Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

South Boston, VA(October 19, 2010) ~ In a time when racing is very expensive to compete in, some drivers can still make a profit. Unfortunately for the asphalt world, those racers are on dirt tracks. Some dirt racers such as Scott Bloomquist, can just race big money races and pocket a few 100 thousand dollars a year, sadly while the cost of asphalt Late Model Stock Car racing has skyrocketed, their purses are the same or lower than what they were 25 years ago.

The only saving grace is the big money races at the end of the year, where luckily, a driver can have a good finish and at least come out even for the weekend. Philip Morris has done one better, in a two week span between two races, he's $35,000 richer. But, the latest $10,000 installment to his bank account at South Boston Speedway was not without controversy.

Morris and 35 other competitors converged on the famous bullring in Southern Virginia this past weekend for 300 laps, and as usual, all eyes were on him from the day the gate opened. After his dominating win at Martinsville, many wondered if he could keep the ball rolling at South Boston, a track where his domination had diminished in the past year and a half. Lee Pulliam was still the favorite, as he had been the dominating factor at the end of the season at SoBo, and Justin Johnson was looking to get back on top after sliding just a little but at the end of the season but still winning the track championship.

As the field lined up for the green, it was Martinsville all over again up front as Pulliam and Morris paced the field once more. Pulliam would jump out to the early lead, but Morris would be right in his tire tracks as the two quickly get away from Stacy Puryear, Nick Smith, and Deac McCaskill. Behind them Tommy Lemons Jr. has his hands full in the early going and receives a bump from 2010 Limited champion Justin Snow, sending Lemons sideways and well back out of the top ten.

As we approach lap 40, Morris, who had been pestering Pulliam for the lead severely since the opening lap, finally goes to the outside and takes the top spot. It is now that Morris let's his car get in a groove just like he did at Martinsville, the clean air of being up front seemed to be when the #26 machine was most potent. Pulliam radios his crew to tell them if Morris wants to drive that fast and burn his stuff up early, he could have at it. Bad thing was that Morris wasn't showing anything of what the Clarence's Steakhouse car really had.

As the top two cars were gone, three others were steadily heading towards the front. Closer to the leaders, Leigh Caruthers was on a tear as his ninth place qualifying spot was a good indication of how good his car was. Early on he picked them off rapidly heading to the front, eventually getting by Deac McCaskill to move into the top five on lap 53. Further back in the field, Mark McFarland was going places also as he transferred through the heat race and started 16th, and broke into the top ten in the first 60 laps.

McFarland was making only his second start of the season in Late Models after not being in the division for a few years. Then you had the defending champion of the event, the timeless Eddie Johnson coming from 28th spot after blowing an engine in practice the day before and coming back the next day just tor ride around in the heat race to make the field. Eddie knows that the heats and early parts of the race don't pay anything, but you could bet that when it came down to the end he was going to be there. He steadily made his way through the field to race with the much faster cars before halfway.

The first caution of the day flies on lap 60 for debris, and that's good news to some as Morris was setting a blistering pace, putting 16 cars a lap down before the first 1/4 of the event was complete. The driver with not so good news was Nick Smith. After running on the rear of Puryear for third until the caution, Smith hits pit road with smoke coming from the car. His day would be over as a seal came out of the transmission, the same problem they had in testing earlier in the week. They thought they had the problem corrected but that was not the case as his day was over, and the team was disgusted as they felt they had a car that could of competed for the win.

As the race resumes, so does Morris as he begins his torrid pace once more. Attrition starts to become a factor as cars begin to fall out one by one, most notably is Justin Snow from his fifth place spot. Matt Bowling and Stephen Berry also fall by the wayside, and Brandon Dean is showing a good bit of smoke from his machine. The 300 lap event at South Boston is the longest of the year anywhere for the Late Models, and with many cars falling out well before halfway, we can only guess what is to come.

As everyone just looks to get to halfway in one piece and make adjustments, the caution falls once again three laps from the break, and this one is big. Jeb Burton, who was in a brand new car here at SoBo loses a engine entering turn three as Deac McCaskill and Leigh Caruthers pile in hard destroying all three machines. Caruthers and Burton pop right out of their rides, but McCaskill sits in his machine for over five minutes, his car had spun around and hit flush on the drivers side against the wall. McCaskill would finally emerge, and said that it knocked him out, he had no recollection of the wreck at all, it had hit so hard that it knocked his Hans device out of his helmet. Deac will be fine, but our well wishes go with him as he will be healing for the next few weeks.

During the halfway break, teams were making much needed adjustments. Morris said his car was good, just a little snug in the center of the corner. Pulliam said he burned up the right rear after a while trying to keep up, and with the new tires and a small adjustment they were going to be fine he thought. Third place runner Stacy Puryear said it straight to the point, his car felt great to him, but he didn't think it could run with the top two, the things that could fix most people's cars to run with Morris and Pulliam were not ones that could be made at the track. Brandon Butler and David Latour were both smiling, as they felt they could be the sleepers of the show, they had saved their stuff while moving forward at the same time for the first half. Justin Johnson would never make it out of the pits at halfway, mechanical problems ending his day early. We now get ready to roll again with only 13 cars on the lead lap, Morris had been putting them down rather quickly in the first 150 laps.

Morris takes off and once again opens up a 10 car-length advantage after two laps. It had been like that he entire race so far, but after he would jump out to the lead the distance would stabilize. Behind him McFarland was coming and he begins to work on Brandon Butler for fifth, while the other car we had been watching, Eddie Johnson, rides just behind in seventh. Lap 181 approaches and another caution comes out, and some more hurt feelings.

Brandon Gdovic usually drives the #64 FDJ machine at Langley Speedway, but this weekend his father Rick was in it, and he wasn't making many friends on Saturday. after being involved in numerous incidents all day and missing nearly his entire front end of bodywork, Gdovic hooks Bruce Anderson going down the backstretch and puts him hard into the inside wall ending Anderson's day. Gdovic comes to a stop against the inside wall and Anderson tries to tell him how happy he was to be wrecked as an official drags Anderson from the scene. Anderson was able to smile a little after it happened but not much. "It must be nice to have a bunch of money, come out here and tear your car and others all to pieces, he's missing half of it as it is, then he wrecks me going down the straightaway", said Anderson.

Back underway and Morris leaves again, and the rest of the top ten gets single file to try and save a little for the last 50 laps as we approach 100 to go. The end of the lead lap is where the action is taking place, as CE Falk, who had got damage from an earlier incident in front of him, battles hard with Natalie Sather for the 12th spot, the last spot on the lead lap. In front of that battle Mark Wertz is all over Brandon Dean for eighth as Dean has his car running smoke-free now, a leaking valve cover gasket being the culprit in the first half. Before anything can happen though, the caution comes out again, and once gain Gdovic is involved.

Gdovic, who is many laps down, tries to dive bomb another lapped car in Shannon Marano and Marano spins into the path of fourth place David Latour. All cars continue, but Latour suffers right fender damage and has the toe knocked in on his car, he will still be competitive but lapped cars ultimately ended his run for the top prize. Under the caution the fifth place driver also has problems, as Brandon Butler's machine has an electrical fire under the dash and he stops on the backstretch and falls out of the car, gasping for breath from the toxic smoke of wires burning. A rather odd scene and unfortunate turn of events, the two cars that looked to be wanting to make a run at the leaders have their chances of victory end at the same time for two separate incidents.

As the green flies again on lap 232, Puryear makes a bold move and roots Pulliam out of the way for second, everyone was thinking Pulliam was just about to flex any
 

muscle he had for Morris, and Puryear breaks that party up in a hurry. At the same time McFarland and Johnson fly past the faltering car of Latour to take over fourth and fifth. Puryear would enjoy the second spot for 12 laps until Pulliam makes the pass back, bringing McFarland by also for third. At this point everyone is starting to wonder, is McFarland the real sleeper here today?

The field once again starts to string out a bit, except for the battle for seventh between Ronald Hill, Mark Wertz and Natalie Sather. Sather has been fun to watch on this day, starting out the day getting a lap down early, she stuck with it, adjusted on the car at halfway and was able to get the "lucky dog" to get back on the lead lap. She follows the hole made by Wertz on lap 257 as they both get around Hill for seventh and eight spot. Hill would fall by the wayside a few laps later and make numerous trips to pit road.

Up front it was all Morris, all day. He had been in control from the start, but his large lead was starting to shrink. Lap after lap, Pulliam would inch closer, his car looking to be skating a little more telling us he was pushing the button, it was time to go. But we still didn't know if Morris was even showing all he had, if he had been that dominating for over 250 laps, surely he couldn't have shown it all yet. As Pulliam gets closer, Morris picks it up a tad, then gets held up by the ninth place car of Brandon Dean as he comes up to lap him. Morris finally gets room under Dean and as they enter turn one, Dean comes down on the #26 machine, sending himself hard into the turn one wall.

Now we wondered if the contact with Dean caused any damage to the Morris car, slight contact can knock the toe out on these Late Models changing the way the car drives completely. Either way, this is just what Pulliam needed as he pulls up to the outside of Morris for the restart. As they get ready, third place runner McFarland hits pit road, a broken motor ended his day, and only eight laps from the finish.

The green is displayed once more, and this time Pulliam stays right with Morris on the outside. They run neck and neck for three laps, Pulliam inches ahead at the line, behind them Natalie Sather spins down the frontstretch, caution out again. The question is, since they go back to the last completed lap who was the leader? Pulliam is first scored as the leader, but that changes as they put Morris back in front, much to the dismay of the Pulliam team as they are irate on pit road.

300 laps. Avoiding mechanical failures and wrecks all day. Watching Morris dominate as the car to beat. All those things were in the past, it was down to a green-white-checkered to decide it now. They take off even once again as they go through turn one and two, Pulliam inches ahead from the outside ever so slightly. Behind them Latour gets into Puryear as Eddie Johnson sneaks by both of them into third. Morris and Pulliam come to the line taking the white flag with Pulliam ahead by four feet, and dive into turn one where Morris makes that ground right back up on the inside. They dive into turn three with Pulliam having a very slight advantage, Morris slides up the track into Pulliam running him high, Morris dives down to the bottom of the banking and shoots down the frontstretch taking the win by half a car-length.

It was over and Morris had won the battle, but Pulliam was not done for the day as he gave Morris numerous shots to his rear bumper and then one in the side of his door down the backstretch on the cool down lap, he was not happy how it ended. Morris pulled into victory lane the winner, and to many boos from the crowd. Pulliam let his displeasure be known to the crowd on the PA, as the thing that bothered him the most was that Morris was under the guidance of HC Sellers, who also sets up the Pulliam machine. So in a weird way, they were teammates knocking each other out of the way.

It was a great race with great battles and drama throughout the day. In the end the most dominant car won, some say it was dirty, well, I'm not too sure about that. $10,000 on the line in one of the biggest races of the year between the two best in the Late Model world, and they were side-by-side coming to the checkered flag. It's win or lose at that point, second means nothing, and this time the veteran took the flag and the cash.

Next time around it could be different, as Pulliam vowed to wreck Morris head-on into the wall the next time they race. We certainly don't want anything like that, those were just words in the moment anyway, but what we do love is a rivalry. Racing is so white-washed and PC lately, a rivalry of old is what gets the fans blood flowing, and brings drivers to the top of their game.

But, what a better matchup, the veteran, who is possibly the best there has ever been in Late Model Stock Car racing against the new crowd favorite, the up and comer, possibly the future face of Late Model Stock Car racing .... We need to schedule more 'big races' at the end of the year.
 
Results:
1. #26 Philip Morris
2. #3 Lee Pulliam
3. #57 Eddie Johnson
4. #17 Stacy Puryear
5. #89 David Latour
6. #55 Mark Wertz
7. #2 Dennis Holdren
8. #94 Natalie Sather
9. #27 Tommy Lemons Jr.
10. #15 Michael Hardin
11. #74 Ronald Hill
12. #90 Terry Carroll
13. #1 Kyle Waltz
14. #6 Shannon Marano
15. #56 Derrick Lancaster
16. #07 Richard Storm
17. #5 Brandon Dean
18. #25 Mark McFarland
19. #40 C.E. Falk
20. #64 Rick Gdovic
21. #48 Scott Turlington
22. #29 Brandon Butler
23. #9 Bruce Anderson
24. #44 Justin Johnson
25. #08 Deac McCaskill
26. #11 Leigh Caruthers
27. #21 Jeb Burton
28. #22 Eric Winslow
29. #7 Justin Snow
30. #03 Kenny Forbes
31. #83 Matt Bowling
32. #99 Stephen Berry
33. #4 Nick Smith
34. #71 Wayne Roach
35. #12 Jonathan Cash
36. #16 Dustin Storm