Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Radford, VA(June 24, 2010) -- A mid-season dispute between the reigning "King" of Late Model Stock Car racing, Philip Morris and his long time home track of Motor Mile Speedway has been the talk of the Late Model Stock Car racing community for the past few weeks and while we've left the drama to the messageboards, it's time someone takes an in-depth look into the situation.

Depending on which side of the coin a person falls on and whether or not they're a fan of Philip Morris makes a huge difference in what their opinion of the situation is. This writer has a lot of opinions, it's why you read what I write and while I have no stake in this, I have a lot of opinions, some leaning toward Morris and others leaning toward Motor Mile Speedway and their position in this whole deal.

I guess, in case you don't have all the details, we should start from the beginning and tell you how we've arrived here with Morris and his car owner, Jim Dean on one side and the entire staff of Motor Mile Speedway on the other. It all goes back to a rule put in place at Motor Mile Speedway last year where if a driver wins two races in a row, he must
 

add 50 pounds to his car in an attempt to level the playing field. Once the driver lost the weight could come off and Morris did that on atleast one occasion last season and has already added weight and taken it off once this season.

Morris opened the season with back to back victories, so heading into the seasons first twin events on May 1st, Morris was carrying an extra 50 pounds on his racer. Morris finished second to Wayne Ramsey in the first of the twins and in the second he and Ramsey got together while racing for the lead. The damage crippled Morris chances to win and his car owner, Dean began to loudly voice his opinion starting that night(could have started before, but I heard from him about it). He proclaimed that night, that if Morris won two more races, he would not add the weight and would not compete at Motor Mile in a car that he owned, that comment left myself and many others thinking that Morris would have to compete those races in his own car.

After the twins, Morris returned to form, winning the next two races and that would leave Dean again proclaiming that his driver would not return to Motor Mile if they didn't change the rules. The next race came and Morris wasn't in attendance for Friday testing or on race day, which was eventually rained out, but not without Morris and more importantly, Dean making his point to the track. The track however wasn't going to back down as several drivers told me that during the drivers meeting, race director, Randy Merriman announced that the rule would remain in place.

The following week, track owner, David Hagan released a statement that backed up what was said in the drivers meeting about the rule staying in place. Hagan explained why the rule had not been instituted at the first race of the season and rather that they had made a rule originally that would place a back to back winner would start no better than tenth for the next race. Hagan explained that they changed the rule after Morris and Dean had argued that they wouldn't race there with this rule in place, so the rule was changed back to the 2009 rule, which Motor Mile had used on Morris and other racers and had little to no complaints.

Morris and Dean took their racing to another of Morris' regular stomping grounds, South Boston Speedway, where he finished second in both twin features last Saturday night, a far cry from the more than eight to ten second domination he enjoyed in the most recent race at Motor Mile Speedway. Morris though succesful at South Boston, doesn't enjoy the same type of success he is used to at Motor Mile, so it will be interesting to see how the rest of his season goes if he and Dean continue to insist on not returning to Motor Mile.

OK, so now that you know the story and have the facts ... what does this mean for Morris, Dean and Motor Mile Speedway? Who's losing out, who's benefiting from this and how will this affect the NASCAR National Points Chase for Morris? While, I don't have the answers, as I can't see the future ... I do however have some opinions on all that.

First off, let me say that I think that any rule instituted to penalize a guy for working hard and earning his stripes is terrible, but at the same time being as I was at Motor Mile for the total domination he had in his last race, something has to be done there to even the playing field. No one wants to watch one guy just totally destroy the competition and when Philip Morris can pull Matt McCall, Wayne Ramsey, Tommy Lemons and others by more than a straight away, it can't be good for the fans.

The drivers will tell you that they hate to see Morris go and that they hate the 50 pund rule, because they want to beat him straight up, so that they know they've beaten the best. It all goes back to the old saying "To be the man, you've got to beat the man" and if you beat him when he's carrying extra weight, have you really accomplished anything? At the same time, the fans sitting in the stands, just want to see a good race, they don't want to see Morris or for that matter McCall, Lemons, Ramsey or anyone else way out front and the top cars strung out all over the track.

In my opinion, if Morris wanted to see this rule changed, he and Dean should have known better than to pull the field by as much as they have in different races this season. The track can't allow one bad apple(one guy dominating) to ruin the race as a whole and his displays this season gave the race track no reason to even consider changing the rule ... Morris made his bed and now he's having to live with it in my opinion. However, in my opinion it isn't Morris who's boycotting Motor Mile, it's Dean, who in the past with drivers Denny Hamlin and Mark McFarland has taken the same approach to get what he wants, but unfortunately for Morris he's caught up in a situation that won't help his chase for the NASCAR National Championship.

At Motor Mile, the car count is STRONG, everyone knows that the best chance to win the NASCAR National Championship as a Late Model Stock Car driver is racing at Motor Mile and winning it at South Boston won't be an easy task, especially when considering that their car count typically dips below the 20 mark that it has to be at to earn maximum points under the NASCAR system. However, Morris isn't above padding the car count, he's done it in past seasons, when Motor Mile's season was over with and he took some friends with him to Ace Speedway and Caraway Speedway to secure the NASCAR National title.

Morris' move will move will certainly make winning the NASCAR National title more difficult, but Morris is a great racer after all he's consider to be the "King" of Late Model Stock Car racing and it would be more impressive if he were to win the NASCAR National Championship through all this drama, even as unlikely as it is. For Motor Mile's part in this they are certainly losing something, when the "King" walks away, but at the same time they have something to gain as well.

The track will still be looked at as having the best competition of any weekly track whether NASCAR sanctioned or not as Morris wasn't the only big dog racing there and no one else is likely to be leaving. Some drivers hate not to get the chance to beat Morris on his home track, but at the same time this opens the door for some new winners and for other drivers to have a chance. The biggest impact Morris' departure from Motor Mile Speedway will have on the track is in my opinion an increase in good, exciting races as we saw on May 1st when Morris was carrying the additional weight. If Motor Mile Speedway markets themselves and the racing that goes on from this day forward to the fans correctly, they will also gain more fans in the stands and maybe some of those people who don't like the track because of Morris' domination.

Around the Late Model Stock Car racing community, Motor Mile is often referred to in jest as "Morris Mile" when talking about why they don't go there to race or to watch a race, so for those fans and drivers, it's back to just being Motor Mile. For Morris, he will very likely start dominating South Boston in the next few races, but he'll have his hands full as he's certainly not as good there as he is at Motor Mile and Justin Johnson isn't likely to roll over for him anytime soon.

So in a nut shell, this decision by Morris won't help him and could potentially hurt his chances at a fourth NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Championship, but for Motor Mile Speedway, this could be the start of larger crowds and if possible even bigger car counts as many new competitors are expected. Those are my opinions, but I guess we'll have to wait and see how things pan out for Morris, Dean and Motor Mile Speedway.