Story by: Corey Latham ~ [email protected]

Kingsport, TN(April 13, 2011) — Well it finally happened. We knew it wouldn’t take long, it happens every year, a rivalry and controversy becomes the focus of the UARA-STARS series.

With Hickory being rather tame and Concord getting postponed for weather, we moved to the tight confines of Kingsport Speedway’s 3/8 mile concrete speedplant. That’s where it all broke loose, we may have had to wait 150 laps for it to happen but the two leaders on that white flag lap have started a new chapter in the world of Late Model racing. And Brennan Poole just keeps trucking on.

Kingsport was met with the same conditions that we had at Concord last race out for the UARA, downright terrible. with overcast skies and weather approaching, all other tracks in the region had canceled the nights events. But the UARA being a traveling series likes to wait it out for the sake of their out of town competitors, and we were glad they did. After some heavy rains the skies cleared and qualifying was finally underway with Fathead Racing rookie driver George Miedecke and Kyle Grissom making up the front row. Ronnie Basset Jr, Andy Mercer and Brennan Poole would fill out the top five of the 20 car field that was shortened by one when Jesse Little destroyed his car off of turn two in qualifying.

Before the race started, the drama was in full swing as the UARA officials had laid the law down. Kingsport has went through various transformations in the last two races that the UARA had ran there and once again the turn one area was a hot topic. The track is very tight and has a yellow line that is supposed to separate the racing groove from where the cars exit from pit road. Only problem is that the fastest way around the track is below that yellow line, making cars entering the track become a safety problem. In the drivers meeting it was announced that anyone that went below the yellow line would be given the black flag, leaving many to wonder how it would all play out with the bottom groove being so tempting.

As we get the green Miedecke jumps to the lead and we watch the line, nothing funny was going on there as many expected it would, matter of fact it turned out to be a moot point all night. Grissom would fall in behind with Mercer jumping around Bassett on the outside to take over the third spot. It would be the beginning of a terrible night for Bassett as he fell back steadily after being fast in practice and qualifying but was never a factor in the race.

We manage to make it a full lap before the field gets backed up and and local racer Keith Stiltner gets hit from behind spinning off turn two to bring out the first caution of the night. The UARA is one of the few series left that still do not have a double-file start rule and at Kingsport this may have been a good thing, the next restart was clean and we begin our first green flag run of the night.

As Miedecke and Grissom zoom away form the field, Bassett is getting kicked back as Poole takes over fourth bringing Scott Turlington, Alex Yontz and Stiltner with him. Lap 22 sees Grissom pull up on the back of Miedecke and make the pass for the lead, the two leaders had distanced themselves over Mercer in third by nearly four seconds with Poole barely hanging onto fourth with Turlington all over him.

Two drivers that were slowly starting to show their muscle as the race progressed were Chad Finchum and David Roberts. Finchum, making only his second Late Model start after graduating from the Legend car ranks was looking strong moving up from his 11th starting spot and was bringing Roberts right with him. Roberts, a long-time Greenville-Pickens Speedway regular had always wanted to run the UARA series but finances would not let the dream happen. This season he is running the whole schedule and wanted to make an impression early, he did just that as himself and Finchum had ran down the top five within the first 75 laps.

Up front it is all Grissom, all the time. The veteran UARA driver was simply on his game as Miedecke started to fall back into the clutches of Poole and Turlington who were coming with Mercer falling back. after a debris caution the field gets shut back down on lap 68 as Jeremy Burns dive bombs Brandon Knupp in turn one sending both cars around. While the leaders were driving rather tame the back of the pack was getting wild, and they only got wilder as the laps wound down.

On the next restart all eyes were on the front of the field as Grissom would get away but the real battle was between Miedecke and Poole for second. Miedecke would shut the door on Poole twice as he stuck it to the inside, enough to raise the eyebrows of Turlington and Yontz behind them as their spotters told them to be careful of what was taking place in front of them. Many had been wondering if the “rivalry” between Poole and Miedecke who drives in the car that Poole had last season at Fathead racing would come to fruition, but Poole would lay back and follow in third for the time being. The “rivalry” is really fan-made at this point, but that doesn’t mean that the two drivers won’t butt heads later before the season is over.

We get another caution as Kieth Stiltner has a problem and pulls to the high side with the entire field getting by until Leigh Caruthers decides to go three wide all of a sudden and simply runs over the top of Stiltner throwing the Caruthers machine in the air. This restart would see Poole fall back a bit with Turlington doing all he can at lap 92 trying to get around, looking high, looking low but never ruffling Poole’s feathers much, Turlington had the best car he had ever had and wanted to do it clean.

With Turlington finally deciding to quit his charge and ride a bit, Finchum and Roberts blast by Yontz to pull into the top five, It’s then that Finchum hits another gear and takes off. He catches Turlington with 15 to go as the leaders are in heavy lapped traffic, traffic that begins to race them like It’s for position. Joey Herques is the hardest one to get by as Grissom gets caught on the high side with the lapped car racing him hard in the corner. Miedecke likes what he sees as he pulls closer but he has the same problem with Candace Muzny who races him hard as well.

On lap 147 Finchum muscles by Turlington for third but the action is at the front. Grissom looked to have the race in his pocket all night but Miedecke starts to make a noticeable charge. With three laps to go he’s five cars back, with two to go he pulls to within two cars, then off turn four to take the white flag he is within four feet of the back of the Grissom machine. They go into turn one and as Grissom brakes for the sharp left, Miedecke is under Grissom and makes hard contact sending him around in front of the entire field. Cars begin to dive everywhere as some slow thinking about caution and others begin to race back to the checkered flag.

Miedecke crosses the line first followed by Poole, Finchum, Turlington and Roberts, but we knew it would not stand that way. As Miedecke pulls into victory lane the UARA official comes over and tells him to move, Poole is declared the winner as Miedecke is put to the end of the lead lap for rough driving. Grissom pulls straight into his pit stall and exits his car, steaming but keeping quiet. Just by chance Miedecke is pitted right next to him and as he exits his car and looks for Grissom to talk to him he is stopped by team owner Jamie Yelton, “I wouldn’t worry about talking right now, It’s not a good time, I’ve been down that road before”. At the time it was probably wise words from the veteran driver now owner.

And there sits Poole, a winner once again. He didn’t have the best car or even the second best car, but showed that the saying “I’d rather be lucky than good any day” really does come into play sometimes. Controversy ensued behind him on where the top five finished and it got even more jumbled and hour later as Finchum would be DQ’d for an illegal carb. In the end it looked like usual at the top with Poole in victory lane, but the runs by Turlington, Finchum and Roberts were a nice touch, of course the controversy between Grisson and Miedecke is what everyone will be watching for at Newport this weekend on the next stop for the UARA.

Results:
1 – Brennan Poole #7
2 – Scott Turlington #48
3 – David Roberts #18
4 – Alex Yontz #77
5 – Kyle Grissom #31
6 – Adam Long #3
7 – George Miedecke #9
8 – Andy Mercer #01
9 – Kaleb Pressley #54
10 – Candace Muzny #92
11 – Brandon Knupp #15
12 – Ronnie Bassett, Jr. #04
13 – Julia Dawson #1
14 – Jeremy Burns #81
15 – Leigh Caruthers #33
16 – Joey Herques #26
17 – Keith Stiltner #22
18 – Michael Rouse #23
19 – Jeff Woodward #94
DQ – Chad Finchum #19
DNS – Jesse Little #97