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UARA Rookie Report with Power Rankings -- March 25, 2010
This year between each one of the 16 UARA-STARS Series races and a post season edition, we're going to give you the Top 5 Rookie Drivers on the tour ... Who's the rookie favorites after just one race? ... Read Our Picks for this weeks UARA-STARS Series Most Powerful Rookie Drivers!
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Wytheville, VA(March 25, 2010) -- The large class of UARA-STARS Series Rookies rolled into the season opening race at Hickory Motor Speedway two weeks ago and the results were all over the board.
Clint King performed above expectations practicing among the top ten all weekend and qualifying among the top ten before turning in the performance of a veteran racing in the top five for much of the day. King's results weren't indicative of how he had ran however as late in the race he was dumped on a restart late by a veteran driver and that ended his great run and relegated him to a 16th place finish.
Robert Johnson, son of NASCAR Hall of Famer, Junior Johnson would take home the unofficial Rookie of the Race award(unofficial because the UARA Officials gave it to Ty Dillon, who can't be considered a rookie in UARA due to LMSC experience and NASCAR East Series experience) with an eighth place finish. However, while I think the young driver did a great job avoiding the crashes and coming home in eighth, the fact is he wasn't that impressive overall.
Another rookie, Adam Long picked up a top ten finish, which is always impressive, but like Johnson he simply avoided the other crashes and picked up positions as those ahead of him wrecked out or fell out due to mechanical issues. Ronnie Bassett, Jr. was another rookie who wasn't that impressive overall atleast not when compared to the other rookies as Bassett made no noise and finished 14th, but did manage to stay out of trouble.
Julia Dawson and Michael McGuire both had terrible weekends, racing around the back of the pack once the green flag dropped and never being a contender. Dawson wasn't coming in with a bunch of hype, but McGuire was and his performance made that an even bigger let down for him. He had won Limited Late Model races last season at Orange County and Franklin County Speedway and had even won the Limted championship at Orange County, but McGuire and his team were certainly off their mark at Hickory. I'm sure they're looking to redeem themselves this weekend at Kingsport and have heard they had a solid test there a week ago.
The other rookie saddling up for the Hickory Motor Speedway season opener was Jessica Murphy, but her weekend was cut short just a couple hours before the drop of the green flag when she spun on her warm-up lap in qualifying and did not get to make the start.
OK, so now you have the skinny on all the rookies, so who do we think is the top five rookies among this talented bunch? Check out our Top 5 ...
Rookie Power Rankings ...
5 - Michael McGuire #22
4 - Adam Long #3
3 - Robert Johnson #11
2 - Ronnie Bassett, Jr. #04
1 - Clint King #07
