Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]

Coeburn, VA(August 15, 2012) — Lance Gatlin had been the only driver to grace victory lane to date this season at Lonesome Pine Raceway, but with a $450 bounty in place a former champion emerged with the win in his only start this season.

Nate Monteith is best known as the dominator of nearby Kingsport Speedway, but when Kingsport was shut down over the course of nine years from 2002 to 2011, the Blountville, TN native, made his way to many other race tracks including a stint at Lonesome Pine Raceway. His time on the 3/8 mile track hidden in the coal region of Virginia, the veteran driver was dominant, but since Kingsport reopened, he had not returned to his former home track.

However, a $450 bounty on Gatlin, who had won all nine of the races to date in the season was enough motivation for Monteith to return to his old stomping grounds for a battle of the regions top drivers. Dubbed the “Battle at the Pine”, Monteith, who is the top NASCAR Whelen All-American Series racer in the region would go head to head with Gatlin, who was the top ASA Member Track Series driver in the region. Fans would flock to the track in hopes of seeing one of the biggest showdowns in the tracks history.

The showdown however was easily derailed when Monteith won the pole by two tenths of a second for the second week in a row after being rained out the previous weekend. Then with a roll of the dice to set the invert for the nights 60-lap Late Model show, he rolled a two, putting him on the outside pole and Gatlin to the pole position. From the drop of the green flag, this showdown was over.

Monteith dominated, leading every lap en route to his first win on the track since 2010. It was the return that Monteith and his supporters had anticipated, but meanwhile a recent rule change left second place finisher, Gatlin thinking that he had been cheated out of a win.

Gatlin, who had been dominating all season long with his nine wins, shutting the field out of victory lane recently had to deal with the track making a rules change in the interest of competition. The rule change simply hurt one driver … Gatlin. The rules at the beginning of the season were for every built engine no matter Ford, Chevrolet or Dodge to run a 350 carburetor with the Ford Crate engine running a 500 carburetor. In between his ninth win and Saturday nights thumping by Monteith, the track gave Chevrolet built engines a 500 carburetor and made no changes to the Ford.

Gatlin was of course one of the only competitors with a Ford engine as he has run both to victories this season with four wins on his Ford crate engine and the last five on his Ford built engine. The rule change was an obvious attempt to slow Gatlin’s roll, but did it work? Certainly as far as winning the race goes, it worked, but not one single regular at the track seemed to be in the same ball park with Gatlin in this race either. However, Gatlin feels certain that the rule change is what allowed Monteith to not only beat him, but drive away.

“Pretty much the rule change got us tonight,” said Gatlin following the race. “We won nine races in a row and couldn’t ask for much better of a season and I know all streaks come to an end, but I hate that it went this way. The track made a rule change that made the Chevrolet able to run a 500 carburetor, which gives them another 40 horsepower.”

“I think that all they wanted was a rule change so that I could get beat and obviously that happened tonight. But, we’re big picture racing, we’re trying to get the ASA National points and also win the track points. Good night for points, just hate we got beat over unfair circumstances. I don’t want to take anything away from Nate (Monteith), he’s a good driver and had a fast car, but I hate it had to go that way.”

Monteith for his part feels like even without the rule change that his car was superior to Gatlin’s and would have looked much the same at the end of the night.

“None of the other local cars beat him with it either,” said Monteith. “It gives him an excuse, to have something to say for not beating us straight up, but I think he saw how dominant of a car we had. I don’t think a 350 carburetor or a 500 or anything would have made a difference. If that’s what he wants to think, giving him some excuse that’s fine, but we could have done it with any carburetor.”

“We wanted to come over and give Lance (Gatlin) a battle and collect us a little bounty money for that too. It proves too that we can spread a little bit out of Kingsport and win races, we’re not just a one track hero like some like to think.”

The race for first or second might not have been much to watch from the stands, but behind the two regional top drivers, there was a fierce battle for the top ten positions among the 17-car field. After starting third, Ronnie McCarty seemed to fade early on to as far back as sixth position, but mounted a charge late in the race to finish third after working to get by rival, Ryan Stiltner. Stiltner, who missed it in qualifying and had to start 7th, worked his way to third, before eventually falling to fifth as Brandon Rogers got by him in the closing laps for fourth. Kevin Wolfe, Josh Hale, Brian Blevins, Jeff Woodward and Jody Bostic completed the top ten finishers.

Either way whether it was the rule change or not, the end result was that Gatlin’s nine race streak is over and this weekend he’ll look to start another one and Monteith won’t likely be in his way this season again.

Results:
1. Nate Monteith #41
2. Lance Gatlin #97
3. Ronnie McCarty #5
4.Brandon Rogers #71
5. Ryan Stiltner #22
6. Kevin Wolfe #17
7. Josh Hale #29
8. Brian Blevins #40
9. Jeff Woodward #94
10. Jody Bostic #44
11. Everette McMahan #3
12. Willie Gibson #51
13. Joe White #0
14. Jamie Harrison #76
15. Elby Harrison #7
16. Derek Woodward #18
17. Wiliam Ward #11