Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Radford, VA(June 6, 2010) -- "This is my House!" ... That's a statement we heard uttered from the mouth of Bowman Gray Stadium Modified driver, Tim Brown on the hit show, Madhouse and while Philip Morris didn't speak those words from his mouth last night, he let his car do the talking for him in a dominating performance that gave him his fourth win of the season.

Before the beginning of the 2010 season, we(the staff) here at RACE22.com talked about what we thought we might see this season around the region and oddly enough, we were talking about the possible end of an era, the changing of the guard so to speak at Motor Mile Speedway. It was an easy subject to broach, Morris, who has dominated for the last decade taking a spot once held by Ronnie Thomas, had seemed to fall from his perch, only winning a couple races at the beginning of the season and a couple at the end in 2009.

Morris, admittedly duped us into thinking things could be different this season and we had good reason as for much of the winter we were thinking that there would be three new full-time contenders on the 4/10 mile Motor Mile Speedway in UARA-STARS Series Champion, Matt McCall, runner-up, Jamey Caudill and South Boston Speedway Champion, Justin Johnson. We were wrong on all three accounts, none of the three are full-time competitors there this season and in fact other than Johnson, who is kicking butt and taking names at South Boston Speedway, McCall and Caudill had exactly two starts between the two of them coming into this past weekend.

Johnson, who has one victory in two starts in twin races this season at Motor Mile Speedway is along with his teammate at FDJ Motorsports, Wayne Ramsey, the only other drivers to go to victory lane there this season, where the competition is incredible. The competition however has been no match for Morris, other than the night that Johnson and Ramsey took home wins, when Morris had been handicapped by the track staff, by having to add fifty pounds to his car.

Coming into Saturday nights 150-lap feature, no one had beaten Morris straight-up and his domination had begun to wear on the competition. Everyone who races at Motor Mile Speedway, whether part or full-time is frustrated ... they simply want to know how to beat the undeniable "King" of Motor Mile. This weekend the pits was alive with 25-cars taking to the track for the green flag, but noticably missing was Bob Uncer's entry piloted by Jerame Donley, who had been a front runner thus far this season. But, there were several top notch drivers there to take his place including Matt McCall, who recently joined forces with Jamie Yelton's Fat Head Racing as well as Paddy Rodenbeck, Butch Hamlet and former track champion, Jason Merriman, all of which where making there first starts of the season at Motor Mile.

With pre-season favorite, McCall in attendance driving for one of the best teams in Late Model Stock Car racing, fans were hoping to be treated to some of the best racing action of the season and McCall lived up to the hype by qualifying in third position behind pole winner, Morris and Tommy Lemons, Jr. Lemons has so far this season, been one of the few along with Johnson and Ramsey to give Morris a run for his money and with an outside front row start, many expected the young driver to contend right from the drop of the green flag, Morris had other ideas.

As the field took the green flag, Morris made it known that despite racing with a kidney stone, which had sidelined him out of a start last weekend at South Boston Speedway, that he was going to be the guy to beat. Morris under a long green flag was lapping much of the field and by lap 57 when the first and only caution of the race would wave over the field, he had already lapped up to Mike Looney, who was racing just outside the top ten. It was a dominating performance for Morris through the beginning of the race, but just before the caution had waved McCall had moved around Lemons for second and fans were expecting a battle.

One driver who from the drop of the green flag was having a terrible run was Richard Boswell, a past winner at Motor Mile Speedway. Boswell dropped like a rock through the first green flag run and was about to get lapped when the caution had came out, but under caution made some adjustments and hoped to be able to race his way up to the leaders when the green flag waved on lap 65. Boswell's night however got worse as he was unable to make the right adjustments and eventually got lapped by Morris' blistering pace once back under the green flag.

Back up front for the restart and Morris looked as if he was shot out of a canon as he pulled McCall by ten car lengths by the time they exited turn two and it was apparent that McCall wasn't going to have anything for Morris. Morris held onto the lead and even gained more space picking up his lead to as much as eight seconds at one point in the race and through a green flag run that went all the way to the checkered flag. It was Morris' most dominating performance to date this season and for that matter it might have been the most dominating performance of his career at Motor Mile Speedway as he squashed all challengers.

"This was a big win for sure," said Morris after winning the 150-lap race. "I had a kidney stone and missed racing last weekend and had it hit me again on the way down here to the racetrack. It's huge to win this race."

McCall was able to drive home to a second place finish, but no one's ever satisfied with second, especially not Matt McCall.

"For the first time in this car and only my second race out this season, I'll take it" said McCall after the race. "I had a great car, but Philip(Morris) was in a league of his own for sure, but we know what we need to change before we come back and we'll be better."

Lemons was also a little disappointed as he thought this might finally be the week that he would be celebrating in victory lane.

"We had a good car all day and after qualifying on the outside pole, I thought for sure we would have something for Philip(Morris)," said a dejected Lemons. "The car just got too free and we got beat. I'm definitely disappointed, this isn't where I thought we'd be tonight in third."

Brandon Dean made a charge starting after the restart from the caution and made his way all the way up to fourth at the finish, a great run for he and Kiker Motorsports team, both of which haven't had a great start to the 2010 season. Kelly Kingery, who thought for sure before the race that he'd be in contention to win and had run up front all night faded to finish fifth after staving off a challenge from Wayne Ramsey for the position. Ramsey finished sixth and retained the points lead over Morris by 14 points with Butch Hamlet in his first start of the season claiming seventh.

Derrick Lancaster continues to make improvements under the guidance of new crew chief, Dave Roope, who joined the team just over a month ago and came home with an eighth place finish just ahead of Kris Bowen, who had a solid run all night and Paddy Rodenbeck, who complained all day that his car was junk, but managed a tenth place effort. The reason for the lap 57 caution, Adam Long, who went for a lazy spin in turn two after a hard battle with Hamlet for the sixth position, would rally to finish 13th despite losing a lap under caution. Long has made great improvement all season long after getting with former Alex Yontz crew chief and current crew chief for Robert Johnson, Ed Berrier and will soon be knocking on the door of his first victory.

Other notables included Boswell, who finished 12th after struggling all night; Scott Turlington, who made his first Motor Mile Speedway start in two years and finished 15th; FDJ Motorsports rookie, Jeff Oleen, who struggled all night and finished 16th; former track champion, Merriman, who finished 17th, Casey Holt, who didn't get to practice due to mechanical problems finished 18th and Dennis Holdren, who was back behind the wheel of his FDJ Motorsports Chassis and ran in the top ten most of the night before mechanical problems relegated him to a 21st place finish.

In the Limited Late Models, Matt Taylor started from the pole, but a slip in turn one on the first lap handed the lead to Roger Parrish, Jr., who never looked back to claim a victory, his first since being thrown out over a month ago for illegal shocks. Taylor held on to finish second ahead of defending track champion, Anthony Barnes, Travis Hurt and Scott Lancaster. Kyle Dudley had an impressive qualifying effort in fourth, but faded during the race to finish ninth.

Results:
1 - Philip Morris #26
2 - Matt McCall #23
3 - Tommy Lemons, Jr. #27
4 - Brandon Dean #5
5 - Kelly Kingery #57
6 - Wayne Ramsey #42
7 - Butch Hamlet #21
8 - Derrick Lancaster #25
9 - Kris Bowen #80
10 - Paddy Rodenbeck #01
11 - Mike Looney #47
12 - Richard Boswell #72
13 - Adam Long #3
14 - Andrew Thomas #96
15 - Scott Turlington #18
16 - Jeff Oleen #48
17 - Jason Merriman #30
18 - Casey Holt #22
19 - Michael Kidd #49
20 - DeWayne Howard #37
21 - Dennis Holdren #2
22 - Daniel Pope II #81
23 - Rusty Skewes #41
24 - Jamie Byrd #15
25 - Roger Parrish, Jr. #12