Moore Wins the Race, Dease Takes the Championship

Story by: Chris Romano/Contributor

Rougemont, NC(October 24, 2010) — Terry Dease held a slim six point lead over Craig Moore going into the 100 lap track Late Model Stock finale on Saturday night, but a third place finish was good enough to clinch his second track championship over race winner Moore by only two points.

Moore did everything he had to do, leading all 100 laps for the win, followed by Trip Massengill in only his second race of the year at the track. The top three never changed throughout the race. Moore started strong at the green and was never seriously challenged. The first yellow flew on lap twenty- eight when Jerame Donley spun in turn two, and the race was stopped on lap 47 when Zach Marks and Michael Ritch hit a ton in turn four. Neither driver was injured. In fourth was Michael McGuire, followed by Hunter Deavers, who set fast time in qualifications.

It was Moore’s fifth win of the season, and it took a little of the sting away from losing the championship by two points. “I’m disappointed because people come in here every year for the last two races and interfere with us who’ve been here all year,” said Moore. “It’s racing and you can’t do anything about it. I’m just thankful to be racing. I had a real bad auto accident last year so I’m just happy to be here. I want to thank my sponsor Strutmasters.com and my family. I did everything I could do. We had four motors in this car this week. We tested for three days. There’s not a lot of money in this; we do it because we love it.”

Dease was grateful too. “It was too close,” said Dease. “The car just got extremely tight. I know what we did and it bit me, but I learned something. When I saw him backing up a little bit, and the other boy was pressuring me a little bit I eased up and picked up speed. I just have to thank everybody. I’m forty-seven years old, my dad’s seventy-five. My brother was diagnosed two years ago with cancer. He didn’t get any good news today, but this right here picked him up.”

Paul Bryant was sixth, followed by Donley, Adam Long, and Tracy Chambers, the last car running. Melvin Langley blew up on lap sixty-eight, and Marks and Smith rounded out the field.

The Limited Late Model crown was on the line on Saturday too, with Justin Newlin leading Ricky Jones by just ten points. He led the first lap of the 50 lap feature from outside pole but the race quickly went yellow for a spin in turn one by Stafford Gray. Newlin settled back in the lead on the restart, followed by Kyle Appel and Danny Lewis, Jr., who was on the charge. By lap fifteen he was in second and three laps later he was in the lead. Ricky Jones was keeping the championship alive, but that ended on lap twenty- seven when the yellow came out and he dropped back to the rear. Four laps later the race went yellow again when Gray and Joel Covington hit hard coming out of turn four.

And then the championship turned interesting once again. On the restart Newlin fell back to seventh, and by lap thirty-eight Jones roared from behind to take that spot from him. Newlin fell back another spot with seven laps to go when Daryl Carver got by. In front, however, it was all Willis, winning handily, although fast qualifier Don Brace came on strong at the end. Appel was third, followed by Louis White and Chuck Lawson. Jones was sixth, Carver seventh, Newlin eighth, and Chris Crosby and Dusty Ellington rounded out the top ten.

But it wasn’t enough for Jones. Newlin won the title by six points. “I got in there and someone got into me on one of the restarts,” said Newlin, “and I said I was going to drop back and protect the points. I hate to race like that but you’ve got to think of the big picture. Our plan was to stay up front as long as we could until someone forced the issue and that’s what we did.”

In victory lane Willis was stunned over how good his car was. “Man it’s probably one of the best cars I ever sit my butt in,” said Willis. ” We race South Boston, Hickory, Orange County, Ace and it’s probably the best car I’ve had in my life. I owe it all to my guys, they worked their butt off all day. We got here and we were decent, we kept working on it and working on it, we didn’t qualify that good but as the laps went on the car got better and better.”