Troy, NC(August 20, 2012) — With two years in between his next to last win and his last, Tommy Lemons, Jr. wasn’t about to let it go that long between his next win and on Saturday night put his Lemons Motorsports team back in victory lane.
Lemons last win came on June 23rd under bizarre circumstances, when after winning the pole for the race, he was forced down pit road before the start due to a throttle linkage issue. From there he started shotgun on the 21-car field and survived a carnage filled race and a side by side battle to the finish with sparks flying.
This time however, the finish was nowhere near to the level of excitement as Lemons’ last win, but the veteran Late Model Stock Car driver had to fend off challengers on a green, white, checkered finish. Lemons, however did have to survive a scare around lap 20 when another competitor’s engine expired in front of the leaders and sent Lemons and the rest of the top five cars sliding through turn one. Lemons somehow kept his car from spinning completely out and somehow kept it off the wall, while the leader wasn’t so fortunate.
Lemons would restart a little deeper in the field than his fourth place running position previous to the incident, but it wouldn’t take him long to regain his positions and put his racer in second giving chase to the leader. Lemons would then battle side by side for the top spot and on lap 69 went to the lead for good enroute to his second win of the season. He would survive a green, white, checkered finish for a caution on lap 148, but no one would challenge him for the win.
“That was crazy,” said Lemons after the race. “I thought we were all wrecked there early in the race when we got into that oil. The cars all just took off and went out of control, I was just holding on and luckily I didn’t get crashed into from behind or hit the wall. From there I knew we had a good car and once we got up there in the lead, we really didn’t have much of a challenge. I thought we might on that last caution, but everything worked out.”
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.
