Story by: Langley Austin ~ [email protected]
Kingsport, TN(January 14, 2012) — When the 2012 season began at Kingsport Speedway, Nate Monteith ended the day in victory lane. Fast forward to the end of the 2012 season and after a season of full fields and controversial moments, Monteith celebrated his second consecutive championship.
Monteith’s path to this championship would be unlike his path to the 2011 title as the veteran driver had to overcome some interesting moments. Those moments included a protest of a borrowed engine that led to him being disqualified, and then he was monster trucked in the season’s biggest wreck. Monteith however prevailed against mounting odds and some of the best Late Model Stock Car competition anywhere.
Monteith’s competition made highlights and moments of their own as one of the best seasons in the tracks history unraveled in front of a growing attendance. Since former NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Robert Pressley took charge of the concrete 3/8 mile track, it has been on an upswing. The track had been shut down since the fall of 2002, but after a couple of UARA-STARS Series races had revived interest in the facility, Pressley moved in.
The 2012 season was the second for Pressley and the second under NASCAR sanctioning. With no Friday night venues in Virginia, North & South Carolina or anywhere else in Tennessee, the battle for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Championship made its way to the tight bullring. Regional top dogs like Lee Pulliam, Mike Looney and Matt Bowling made starts throughout the 2012 season looking to gain NASCAR points and looking to add their name to the short list of winners in the tracks short lived history.
Combine those names with those of the regulars such as Daniel Pope, Lee Tissot, Zeke Shell, Paul Nogradi, Wayne Hale, Austin Peters, Hayden Woods and more and you can see why the 2012 season was the best ever at Kingsport Speedway. Now let’s take you through the way the season played out from the good to the bad, the ugly and everything in between.
The season began with a Saturday afternoon kick off for the Late Model Stock Car division as they went for 60-laps. Monteith appeared to be picking up where he left off in the 2011 season as he grabbed the pole for the season opener. Under track rules an invert would take place of the top five putting him fifth for the green flag and placing Shell on the pole. Shell had picked up only one win in 2011, but was ready to put Kingsport Speedway on notice.
Shell led most of the race, but after Monteith had chased him down under a long green flag run, a three wide situation for the lead gave Monteith the top spot on the final lap. Monteith would pick up the win but Shell had made his presence known. Pope, who had won three races in 2011, would pick up his first win of the season in the seasons second race while Monteith rallied back to victory lane in race three. Shell would get his first win of the season in the next race and after letting Pope get back to victory lane in the seasons fifth race, Shell would win again in race number six.
With Pope and Shell equal with Monteith on the number of wins through the first six races at two, Monteith began searching to improve his program. With a week off from weekly racing as the UARA-STARS Series came to town, Monteith changed engine builders and updated his Performancenter chassis. When weekly racing resumed on May 11th, it was evident that Monteith was back in charge as he dominated en route to his third win. He would again dominate for his fourth win of the season on May 18th, but his competitors had questions about the changes that he’d made.
With that, Pope’s crew chief Randy Weaver decided it was time to take a look under the hood of Monteith’s racer. After an extensive look at Monteith’s engine overnight by NASCAR Whelen All-American Series director Lynn Carroll, it was determined that the engine was illegal. The piston rings in Monteith’s engine were found to be 0.003 thinner than the rule book calls for, which is 0.043. Monteith’s piston rings were 0.040. No matter the slim margin of error, Monteith was disqualified, handing the win to Pope.
Monteith was borrowing the engine that was inspected on this night from his new engine builder Jeremy Upchurch. Upchurch, in an interview exclusively with RACE22.com, claimed that the rules had been changed in recent years and that the engine he had loaned Monteith hadn’t been used and thus hadn’t been rebuilt since the rule change had taken place. For Upchurch, it was a mistake, but for Monteith it was quite possibly the end of the line for his championship hopes.
Monteith vowed to return stronger than ever and “not hold back anymore”. He would do so with win number four on the season in the very next race. Then, after a week off due to a rain out, Monteith, and the rest of the field, would take to the track for the first set of twin races of the year. Pope would qualify on the pole for the first race of the night but after an invert of four, Shell would start from the pole with Pope fourth and Monteith struggling in qualifying and starting sixth.
On this night the fireworks didn’t have to wait until after the checkered flag as right from the beginning things got wild. Pope and Monteith crash together as they battle for position. Pope’s car rests upon Monteith’s when the smoke clears after NASCAR Whelen All-American Series points leader Anthony Anders monster trucks over Pope. Pope and Monteith argue on the track as they climb from their cars. Soon, Pope’s mom ends up on the track with them when things get out of hand and Monteith is accused of hitting Pope’s mom.
Pope thought he saw Monteith strike his mom and tries to get to Monteith as does Pope’s dad, but officials are there to separate everyone as the arguing continues. Fans erupt as the fireworks are taking place. It was the pinnacle moment of a feud between the two drivers and teams that had been brewing for two seasons. While fans were still talking about all the craziness of the Monteith-Pope incident, a race ensued. Lee Tissot held off Adam Long for his first win of the season.
As teams worked to prepare for race two of the night, Pope would be relegated to a competitor’s backup car while Monteith’s team rebuilt the front end of his car and readied it for battle. This race would produce another first time winner of the season as Long dominated the race and picked up his long awaited first career win. Lost in the shuffle of the night was Monteith’s rally, in race two, back to finish second with Pope finishing 18th. It was the swing in points that Monteith needed to put him back in position to win the championship.
Following this race, Shell led the points standings by one point over Pope, who had a one point lead over Monteith at the halfway point in the season. With nine races down, there were nine races remaining on the season schedule. Monteith was in championship form as he won six of the next seven races. He was only interrupted once as Paul Nogradi took the checkered flag in a single race on June 29th. However, the story of those races didn’t just see him dominate as there were several races that he might not have won without a little luck.
That included one where he was playing second fiddle to Long all night and had a back bumper full of eventual NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Champion Lee Pulliam. Pulliam had struggled on the concrete high banks, but on this night was in the mix and the pressure he was putting on Monteith wouldn’t allow Monteith to make a move on Long, who led most of the race. However on the final lap Monteith put the bumper to Long and nearly spun him for the top spot off turn four for the win. Long would hold on to finish second with Pulliam third, but Long was now added to the list of Monteith’s enemies.
Then, a few weeks later, Monteith was having a big off night. Monteith was sick with walking pneumonia and admitted that he was no better than a “fifth place car”. However, an altercation with his rivals Pope and Long occurred, as Long went spinning off the front bumper of Pope while leading. The incident ended with Long spun and Pope receiving the black flag for the contact. That put Monteith on point despite the fact that, at one point in the race, he was out of contention and now he was going to victory lane.
With Monteith in charge of the championship, there was only two races left in the season, but they were the two most important races of the season, the Tri-Cities 150, which would feature twin 75-lap races and crown someone the “King of the Concrete Jungle”. On this night, the 2012 season would come to a conclusion and, while Monteith was all but guaranteed the championship, the veteran driver wanted badly to be crowned “King of the Concrete Jungle”. However a bad decision on tire pressure for qualifying would relegate him to start 10th while his nemesis, Pope, would put his car on the pole. However, an invert of three put Hayden Woods on point with Long starting second and Pope third.
After a long rain delay for the start of this one, racing took to the track over an hour and a half late. Long would take advantage of Woods on the start and would put his car out front. He wouldn’t have much of a challenge for the top spot and would pick up race number one for his second win of the season. After an invert of the top four for race number two, Blake Jones was starting from the pole with Monteith, Pope and Long completing the top four starters. Jones and Monteith would race for the lead, but would crash together in turn four on lap two.
That would open the door for Pope to take his shot at the top spot and looked to be on his way to an easy victory. However a blown engine would be his fate and Long would inherit the lead. Long would hold on from there to win the race without much of a challenge as he was crowned “King of the Concrete Jungle”. However, this race wouldn’t be over at the drop of the checkered flag as a protest in race one had been initiated by Monteith on Pope. Presumably it was retaliation over the early season protest that had seen Monteith disqualified from his fourth win of the season.
But, for Monteith it was just a waste of money as specialist were called in to inspect the Chevrolet crate engine in Pope’s car and it was deemed legal after a long inspection process. With that, the season at Kingsport Speedway was over. Monteith wasn’t happy that he couldn’t return the favor to Pope in technical inspection and he wasn’t happy that someone else was named “King of the Concrete Jungle”. However, he had proven that he was the real king with his second consecutive championship.
Kingsport had it all in the 2012 season, from some of the best racing with the best Late Model Stock Cars in the country to some of the wildest moments in short track racing. Where else could you find a rivalry between two drivers that boiled over with a protest and climaxed with a fight involving one’s mom? It was a special season at Kingsport Speedway, not only for Monteith, who claimed the largest prize, but for everyone as fan attendance increased all year and the racing was off the chain.
