TROY, NC :: Tommy Lemons, Jr. scored the biggest win of his racing career and the biggest win of the Late Model Stock Car racing season in Sunday’s Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300. Lemons led laps early and then rebounded from a cut tire, leading the final two laps en route to victory.
“Nothing tops winning this race,” said Lemons. “There’s nothing that could express how important this win is. I’ve been coming here since 2003. Last year was the first time since 2006 that we didn’t make the race. We had bad luck. We had a good car last week, didn’t change anything, came back and it was still fast. We left something off the table for qualifying and still ended up sixth. I just felt really good about today. We were fast in the first half, had some bad luck, battled back and we’re the winners.”
Lemons started the day off with a victory in the second heat race after starting second in the heat. That victory propelled him to a second place starting position for the 200-lap feature event. Lemons paced himself in the second position in the first half of the race, saving tires and saving his car for a late race dash to the checkered flag. Lemons restarted the race in seventh after the top eight cars were inverted. Shortly after the race resumed, Lemons ran over some debris cutting down a tire. A caution came out which allowed Lemons to stay on the lead lap. Lemons rebounded from the incident, working his way up inside the top-10 when a competition caution came out with 10 laps to go.
“Right after the halfway break, I guess I ran over some debris and cut a tire and smacked the wall off turn two,” Lemons stated. “Luckily, a caution came out and saved my butt. We didn’t lose any laps fixing the flat tire. It was an awesome race today… I was running 10th when the competition caution came out with 10 to go (in the race), not to mention when our tire went down. I don’t know how far we fell back there. It’s unbelievable I’m standing here as the winner. I felt good all weekend. I felt like we had a really strong car. We won a heat race there and had a pretty good car. We didn’t make any adjustments, sat there and rode the first half and made sure I stayed clean. We had a really good car on the long runs.”
Lemons continued to work his way up through the field during a spree of cautions inside 10 laps to go. When the leaders wrecked during the first attempt at a Green-White-Checkered finish, Lemons inherited the second position. Lemons rocketed up the outside to the lead on the restart during the second Green-White-Checkered finish and went on to score the victory.
“The leader started, checked up on the restart and I don’t know if he spun his tires or missed a shift but something happened,” Lemons explained. “At that point, you’ve got to go. I got a shot from the car behind me on the restart. Coming off turn two, I had about six car-lengths on the field and I knew that, if I didn’t screw up or a caution didn’t come out, I had a pretty good chance of winning it.”
Lemons’ victory in the Virginia is for Racing Lovers 300 was his sixth victory of the 2013 racing season. Along with a $25,000 check, Lemons also had to honor of taking a Ridgeway Grandfather Clock back to his home in Troy, North Carolina. Lemons kissed the clock after kissing his wife during victory lane celebrations.
