WE ARE ...
LATE MODEL STOCK CARS!

Deac McCaskill Celebrates Victory at South Boston

WE ARE ...
LATE MODEL STOCK CARS!

South Boston, VA ~ The July 3rd running of the SoBo 200 for the Late-Model stock cars brought out some of the best around the region. Superman himself, Philip Morris, came over to South Boston Speedway and was trying to keep that magic going that he has at Motor Mile this year, where he has won the last 6 races in a row. Morris smoked the field in qualifying and looked to be on his way to victory when a alternator wire broke leaving the car limping. Enter Deac McCaskill.

McCaskill was one of the fastest cars throughout the night qualifying his #08 machine in at the 3rd position. C.E. Falk beat him to start second, with Stephen Berry and Wayne Ramsey rounding out the top 5. Other names throughout the field were Jonathan Cash starting 6th, points leader Justin

Johnson in 13th, Tommy Lemons Jr. in 15th, Frank Deiny Jr. in 18th, and Rodney Cook back in 19th.

The green flag waves and Morris has the field nearly stopped before it comes out, and therefore gets the jump on the field. Early battles are going on all over the track,and just as McCaskill moves under Falk for second, the nights first caution flies. Justin Johnson gets into the back of David Quakenbush and all cars scatter. When the melee is done, the cars of Johnson, Quakenbush, Michael Rouse, Wayne Roach Jr.,Timmy Nice, James Bayliss and Matt Lofton are all involved. Rouse, Bayliss and Roach are all forced to park their battered machines. It looked as if the point leader Johnson would be able to continue with only fender damage, but upon further review more problems were found, a broken right front spindle. Johnson would rejoin later many laps down finishing 18th.

The first half of the race was the Philip Morris show. He could drive his car anywhere at ease and pulled a straightaway on second place at times. The top 10 were strung out but back in the pack the action was getting hot. Rodney Cook had a terrible qualifying effort but had a fast car, as Chad Harris found out pulling low on Cook in the corners for the 13th spot. Cook gives the fender and moves on to challenge the 12th place running Tommy Lemons. Behind them, a car that is usually up front is fighting for his life at the back of the pack. Frank Deiny Jr., usual hotshoe in any Late-Model, is fighting hard with Brandon Butler and Kelly Kingery with both cars getting around Deiny. Deiny would make numerous pit stops later on and retire on lap 144.

As we get close to halfway, the action picks up tremendously for second place. McCaskill has been pestering Falk nearly the entire race, and on lap 85 he gets into the back of the #40 machine and pushes him high in turn 1. As McCaskill takes the spot, Falk regroups and pays the favor back in the next corner, it doesn't work. Going into one again Falk retries "the bump", and it works to perfection and he takes the spot back over.

Halfway (lap 100)
1.Morris 2.Falk 3.McCaskill 4.Ramsey 5.Cash 6.J.Bailey 7.Owen Miller 8.Triplett 9.Dustin Storm 10. Dude Gibbs

As we go into the second half, the #22 of Jonathon Cash is ready to go. He runs up on Wayne Ramsey for 4th at lap 116, and 4 laps later completes the pass. In front of them McCaskill is once again all over Falk for second, and at lap 125 he makes the pass. By the way, Philip Morris is still in the race, he's so far ahead we all forgot, but it would all change shortly.

50 laps to go and Morris seems to have it in his pocket. Or so it seemed, as he crosses the line to complete lap 151 there is suddenly a noticeable buzz in the motor. It doesn't sound right. We run 2 more laps and it starts to sound terrible. McCaskill is catching him in a hurry and on lap 154 he does what nobody thought was capable this evening, he passes Philip Morris for the lead. As the laps wind down the #26 of Morris just gets slower and slower, finally going a lap down with 11 laps top go

The track is clear for the rest of the way and after finishing second 3 times in a row at SoBo this year, Deac McCaskill takes the victory by almost half a lap. Falk finishes second with Cash right on his bumper. Ramsey came home 4th and after falling back at the beginning, Jonathan Bailey brings home his car in 5th.

Story By: Corey Latham/RACE22.com
email: corey@race22.com