CALLAWAY, VA :: Kyle Dudley scored the victory in Saturday night’s All Star Throwdown at Franklin County Speedway. Dudley held off a charge from Steve Dalton, who won the season opener on Memorial Day, and Wesley Thomason in the final 10 lap segment of the 75 lap Late Model Stock Car feature to win the race.
“Steve was real good on the short runs and I thought it might hurt us with these segments we ran,” Dudley stated. “It worked out. He won the first two segments. That first one, I could run him down but I wasn’t going to force the issue first segment. On the second segment, he got a good jump and we got held up behind some slower cars. We got it worked out; we just didn’t have time to run him down. Then the third segment, they put us on the outside pole. Me and Bobby Gillespie raced well together and he raced me clean. We won that one.”
Dalton won the first two segments of the race, which count for points in the championship standings. He started on the pole in the first segment and won that segment. He was inverted to fifth for the second segment and worked his way to the lead to win that segment. After the second segment, he was inverted to third. He couldn’t make a pass on Dudley.
Dalton tried to pass Dudley on the outside on the start of the fourth segment but couldn’t get around Dudley. Dudley went on to win the race while Dalton faded to third. Wesley Thomason ended up finishing second.
“I knew Steve was going to be tough on that short segment,” Dudley explained. “We came down in to turn one on the start of the last segment and he turned real early. I ran my regular line. He’s mad at me but it’s racing. I don’t know what the difference is between this and the last time we were up here. I raced him clean. I could’ve wrecked him numerous times and I didn’t. I’m not worried about it. I won’t throw too big a fit about it and if they do, they do. Nothing I can do about it. I just come here to race and race to win.”
Chad Burnopp and Chris Amos staged a classic duel in the TunerZ division. Amos dominated much of the 25 lap race but had to survive a challenge from Burnopp in the closing laps. Burnopp and Amos raced side-by-side for several laps. The race was decided on the final lap when Burnopp was able to pass Amos and clear him entering turn one.
“I’d like to thank Chris for running me clean,” Burnopp said. A little side-by-side racing. He made me work for it but that’s what you’re supposed to do.”
Burnopp took over the points lead by virtue of his win.
“Me and Chad can put on some good racing,” Amos remarked about his second place finish. I tried to hold him off the last five laps. Last time we were here, I wrecked the car up pretty bad so we don’t have it exactly right but we gave him a run for his money.”
The Street Stock feature was another thrilling race that went down to the wire. Danny Bush and Chad Conner raced side-by-side for much of the race before Conner blew by to take the lead on lap 20. He would lead the remaining five laps en route to his first win of the season.
“This feels awesome,” Conner said. “For the trouble we’ve had today, this helps. The truck I pull my trailer with broke down on the way here so we didn’t make it here until 6pm. This makes it better. I’d like to thank Langley for the show we put on and Danny for racing me clean.”
“It was a good run,” Bush commented. “I like to see all these cars from other tracks come down. We need a few more. I’d like to thank my dad and my fiance. We’ll be back here on the Fourth of July, hopefully we’ll be a little bit faster. “
Tony Housman won the first of two U-CAR races on the evening. In the first race, Housman was engaged in a fierce battle for the win with Josh Reeves but Reeves wrecked when the two drivers encountered the lapped car of Katie Wiggington. Reeves tried to split Wiggington and Housman but ended up wrecking off Housman’s front bumper when he drove up the track trying to clear Housman.
“I hate that it happened,” Housman stated. “I like racing Josh Reeves. I don’t know what he was thinking. It looked like he just came up. I’m not lifting on the last lap, I don’t care if he’s coming up the track or not. I let it all hang out in this race, I don’t care.”
Reeves was unable to race in the second U-CAR feature. Housman was stripped of his win in the second U-CAR feature after failing post-race technical inspection which resulted in Joey Phillips being declared the race winner.
Steve Teter dominated the Mini-Cup feature after starting in sixth. Teter had to start sixth because he was the most recent winner. However, it only took him two laps to get to the lead. Once he got the lead, he never looked back and went on to win for the second consecutive race.
“Another lap and the right rear tire would’ve disintegrated,” Teter said. “It wasn’t going to stay on there much longer. I said, before we got the checkered flag that I hope this thing stayed on there.”
Steve Huton crossed the finish line first in the Mod-4 race but was stripped of the win when his car failed post-race technical inspection. As a result of the disqualification, Kevin Sorber inherited the victory.
Classic racing action returns to Franklin County Speedway on the Fourth of July (Thursday, July 4th) when the Ace Speedway Modifieds join the regular Franklin County Speedway ranks for the Independence Day Spectacular. That is part of a two day weekend of racing at Franklin County Speedway which also includes the Firecracker Clash on Saturday, July 6th which also features every Franklin County Speedway division.
