Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

South Boston, VA(March 24, 2010) -- With the second race of the season down at the famous South Boston Speedway, reflecting back at the past weekend is something that takes some effort. So many story lines, so many good runs along with the bad, and of course, one very controversial finish. Let's get started...

I Can't Stop!
After qualifying for the 150 lap LMSC event, a unfamiliar name was in the top five, David Latour. David has been in the LMSC game for a few seasons now, running various tracks, and having strong showings at Hickory Motor Speedway in the past, but it seems that bad luck has always got him in the end.

A few weeks ago when Latour was asked about his plans for 2010, he replied; "We're running SoBo full-time, we're going for the championship." Strong words from a team that hasn't made much noise in the past, but this past weekend he made his presence known. After qualifying in the 4th spot, Latour passed Philip Morris with ease, and was on his way to catching the lead duo of CE Falk and Justin Johnson.

It became evident that the top three including Latour were in a class by themselves, but Latour's day went sour just after the 90 lap mark as he pulled on to pit road trying to stop but coasting past his pits. "The brakes just went completely out," said a dejected Latour. "The master cylinder went bad I guess, we had the car to win today, were were catching the leaders, It's just a bad deal." If Saturday was a sign of things to come, the top of the heap may become more crowded this year with a #89 in the mix.

Slip-Slidin and Trouble
The track Saturday was extremely different than the previous week, as the warm temperatures threw the teams for a loop on the setups. "Slick" was the word of the day, as teams struggled to find grip all afternoon. A few cars that made it apparent when the race started were the rides of Nick Smith, Deac McCaskill and Bruce Anderson. McCaskill never found the handle all day, and slipped back early nearly falling a lap down before a caution on lap 90. Anderson had a great qualifying run, but saw his race go South at the drop of the green flag falling back rapidly, and finally falling out with mechanical issues before the halfway break.

Smith was more creative, his car would not handle on the bottom, so he found a new groove up high, "diamond" the corner as they say, getting a good launch from the high groove to maintain his spot just inside the top 5. Smith would have one of the longest battles of the day as he ran side-by-side with eventual race winner Tommy Lemons for nearly 30 laps, only to be turned by Eddie Johnson later on in traffic to end his day with damage. McCaskill would rebound quietly, and turned it on at the end coming home 4th.

Does Testing Help?
Word was spreading through the pits that National Champion Philip Morris had spent 3 days testing for the second event of the SoBo season, and it had some teams worried. It was showing in practice, as Morris was the car at the top of the charts in nearly every session, and when qualifying was complete, he was the third car from the top ... but hey, you can't win them all. But as the race started, Morris found himself in the same boat as many others, as the Clarence's car would not hook up with the track on the bottom and he fell back nearly half a lap to the leaders almost the entire event.

With the escapades that happened at the end, Morris found himself leading with two to go when his right front went flat, a hole right in the middle of the tire. Morris believes that he picked up the debris from the Johnson/Falk incident just a few laps earlier. Two races down in the 2010 season and Morris has finished no better than 8th, could this be the end of the Morris reign? In two weeks at Motor Mile will tell the story.

Veterans Prevail
On the other side of the spectrum of testing, we have the cagey veterans of Rodney Cook and Stacy Puryear. They don't have the big bucks to come out and test like other teams do, they are truly "old-school", they just show up on race day and do it to it. While their qualifying results didn't show it, their race set-ups were good to go. Early on, it looked as if they were struggling to maintain, but later in the event it became evident what they were doing, everybody else was just burning up their stuff.

Puryear came home with a podium finish in third, and Cook rose to the occasion through the late-race dramatics to score his first top five of the season. Speaking of "burning up" Rodney is probably feeling those words today, as he burned his leg badly in the car Saturday, causing a bad blister on the whole right side of his lower right calf. "I didn't wear my pad like I always do, and when they told me I still had 60 laps to go under that caution, I knew I was gonna be in trouble", said a hurting Cook.

Trouble Is Brewin
The battle at the end between CE Falk and Justin Johnson was one to see, or maybe the aftermath was better than their actual racing battle. Falk had lead the entire event, but Johnson looked to be the stronger car on the longer runs, it just so happened that the caution would catch them as soon as they caught up with each other. With 25 laps to go that all changed, as Johnson was there, and gave the #40 of Falk a few soft shots exiting turn four for a few laps.

Then Johnson got to the inside off turn two, and jumped to the lead, only to get his own shot going into turn 4 the next lap and looping his #44 around. Obviously irate, Johnson sped to the front of the field, and brake-checked Falk on the backstrech causing extensive damage to the Falk machine. Johnson would rally from the rear to finish 6th, and Falk would limp home 13th, but the top two cars of the day would not be taking home a trophy today.

And neither was happy after the race ...
Justin Johnson: "I was running hot all day, so that was why he got out to such a good lead there at times, I let him get that much of a lead so I could cool my car back off. I would get back to him so much faster, he's just a little prick....I really don't know what else to say, he's a real class act, I guess. He spun me going into 3, so I just slammed the brakes under caution and let him run into the back of me. He wants to play games with me, we'll wreck racecars every week, that's fine with me."

CE Falk: "Justin obviously had a good car on the long run, we were better on the short runs, I was just trying to save a little for the end, we still had 15 or 20 laps to go. He's been hitting me for the past two weeks here, he hits me every chance he gets, he don't wanna try to pass me clean. He got underneath me because I went into the corner too hot, then being behind him my car turned a lot better and I got a run on him going back into 3 and he just turned across my nose."

"I've been able to save it every time he has hit me, I guess he can't drive, every time he gets a little sideways he just spins out. He thinks he's God Almighty, he can brake check people under the caution and don't get black-flagged because he is the champion and I get black-flagged from actually racing somebody hard and my car gets tore all to hell. They wait till the green to black flag me, my car was undriveable anyway, it don't matter, they want to play favorites and I stopped being their favorite a long time ago."

Now for the top 3 including Lee Pulliam, who had the quietest 2nd place ever. I want to point him out because he didn't get involved with anything or anybody, just drove his own race and came out with the runner-up spot and did a fantastic job all day.

3rd Stacy Puryear
"You know this is real good run for us. We didn't have the best car, we need to work on the handling just a bit, but man the track just got so slick. Everybody was smoking the right rear, it was a handfull all day. My car got extremely tight getting in the corner and I had to drive all the way down on the flat coming off to get it to turn. Whatever you car was doing, the heat magnified it. I just feel very fortunate to miss all the wrecks and patience really paid off today."

2nd Lee Pulliam
"Man my car was sooo tight, I was just trying to hold on to what I had and ended up with a pretty good little run there. This thing was pushing like a train, me and HC (Sellars) came down here this week and thought the track would loosen up, and we just got it too tight to start off. My hats off to HC Sellars, we won a lot of Limited races here with him helping me, and I just hope we can get back on it with this LMSC game. I wish I could have raced Tommy a little harder there and stayed up front, I think we could of had a chance for the win. I just want to congratulate Tommy, he has been coming down here for a while he deserves this."

WINNER Tommy Lemons Jr.
"We knew we were good, the car felt good all day in practice, we just couldn't figure out where our speed went for qualifying, we ended up 9th. We just started chipping away, but seemed like we couldn't make any ground up on anybody. I just kept moving the car around to find a better line, and started making up time, until I caught Nick, we raced side-by-side forever it seemed. On that restart towards the end I knew I had to get under Lee pretty quick because we were so even, then Justin and CE....(laughing).... I don't know what their deal was, but luckily they started fooling around."
 
"Then, that dagum caution came out with 4 to go right when I had caught Philip for the lead and was under him, I think I beat the steering wheel in half. I was faster than him on that next restart anyway, I was under him and was going around him, I think he had a tire going down anyway because he slid up really high. I'm just glad to get this one under my belt, this is the way we need to start the season off."