Story by: Mason Dunn ~ mason@RACE22.com

Hampton, VA(May 28, 2010) -- It was a tale of two entirely different races this past Saturday at Langley Speedway and they produce two first time winners for the 2010 season. Danny Edwards Jr. claimed his second pole of the season with a time of 15.934 in qualifying beating out Woody Howard with Mark Wertz, Brandon Gdovic and C.E. Falk rounding out the top five for the first race's lineup.

The first race got started clean with no issues on the start and the field got running single-file for the most part before a spin by Dude Gibbs in turn 4 brought out the first caution and set up the first double-file restart of the night. Edwards Jr. continued to show the way up front as Falk began to make passes in effort to get in a position to challenge for the win. By lap 25 Falk had moved himself into second place only three to four car lengths behind Edwards Jr. As the laps winded down Edwards Jr. continued to maintain a four to five car length advantage over Falk as the battle began to heat up for third between Howard and Greg Edwards.

Caution flew late in the running on lap 73 for the spinning machine of Jeff Shiflett on the exit of turn 4 setting up a single-file green-white-checker finish for all the marbles with Edwards Jr. leading, Falk in second, Greg Edwards in third and Howard in fourth. Falk made his desires known as he gave Edwards Jr. just enough contact to make room underneath and launch a challenge for the win. As they came off turn 4 looking at the checker flag Falk gave it all he had but Edwards Jr. had just enough more as he beat Falk to the line by a tire or 51-thousandths of a second. Greg Edwards won the battle for third with Woody Howard and Mark Wertz rounding out the top five.

"About lap 52, I started getting a little freer than I wanted and I was trying to ride and save what I could," said Edwards Jr. in victory lane after the race. "We didn't need that restart there at the end, but it was good to win that way. We beat him fair and square, beat him to the line."

While in victory lane Edwards Jr. gave the inversion wheel a spin to determine the lineup for race number two and the wheel landed on an eight meaning that the entire top eight from the first race would be inverted placing Edwards Jr. and Falk back in row four with Jeff Shiflett and Casey Wyatt making up the front row.

The start to race number two would not be as clean as the first as both front row cars would spin tires on the start with Shiflett spinning sideways igniting a huge wreck causing heavy damage to the machines of Mark Wertz and C.E. Falk. Wertz would not be able to continue but after removal of the front bumper, frame horn and nose as well as a radiator transplant Falk would be able to continue.

With zero laps on the board it would be a full restart placing Wes Falk into the inside of the front row with Wyatt on his outside but the restart wouldn't last long as Shiflett went for another spin down the front stretch as the field began to accelerate. Third time was the charm as the field got going and Wyatt nosed ahead of Falk to lead lap one but Falk wasn't content with the thought of second and rallied back to claim the lead on lap two with Woody Howard following him by Wyatt.

Lap 11 saw the third and final caution of the event as Duane Shreeves went for a spin in turn 3 igniting a melee which sidelined the cars of Rick Gdovic and Jeff Shiflett. Upon the restart Howard would win the battle over Falk for the lead and began to put some distance between himself and Falk, who appeared to be using a tire conservation strategy as the laps ticked off.

As the race began to enter the late stages Falk began to push his car more and more closing the gap between himself and Howard and as they approached lap 50 Howard began to encounter lap traffic which helped Falk close the gap to just about two car lengths. On lap 54 Falk decided it was time to make his move making slight contact with Howard and making the pass on the inside and taking the lead officially on lap 55.

As the laps began to wind down Howard made one last surge at Falk for the lead but a sizeable slide off turn 4 on lap 68 slowed up Howard just enough to give Falk a nice cushion with only a handful of laps remaining. At the finish, Wes Falk laid claim to his first career Late Model Stock win by just over half a second over Howard with Greg Edwards, Danny Edwards Jr. and Kyle Waltz rounding out the top five. C.E. Falk was able to recover from the big wreck on the start with a heavily damaged car to finish sixth.

"We just fought hard the whole race. Kinda got put behind the 8-ball, getting stuck behind Woody on that restart and all, so we just keep our heads cool and we kept fighting and fighting and we finally caught him and made our move and we're in victory lane," said Falk after the race. "I just kept running my line and didn't look in the rear view mirror. Anthony(Warren, Falk's spotter) told me don't look back there. I got that. I just ran my line and we got the victory."

At the end of the night after collecting two solid third place finishes, Greg Edwards was able to remain as the points leader with brother Danny moving into second with the Falk brothers, C.E. and Wes, sitting third and fourth only two points back of Edwards Jr. Wertz's stumble dropped him out of the top five in points back in sixth, 42 points out of the lead.

Race #1 Results:
1. #26 Danny Edwards Jr.
2. #40 C.E. Falk
3. #21 Greg Edwards
4. #82 Woody Howard
5. #55 Mark Wertz
6. #41 Wes Falk
7. #29 Casey Wyatt
8. #01 Jeff Shiflett
9. #2 Matt Waltz
10. #7 Dude Gibbs
11. #64 Rick Gdovic
12. #45 Doug Warren
13. #06 Dean Shiflett
14. #46 Brandon Gdovic
15. #1 Kyle Waltz
16. #38 Duane Shreeves
17. #21D Robbie Babb
18. #55A Shawn Balluzzo
19. #40C Bruce Kimmel

Race #2 Results
1. #41 Wes Falk
2. #82 Woody Howard
3. #21 Greg Edwards
4. #26 Danny Edwards Jr.
5. #1 Kyle Waltz
6. #40 C.E. Falk
7. #7 Dude Gibbs
8. #45 Doug Warren
9. #06 Dean Shiflett
10. #2 Matt Waltz
11. #29 Casey Wyatt
12. #38 Duane Shreeves
13. #46 Brandon Gdovic
14. #64 Rick Gdovic
15. #01 Jeff Shiflett
16. #21D Robbie Babb
17. #55A Shawn Balluzzo
18. #55 Mark Wertz
19. #40C Bruce Kimmel

Top Five in Points(Race Wins)
1. #21 Greg Edwards 232
2. #26 Danny Edwards Jr.(1) 226 -6
3. #40 C.E. Falk(2) 224 -8
4. #41 Wes Falk(1) 224 -8
5. #82 Woody Howard 212 -20
Other race winners: Mark Wertz(1)