Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Radford, VA(May 3, 2010) -- Twin 100-lap features were on tap for the third night of racing action of the 2010 season at Motor Mile Speedway and this night would prove to be a stark contrast to the two previous races held on the 4/10 mile track.

In the first two races of the season three-time NASCAR National Champion, Philip Morris dominated the two events asserting himself as the early favorite for this seasons title, but there was a couple of guys looming in his rearview mirror. Wayne Ramsey, who won the last race of the 2009 season was back and behind the wheel of a Frank Deiny, Jr. prepared FDJ Motorsports entry and Rusty Skewes, another FDJ driver was also showing promise early on. Skewes and Ramsey didn't really have anything for Morris, but it was obvious that they were gaining on him and that suited team owner, Deiny, who is Morris' arch rival just fine.

On this night FDJ Motorsports came prepared and while Morris was still on his game, he had what's been dubbed the "anti-Morris establishment" nipping at his heels. That was proved in qualifying as Morris won the pole with a fast lap, but had FDJ Motorsports drivers Ramsey, Skewes and Justin Johnson, who was making a rare appearance on the Radford, VA track because his home track of South Boston Speedway was not running this weekend, starting second through fourth. Mike Looney, who didn't have power steering on his qualifying laps would start fifth with Tommy Lemons, Jr. sixth, Jerame Donley seventh, Richard Boswell eighth, Brandon Dean ninth and Adam Long tenth.

From the drop of the green flag it was obvious that Ramsey had more for Morris this week than in the last two events as he put himself out in front of the field and then began fending off challenges from Morris. Behind them Johnson and Skewes were battling for the third position with Skewes taking the spot before beginning to fade through the field. Lemons and Dean were battling hard behind the top five as they have a lot over the last two seasons with Lemons eventually winning out on this battle, but in front of them Donley was beginning to put pressure on Johnson for fourth with Donley evetually grabbing the spot away.

There were battles all throughout the field and one that was getting interesting was between Dean and Boswell. Dean eventually came out on the bad side of that battle at lap 69, but it wasn't long in the race before a little payback took place as Dean and Boswell both went spinning up to the outside wall in turns one and two. After the race both drivers were upset with one another with neither having anything good to say about the other.

"He's(Dean) an idiot," said Boswell. "He can't race anyone without running over top of them and then gets mad at me when he takes himself out."

"Boswell gets into it with someone everytime he races here and it's always the other guys fault," said Dean. "He has one hand on the wheel and the other he's flipping you off and drives into you. I'm not going to take his stuff, he's not going to drive me like that."

Back up front it was still all Ramsey as he was able to stay out ahead of Morris despite the veteran making some strong charges on the restarts, but on lap 94 it got a little more interesting as Morris and Ramsey made conact for the lead. Ramsey was able to hang on to the lead, but now Morris had Johnson on his inside for second as the caution waved for a big mess in turn four. Daniel Pope, Craig Stallard and Zeke Shell among others were tangled up in a big crash that would slow the field and end the night for Stallard and Shell. A late comer to this wreck was Elliott Jewell, who was several seconds behind this wreck but plowed into it after it was over killing his night as well.

On the green, white, checkered restart, Ramsey would pull away and take home the win with Morris hanging on for second, Johnson third with Looney, Lemons, Donley, Skewes, Lancaster, Travis Swaim and Jeff Oleen rounding out the top ten. Swaim, the 2009 NASCAR North Carolina State Champion, was making his first appearance on the 4/10 mile track as his home track of Caraway Speedway is off for a few weeks and was happy with the performance for his first time out.

Ramsey and his car owner, Frank Deiny were all smiles in victory lane, Ramsey just simply because he was in victory lane and Deiny because his car had beaten his rival, Morris to the finish and ended his early season win streak. For the next 100-lap race the top six would redraw for position and as luck would have it the top four guys all drew numbers one through four and kept their same position and the only position swap would be Lemons, who would start sixth instead of fifth moving Donley to the inside lane.

On the start of the race, the outside lane would work for Morris just as did for Ramsey in race number one as the veteran driver pulled his white and orange Clarence's Steakhouse entry into the lead, but his advantage was short lived as a caution would quickly fly at the end of lap one. This time Boswell, who had been part of the race one scuffle with Dean got crashed again and ended his night prematurely. On lap 13, things got ugly up front as Ramsey was working to the inside of Morris for the lead and the two made contact sending both spinning and Lemons into the lead.

The contact could have just been a "racing deal", but after the race talking with both drivers it didn't seem that they believed that to be the case.

"I guess I was the guardrail," said Morris. "The bad thing is I could have done that to him after every restart in the first race and I didn't. Then we had trouble getting the tire off and the jack fell and we lost two laps and here, it's hard to get back on the lead lap once you go two laps down, because the lucky dog goes to guys just one lap down."

"I got under him and he just kept coming down on me and finally I decided to stay in there and we hit," said Ramsey. "I'm not going to pull over, I'm here to race and race hard."

Ramsey got his car turned around and going in the right direction without much damage, but Morris had to hit pit road for a cut left rear tire and that's where things went more wrong. Morris' crew didn't get the car jacked up correctly and the car fell off the jack, ripping the left side of his car nearly off and causing the multi-time champion to lose two laps. From there Morris was never really a factor, but Ramsey certainly would be as for the second week in a row, he would have to rally from the rear of the field.

Ramsey started his charge to the front, but up front his teammate, Johnson was putting pressure on Lemons, who had inherited the lead after the Ramsey, Morris dust up. Johnson was giving Lemons all he could handle as Lemons was racing about a half of a groove higher than Johnson, which was working for Lemons as he was able to keep Johnson at bay. By lap 83, Lemons was still keeping himself out front, but Johnson was still pressuring him, bumping him, but cleanly racing him, but Johnson had to see his teammate, Ramsey in his rearview mirror.

Now it was go time for Johnson and he was able to slip by him just as a caution waved and upon a green, white checkered restart things got even more interesting. Derrick Lancaster made a smart hire during the two weeks off between the last race and this weekends events, hiring Chad Harris' crew chief from last season, Dave Roope and it was working out for the veteran driver well as he was racing among the top five. However, even a smart crew chief can't keep you out of trouble on the track as Lancaster was trying to hold off Donley for the fourth position, the two made contact. Lancaster was obviously upset about the contact, but it was Donley who received the most damage in the deal and even more as he drove down the backstretch on his way to put road.

Lancaster's brother, Scott took care of Derrick's business as he slammed into Donley on the backstretch causing the fans to jump to their feet and Donley even more damage.