Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

Rougemont, NC(June 29, 2010) -- Andy Loden is a name that most of us know in the Late Model world, but this season he has moved on to the super competitive PASS Super Late Model series and has found the going rough at the first of the season. But after scoring only one top ten in the first four races, Loden caught fire ripping off back to back victories at Concord and Ace Speedway in dominating fashion. Orange County was next up this week, and while Loden may have made some enemies throughout the night, the result was the same, the yellow #29 was in victory lane once more.

Loden would roll off from the tenth spot for the feature after qualifying third as a result of the mandatory draw that PASS imposes. Jimmy Weller had set fast time for the day, but the draw was not kind to him either, as he would start ninth in front of Loden, with the third fastest driver of the day Ryan Blaney rolling off seventh. As a result of the draw, ARCA driver Joey Coulter would lead the field to green, followed by Evan Jackson in the David Stremme ride, with Joey Gase, John Stancil and Northern driver Ryan Moore rounding out the top five.

Orange County has always been a favorite among racers and fans alike, as the facility is beautiful, and more importantly, produces great racing with It's multiple grooves. that came to life on lap one of the event as the field fanned out, sometimes 3-wide back in the pack going for position. Coulter jumps out to the early lead with the top five all trying various grooves, while back in the pack beating and banging is the norm as Devin Jones, Preston Peltier and Jay Fogleman all try to make their way through traffic after poor qualifying efforts.

After a few cautions starting at lap 45 and stretching through lap 75, two things have become noticeable. One is that Coulter and Jackson look to be the class of the field, and that veteran Jay Fogleman has his hands full, as he fell back through the pack and pitted nearly every caution to make adjustments on the car. Jackson manages to wrestle to lead away from Coulter, but Coulter's night would go South on lap 85.

Just a few laps after a restart with the field still bunched up, Loden goes to his signature high line through turns one and two, and gets a great run on Coulter for the second spot through the middle of the corner. Only problem is, Coulter's car is in the way and he gets turned by Loden in front of the whole field in turn two. Loden shoots by on the outside, while Gase and John Stancill bang fenders but squeeze through as well. Alex Fleming spins to avoid and Kelly Moore just simply stops near the outside wall, setting off a chain reaction of cars rear ending each other between Moore, Blaney, Fogleman and Tayla Orleans. Orleans got the worst damage and continued, but Coulter was the guy hurt the worst, as he had a potential winning car, unfortunately for him 50 laps and 19 cars to pass just was not possible.

Loden wastes no time putting Jackson by the wayside on the next restart, and it wasn't the end of the fall for Jackson, as he looked to have burned his stuff up keeping up with Coulter and fell gradually back through the field. The car to watch was Devin Jones, who had started 19th but was in the top five within 70 laps. Jones had set fast time in Friday practice and was good throughout the day Saturday skipping two practice sessions, but qualifying threw the team a loop and he worked his way forward.

As the race is heading down the homestretch, a familiar face is starting to show some muscle. Fogleman looks to be a man on a mission, as early in the evening he was dropping to the rear of the field, they had looked to just of missed the setup completely. But after numerous pit stops they turned it around and the SHARK Racing Development Ford Fusion was digging, and climbed back into the top ten before lap 100.

After a late race restart Loden has got away from Joey Gase in second, but here comes Fogleman out of nowhere, as he blows through the entire top five in a mere six laps. It's Loden's race to win though, until a caution comes out for the already damaged car of Tayla Orleans, setting up another exciting green-white-checkered finish. Just before the caution Devin Jones night went south with a cut right front tire, and Preston Peltier hits the pits also under the caution with a cut left rear from contact on the track.

At the drop of the green it's Loden and Fogleman neck and neck through turns one and two and down the backstretch. We get to turn three and as the adrenaline is high, so is Loden's car as it drifts up the track into Fogleman putting him in the wall. Loden cuts it left and kicks it down the frontstretch to take the white flag with Justin Wakefield and Joey Gase getting by Fogleman putting him to fourth. That's how they would cross the line to end it, with Loden picking up his third PASS South series race in a row, and making the word domination be tossed around.

After the race Loden was happy, sorry about some mistakes he had made but knows it comes with the territory. "That was a great run, this car was awesome tonight", said an excited Loden. "I had start tenth and just drove up through there, but I did make some bonehead moves int he early going, I got myself in the wrong position inside of Wakefield and slid up into him early, I'm sorry to them about that. I don't know what happened with Coulter, I spun him out but I think he slid up into me, I obviously didn't mean to do it. I really hate that happened because me and Joey are pretty good friends. I guess I got everybody mad at me, Fogleman's mad at me for roughing him up, but It's green-white-checkered man. I've been too nice for too many years, I wanted to win this race so I did what I had to do."

Fogleman was not a happy camper after the race, but the veteran knows how to say things and mean it and still be nice, and demonstrated after the race. "I guess there's not much to talk about, I was as far up as you could go and he ran me in the wall, not any higher you can go", said a clearly agitated Fogleman. "The biggest thing that I'm thankful for is that I've turned my life around, and I'm not quite as excitable as I used to be, and I can stand here and do the Christian thing about it, but It's awwwfully difficult to do. I'm happy with the run here though, we're trying new stuff, and were getting our own stuff ready as we will be selling SHARK chassis here very soon, we're already selling engines now. We are building a car for Michael Ritch to come in the series here shortly, and while things like that make us grow, it makes the series grow, and I'm just glad to be a part of this whole thing."

Results:
1) 29 - Andy Loden
2) 98 - Justin Wakefield
3) 08 - Joey Gase
4) 4 - Jay Fogleman
5) 20 - John Stancill
6) 05 - Alex Fleming
7) 47 - Trey Mitchell
8) 18 - Bradley McCaskill
9) 23 - Jimmy Weller
10) 16 - Joey Coulter
11) 10 - Ryan Blaney
12) 26 - Preston Peltier
13) 35 - Evan Jackson
14) 93 - Tayla Orleans
15) 35 - Devin Jones
16) 91 - David Quackenbush
17) 48 - John Batten
18) 39 - Kenzie Ruston
19) 71 - Kyle Benjamin
20) 74 - Ryan Moore
21) 02 - Scott Patton
22) 91 - Heath Hindman
23) 75 - Michael Gaier
24) 5 - Spencer Wauters
25) 7 - Dana White
26) 20 - Steven Legendre
27) 56 - Tony Jackson
28) 00 - Grant Davidson