Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Midlothian, VA(April 30, 2010) -- While the night started off being about the NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series stars shining brightly, it was a local Late Model Stock Car ace, who shined the brightest at the end of the night.

Denny Hamlin's Short Track Showdown, the name says it all, Hamlin a hometown hero from nearby Chesterfield, VA staged a Late Model Stock Car show of epic porportions as he invited nine of his NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series friends to compete head to head with local Late Model Stock Car racing's best. Hamlin, Tony Stewart, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Joey Logano, Elliott Sadler, Aric Almirola, Hermie Sadler, Bobby Labonte and Marcos Ambrose along with former NASCAR Nationwide Series driver, Curtis Markham and Martinsville Speedway President, Clay Campbell were among the "star" entries.

On the Late Model Stock Car driver side there was local racers from Southside Speedway, where the event was held including legends Bugs Hairfield and Shane Lockhart, the Langley Speedway track champion, CE Falk, two-time UARA-STARS Series champion, Matt McCall, up and comers, Nick Smith and Brandon McReynolds, three-time NASCAR Whelen All American Series National Champion, Philip Morris and LMSC veterans Eddie Johnson and Tommy Lemons, Jr. among many others.

If the Denny Hamlin Foundation, who was putting on the event, could have scripted the day's events, it wouldn't have went much different than it did as the drama started in qualifying and lasted until the final turn of the final lap. When it was over the completely packed grandstands and those already standing because they didn't have a seat were jumping up and down cheering and chatting with one another about the great race they saw, many of which likely saw the greatest Late Model Stock Car show they'll ever see and maybe the greatest race overall.

In qualifying, the field was unbelievably tight until the man putting on the race blasted everyone with a pole lap that wouldn't be touched. The top ten saw a great mix of NASCAR "stars" as well as Late Model Stock Car drivers with Denny Hamlin posting the pole time of 14.066 seconds, .197 seconds faster than Tony Stewart's impressive 14.263 making it an all NASCAR front row for the 250-lap race. Langley Speedway champion, CE Falk busted into the top three with Kyle Busch fourth and Matt Waltz surprising in a top five qualifying run.

Aric Almirola was the last NASCAR driver in the top ten in sixth with Eddie Johnson, Scott Turlington, Brandon McReynolds and Nick Smith completing the top ten. Making it into the race in the top twenty in qualifying from 11th to 20th was Philip Morris, Elliott Sadler, Stephen Berry, Matt McCall, Darrell Wallace Jr., Joey Logano, Chris Hopkins, Marcos Ambrose, Curtis Markham and Kyle Waltz.

Starting the race via provisional would be Kevin Harvick, Clay Campbell, Hermie Sadler and Bobby Labonte. Harvick, Campbell and Sadler simply missed it on time, but Labonte became the days first bit of drama as he dove into turn one for his first lap of qualifying and turned his car backwards fast slamming the wall hard. Labonte didn't just spin the car, his crew left the sway bar loose and as he headed for turn one it came out of the car and Labonte was just along for the ride.

With the top twenty and the provisionals in place it was time for the rest of the field to be set and a 30-lap heat race was in store for the already packed grandstands to view over an hour before the race. This race would set the tone for the night as the first 15-laps clicked off uneventfully, but soon after a major crash would ensue that left Lin O'Neill up on top of Terry Carroll. It was a crazy race and in the end Bugs Hairfield, who came from the seventh starting spot would come up short as Marc Davis took the victory, but the top six transfered in and that put Davis, Hairfield, Mark Wertz, Tommy Lemons, Scott Marshall and Terry Carroll, who was missing the entire left side of his car.

Once some pre-race festivities were concluded it was time for the 30-car Late Model Stock Car All-Star field to get down to business. On pit road many questions were being bantered about as the cars warmed up on the track including guesses as to when the first caution would be ... most answered the first lap or two, but they would be wrong. From the drop of the green flag it wouldn't take long for the races' previous two-time winner, Kyle Busch to assert himself as the car to beat early, taking the lead from the fourth starting position. CE Falk was also asserting himself as one of the few Late Model Stock Car drivers that could compete with the NASCAR Stars as he raced among the leaders early on.

NASCAR Star, Kevin Harvick would bring out the nights first caution as he spun his car harmlessly in turns one and two, but the next restart would get interesting as Falk was ready to make himself a real player. Soon after the restart, he would move himself into the second position bypassing Hamlin and in a position to take on Falk if there was to be another caution early on in this race. That caution didn't take long as Scott Turlington got a flat tire while racing inside the top ten and spun in front of the rest of the field collecting Joey Logano, Matt McCall and Marcos Ambrose, but everyone drove away without major damage.

On this restart, Falk took the lead on the restart from the outside line of the double-file restarts, however Falk's lead was short lived however as Busch was ready to show him how it was done slamming into the back of him as he got the lead and nearly crashing the young up and coming driver. Another caution would bunch the field up again and this allowed Falk to show Busch his displeasure as he jacked Busch up under caution, showing him he wasn't going to be run over by the NASCAR Star. The next caution would be a big one as Chris Hopkins rode the backstretch wall and flipped over on his roof after contact from Darrell Wallace, Jr.

Hopkins was alright and when he hopped out of his car, he headed straight for Wallace's parked car on the backstraight under the red flag, punched the window net and yelled at Wallace. He was quickly escorted off the track by an official, but one of his crew members stayed to taunt Wallace, but one of Wallace's crew members kept him at a distance. From there Sheriff's Deputies kept the Hopkins crew and Wallace crew off the race track as they stood just in front of Wallace's car while the red flag was displayed. Nearly lost in all the excitement was the fact that Aric Almirola climbed from his car and ran to the bathroom, but once the announcers noticed that, they made light of the situation and had a good time with it because after all "if you have to go, you have to go".

Once the track was cleaned up from this huge accident, it was time to get back to racing and that's exactly what they did as the field of now less than 30-strong was read to bump and battle for each position. The action kept the fans out of their seats a lot as there were crashes and near crashes happening all over the place as cars would be sideways at every turn and sometimes on the straightaways. On this restart, Falk discarded of Busch and soon Busch would find himself headed backwards as he fell into the clutches of Nick Smith.

Smith isn't afraid of beating and banging and neither is Busch and this proved to be a deadly combination as Busch knew his car was fading and wasn't in the mood to put up with Smith's antics and didn't. Busch dove into turn one on the inside of Smith and sent the young driver spinning, but for Busch it was the beginning of a ride as Morris went riding on the drivers side of his car momentarily. The cars piled in with Matt McCall getting a little air as Joey Logano goes under him with Almirola slamming into the right side of his ride and it still wasn't over as Ambrose and McReynolds slide by them, Harvick slams into Logano's stopped car and goes up on his side.

It was a crazy wreck and many drivers nights were done as Harvick would park his ride, Busch would park his mount and Logano would crawl out of his on the track as it wasn't going anywhere. McCall's night was pretty much done, but Smith and Morris would both continue and eventually these two old foes would meet again. After a couple laps of green flag action, Scott Marshall would go for a spin off of Morris' bumper, but this would be the start of a much worse night for Marshall as he would later slam into the outside wall destroying the right side of his ride and ending his night.

The lap 150-break for two tire would be a relief for some and nearly the end for others. While many of the front runners were getting routine service to their rides, McReynolds would be fighting for breath as in the final of the first 150-laps he would slam into Ambrose multiple times and got him completely sideways more than once. Ambrose didn't like the way he was being drove and under the break he reached through the window and put McReynolds in a choke hold and left McReynolds grasping for air. Once Ambrose was removed from McReynolds window, he returned to his car and nothing else took place as McReynolds crew was now at the car getting service taken care of, but their rift wasn't done.

Once the pit action was done it was once again back to racing or wrecking as it was and they would certainly do plenty of both. On the restart Ambrose tried hard to take McReynolds out, but McReynolds kept his car under control and Ambrose at bay, but every restart would see these two lining up with McReynolds in front of Ambrose and McReynolds was racing to try and get away from him. The next major caution would wave because of another in-race feud, but this one goes back a long ways with Morris and Smith, who have had many run-ins, but this time Smith got the better of Morris sending him spinning down the back straightaway in front of the field.

This would prove to be the end of the night for Morris as just seconds later with no where to go Clay Campbell hit him square in the door, giving the veteran a shot he most certainly will feel for a while. Campbell and Morris walked away, but Morris certainly isn't happy with Smith for putting him in that position and I'm quite sure these two will be seeing each other again soon and this one isn't over. Back up front it appeared that Hamlin had things under control, but Falk was still looming behind him as was Tony Stewart, who had been hanging around all night.

The long green flag run, or atleast long for this race wouldn't last until the finish as Hamlin was hoping as he