Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Hickory, NC(March 24, 2010) -- For the tenth time this season(testing, UARA practice, UARA rain out, UARA race ...) I headed to Hickory Motor Speedway, this time for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock Car opener and unlike the previous week when the UARA-STARS Series had a decent race and a great finish, this race had twists and turns from practice all the way to within 15-laps of the finish, but no dramatic ending.

SHORT FIELD, GOOD CROWD ...
Hickory Motor Speedway under the leadership of Kevin Piercy last season had one of the best seasons in recent history with car counts and fan attendance rising for much of the season. When in the past you could expect a slim 12-car field weekly with surprises here and there, last season it was no surprise after a while when there was a 17-car field.

The first race looked like a page from the past as only 14-cars took the green flag in what was being anticipated as a track that could boast over 20-cars this season. This was much to the frustration of last years champion, Andy Mercer, who was hoping this season he could compete for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Title on his home track. The slim 14-car field however didn't keep the fans away as a healthy crowd, much larger than the one for the UARA-STARS Series race a week before had filled the grandstands for a great night of racing.

NO TRANSPONDERS ...
Hickory Motor Speedway is one of only a handful of tracks left in America not running a transponder system to track the speeds of the drivers during practice and qualifying as well as track positions during the race when the caution flag flies. This certainly proved to be a problem for atleast one of the 14 Late Model drivers in attendance for the race as Dexter Canipe, Jr's time wasn't recorded on his second lap and though he was allowed to come back out and complete another lap of record, his time was certainly not as fast as it would have been had the timer system being used have picked his time up the first time.

STEERING PROBLEMS ANYONE ...
Andy Mercer was looking to pick up right where he had left off last season where he won the most poles and took home the most winners trophies, but this night would be a frustrating one. In qualifying, he only posted the fourth fastest time and many never thought twice about it given that there is easily six to eight cars in the field that could win the race, but Mercer wasn't happy.

He came in complaining that his steering wheel had a 1/4 turn of play in it after qualifying to crew chief and brother, David Mercer of Mercer Race Car Engineering and when David got to checking everything out he found that the steering box had went bad in Andy's racer. They spent the autograph session making repairs to the steering box, replacing the old one and once completed Mercer was confident he could make up the lost time from qualifying and put his car back out front where it belonged.

ODD FRONT ROW ...
Hopefully pole winner, Kyle Mansch and outside pole winner, Josh Wimbish don't take offense to that headline, but of the 14-cars there, I don't think anyone was less than surprised to see them make up the front row for the season opening race. Mansch, who was moving up from Limited Late Models was "representin" for Mercer Race Car Engineering while Mercer had an off qualifying run, keep the pole within the Mercer camp and Wimbish, who has been steadily improving since moving up to Late Models, was using his Matt McCall setup to put his Pistone LTO Chassis in second for the start.

IT DIDN'T TAKE LONG ...
Once the green flag waved over the field, it didn't take long for the first twist and turn to take place as Mansch was out front leading and Jesse James LeFevers, last years season opening winner was second and looking for the lead. LeFevers and Mansch made contact, sending Mansch spinning in front of the on coming traffic of the rest of the field with Wimbish spinning and slamming into Mansch as Mercer plowed in as well. Kyle Moon also spun to avoid the accident and didn't appear to get any damage on his sharp looking Half Time Sports Bar sponsored ride.

This incident sent Mansch, Wimbish, Mercer and Moon to the pits and would be a sign of the crazy things to come on the night. Of course, everyone wants to point fingers as to whether Mansch came across LeFevers hood or whether LeFevers was just impatient, but either way it sent this already weird race spinning out of control.

SHOOT FOR THE MOON ...
Kyle Moon hasn't been known for having dominate cars until toward the end of last season when he led laps in a couple of the season ending races at Hickory, but on this night the young New York native was hooked up and ready to show the field, what it he had for them.

With LeFevers out front for the restart, Moon was the guy on the move and before long as a long green flag run was beginning, Moon had his Pistone LTO Chassis out front and rocketing away from the field. LeFevers held pace for a while, but Moon's lead was growing and as LeFevers started to slip into the clutches of Canipe and Neil Meredith the young driver encountered mechanical troubles and parked his ride for the night.

TIME TO CALL CNN ...
As Moon paced the field out front it looked like the young driver was well on his way to becoming another first time winner on the historic 3/8 mile track and this reporter was busy searching for the number to CNN. I'm sure you're scratching your head, so here's what I mean ... before the race started, Moon's crew asked me "when we win will this be the RACE22.com cover story", knowing his history of bad luck, I in jest told them that "if you guys win not only will it be on RACE22.com, but we'll get CNN down here". Open mouth and insert foot ... maybe???

END OF THE ROAD ...
I would soon however be off the hook on the CNN comment however as Moon's day went away in the blink of an eye as he would break a swaybar hyme joint and come to pit road for the night. A tough break for the young driver, who had dominated the race and who one driver told me "was as hooked up as Mercer was last year". Moon showed that he could run with the big dogs again this season and eventually this young driver is going to break through with a victory and maybe more than one.

FOR ALL THE BAD LUCK ...
For all the bad luck for Dexter Canipe, Jr. in testing, it turned out that his toward the rear start would benefit him not getting into the early crash and it would pay off late in the 100-lap race. Canipe would hold off a very strong Neil Meredith for the victory, a great start to the season for both drivers. Especially Canipe, who earlier in the night had won the Limited Late Model race giving him the points lead in both divisions in which he intends to race for the championship.

THIRD IS LIKE A WIN ...
Jessica Brunelli had transmission troubles in qualifying in her Drive for Diversity(D4D) Late Model Stock Car relegating her to qualify last for the 100-lap event, but almost equally impressive as Moon's run was this young talent. Brunelli outshined the other two D4D drivers Kate Hagar and Jason Romeo, who ran poorly throughout the night. Brunelli's run from last to finish third was a great performance and this young lady proved she could race with the best of them.

ANOTHER GOOD LADY ...
Candace Muzny has come a long way in just a short time racing Late Model Stock Cars from the time when like all rookie and young drivers she was running poorly and often left with torn sheet metal. This weekend she left with torn sheet metal, but because she was running among the leaders when the lap 12 crash happened and she couldn't avoid it. With three females in the race, she was the one running up front all night even though Brunelli finished one spot ahead of her in the end, which is a great start for Muzny as well.

WOW, WHAT A NIGHT ...
Andy Mercer's night started off tough with his steering problems, got worse in the first crash of the night and went even further as the laps wound down. Mercer spun by off the front bumper of Wimbish's car later and then in his frustration of how his night was going, he dumped Toby Parese, ending his night prematurely. Mercer was apologetic to Parese, but needless to say Parese and crew were very upset over the accident which relegated him to a 10th place finish. Mercer found out later that the reason he had run so poorly following the lap 12 accident was that his brake duct had become wedged in the left front suspension, not allowing the car to travel.

WAS I EVEN THERE ...
Ashley Huffman has to be asking himself that question as he had a terrible night qualifying poorly and racing even worse before pulling off the track. Huffman thought he had engine problems before the race, but worked on several other things to try and make sure the engine was the issue and while I didn't talk to them after the race, they must have not got the problems fixed as he raced around the rear of the field before finally parking. It was a huge disappointment for he and his team after running second many times last year to Mercer and feeling that they were even better coming into the season.

TO COILBIND OR ...
Another issue at Hickory this week was some teams still coilbinding despite the fact that NASCAR has begun enforcing rules against it. This week the teams were given a "freebie", but starting at the next race, the teams will have to have the coilbinding gone. Will that change the racing, will that change who's up front and who's struggling? We'll just have to wait and see ...