Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

Coeburn, VA(July 7, 2010) -- In today's racing world, things seem too whitewashed, too PC and just plain boring at times with emotion that some of the older crowds remember witnessing from days gone past being few and far between, now the drivers are younger and have to be on their best behavior to attract sponsors, it's not their fault, but just the way it is.

But, as the 2010 racing season trucks along, the emotion is starting to come out more and more, with rivalries popping up at nearly every track and series. This past Saturday night at Lonesome Pine Speedway, a new one was officially christened. It had been brewing on the edge of anger for a few races, and it finally spilled over with Brennan Poole and Coleman Pressley making contact once more, leaving one in Victory Lane for winning, and the other in Victory Lane for other obvious reasons.

The day started out going the wrong direction for Poole, as he missed the drivers meeting causing him to lose one lap of qualifying and the team made the decision to make a very slow lap to take advantage of the passing points available with no shot at the pole and started shotgun on the field. At the other end of the spectrum was a newly transformed Ronnie Bassett Jr., who picked up his first ever UARA pole. Bassett had a rough start at the beginning of the year, but the last three races have had veteran BJ Mackey making the calls on the car and they have been spot on.

Bassett was followed by the team cars of Alex Yontz and Garrett Campbell with Coleman Pressley and Clint King rounding out the top five. Before the night was over, Yontz would be the only car in the top five left out..........of controversy that it. As the race went green Yontz jumped to the point, and you could tell it looked planned as Bassett Jr. looked comfortable riding behind Yontz in the early going(and not a bad guy for a rookie to follow and learn from). As the race got a few laps under It's belt, the cars of Yontz, Bassett and Pressley made it know they were the ones to beat, but behind them they were mixing it up like it was the last lap.

Fourth thru about 11th was some of the fiercest racing we have seen all year. As the track has multiple grooves, the drivers were taking advantage of them and making up some new ones every other lap. Garrett Campbell and Clint King were the first to mix it up, and did so quite often, with Lee Tissott, Danny O'Quinn and Caleb Holman right there with them. Back in the pack Blake Jones and Robert Johnson ran side-by-side, and did so for nearly 100 laps. King and Campbell would continue their argument of space into the night until it ended with one on the wrecker, another with a hurt motor, and some jack handles involved later.

Up front it was all Yontz with Bassett close behind and Pressley all over him wanting second. Pressley is know for not qualifying great and coming through the field, but he was already there for this event, and turned up the wick on lap 85 going by Bassett on the outside, then by Yontz in the same fashion four laps later to take the lead. But his night was far from over, as the black #5 of Poole was stalking the top five after starting last.

Poole had ran the first 40 laps in the back, and it looked as if he just didn't have anything for them, But it was all a plan, as we hit the 60 lap mark he started to weave his way through traffic and broke into the top ten just a few laps later. By lap 105 he had got into the top five while Campbell and King were swapping fourth thru seventh with O'Quin and Tissott. Campbell and O'Quinn would get back by Poole a few laps later, had the #5 car ran out of steam coming from the back? Not quite yet.

Up front Pressley and Bassett have checked out, with Yontz noticeably falling back from them. Yontz was looking to rebound after being DQ'd at Myrtle Beach, then hanging on for a top five at Hickory, but a bad battery would drop him out of the battle for the lead. He would fair better than Danny O'Quinn though, as the fourth place car starts to shower sparks and parks it from his fourth place spot on lap 121, a broken hiem on the right front the culprit.

We were getting down to crunch time and it looked like Poole had saved something in the tank for the front. He seemed to get his "second wind" if you will after falling back two spots late, and blasted his way up to second by Bassett on lap 117. It was now down to Pressley and Poole, Pressley looked to be in command, but nobody knew how much car he had used, and everybody knew that Poole had used a lot of car, we just didn't know how much he had left. Lap after lap, Poole cuts into the lead, 5 car lengths, 3 cars, 1, he is there. Poole reaches the back bumper of Pressley as they cross the line on lap 122 and as they dive into turn one, Poole gets into the back of Pressley and Coleman goes for a spin. Wow, the two top drivers of the series who are also roommates are into it once again, everyone wanted to see how this one would shake out.

Pressley and Poole weren't the only ones mad at each other, the Campbell King battle had been a long one, with each car jacking the other up numerous times throughout the event. During the caution for the Pressley spin, Campbell let's King know he didn't appreciate how he was just racing him and slams on the brakes down the backstretch causing King to rear-end him doing extensive damage to Kings car. King would show him what he thought of that the next green flag, resulting in him getting his very own flag, a black one.

As the cars go back green, King wasted no time and dumps Campbell in turn four into the outside wall ending his night, well, his night of racing at least. As Campbell exits his car he is nice enough to tell our photographer to follow him if he wants pictures of a fight and heads to the King pit headed up by racing veteran Ricky Bryant. Campbell arrives by himself in the King pit and Bryant is waiting, with a jack handle ready to go. Some very unpleasant words were said and the King team kept a furious Bryant restrained, but this seems far from over.

Campbell and King both talked about the incident. "The kid can drive, he just needs to learn to be patient" said a still fuming Campbell. "He hit me all night long, so I let him know under caution that I didn't appreciate that. Then he just junked my car. I know his crew chief(Ricky Bryant) told him to do that, so I went down there to handle it like men, I guess he isn't a man because he didn't seem to want none and wouldn't put his wrench or whatever down. It's OK, we'll go to Tri-County and see what he wants to do, I'll drive him through the wall if that's what he wants."

King was a tad more reserved. "It started on the first lap, I got into him accidentally down in three and four and that apparently set the mood for the rest of the night," said King. "He put the bumper back to me when I passed, which is fine, that's just hard racing. Then under caution back here I'm not sure what happened, he slammed on brakes and I hit him, not sure if that was intentional or not. But what just happened down here, I'll take the blame for that, I drove in way too hard, my brakes were about gone, and I slid up into him and took him out. I'm learning from my mistakes, and I guess I'd be mad too, but we were just racing going for the same spot at the end of the race. I blew up with two to go, somebody left the radiator cap lose and all the water was out of the motor, so our entire racing future is iffy right now."

After another harmless spin late, the field is set with ten laps to go. Poole takes off and Basset tries to dive into turn one under him but that was all she wrote, Poole was gone. Bassett had to look in his own mirror though, as always, at the end of the race the former champion Lee Tissot is there and had Kyle Grissom with him out of nowhere. Poole cruises to victory and Bassett is able to fend of Tissot for his best career finish, with Grissom and Yontz rounding out the top five. The fireworks didn't stop there though.

As Poole pulls into victory lane, the 8th place finisher Coleman Pressley parks right beside him. Pressley tries to get to Poole as he is visible upset, but is met by Poole's car owner Jamie Yelton and the two lock up for a few words. Jamie is talking and Coleman isn't listening, as he does manage to get his hand in the window to slap Poole's visor down. Pressley finally gives up the fight to get to Poole and gets back in his car to head to the pits He was more than happy to talk about it though.

"We were just biding our time and made a run there to get the lead and was just riding" said a calm Pressley. "First off, I just want to say congrats to Ronnie Bassett, he drove a heck of a race and it was the best I have ever seen him run, for such a young kid that is awesome. We got the lead, and my brakes got a little hot so I started saving my stuff a little more, and I saw Brennan get to second. I knew he burned up a lot of stuff coming from the back, I don't know, the first lap he got to me he pulled a Jamie Yelton and got into me. I guess now he is officially dubbed a Forrest City Badboy, but that's OK, they have never messed with the Asheville gang. I went to victory lane just to tell him that I didn't appreciate it, that's two weeks in a row something like this has happened. It's fine, he lives with me, he has to see me sooner or later. He acted like a little baby last week and didn't come home, so I guess I won't see him this week either. We'll go to Tri-County in two weeks where he thinks he's king and we'll see what happens."

Poole was just happy to pull off the win from starting in the back. "This car was awesome, and it has been since we have been here. Greg Marlowe, David King, Jamie Yelton, it's just really nice to have these kind of people behind you, the entire crew works so hard on these things. I pushed the button there right before halfway to go, and got my brakes a little hot so Campbell got back by me, but I turned the brake fans back on and that was the ticket for sure."

"I got up there and got into the back of Coleman, he was running the bottom and I caught him and he was low. I ran in the corner and was already committed and he came up to block the position, just like any driver would do. But I was already there, we are diving into one and I did try to hit the brakes but just couldn't get it slowed down enough. I don't know if he knew I was coming that hard or what, kinda like Ace, I came down on him and didn't know he was there, It's just a racing deal. I didn't mean to get into him, I had the line, he came up, it happens sometimes. We were just going for the win, now I'm looking forward to going to the Huffman."

The racing at Lonesome Pine was spectacular, as is the track itself, as people claim Motor Mile is the finest facility around, Lonesome Pine could give them a run for their money. But the main thing that fans want is great racing, which they got Saturday night, with a wad of controversy thrown in. The Poole/Pressley rivalry is alive and well, and It's a good thing for the series and racing in general. The two point leaders and biggest stars of the series going at it head to head and tooth and nail, Tri-County should not be missed.