Story by: Corey Latham ~ [email protected]

Winston-Salem, NC(June 25, 2011) — Here at RACE22, while our moto has been “All Late Models, All The Time”, we actually love to cover all kinds of racing from top to bottom.

All racers in reality are what make the racing world go round and none are a bigger part of the equation than the Mini-Stock division that runs at nearly every track throughout the Southeast. At Bowman Gray Stadium they are called the Stadium Stocks and with nearly 50 cars showing up each week the competition is as fierce as any race you’ll attend anywhere. This past week was their annual 50 lap feature event to put them in the limelight and sophomore driver Drew Moffitt made the most of it picking up his biggest win of his young career.

Over 40 cars were on hand to make the 26 car field but with qualifying rained out earlier in the day the field was set by points, those that did make it in were then forced to draw putting the faster cars scattered throughout the field. On a usual night the division is split into two 15 lap races starting nearly 24 cars in each one.

Billy Cameron Jr. would draw the pole with second year driver Drew Moffitt, fresh out of High School a week earlier lining up to his outside. Veteran Kenny Dixon, Michael Wells and Jason Tutterow would make up the top five with former champions Jason Keaton, Johnny Burke and Charlie Curry scattered throughout the field. This was going to get interesting real quick.

At the drop of the green the fluorescent orange car of Moffitt powers by the outside to take the lead with Wells coming right along with him to move into second. Cameron may have been caught sleeping on the start and it got even worse for him on lap three as he spins from the third spot to bring out the first of many cautions on the night.

We finally get things going on lap ten (caution laps count in the longer distant races), but it really doesn’t get started at all. Bobby Smith, Ted Mickalowski, Stephen Sanders and Joey Long all wreck before they even take the green flag in turn four. Yeah, it was going to be one of those kind of nights, it got even better under caution.

Bobby Smith seemed to take offense to what had happened in the prior incident and hit the Mickalowski machine under caution……..and hit it………and hit it……..and hit it. The two cars finally got turned all the way around and both drivers put it in gear and continued to destroy each others cars until both were demolished and not moving. The Smith machine was done for the night as police came on the scene to make sure it didn’t flow over out of the car, Mickalowski would make repairs and rejoin the field but his car was not competitive to say the least, the damage, and the point, was done.

As we finally get some racing in Moffitt flexes his muscle and pulls away from Wells, something not done very often at any track. Jordan Fleming was holding down the third spot but eventually gives way to a hard-charging Keaton who looked to have the fastest car on the track. He was mowing cars down as he came to them, the ones that didn’t move would get a tap to get up out of the way, a move that would haunt him a few laps later.

On lap 30 just as Keaton has gotten around Jordan Fleming for third, Fleming goes spinning with the car of Derek Taylor involved. Under caution Fleming would show his displeasure with Taylor but would get back in line at the end of the field, it looked to be over at that point. It flared up again after the race in the worst way as the two drivers went at it on the ground in the pits with both competitors taking a ride downtown with the boys in blue. Sometimes at Bowman Gray when the race is over that is just the beginning of more action.

Meanwhile up front Moffitt hates each caution as it simply gives Wells and others a chance to move him over on a restart. Moffitt manages to play the lap 38 restart perfectly getting away from Wells and making sure no contact can be made getting into the corner. Wells has other problems now as Tutterow who was running in third gets loose on the restart letting Keaton get by and putting him on Wells bumper. The “on his bumper” part would turn to actual fact very shortly.

Keaton finally gets to Wells car on lap 41 and as they come off turn two Keaton makes contact with Wells spinning him around out of second. The veteran that Wells is, he makes sure that it would not go well for Keaton either as he gases back up and clips Keaton spinning him around also as he tries to pass by putting Chuck Wall and Johnny Burke into second and third as the crowd goes wild.

Now we get to five to go, the youngster Moffitt had dominated but he now had three of the best ever to sit in a Stadium Stock right on his heels in Wall, Burke and Charlie Curry. Moffitt once again shrugs off the pressure getting a great restart and pulling Wall by two cars heading into turn one. Moffitt finally can see the race being his, he only had to make it around two more laps with a comfortable three car lead……but. Wells spins around again at the back of the pack, this one is going to finish with a green-white-checkered.

They take the green, Moffitt jumps away, the back of the pack comes out of turn four to take the green and they all pile up with Jimmy Absher taking a hard shot in the drivers door doing extensive damage. Absher would be ok, but Moffitt had to be sweating bullets, he was just ready for it to end.

We try it again and Moffitt gets his best restart of the night at the most important time pulling away from Wall going into turn one. To help him even more Burke was almost under Wall making him change his line allowing Moffitt to pull away even further. Moffitt would come around to take the win with Wall holding of Burke for second and Chris Lawing getting by Charlie Curry on the last lap in a great battle to take fourth.

It was finally over and Moffitt had won the war. This was undoubtedly the biggest win of his career, his third at the stadium after getting his first last season and another one earlier this year. He had beat the best, they were all there gunning for him all night but he never cracked under pressure and looked as much like a veteran as those giving chase. With this only being his second year at the stadium, I’d say the “Big Dog” lot just got a little more crowded.

Craftsman Stadium Stock 50 results
1. Drew Moffitt
2. Chuck Wall
3. Johnny Burke
4. Chris Lawing
5. Charlie Curry
6. Wesley Thompson
7. Chase Hunt
8. Jason Keaton
9. Rob Young
10. Tyler Ziglar
11. Stephen Sanders
12. Dave Surry
13. Billy Cameron Jr.
14. Kevin Hedgecock
15. Jason Tutterow
16. Michael Wells
17. Jordan Fleming
18. Andy Southern
19. Brandon Brendle
20. Tyler Burke
21. Jimmy Absher
22. Joey Long
23. Kenny Dixon
24. Derek Taylor
25. Bobby Smith