but wound up being relegated to a fourth place finish.  David Garbo, Jr. raced his way up to fifth.  Matt Bowling faded to a sixth place finish while Tyler Ankrum, Tommy Lemons, Jr., Ricky Jones, III and Myatt Snider rounded out the top-10.

Snider had been running in second at one point in the race but was relegated outside the top-five after a punt from Tommy Lemons, Jr. on the race’s final restart.  Snider also had an on-track altercation with eventual 11th place finisher Mike Darne when the two traded paint and exchanged bumpers.

Langley Speedway regulars Matt Waltz and Greg Edwards ended up having problems during the duration of the race.  Waltz’s car fell off the pace in the closing laps of the first half of the race and he ended up getting drilled by Edwards, causing significant damage to the Greg Edwards machine that was prepared by JT Jackson.

The race was slowed down only by a handful of cautions – two of those being for on-track wrecks – all coming in the race’s first half.

Unoffcial Results

1. #41 Brayton Haws
2. #98 Todd Gilliland
3. #1 Jamey Caudill
4. #31 Kaz Grala
5. #8b David Garbo
6. #83 Matt Bowling
7. #58 Tyler Ankrum
8. #27 Tommy Lemons Jr
9. #38 Ricky Jones III
10. #2 Myatt Snider
11. #14D Mike Darne
12. #28 Jonathan Findley
13. #46 Brandon Godovic
14. #7W Michael Hardin
15. #10 Nick Smith
16. #64 Rick Godovic
17. #90 Terry Carroll
18. #91 Justin Carroll
19. #2 Austin Thaxton
20. #68 Brandon Brown
21. #18 Quinn Houff
22. #19 William Byron
23. #23B Payton Ryan
24. #5 Lee Pulliam
25. #34 Matt Waltz
26. #67 Greg Edwards
27. #9 Thomas Burbage
28. #54 Michael Fose
29. #77 Alex Yontz
30. #4 Nick Leitz