Philip Morris at speed during practice at Martinsville Speedway. Corey Latham Photo

Philip Morris swept Saturday night’s season-opening set of twin races at Larry King Law’s Langley Speedway — winning from the pole in the first race and rallying late in the second.

Four-time National Champion Philip Morris sat his hot rod on the pole and in doing so, broke the track record in the process. His lap at 15.095 seconds top the efforts of Justin T. Carroll by only fourteen-thousandths earning a spot on the front row. CE Falk, Nick Smith, and Ruben Garcia completed the five best in Late Model qualifying.

In the first of twin 75 lap events, green flag would wave and pole sitter Philip Morris would lead the twenty-five car field into turn one. Morris’s lead would be brief when he would slip in turn four giving way to the hard-charging CE Falk in the early goings. After a brief caution, Falk remained the leader with Nick Smith in tow as Morris settled in third. Several laps into the green flag run, Falk continued to show the way as the halfway neared.

The second caution waved over the track, bunching back up the field and another exciting restart to the race. Back to the green and Falk once again maintains the race lead, Morris this time is just one car length back. Later in the run, lap traffic came into play when Morris used a lap car to retake the race lead leaving CE Falk frustrated and settling for second.

The final laps saw Falk get close and challenging but it was Morris who was strong and would go on to win the race feature.

“On the outside, our car was a little slow in starting,” Morris said in victory lane. “I think we had a pretty good race car if there’s anything left there on the right side. Battling with the lap cars was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. I was really worried that I might have cost my guys the race, just a lot of contact there.”

In the nightcap, a mandatory eight car invert was applied to the starting grid giving Brenden Queen the race pole, Philip Morris would start eighth. Green flag in the air and pole sitter Brenden Queen easily secured the point. But soon after, big crash involving CE Falk and Justin T Carroll ended their chances for the race win.

Several cautions later, Queen continued to lead as Philip Morris would haunt the race leader as was Connor Hall in third. Approaching the halfway point, Brenden Queen was clearly in cruise control with Connor Hall on the chase. Soon business picked up as the leaders Queen and Hall would trade jabs before Connor Hall finally secured the lead. But then in a series of cautions and several lead changes later, Connor Hall emerged as the race leader. Then with just five laps remaining, Philip Morris would earlier have a flat tire would pass the race leader hall and go on to win the second race feature.

“Yeah, the thing looks like a demolition car but I wouldn’t take a hundred thousand for her,” Morris remarked.  “I appreciate everyone running me clean, we had some pretty big problems there and got into some cars.”

Race Results Race #1;

  1. #01 Phillip Morris; 75
  2. #02 CE Falk; 75
  3. #57 Justin T Carroll; 75
  4. #55 Mark Wertz; 75
  5. #4A Anthony Alfredo; 75
  6. #4C Chase Cabre; 75
  7. #77 Connor Hall; 75
  8. #03 Brenden Queen; 75
  9. #26 Danny Edwards Jr; 75
  10. #50 Garrett Bunch; 75
  11. #2 Ryan Vargas; 75
  12. #98 Nicholas Sanchez; 75
  13. #97 Greg Edwards; 75
  14. #24 Colin Garrett; 75
  15. #12 Nick Smith; 74
  16. #88 Thomas Marks; 74
  17. #75 Logan Jones; 73
  18. #94 Cody Carlton; 73
  19. #41 Woody Howard; 63
  20. #92 Casey Wyatt; 39
  21. #19 Cameron Bowen; 39
  22. #25 Craig Eastep; 36
  23. #8 Tyler Hughes; 35
  24. #9 Rodney Boyd; 23
  25. #6 Ruben Garcia; 1

 

Race Results #2:

  1. #01 Philip Morris; 75
  2. #77 Connor Hall; 75
  3. #2 Ryan Vargas; 75
  4. #26 Danny Edwards Jr; 75
  5. #97 Greg Edwards; 75
  6. #94 Cody Carlton; 75
  7. #55 Mark Wertz; 75
  8. #41 Woody Howard; 75
  9. #4C Chase Cabre; 67
  10. #03 Brenden Queen; 65
  11. #8 Tyler Hughes; 65
  12. #12 Nick Smith; 37
  13. #92 Casey Wyatt; 36
  14. #25 Craig Eastep; 35
  15. #88 Thomas Marks; 26
  16. #24 Colin Garrett; 10
  17. #19 Cameron Bowen; 7
  18. #50 Garrett Bunch; 7
  19. #98 Nicholas Sanchez; 7
  20. #6 Ruben Garcia; 7
  21. #4A Anthony Alfredo; 2
  22. #02 CE Falk; 2
  23. #57 Justin T Carroll; 2
  24. #75 Logan Jones; 2