Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

Winston-Salem, NC(June 8, 2010) -- Bowman Gray has all the history and drama, and crowds that make other tracks mouths water. The fields are full for every division and with the reality TV show that aired on the History Channel this past season, even more notoriety was brought to the track, causing too many cars and a problem few other tracks have .... cars were being sent home.

This week was another case of that, as the Sportsman guys got their yearly walk in the the sunshine with their biggest race of the season, a 100 lapper with the choose cone restarts. It was wild and woolly at times, but one car was dominate the entire night. It wasn't one of the long time Bowman Gray regulars, but it was a long time winner in racing everywhere as Gary Ledbetter simply spanked the field.

Nearly 30 cars were on hand for the big event that only starts 25, and with the Whelen Modified/East Series show up the road at Martinsville, the stands and pits were packed to the gills with lots of out of towners. Scott Hall, who has had previous success in Hooters Pro Cup and Late Models, was back for only the second time this season after running one race earlier this year for Tommy Neal, and winning that event. He was back in familiar territory this week, as he was racing in a car out of the Mike Robertson stables, the same team he ran the entire 2009 season with. He made good use of his limited opportunities once more, as he put his Chevy Impala on the pole with a time of 15.003. To his outside would be a relative newcomer to the Sportsman division this season as Kevin Neal in his beautiful #17 lined up second.

Another car out out of Robertson Racing, Bryant Robertson would line up third, followed by Luke Fleming and Gary Ledbetter. At the drop of the green, usually the inside lane is the fast way to go, but nobody told Kevin Neal that as he went side-by-side with Hall for nearly three laps until Hall took the top spot from the inside. Bryant Robertson was having his hands full with Luke Fleming for third, until he pinches him into the wall coming off turn two, it looked to be payback as Fleming had spun Robertson from a top five spot earlier int he season. Fleming would lose six spots on the altercation, as Ledbetter took advantage and jumped to the inside to take the third spot early on.

Hall and Neal looked to leave the field in the first ten laps as they pulled out to a ten car lead on Ledbetter, until the night's first caution came out. DJ Moore and Jim Shoaf got tangled up in turn one, with Moore getting the most damage to the front of his #71 machine. It turned out to be a lucky break for Fleming, who had cut down a left front tire in the Robertson incident and was able to pit under caution. This was also our first look at the cone restart for the evening, where the drivers have the choice to pull to the outside for the start, gaining valuable track position, but at the same time taking a chance in the dreaded slower outside lane and getting freight-trained in the process. Ledbetter and Robbie Brewer were the first ones to try their luck.

Ledbetter read the start to a tee as Hall got off turn four late, and takes the lead heading into turn one. Hall and Neal maintain second and third, and Brewer makes his move pay also by falling into the fifth spot. The top four would then show that they were the cars to beat as they distanced themselves from the rest of the field until the next caution at lap 21. Tommy Neal, who is usually a top dog in the division, had a terrible qualifying run and was in the back beating and banging, and finally got up on the side of Ronnie Barron cutting down his right front tire to bring out another caution.

This time, Hall makes the move to start on the outside form his second spot, and is joined by Barry Edwards and his son Kyle Edwards. It doesn't work for Hall as Ledbetter keeps the top spot, but the Edwards gang got the break they needed and would stay at the front of the field the rest of the night. After a few more minor cautions, Barry Edwards would get by Hall for second as the field got ready for their longest green flag run of the night.

We get almost to the halfway point and Ledbetter and Barry Edwards have checked out. Behind them, Scott Hall is hanging on for dear life as he has lost the handle of his machine and developed a bad push, and Neal and Brewer are on him as much as they can without wrecking him. At halfway Ledbetter has checked out, but that all comes to an end as a caution comes out for Brad Smith, who did not head to the pits for the black flag for dragging his right front fender. He wouldn't need to worry about that fender anymore after the next restart.

Robbie Brewer hits the outside lane this time, with Kyle Edwards in tow along with second place point man Ryan Robertson making his first appearance in the top five for the night. Ledbetter goes, Brewer doesn't, and just like an accordion all heck breaks out lose behind him with a handful of cars piling up in turn one. When the dust settled Brad Smith, DJ Moore, Michael Adams and Jeff Garrison were the casualties but were able to continue with damage. Ledbetter, Barry Edwards, Brewer, Kyle Edwards, Scott Hall and Derek Stoltz are your top six cars at halfway.

Kyle Edwards is big winner on the outside this time as he takes second spot from his father, but dad wouldn't stay there for long as on lap 64 Brewer would make a power move to the inside of Barry Edwards for third bringing Neal with him. the other Neal on the track, Tommy, would bring out the caution once more with 25 laps to go as he breaks a left rear shock mount and heads to the garage. The point leader Derek Stoltz had also just had problems with a flat tire just before this and had went numerous laps down ending his chance at a good finish. All this time another car has been creeping towards the front, and to no surprise it's the 8-time consecutive Sportsman champion Ronnie Cliffton who now finds himself in the top ten.

Another restart, starting to see a theme here? Brewer and Hall take their chances on the outside once more. Ledbetter gets a bad start and Kyle Edwards jumps tot he lead and Brewer goes to second, but it was all for naught, as Scott Hall gets spun off turn two to bring the caution out once more. While Bowman Gray is the most famous and best attended track in America, the one thing it doesn't have is transponders to keep track of which car is where, it is all done by hand as it was 50 years ago. This keeps Ledbetter in the lead as it goes back to the previously completed lap, and may have been his saving grace of the night.

After some late race shenanigans back in the pack, we finally get our last restart with four laps to go. Ledbetter had held off three restarts in the last 15 laps, and now it was a single file race to the finish. Brewer had moved up to second, but was no match for the #70 of Ledbetter up off the corners as his car would bite when others wouldn't. Brewer would have his hand full holding off Kevin Neal but managed to come home with the runner up spot with Neal in third and the Edwards', Kyle and Barry rounding out the top five.

Burnouts are not the norm at Bowman Gray, but Ledbetter showed them how it's done power braking his smoking car all the way down the frontstretch and thru turns one and two on his victory lap before returning to victory lane. There he was greeted by a horde of crew, family and friends, as they congratulated him on his win. LMSC standout Alex Yontz was there to in the celebration also, as Ledbetter works on the Yontz UARA team causing him to only run selected events at the stadium. Luckily for him, the biggest race of the year was one of them.

Ledbetter talked about his run after the race. "I knew we had a good car today from practice, but we tried something there with air pressure in the tires before qualifying and it didn't work out like we thought" said a very happy Ledbetter. "I knew on the first caution that I was going to the outside, that was our plan, if I was third or further back we were going for it. I made it work and here we are. This win in this big race is great, we're tickled to death, I don't get to run over here every week as I help Alex and those boys in the UARA, but we'll be back next week and then have to miss another one the following week as we go to the beach for the UARA race. This is great though, it really is".

In other events at Bowman Gray Saturday, the evening started off with Matt Cotner taking home the win in a 20 lap Street Stock contest. It looked as a replay from earlier this season as Cotner got into the back of leader John McNeil on lap eight spinning him, and then held off a strong charge from Reggie Doub and Kenneth Stimpson to pick up the victory. Cotner extended his point lead to 48 points over Doug Wall in the series standings.