PINEY FLATS, TN :: Hayden Woods scored his first career Late Model Stock Car victory on Saturday night in a photofinish at Lonesome Pine Raceway in Coeburn, Virginia in one of two twin feature races.  Woods qualified on the pole for both races and went on to win the second race of the evening by a margin of victory of .006.

Woods qualified on the pole for both feature events with 16.65 and 16.52 second laps.  After an invert, he started third in the first race and worked his way up to second where he had a chance to win the race until a tire started going down.  He would finish second in the first race and start fifth in the second race after an invert.  In the second race, he worked his way to the lead and held off a challenge for the photofinish victory.

“It was a race and a half,” said Woods.  “That first race, we would’ve had him but we had a RF go down with three to go so the car started pushing.  We had a really quick car all night.  We got to the second race an kept choosing the outside.  I like the outside there and it was working for us.  On that last restart, we took the outside and outran the leader.  Coming out of turn four, he got in to us and I did everything I could to keep off him and he door checked me.  We stayed neck and neck to the start finish line and I beat him by an inch apparently.  It was a heck of a race.”

The win was Woods’ first career Late Model Stock Car victory.  Woods was relieved when he won the race and now has confidence moving forward.

“It feels great.  It’s like, the whole time agreed, it felt like a ton of bricks been lifted off our shoulders,” explained Woods.  “Now it feels like we can go anywhere and compete.  Something was holding us back and I’m not sure what it was.”

Woods has six top-five finishes and nine top-10 finishes on the 2013 season.  Woods’ next race will be at Lonesome Pine Raceway on Saturday, May 15th.

Woods is sponsored by Roadrunner Markets, Murphy, Stay and Play at Home and Turbo Blue Racing Gasolines. For more information on Woods’ racing career, check out his website at www.HaydenWoodsRacing.com