Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Coeburn, VA(May 24, 2010) -- For one driver it was time to break through for his first career stock car victory in the Charger division and in the Late Model Stock Cars it was a brand new car with a familiar wheel man, who would end the win streak of another popular area driver.

That was the storylines on Saturday night as Lonesome Pine Raceway entered their fourth race of the young season and while car count would appear to be off in the Late Model division, that wouldn't slow the action. The car count in the Charger division, a Limited Late Model class utilizing Crate Engines, however wouldn't be off as a full field of 12-cars would take the green flag for the 40-lap feature and this race saw a whole of "new".

Qualifying started off the beginning of a "different" appearing night as Ryan Stiltner, son of Late Model Stock Car driver, Keith Stiltner, grabbed his first career pole award over season long dominator, Brad Housewright. Housewright to date had won every race this season, but on this night there would be young challengers all over the place and he would get the biggest challenge of the season. Stiltner started from the pole with Housewright second and rookie, Blake Jones lining up third and while Stiltner wouldn't last long up front as from the drop of the green flag, Housewright would go to the point, Jones was staying close to him.

As Stiltner began a free fall through the field, Housewright was out front looking strong, but Jones was beginning to nip on his heels for the top spot. Jones, who had come close to picking up his first career win in a fierce battle with Housewright two weeks prior with Housewright edging him out for the win. On this night, Jones wasn't willing to let it go easily and Housewright wasn't backing down either as the two went toe to toe for the top spot for much of the race, surviving several restarts in a caution filled race. At every caution, the two would line up side by side for the double-file restarts and every time they would race one another hard for the top spot.

Jones looked to have the better car as the races laps began to click off and as it got late in the going, Jones was flexing his muscle, pulling away slightly at every restart. At the end, Jones would pull away from Housewright and pull his Wade Day prepared car into victory lane for the first time in his career. Housewright stated that he thought he had lost a cylinder in the end, but it didn't matter as it appeared that Jones had the best car on this night anyways.

"The car was the best it's been all year and I can't thank Wade Day enough, he's given me everything I need to win races and we finally got it tonight," said Jones in victory lane.

With Jones taking his first career win, Housewright was left to settle for second and did despite the reported engine issues. Royce Peters raced up to finish third with Steve Simms and Freddie Taylor, Jr. completing the top five finishers in the Charger division.

Once the Charger race was completed it was time to go racing in the Late Model Stock Car division and despite only seven cars taking the green flag, it was shaping up to be a great battle for the win. Nate Monteith has been on a roll at Lonesome Pine for a while, but this season he's went three for three and despite planning to miss the fourth race a week ago, mother nature intervened and kept his streak perfect. This week mother nature was expected to be a factor again, but she kindly rolled out of the area early in the day and opened the door for a great night of racing.

With rain gone from the area, qualifying for the Late Model Stock Car commenced and for the third time in as many attempts this season, two-time USARacing Pro Cup Series winner, Caleb Holman qualified on the pole. Holman has started on the pole in all but one race this season and he wasn't in attendance for that one and again for the third time, Monteith would start on to his outside. In the previous to races, Monteith had got a great start and pulled away and while he didn't get that start this time, he did get his car out front and took the lead early in the going.

Monteith would hold the lead for the first half of the race despite having Holman just inches off his bumper at every turn, the two never made contact and at lap 26, Holman raced under Monteith for the lead off turn four only to be slowed by the first caution of the night. Holman would line up to the outside of Monteith and this would be his best chance to take the lead using the same line that Monteith had to gain the lead on the start of the race.

On the restart the outside line would prove to be the place to be as Holman would assume the lead, but just as it appeared he would pull away, Monteith was rallying back to his inside. Holman utilized the high line to keep his car ahead of Monteith's and Monteith appeared to use up his right front tire as he began to fade back around lap 35. On lap 40 with Holman securely in the lead it appeared that the race for the win was over, but with ten laps still to go anything could happen and as it usually does at "The Pine", the caution waved over the field.

As the field entered turn one on lap 40, Wayne Hale and Blake Jones made contact for the third position, send Jones around as Hale continued around the track. With ten laps to go, everyone knew that it was going to be a fierce battle for the lead between two guys who have a ton of laps around the 3/8 mile paved oval, but few people expected what would happen next. Holman leading the way, would opt to take the outside line and give Monteith the inside for the restart and while it had worked before, it was certainly a gutsy call by the veteran driver.

On the restart, Holman pulled away with little battle from Monteith and drove to win his first Late Model Stock Car race of the season at Lonesome Pine Raceway. Monteith would hang on to finish second in his first defeat this season with Jones rallying back to finish third after the late spin. Wayne Hale and Dalton Hopkins completed the top five finishers in the short seven car field.

"We finally got the car working like we needed it to," said Holman in victory lane after the win. "I worked the guys hard in testing this week to get the car the way I wanted it to and they dialed it in perfect tonight. I knew beating Nate(Monteith) was going to be tough, I'm just glad we finally did it tonight."

"I burnt up my right front trying to get by him down low on that run after halfway," said Monteith. "I think we both had pretty equal cars, but that outside line really worked for him there. I thought we might could get him on the final restart, but when he took the high line, it was pretty much his race to lose."

Monteith's streak had come to an end, Jones had finally broke through for his first career victory, Wade Day has put another young driver in victory lane and it was another incredible night of racing on the 3/8 mile track ... exactly what we've come to expect from a trip to the Coeburn, Virginia track.

Late Model Stock Cars:
1 - Caleb Holman #74(Pole)
2 - Nate Monteith #44
3 - Blake Jones #80
4 - Wayne Hale #19
5 - Dalton Hopkins #88
6 - Terry Stone #34
7 - Don Monteith #14

Chagers:
1 - Blake Jones #80
2 - Brad Housewright #1
3 - Royce Peters #40
4 - Steve Sims #10
5 - Freddie Taylor, Jr. #16
6 - Paul Shull #48
7 - Steve Wright #75
8 - Jenna Wagner #47
9 - Ryan Stiltner #22(Pole)
10 - Robbie Ward #11
11 - Austin Peters #66
12 - Kevin Wolfe #17