A breakout season for Ronnie McCarty at Kingsport Speedway continues to get even better, as he sweeps both NASCAR Whelen All-American Series “First Kingsport Credit Union” Late Model Stock Car victories Friday night in the Model City.
The 28-year-old McCarty, from Kingsport, earned the pole award with a fast-time of 15.120 seconds in qualifying. With an invert of two, he started the first twin 35-lap event from outside of row one beside Wayne Hale.
McCarty and Hale battled over the opening circuits, with McCarty finally moving ahead racing off the fourth turn on lap 4. Caution waved the next lap when Bruce Blessing spun between turns one and two.
Off the double-file restart, McCarty jumped back out to the lead over Hale and Kres VanDyke. Lee Tissot moved past Kyle Barnes on lap 6 racing off the second corner to take over fourth in the running order.
With McCarty in command out front, behind him Hale was feeling pressure from VanDyke for the second spot. VanDyke pulled the trigger and shot past Hale for the position on lap 9 racing off the fourth turn, while also opening the door for Tissot to get by Hale for third place.
Scheduled to start from the fifth spot, under parade laps the right-front shock on Zeke Shell’s car came loose forcing him to drop onto pit road for attention from his crew. Getting him back out onto the track before start of the feature, being he had come into the pits Shell was forced to begin the race from rear of the field. But the hard-charger was smashing the loud pedal working his way forward, and on lap 14 he passed Justin Fontaine for sixth.
With the race running clean-and-green since the lap 5 caution period, McCarty was setting a blistering pace around “The Concrete Jungle” in pulling out to a half-straightaway advantage over those giving chase. Driving the Luv Homes of Kingsport/Ron’s Mobile Home Parts & Service of Kingsport/Corner’s Nest Antique Mall in Elizabethton/Bill Parsons Insurance Agency in Bristol, Va./A-Hood Bail Bonds/Charlie Long Race Engines/Marlowe Race Cars/Performancenter Racing Warehouse/No. 5 Ford Fusion, McCarty rolled to an impressive victory over VanDyke, Tissot, Hale and Shell.
Completing the top 10 finishers were Fontaine, Barnes, Joey Trent, Derek Lane and Allen Hawkins.
The top four finishers from the first race were inverted for the second twin 35-lap Late Model Stock Car feature, putting Hale and Tissot on the front row, with VanDyke and McCarty in the second row.
With Tissot and Hale battling for the lead at the start, caution waved quickly when Rick Pannell and Bruce Blessing tangled in the fourth turn on the third lap. Off the double-file restart, Tissot jumped out into the lead over Hale, McCarty, VanDyke and Barnes.
Barnes got around VanDyke for fourth on lap 8 racing off the second corner. While VanDyke, Shell and Fontaine were engaged in a fight for real estate, the teenager Fontaine spun in the first turn on lap 13 to bring the caution out.
Back under green Tissot was showing the way out front over Hale and McCarty. Shell got around Barnes to take over fourth in the running order on lap16 racing off turn two. With McCarty and Hale mixing it up racing down the front straightaway into the first turn on lap 18, they swapped a little paint and slid up the banking between turns one and two. That allowed a close-following Shell to drop to the inside of the pair and briefly make it three-wide racing off the second corner down the backstretch.
Shell got past both McCarty and Hale and moved into third place. But McCarty wasn’t going down without putting up a fight, and he began working on Shell trying to get back around into second place. Racing off the fourth turn on lap 22, McCarty moved past Shell and set his sights ahead on leader Tissot, who held a 10 car-length advantage.
Though McCarty managed to chop into Tissot’s lead, he could never close the full distance get to his rear bumper. Tissot took the checkered flag for his apparent first victory of the season, driving a borrowed car, after badly wrecking his ride during open practice on Thursday at the track. But following post-race technical inspection, Tissot had his win disallowed due to a carburetor infraction.
With Tissot’s disqualification, McCarty inherited the win for his second victory of the night, and wins number three and four on the season. Finishing behind McCarty were Shell, Barnes, Hale and VanDyke.
Completing the top 10 finishers were Fontaine, Trent, Lane, Hawkins and Pannell.
Entering the night of racing, McCarty held a slim three-point advantage over Tissot in the Late Model Stock Car standings. But with Tissot being disqualified in both races and receiving no points, he is now basically out of contention for winning the divisional championship.
“Wow, this is awesome to get two wins on the same night,” said a smiling McCarty in the pits after the race. “You know, I’ll definitely take the win because our race team is really putting a great car underneath me this season. It’s just up to me as the driver to get the job done behind the wheel. I really feel bad for (Lee) Tissot and his J&J Racing guys, because they’re good friends of ours. Here they wrecked and tore their car up badly yesterday in practice and it was up in the air whether they’d even be able to race, and then they borrowed the car they raced tonight.
“I guess rules are rules, but it’s just a little strange to get a win due to another guy getting disqualified. I’ve never been in a situation before like what happened tonight. You don’t really want to get totally consumed with points racing, but we’re now eight races into the season and we’ve got four victories and seven top-five finishes. I was talking with my dad and mom (Ron and Gina McCarty) and my crew chief (Mark Ketron) after we completed post-race technical inspection, and we’re just going have to change our mindset and start points racing, I guess. We’ll still be looking to win races, but we’ll also have to just be content to settle for solid top-five finishes to help us points-wise each race.”
