LUCAMA, NC :: Haley Moody shined at Southern National Motorsports Park on Saturday night.  Moody rocketed to the lead from the fifth position in the early laps of the second Limited Late Model race and never looked back on her second win of the 2014 season.

The victory was a big one for Moody, momentum-wise.  The 19-year-old from Kinston, North Carolina had been in a bit of a slump since her first win back in May.  Entering Saturday night’s race, she was clinging to a narrow points advantage and had been struggling to compete for wins.  In the first race, it appeared her slump might continue as she raced her way to a fourth place finish – behind Rusty Daniels, Boo Boo Dalton and Andrew Grady.

“The car was loose at the beginning coming off the corner then it was better on the long run,” Moody said.  “I was catching Andrew [Grady] but I was trying to save my tires for the second race and I knew we’d be better so I settled for fourth.  Good points night.”

Her tire strategy would prove to pay off in the second race.  The entire field was inverted, dropping Moody to the fifth position.  She worked her way up inside the top-three in the early laps and set her sights on the top two.  After making quick work of getting around Dillon Spain to take the second position around the 10th lap of the race, she began reeling in Tyler Matthews.  Moody caught Matthews and executed a bump-and-run to take the lead.

Behind her, Dalton and Daniels, who followed Moody around Matthews, appeared to be closing in on her.  But, it only appeared that way.  Dalton had his hands full with Daniels who was arguably the fastest car on the track while Moody was cruising around the track on her way to her second win of the season.

“My spotter [Paul Griffin] was telling me that Boo Boo was catching me and I could just pull away from him because my car was that good,” Moody explained.  “We were trying to ride because it was still loose.  We were trying to keep the distance from him and Rusty and I knew Rusty had a good car.  We had a really good car that last race.”

Moody also said Saturday’s race was good experience for her in terms of racing through the field.

“It’s good experience passing cars, setting them up to pass them.  I mean, most of the time, I’m not back there and in that position.  It’s good experience in the long run to get more experience racing wise.”

The win was a big one for Moody.  With the victory, she nearly doubled her points lead in the division standings.  Her victory mathematically eliminated Travis Greene, Rusty Daniels and Andrew Grady from championship contention – assuming Moody runs the remaining races and isn’t disqualified.  The points margin she opened up on Spain with her victory is almost insurmountable with only a handful of races remaining.  Moody knows how big the win was and that she now controls her own destiny but that she can also take chances and go for wins as well.

“It’s really big because we were really stressing about wrecking and points racing.  We’re trying to win this championship.  It would be big for this team.  Now that we have a lead, we can kind of relax but keep racing hard… I think we could race harder, like my spotter was saying last night when we started the race. Maybe we’ll be able to get up there and race a little harder and get some more wins.”

The chances of Moody scoring the title are pretty good.  Her only mathematical competition is Dillon Spain who now sits 36 points behind her and has only scored two podium finishes on the season.  If Spain is going to overtake Moody, he’ll need to have podium finishes the rest of the season and need Moody to run in to some bad luck.

Moody now looks ahead to twin Limited Late Model features on Saturday night, August 30th as she hopes to continue adding to her points advantage and secure her first career championship.   After the regular season ends, Moody will look ahead to the Mischa Sell Memorial at Ace Speedway, a race she finished in 11th at last season, as well as the Southeast Limited Late Model Series race at Myrtle Beach Speedway in November.  Moody also hopes to compete in the Thanksgiving All-Star Classic in late November at Southern National.

While it has been a difficult year for Moody at times, on and off the track, the stars appear to be aligned and she appears destined to win her first championship of any kind in her rookie season in the Limited Late Model ranks.  Somewhere, her father, Jerry Moody, is looking down and smiling.

Race Results

Limited Late Models – 35 laps (Race 1)
1. 16 – Rusty Daniels
2. 50d- Ross Dalton
3. 1 – Andrew Grady
4. 50 – Haley Moody
5. 07 – Ronald Renfrow
6. 7 – Dillon Spain
7. 42 – Travis Greene
8. 63 – Tyler Mathews

Limited Late Models – 35 laps (Race 2)
1. 50 – Haley Moody
2. 50b- Ross Dalton
3. 16 – Rusty Daniels
4. 1 – Andrew Grady
5. 07 – Ronald Renfrow
6. 63 – Tyler Mathews
7. 7 – Dillon Spain
8. 52 – Travis Greene