Story by: Chris Owens ~ [email protected]
Photo Credit: Todd Warshaw; Getty Images for NASCAR

Richmond, VA(April 26th, 2012) — Tony Stewart picked up the win on Thursday night in the 5th annual Denny Hamlin Shorttrack Showdown at the Richmond International Raceway.  Stewart passed Greg Edwards on lap thirty two and never looked back, holding off several challenges on a few restarts.

It was a good showing for the regular Late Model Stock  drives as Greg Edwards put his Randy Sears car on the pole with a blistering 22.608 second time.  Brandon Butler would start from the outside pole and hold his own through out the night coming home in the third spot.

Just like last year, the first lap saw a big accident in turn two, this time when Nick Smith and Sergio Pena made contact in the middle of the corner, sending Pena into the outside wall and collecting Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott,  and Richard Boswell.  Boswell would get the bad end of the stick and be done for the night with heavy damage.

Nick Smith would grenade a motor on lap thirty six and put the field under caution.  Just before the caution, Hamlin would go a lap down and ultimately come to pit road with damage from the first lap wreck.

The halfway break would bring everybody to pit road to make adjustments and change two tires.  It would be Stewart, Jeff Burton, Edwards, Ben Rhodes, Butler, Nate Monteith, Joey Logano, Darrell Wallace Jr, Clint King and Garrett Campbell the top ten.

The restart following the pit stops would see Stewart jump out to a huge lead with Edwards fighting Burton for the second position.  Double file racing throughout the top ten would highlight the last twenty or so laps with the exception of Stewart who checked out.

The final caution of the night would come out when Pietro Fittipaldi and Paddy Rodenbeck would make contact entering turn one.  Both cars slammed the outside retaining wall with only Rodenbeck driving away from the scene of the accident.  Fittipaldi would be done for the evening.

Nobody had anything for Tony Stewart, he would cruise to his first victory in this race over Greg Edwards, Brandon Butler, Jeff Burton and Joey Logano.  The race for third coming off turn four was crazy down to the line, but Butler would take it over the Cup guys of Burton and Logano.

The sixth place finisher, Ben Rhodes turned a lot of heads on Thursday night.  He quietly found his way to the front.  For a kid that hasn’t been running Late Model Stock Cars long, he’s seemed to have found what it takes to get around the race track.  Look for him to pick up a few wins on the UARA-STARS tour this year.

The race had two leaders, Greg Edwards led the first thirty one laps, with Tony Stewart leading the final forty three laps.  The race was slowed four times by the caution flag.

Unofficial Results
1. #14 Tony Stewart
2. #34 Greg Edwards
3. #29 Brandon Butler
4. #31 Jeff Burton
5. #20 Joey Logano
6. #91 Ben Rhodes
7. #76 Darrell Wallace Jr
8. #40 CE Falk
9. #23 Jason White
10. #12 Garrett Campbell
11. #07 Clint King
12. #04 Ronnie Bassett Jr
13. #46 Justin Johnson
14. #44 Nate Monteith
15. #01 Travis Braden
16. #9 Chase Elliott
17. #58 Sergio Pena
18. #30 Woody Howard
19. #07 Austin Self
20. #59 Scott Turlington
21. #57 Eddie Johnson
22. #77 Clint Mills
23. #48 Dylan Lupton
24. #33 David Polenz
25. #83 Matt Bowling
26. #43 Aric Almirola
27. #16 Jeff Oakley
28. #4 Curtis Markham
29. #81 Ryan Robertson
30. #51 Kyle Busch
31. #82 Paddy Rodenbeck
32. #1 Peitro Fittipaldi
33. #10 PNick Smith
34. #11 Denny Hamlin
35. #02 Richard Boswell
36. #84 Peyton Sellers