WE ARE ...
LATE MODEL STOCK CARS!
More Stories from the UARA-STARS Season Opener ...
WE ARE ...
LATE MODEL STOCK CARS!
Story By: Langley Austin ~ langley@race22.com
Concord, NC ~ Ross Furr was the lucky guy sitting in victory lane on Saturday night following 150-laps of the best Late Model Stock Car racing anywhere, but he wasn't the only guy creating a stir among the field of 46 cars that showed up throughout the weekend for the Whitley Truck & Equipment 150 at Concord Motorsport Park.
The first thing many people took notice of was the fast laps that Clint Mills and his Mills Racing team laid down during
qualifying ... a 16.278 second lap put Mills out in front of the field on his home track. Mills was joined on the front row by another hometown favorite, Shaun Mangum, who smoked the track with a lap of 16.308 seconds. Mills and Mangum both turned out to be heavy players in this race despite Mills never leading a lap and Mangum fading late.
Mangum finished sixth in his first series start and may turn into a regular if he and his team in the right gear when they head to Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, VA for the series second event. Another driver who wasn't planning on running full time that might have to have a change a plans is Rookie of the Race award winner, Cliff Daniels. Daniels, who is currently scheduled to split the 16 race schedule with his sister, Tiffany Daniels, may be rethinking the situation after scoring a top ten finish and being the leading Melling Select Rookie of the Year candidate. We'll see how this plays out when the gates open Saturday morning at Motor Mile Speedway.
Jake "The Snake" Crum had a great start to his 2008 season as he scored a second place finish and nearly got around Furr for the win a few times late and even had him turned sideways as he tried to 'snake' his way past the defending champion. Crum was followed to the line by his rival, Roger Lee Newton, who started shotgun on the field(28th) and raced his way to third in the end showing the strength of his Roger Newton Concrete Finishing Chevrolet. Newton can attribute his strong run to his team and Jim Cook of Jim Cook Racing, who thrashed to get his rear end repaired after he ripped it up as he began to make his qualifying run.
Clay Greenfield made his trip from Clarksville, TN worth it as he got his 2008 season off to a great start with a fourth place finish ... Jamie Yelton proved he could race his way through traffic, something he's been criticized for over the years when he and Furr got together spinning Yelton. Both drivers chalked it up as a racing deal and later Yelton got into another racing deal when he got into the rear quarter panel of Mills, spinning Mills as well as a handful of other cars. Yelton rallied to a fifth place finish, again another great start to the season especially considering heading into the race next Saturday at Motor Mile Speedway he goes there as the only guy to ever win a UARA-STARS series race on the 4/10 mile track.
Alex Yontz, who had a struggling return to the series got it together when it was time to count the chips and pulled off a seventh place finish. Yontz was off by a mile on Friday in testing and continued to struggle into Saturday when he qualified 22nd, but started 21st. Yontz got the bump up in the starting order on the bad luck of young 16 year-old, Garrett Campbell, who qualified in the field, but destroyed his racer as he slapped the wall at the end of his qualifying run, ending his day. No doubt when Campbell shows up at Motor Mile he'll have a lot to prove and as fast as he was at Concord look out this kid may be one of the top dogs in no time.
BJ Mackey led the most laps, but faded shortly after the 100-lap mark and finished seventh, a good start, but certainly a disappointment for the veteran driver. Curtis Truex, Jr. and Kyle Moon made the most of of transfering from the heat race to the feature by coming up to finish in the 11th and 12th place finishes respectively. Veteran driver and UARA career wins leader, Jamey Caudill had a tough weekend at the super fast half mile track. He practiced pretty fast, but when it came time for qualifying he just barely made it in starting from the 20th position and raced his way up inside the top ten until he was taken out by lapped car on a restart as he spun down the front straight, he went on to finish 13th.
Second year UARA driver, Casey Holt had a great start to his season as he qualified securely in the field and finished a strong 14th. Andrew Carlsen, one of the Nick Pistone Racing drivers finished 15th despite crashing with his teammate, Johnny Gottsacker of Dallas, TX. Gottsacker's day ended with the crash and finished 21st, but Carlsen continued and finished on the lead lap. Richard Boswell II, son of legendary Late Model driver, Dickie Boswell of Maryland had a great qualifying effort with an eighth place start, but his day didn't end too well after cutting down a tire he finished 17th as the final driver on the lead lap.
Thomas Hartensveld, a young 18 year-old rookie this season made the field through the heat race and had a solid finish as he rolled to a 19th place finish ahead of Brad Kurth. Kurth, who may just make his first attempt to run a full season with the series had a good qualifying effort, but struggled and eventually brought out the final caution(red flag) getting tore up in the end. Concord Motorsport Park defending champion, Chuck Crump qualified for the show in fifth, but just like last week in the NASCAR Weekly Series season opener at Concord his day didn't end as well as it had began. Crump was credited with a 22nd place finish.
Kenny Brooks may just be the story of the weekend, bringing his car in on an open trailer, not one of the huge rigs that usually haul these cars and qualified inside the top ten and ran there for much of the race before blowing his engine. Brooks is planning to run full time and after that performance he may just be one of the guys to beat as the season rolls on. Daniel Pope II started the race after taking a provisional and his day didn't get any better as the race got going as he was taken out in a crash with Casey Holt. Pope said he thought it was an intentional wreck and was visibly upset after the crash.
Corey Lajoie and Brandon McReynolds, two Rookie of the Year contenders got their season off to a great start by first getting into the race with solid qualifying efforts starting 13th and 14th respectively, but those great qualifying efforts was the end of their good fortune as both drivers got taken out when they crashed together on lap 47. McReynolds got the worst of the incident as his car was shortened up by a few feet after hitting the wall head on, while Lajoie's day also came to an end. Another Rookie of the Year candidate, Matthew Godley shortened up his racer during the heat race when he lost it on his own in turn four. Ending his day without making his second start in the UARA-STARS series. Wilmington, NC driver,
Joey Bryant, who is another Melling Select Rookie of the Year contender had a tough weekend starting out well over a full second slower than the fast cars, but Bryant made a huge gain on the field gaining a full second in speed. Bryant's day however came to an end on the first lap of the heat race when he hit the inside wall before making it to the start finish line, but Bryant had been having a few clutch issues throughout the weekend and that may have contributed to his end result. Look for Bryant to make his first race in the next event.
Another Melling Select Rookie of the Year candidate and the
guy most people would have predicted to win the rookie championship this season had a terrible start to the 2008 season and missed the race for the first time in his six attempts in the UARA-STARS. Wallace first had his luck turn bad when he ended practice with a spin that took him out of his primary car, which was a new Pistone LTO chassis powered by a Billy Banks Racing Engine. Then the fourteen year old driver got out his backup car powered by a crate engine and attempted to qualify the car with little success putting him in the field for the heat race. The heat race help him to damage a second car and then overheated the car and
did not finish, thus giving him two torn up race cars and not a single starting position in the race. Wallace had a tough day and hopes he can rebound as he heads into his first Late Model Stock Car race of the season this weekend at Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, NC before the series heads to Motor Mile Speedway in Radford, VA in two weeks.
There is no doubt we've talked about many of the drivers in the above paragraphs, but even that doesn't tell the whole story ... other drivers had tough weekend's, obviously anyone who missed the race including another rookie driver, Nick Pope a former Allison Legacy Series champion, who went out to qualify first and dumped the car on cold tires then ripped the side off of his car in the opening laps of the heat race ended up missing the show, but this young driver will get things turned around and will be back at Motor Mile next weekend.
There is so many other story lines ... there are so many stories to tell from a weekend that saw 46 competitors roll through the gate, 38 take time in qualifying and only 28 make the show and we'll continue to bring you the most in-depth coverage from all the UARA-STARS races as well as some road trips like this weekend when the RACE22.com Crew will head to Tri-County Motor Speedway for the Friday night season opener and then we'll head to Motor Mile Speedway on Saturday for the big season opener at the track with the highest purse and highest car count for Late Model Stock Cars.
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