CE Falk dominated much of Saturday night’s Hampton Heat 200, leading the race’s first 188 laps, but he would end up coming up short when the checkered flag flew.
With 12 laps to go, Nick Smith managed to get a run on Falk and drag race him for the lead. When the two drivers made contact, it opened the door for Bobby McCarty to slip by and get the win with Brenden Queen in tow.
“We had a really good car,” Falk said after the race. “Philip pushed us pretty hard in the beginning but I felt like I was driving my own race. Those guys were falling back. I thought I made some good adjustments at the break. I think we may have over adjusted a little bit. We just pushed the right front tire off. Pushed it 10 laps too early. I had a great no. 40 car, probably one of the best cars I’ve ever had during the Heat. If we had two tires at halfway, it might have been a little different deal for sure but that was the race and congrats to Bobby. That’s what happens in big-time auto racing.”
Falk flexed his muscle early in the evening, setting the fast lap in qualifying and leading wire-to-wire in the first half of the race. Philip Morris, who was seen as the proverbial favorite to win the race after practice earlier in the day, chased Falk in the first half while the four-time Langley Speedway champion was simply saving his tires for the second half.
“I don’t know if he was backing off of me or what, but I was just running my own race,” Falk remarked. “I was half, quarter throttle going down the backstretch and just trying to take care of it. You know, I thought we were doing a good job. The car was really excellent. It was getting through the corner really really well. Just didn’t have enough at the end.”
The Hampton Heat 200 was the second leg of the Virginia Triple Crown, which will conclude at Martinsville Speedway in two months, however the Heat was the first Triple Crown race Falk has run this season.
And it might be the only Virginia Triple Crown race he runs.
Martinsville Speedway confirmed they would not allow the new Chevrolet “SPEC” motor to compete in the ValleyStar Credit Union on September 23rd, a decision that has upset much of the Langley Speedway contingent, including Falk.
“Well, I don’t have a steel head motor to go run Martinsville so they’re really screwing me there,” Falk explained. “You know, all you can do is what these NASCAR officials tell you on the back of a pickup truck at Martinsville. This is the way they want to do things and now I’m stuck with a motor that’s not good for Martinsville. I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Saturday’s Hampton Heat was the seventh start of the year for Falk. He has one win, four top-five finishes and seven top-10 finishes on the season to date.
