Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

South Boston, VA(July 8, 2010) -- South Boston Speedway was the place to be last Friday night, as their big 200-lap Late Model Stock Car race rolled off for the green with a hefty 30 car field boasting some big names.

In the end it came down to two veterans and a up and comer, who were the class of the field right from the drop of the green as they put on a display that made the rest of the field look like they were in another division.

Lee Pulliam put his #3 ride on the pole, with recent headliner Philip Morris to his outside. Morris is usually in the headlines for winning races, but lately the big news was were he WASN'T racing, as his team has vowed not to return to Motor Mile Speedway amid sanctions against his car for winning races. Morris would jump to the lead at the start and he, Pulliam and McCaskill would let it be know early and often, they were going to be the ones leading the pack throughout.

In the early stages of the race, many big names seemed to have problems or simply be off their game. CE Falk, the Langley regular and Denny Hamlin Showdown winner, had his night go sour in the opening laps as contact with Peyton Sellers sent him spinning and putting him to the back of the pack, a deficit he could not ever gain back. Nick Smith was a top five car, until he lost the handle before the halfway mark and began to use the extreme high groove, until contact with the lapped car of Speedy Faucette ended his night early. Smith was none too pleased. "That knucklehead in the 37(Faucette) just drove over my whole left front, I should go to his track and show him what the wall looks like up close", said a very angry Smith.

While the top three were lapping into the top ten, Stacy Puryear was maintaining fourth, and David Latour was the man on the move. Latour has had a phenomenal year, qualifying up front for each event at SoBo and running well, with his only bad finishes being the result of parts failures. He had caught Puryear and passed for fourth when Lawrence Boan and Natalie Sather got together after a restart and Latour had nowhere to go, ending his night and possibly his season after being one of the only cars to gain ground on the top three. "We just had two cars racing each other that shouldn't of been, I had nowhere to go. This might be it for me, this thing is destroyed, and we are out of money to fix cars, I really don't know what we are going to do", said a visibly upset Latour as he punched his hood and stood back to look at the damage.

The trio of Morris, Pulliam and McCaskill ran nose to tail for much of the event, with none of the three ever fading, and lapped into the top eight before the halfway point. The only other cars looking to stay on the lead lap were Justin Johnson and Puryear, but both their nights ended prematurely with engine failure. Josh Oakley was hanging on to the lead lap for dear life, but little did anyone know that he was saving his stuff......a lot of stuff.

As the race got inside the 20 to go mark, Pulliam started using the back bumper of the Morris machine turning him sideways off every turn, but letting him gather it up each time. As Pulliam was calculating his move using lots of time, McCaskill saw that the inside groove was not going to be open at any point, and with 19 laps to go he dove to the outside of Pulliam in turn one, and by everyone's surprise, it stuck. Around Pulliam he goes, and next was Morris on the outside, and he pulled it off a lap later. A power move for sure, and in turn the winning move of the night.

Morris began to fade badly after he relinquished the lead, and Oakley began charging up to the front, turning laps much faster than the two leaders, but he planned his charge a few laps too late. Pulliam would give one more shot at McCaskill for the lead but it was not to be, as McCaskill was not to be denied on this night, and rightfully so, after making one of the best moves ever witnessed at South Boston.

McCaskill was all smiles after the race, and was still pumped up on one of the biggest wins of his career. "I'm not going to lie to you, we looked like we were riding up front there throughout the race, but I wasn't riding at all. We had a really tight racecar and I told them about it, and Rick Townsend came back and said we would be good at the end. We were all pretty good, and Philip(Morris) and Lee(Pulliam) were running so low I couldn't pass them down there, and we had been decent the few times I tried the outside. Lee(Pulliam) got Philip(Morris) loose a little off the corner and that was all I needed up top, I kept that John Wes power wound up. Wesley Page hooked me up with some shocks and this was the first time with him. Rick Townsend and Craig Oliver have really turned this thing around, they have been a huge help to me."

About the actual pass to the outside: "That was pretty sweet right there", said a laughing McCaskill. "I've done it before, I did it last year with Justin(Johnson), I've been here a long time and back in 05' I could really get it going up there. It just hasn't been the same in recent years, but up there you can really use the motor where they were bogging their stuff down. As long as they give you room you can shoot down the straightaway and keep them pinned to the bottom. This is just awesome, I am just glad we can put on a show for everyone here and these fans especially, they pay a lot of money to watch us and I want to give them what they deserve, and thanks them for all their support."

Lee Pulliam was disappointed, but happy with a good finish. He did wish he had disposed of Morris earlier in the race though. "I didn't want to wreck him, he was holding me up big time though. I let him go at the beginning of the race to work through that lapped stuff and to save me stuff for the end. I don't know, gosh man, I'm so happy to have a good racecar like that but so disappointed at the same time. I just want to win them the right way, I could of booted him and came away with $5000 tonight, but I remember last week when he didn't turn me. After Deac went by on the outside I knew I had to go, and I got into Philip a little bit going by and i think it knocked the toe out a bit, I just couldn't catch back up."

Josh Oakley was the guy that came out of nowhere, and showed that the top three should have been a group of four during the evening. "We started 13th so I knew with 200 laps that there was no need to run it to death. I picked off a car when I could, but basically rode for the first 100 laps. Then from 100 to 150, I picked it up a little more, and then the last 50 I turned it on. I might could have gone a little earlier, but hindsight is 20/20, I might have gotten in a wreck you never know. I think we showed from where we started at and how we ran, that we can win a race here."

Results:
1. Deac McCaskill
2. Lee Pulliam
3. Josh Oakley
4. Philip Morris
5. Peyton Sellers
6. David Quackenbush
7. C.E. Falk III
8. Jeb Burton
9. Jonathan Cash
10. Dennis Holdren
11. Leigh Caruthers
12. Eddie Johnson
13. Tommy Lemons
14. Stephen Berry
15. Speedy Faucette
16. Ronald Hill
17. Sam Hunt
18. Rodney Cook
19. Richard Storm
20. Stacy Puryear
21. Justin Johnson
22. Lawrence Boan
23. David Latour
24. Natalie Sather
25. Chad Harris
26. Matt Waltz
27. Nick Smith
28. Michael Hardin
29. Bruce Anderson
30. David Triplett, Jr.