Commentary by: Rob Staley — [email protected]

Danville, VA(May 20, 2009) — An emotional win by Rodney Cook was certainly the highlight of a very lean racing weekend. His win at Ace was the first for the popular Reidsville, NC driver since the death of his father, Calvin last December.

Another Ace racer who lost his dad the same month was Bobby Griffin. Bobby didn’t fare well last Friday night, but beamed with pride shortly before leaving for Ace as he showed me a news story from a race 37 years ago. Bobby’s father, Jimmy, won a big late model sportsman race at Hickory in 1972.

It may well have been Jimmy Griffin’s biggest win as he bested a 21 car field that included racing legends Bobby Allison, Donnie Allison, Sam Ard, Jack Ingram, Dave Marcis, and Harry Gant. For the record, Bobby was a DNF in his own car last Friday, but is expected to return to Ace in the Kailey Lynch owned Ford Fusion when the Late Model Stock Cars return to Ace on May 29.

The folks at Left Turn Promotions are hoping to bring Late Model Stock Car racing back to Franklin County Speedway on Sunday, June 7th as they have scheduled a 100 lap LMSC show to run with the ASA Modified tour. Currently the Late Models on the 3/8 mile that run every week run a crate engine with a stock carburetor and these cars will utilize the NASCAR Late Model Stock Cars as they are applied at Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, VA.

Details for the event are still in the planning stages as this is written, but certainly it is good to see the effort that is being put forth by Kenny Lang and company. Among the drivers expected to compete in the ” Old Dominion Shootout” are two-time defending track champion, Jimmy Mullins as well as Kelly Kingery, Rodney Cook, Bobby Griffin, Frankie Kelly and Michael McGuire, the 12 year-old third generation racer, who is the nephew of two-time Bailey’s 300 winner, Tony McGuire.

In closing, I would like to make a correction. The young son of Orange County Grand Stock standout Eddie Capps goes by the name of Tyler(not Travis, as I wrote in an earlier Rambling). He was nice enough to send us an e-mail last week and still hopes to make his racing debut sometime this year at OCS in the ever popular Grand Stock class.