Compiled by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]

Copper Hill, VA(August 16, 2012) — Temperatures outside are starting to cool here in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, but it seems as it does every year the racing just keeps getting hotter and hotter.

The last two weekends of racing are enough to have everyone in the Late Model Stock Car racing world buzzing and while some keep winning and winning others find themselves on the verge or breaking through while some find that there season is done sooner than anticipated.  So with the racing over the last two weeks in the forefront of our minds and the rest of the season behind us, lets take a look at another two-week edition of the FDJ Motorsports Power Rankings.

Honorable Mentions ….

Toby Porter
It’s hard to imagine that a guy who has won 11 races this season is only an honorable mention, but I guess we have to be honest and admit that winning at Greenville Pickens Speedway isn’t what it used to be. Toby Porter has won 11 races so far this season, but against fields sometimes as small as four and five, we’ve been unable to acknowledge his wins like we would if he raced against field of 15 and 20 cars. However, 11 wins in any season at any track against anybody in a Late Model Stock Car is a huge accomplishment.

Barry Beggarly
Another thing that’s hard to imagine is Barry Beggarly as an honorable mention, but for some reason no one at Ace Speedway has been able to get it together enough to just grab hold and dominate the season. Beggarly added his third win of the season last Friday night and now is tied with Dustin Rumley for the most wins there this season. Hopefully this is the start of an end of season roll for last years ASA National Champion.

10 – Austin McDaniel
Over the last two weeks Austin McDaniel added his fifth and sixth wins of the season to his total at Hickory Motor Speedway. He’s been really good all season, but along with Jesse LeFevers and Keith Bumgarner they’ve divided the wins this season making no one a true dominator. McDaniel seems to get hotter as the temps cool, so his time to shine might be coming right up.

9 – Matt Bowling
I’ll admit it … I’ve never really been all that impressed with Matt Bowling at South Boston Speedway, I’ve always felt like he was good, but never as good as he could be. Then three weeks ago he wins the Hampton Heat at Langley Speedway, almost by default after CE Falk and Greg Edwards eliminated each other from the top two spots. A win is a win is a win and yeah you have to be in contention, which proves how good Bowling really is. Last week he travels to Kingsport Speedway for the first time, finishes third twice on a track that has proven to gobble up even the best drivers(Lee Pulliam) and at Caraway on Sunday he finished third in the final twin. He’s definitely starting to show up as one of the favorites anywhere he travels.

8 – Lance Gatlin
Certainly the fact that Nate Monteith burst into Lonesome Pine Raceway and thumped Lance Gatlin and everyone else this past weekend took Gatlin’s stock down. But, lets be honest, there were certainly other factors that played into the race playing out the way it did including a rules change that gave Chevrolet built engines(which Monteith had) 40 more horsepower than the Ford crate that Gatlin was running. Gatlin still out gunned all the Lonesome Pine regulars despite a rule change intended to level out the playing field.

7 – Ryan Wilson
I know all of you were expecting Ryan Wilson to be the number one driver on this list this week and yeah, I thought about it … I really did. I know that a lot of mostly unintelligent people think that he has super powers for taking out(and down) Late Model Stock Car racing’s “Prince”, Lee Pulliam at Caraway Speedway on Sunday night. I know we all get caught up in the moment thinking that there’s no way that Pulliam could have been at fault for the crash and I don’t know who was at fault, maybe it was just a racing deal.  Anyways … Wilson certainly for his performance deserves recognition, I mean he won a 80-lap, 50-lapper, that’s gotta be something no ones ever done before.

6 – CE Falk III
A lack of Late Model Stock Car races recently has taken CE Falk out of the top couple of spots, not just here in the FDJ Motorsports Power Rankings, but also in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National points standings. Falk, though he hasn’t raced in the last two weeks stands on his accomplishments of the season so far and don’t expect him to stay out of victory lane very long.

5 – Deac McCaskill
He too hasn’t competed in the last two weeks, but we would be missing something if we didn’t put Deac McCaskill in the FDJ Motorsports Power Rankings, just based on the season he’s had so far. With 13 wins on the season, it’s safe to say that Deac McCaskill is one of the top ten drivers this season in Late Model Stock Car racing.

4 – Josh Berry
Something has got to give for Josh Berry. He’s been the only contender week in and week out with Lee Pulliam for wins at Motor Mile Speedway, but somehow some way, he keeps racking up second and third place finishes. Berry also is the top contender for the Motor Mile Speedway points championship holding a 44 point lead over Frank Deiny, Jr.

3 – Garrett Campbell
With two wins in a row in UARA-STARS Series competition, Garrett Campbell seems to be back. Yeah, I know he was disqualified from the first of those two wins at Concord Speedway, but lets be honest being disqualified from a UARA race only means that A. you either have won too much or B. the guy behind you has more money or a bigger name or C. something in his car didn’t feel right. You can figure out which one of those choices is the correct one, but Campbell didn’t shy away from UARA, in fact he came right back six days later and won again, this time at Tri-County Motor Speedway.

2 – Nate Monteith
I find it kind of ironic that all season(pretty much) that the FDJ Motorsports Power Rankings has had Lee Pulliam and Nate Monteith one and two in the standings one way or another and yet we’ve got criticized for Monteith’s ranking and low and behold as the season comes to a close, these two are one and two in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Points Standings now as well. Call it intuition or just call yourself stupid for questioning it, but either way it’s easy to see why both drivers are here at the top of the FDJ Motorsports Power Rankings. Monteith’s bounty win at Lonesome Pine only adds to the reasons behind the rankings.

1 – Lee Pulliam
Lee Pulliam is unquestionably the number one driver in Late Model Stock Car racing right now … I mean, who would be fool enough to question that? In just the last two weekends he’s secured three more victories bringing his season total to 18 wins and he shows no signs of slowing down. He’s also holding on to the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Points lead and without a big swing by another competitor he will likely win the NWAAS National Title despite missing the first two months of competition due to a suspension stemming from an altercation late last season. That’s getting it done …