Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

Rockingham, NC(May 18, 2010) -- A Late Model race on a Superspeedway. What? Yes it was that time of year again, as the UARA took to the high banks of the famous Rockingham Speedway. Twenty-one cars would take the green, but the race for the win would be decided between two cars, two Dodges to be exact and Brandon McReynolds had the baddest Dodge in town on this Saturday.

Hot, hot, hot. After spending so many days at Rockingham in the past in freezing weather, even seeing snow twice, Andy Hillenburg has brought the track back to where it needs to be and has his events scheduled accordingly, something NASCAR never was willing to do. The beautiful May day turned into a scorcher though and at least one car bit the bullet and made changes to the setup to conform to the slick track, Kyle Grissom. Not really a bad idea on a track like Rockingham, even though he lost his sixth place starting spot, this place is not like the rest of the smaller short tracks the series visits, you have all the room you need here to work you way back to the front.

The two Dodges of McReynolds and Rodenbeck had been the talk of the town in the days leading up to the race, as the Dodge Late Model Stock Car motors are very expensive, but produce some outstanding horsepower. As qualifying wrapped up Friday, to nobody's surprise they would both be on the front row, with Rodenbeck taking top honors to lead them to the green. Rookie sensation, Clint King would roll off third, followed by Brennan Poole and the all-time wins leader in UARA, Jamey Caudill, who was making his first start of the season.

At the drop of the green, the rest of the field watched as Rodenbeck's white Dodge, and McReynolds blue and black one, started to go out of sight, pretty much the story of the day. The two would fight hard on the first lap, with Rodenbeck finally getting the advantage and easing away from McReynolds. That was until lap 12 when McReynolds blasted by to take the lead, not to be challenged again.

The field got rather strung out, but Clint King was making moves to get back to the front behind the leaders. He did start third, but on the start the youngster missed a shift and had fell back as far as sixth. On lap 18 he made his way back into the top three, but little did he know his day would begin going south very shortly.

While the leaders were in another time zone, some good racing was going on from fourth to about ninth in the middle stages of the event. Coleman Pressley, Jamey Caudill, Lee Tissot, Garrett Campbell, Brennan Poole and Kyle Grissom all the way from last were mixing it up each and every lap. Campbell and Tissott seem to rub fenders each week and on Rockingham's one-mile track, it looked to be no different. Campbell was tucked up behind Tissot on one lap, and the next time around the hood of the Campbell machine was mangled, pushed up causing the driver to not hardly see at all.

It turns out that no contact had been made at all, the studs that you put the hood pins in broke off, causing the hood to buckle under the extreme pressure at the super fast track. Campbell pitted to fix the problem and came back out running times quicker than the leader, but being five laps down doesn't help at all and he parked it soon after.

We get our only major incident of the day with 25 laps to go, as Julia Dawson looses it off turn two and backs her machine into the outside wall hard ending her day. During the caution, fourth place running Clint King radios his crew and says he thinks he has a tire going down. The team decides not to pit, even after the request to do so from UARA officials and a lap after green the #07 of King blows the left front in turn two, nearly taking Ronnie Bassett, Jr. with him. The team parks and the officials are not happy as they talk to the King team as the series had warned the drivers that they would not let them take chances on the big track, but at the same time it's the teams decision whether they need to pit or not, what if it wasn't a tire? It's a double-edged sword, but some decision had to be made and it was made in the sake of safety.

We get a restart with ten to go and McReynolds is off again. Pressley and Darrell Wallace, Jr. are making charges to the front, but the man to watch was Tissot. After starting 13th, Tissot had been in the top seven for the majority of the race, and the longer they ran, the better his Mitch West Racing Ford was getting. With five laps to go he found him self in third, but could he get to the Dodge of Rodenbeck? He surely could and he did with three to go he was up under the rear deck lid as they entered turn one, the power advantage pulling off the corner would go to Rodenbeck though each lap. Tissot gave it a valiant effort, but it was not to be as he came home a very respectable third.

When the checkered flag dropped it was McReynolds was sitting in victory lane after dominating and nearly destroying the competition with the help of veteran crew chief, David Mercer and his always competitive Marlowe Racing Chassis. The 18 year-old has came on like gangbusters in the past year and half in the Late Model ranks and sprinkle in some ARCA starts this year and maybe a potential Truck Series start soon and the younger, McReynolds is on his way to the top. He did something Saturday though, that not many have ever done and not hardly anyone within ten years of his age as he tamed "The Rock" and got his name etched in stone forever, literally.

Official Results:
1 - Brandon McReynolds #28
2 - Paddy Rodenbeck #81
3 - Lee Tissot #27
4 - Alex Yontz #98
5 - Coleman Pressley #59
6 - Darrell Wallace, Jr. #76
7 - Jamey Caudill #50
8 - Kyle Grissom #32
9 - Randy Benson #02
10 - Brennan Poole #5
11 - Ronnie Bassett, Jr. #04
12 - Clay Greenfield #84
13 - Scott Turlington #48
14 - Dange Hanniford #22
15 - Michael Rouse #22
16 - Leigh Caruthers #11
17 - Robert Johnson #11
18 - Clint King #07
19 - Nate Monteith #14
20 - Julia Dawson #1
21 - Garrett Campbell #12