Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]
Dublin, VA(September 18, 2011) — The final race of the season was on tap at Motor Mile Speedway just outside of Radford, VA on Saturday night and the Late Model Stock Cars took center stage for a 150-lap affair.
The Late Model Stock Car division at Motor Mile Speedway has a history of being owned or dominated by one driver of the last decade or so, but for the most part it’s been Philip Morris who has been the man to beat in each season. This season however, Morris had taken his talents to his other ‘home track’ at South Boston Speedway in Halifax, VA and left Motor Mile wide open for someone to steal the headlines. In Morris’ absence though, one driver, who moved from his home track of South Boston to the 4/10 mile track this season, dominated in Morris style or maybe a notch above.
Lee Pulliam, who had finished the 2010 season with five wins at South Boston, came into the 2011 season and set his sights on Motor Mile Speedway. His aim was pretty good as the youngster wrapped up nearly every pole award of the season and won all, but three races on the season with just one race to go to officially be declared the seasons champion. Pulliam had faltered a week earlier as his team had replaced the transmission in his ride with a new one, but had forgotten to add the transmission fluid.
Pulliam then started sixth and caught his arch rival, Morris for the lead, but no sooner than he reached Morris’ bumper he felt the effects of his teams transmission mishap and was never able to challenge his friend for the top spot. Pulliam was back this week looking to redeem himself, but this week his rival Morris would be across the state at Langley Speedway for twin races. Pulliam didn’t care, he was back at his new home track looking to cap off his championship season and he was looking to dominate one more time.
Pulliam’s dominance was evident in qualifying as he laid down one of his fastest laps of the season and bested the field 23 strong for another pole award. Pulliam would lead the field down for the green flag and he would dominate the race despite admitting he was off on setup, winning his 16th race of the 2011 season at Motor Mile and his 18th Late Model Stock Car win overall, but behind him there was a lot going on.
JUST MY LUCK …
Davin Scites mid-season problems have been well documented, where after he crashed hard in a lap one accident in the Rusty Harpe Memorial race and had to replace his front clip. Scites then proceeded to struggle through the next month or so of racing, but in the last couple of races has began to get his season on track. On this night however, he would have an uphill battle as after he posted the second fastest lap of the night, his qualifying time was disallowed for his spoiler being slightly high in the middle. It was an infraction that would put the veteran racer at the back of the field on a night when he might have been able to take advantage of Pulliam being a “little off”.
Scites would have to start in the back of the pack, but he wouldn’t finish there as he survived the carnage and came home with a fifth place finish as he was racing with Frank Deiny, Jr. for fourth at the drop of the checkered flag. While it wasn’t the night Scites was looking for, he had to be happy with how his car was able to race up through the field and get him to a fifth place finish among a strong field of cars.
QUIET LIKE I’VE BEEN ALL SEASON …
Josh Berry might have been the quietest driver of the season at Motor Mile Speedway as he clicked off top five finishes regulary and even stole a win on one of the few nights when Lee Pulliam had bad luck. Berry, who drives for JR Motorsports, owned by NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., kept his nose clean for the most part all season and came home with a fourth place points finish. On this night he was able to come home with a second place finish after running third earlier and making his move to the second position. He would get the chance to challenge Pulliam on several restarts, but was never able to make a serious challenge for the lead.
ABOUT TIME …
Sometimes in racing, it’s just nice to finish a race. That is exactly the case for Tommy Lemons, Jr., who had spent the last month or so reeling from bad luck. From getting crashed out of a couple of races to breaking his rear end in the most recent Motor Mile Speedway start, Lemons had been struggling even to finish a race. On this night however he would be able to keep his car up front as he rode fourth for much of the race, being challenged hard by Deiny for the position. Lemons would hold Deiny off and eventually take third place when Deiny’s young protege`, Hunter Devers didn’t get a great restart and spun off Lemons bumper in turn one on a late restart. Lemons despite the damage to his right front fender held off Deiny for third and took his first ‘finish’ in a month.
THIRD PLACE CAR, 12TH PLACE FINISH …
Lemons felt as if Devers had come down on him heading into turn one when the young driver went spinning off the corner and ended his strong third place run. Of course, Devers didn’t exactly see it that way, feeling that Lemons had taken advantage of the restart to dump him because he wasn’t able to catch him otherwise. Either way, a great run for the young driver was negated by the late race spin and a third place finish for the young driver became an eventual 12th place effort, not indicative of how he ran on this night. Devers made a turn around, around the mid-point in the season as he went from just being another face in the crowd to being one that could compete for a top five finish on any given week, often out running his team owner, Deiny.
GOOD YEAR, NOT MY YEAR …
Frank Deiny, Jr. has never had a season like this one, he does have one win to his credit after he slipped into victory lane back in the mid part of the season, but other than that he can only claim to be the driver with the most second place finishes. For most racers that would be a great season, they would take a handful of second place finishes and one win and go home happy. FDJ isn’t happy …. in fact he isn’t even close to being happy. He’s taken big swings nearly every week just trying to put his car in the ball park with Pulliam and though he’s gotten close a couple of times, he hasn’t been able to take down the seasons dominator. FDJ is hoping that all his hard work this season will pay off with him getting his car to click in the seasons biggest races.
BROTHERS CRACKING THE TOP FIVE …
Last week the Waltz Brothers, Matt and Kyle made their way to Motor Mile Speedway with one having pretty good luck right of the gate and the other struggling to grab a top 20 finish in the biggest field of the season. Matt finished 10th with Kyle claiming a 20th place finish and the two returned this week with Matt looking for his first top five and Kyle looking to get his first top ten. This week the field was a little shorter, but the competition wasn’t any easier, but the Waltz brothers used the knowledge they gained a week earlier to put together a better race for both.
Matt competed in the top five for part of the race and challenged Deiny for fifth several times as he was held up by Lemons for many laps and eventually the young driver settled for a sixth place finish as Scites raced up to finish fifth. While Matt was racing up front for much of the race, Kyle was rallying from his 14th place start and with a little carnage ahead of him and keeping his nose clean he was able to attain a 10th place finish. These two drivers are becoming some of the guys to keep an eye on around the region as they begin to travel around and gain experience.
ENOUGH TO GET SECOND …
Kris Bowen destroyed his car a week ago in a crash with Deiny and this week had to bring his old car out to finish the season up and try to hold on to second place in points. The old car had never really given Bowen much to be excited about and heading into the weekend he wasn’t expecting to have a great run, but rather just enough to keep the second place points effort he’s made all season. However, he paced final practice with his old ‘sled’ and qualified a strong fifth. He would wind up seventh and secured second in the points, a strong effort for him this season with a new car and coming off a struggling season a year ago. Now he sets his sights on getting his new car back together and heading to Martinsville.
THE REST …
Andrew Thomas had a strong run and came home with an eighth place finish, just one spot ahead of Jesse Little, who qualified in the top ten, but started from the rear of the field after his qualifying time was disallowed for being too low. Little rallied back and looked to be headed to a top five finish, but he had a run-in around midway with Natalie Sather that slowed his progress to the front of the field. Michael Kidd claimed an 11th place finish with Brandon Brown having one of his strongest showings at Motor Mile in 13th. Brown had qualified 9th, but struggled to keep up and settled for a 13th place effort, but showed that he was improving on the 4/10 mile track.
Quin Houff made his NASCAR Whelen All-American Series debut and while he didn’t set the world on fire, he was able to keep his nose clean and came home with a 16th place finish. A strong run for a 14-year old in his first race on the track with the toughest competition in the region. Natalie Sather would finish 17th after her run in with Little early on, not quite the effort this young lady was looking for. One of the big moments of the night came when Zeke Shell ended up on his side on the inside wall on the front stretch after he and Rusty Skewes wrecked. The two had made contact for several laps and the wreck finally put the two drivers out of the race.
All in all it was an anti-climatic end to the 2011 season for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock Car division at Motor Mile Speedway, but after last weeks incredible race filled with hot tempers and an old winner it was to be expected that the final race wouldn’t live up to the hype.
Results:
1 – Lee Pulliam #1
2 – Josh Berry #72
3 – Tommy Lemons, Jr. #27
4 – Frank Deiny, Jr. #5
5 – Davin Scites #06
6 – Matt Waltz #02
7 – Kris Bowen #80
8 – Andrew Thomas #96
9 – Jesse Little #97
10 – Kyle Waltz #14
11 – Michael Kidd #49
12 – Hunter Devers #48
13 – Brandon Brown #68
14 – Aaron Deplazes #10
15 – Bob Davis #19
16 – Quin Houff #45
17 – Natalie Sather #94
18 – Charlie Barham #92
19 – Kenny Brooks #54
20 – Zeke Shell #87
21 – Rusty Skewes #41
22 – Brad Foy #0
23 – Michael McGuire #22
