Website Designed, Hosted & Maintained by RACE22.com
Website Designed, Hosted & Maintained by RACE22.com
McCall Conquers
Welcome to RACE22.com ... The Home of Late Model Stock Car Racing ... RACE22.com
Story By: Corey Latham
Hudson, NC ~ The UARA STARS rolled into Tri-County Speedway and the scenery in the pits was just a bit different. BJ Mackey who is 6th in points was absent, and another top ten driver, Curtis Truex Jr. was reportedly released from his ride at JR Motorsports. But the "outsiders" were there in full force, including top dogs Brandon Dean, Tri-County regular R.A. Brown, and two past UARA champions, Lee Tissot and Matt McCall. At the end of the night, or should I say from the beginning, it was the concept Pistone LTO chassis with McCall behind the wheel driving away, for his second win in seven days.
What A Field
As the season wears on in any series, car counts become noticeably smaller. The economy, running bad, and being so far behind in the points always has some teams staying home no matter if it's in a series or at your weekly track. Regulars Mackey, Truex, Paddy Rodenbeck, Scott Andrews Jr. and Justin
Photos by: Langley Austin/Star City Racing News
Matt McCall like all the great gladiators stood raised arms in defeating his opponents. McCall won his second straight race at Tri-County, this week over the tough UARA-STARS Late Model tour.
Boston were MIA. But never fear, Lee Tissot, McCall, JR Allen, David Latour Jr., Jordan McGregor, Chase Austin, Jesse LeFevers and RA Brown made the field more than hefty. There are always locals at the UARA races, but after some UARA teams came down for the season ending race at Tri-County a week earlier and struggled, the "outsiders" jumped on the chance to run with them.
Practice Is Key
Every week, there is a UARA team testing at various tracks for the upcoming races. Roger Lee Newton ran about a gazillion laps at Hickory this past week for this race, and Alex Yontz came and tested here simply because it's his worst track on the schedule. Jake Crum, Clay Greenfield and Garrett Campbell ran the season finale at Tri-County last weekend, with Greenfield being the only one of those that could run with the locals. It paid off for Greenfield a week later as he blistered the track with a time of 16.271 to pick up his first career Sunoco Pole award. Matt McCall, who was the favorite coming in was right behind him in second and track regular and past champ Lee Tissot claimed the 3rd spot. Jamey Caudill and last race winner at Franklin County Brandon McReynolds rounded out the top 5. Other notables were point leader Jake Crum in 6th, Roger Lee Newton with a great qualifying run in 7th, Alex Yontz back in 13th, and Darrell Wallace Jr with a disappointing 19th starting spot.
Drop the Rag!
As the green waved, it was definitely on the from the start. Green field wanted to lead badly, but as seen before at Tri-County, the outside groove is just as good as the bottom. The leaders are racing hard, as greenfield tries to get under McCall for the lead, Tissot is strong on the outside of Greenfield for second. McCall takes over the top spot, but Greenfield shows he's not done and gets under the #23 going into turn 3 on lap 8. As the leaders come off turn 4, Greenfield and McCall make contact and Greenfield goes around. The cars off Alex Yontz and Jordan McGregor come to a stop, and Kyle Grisson and Jesse LeFevers get pinned up against the outside wall. LeFevers night was done, but everyone else continued. Even though Greenfield didn't touch anything, his great night
Clay Greenfield(84) who started on the pole for the UARA 150 makes contact with then leader Matt McCall as the two battled for the top spot on lap eight. Greenfield would spin causing the races biggest incident as cars piled into the mayhem.
was basically over as the car was never up to par after that. He retired on lap 82 from right front suspension damage caused in the lap 8 spin.
This Place Is Awesome!!!!
Every race for the UARA series this year has been a barn-burner, and once again Tri-County didn't disappoint. The track is old and weathered, but the high groove is just as fast as the bottom making for some great racing. At any time throughout the night, there were no less than 6 cars at a time that were side-by-side, many times 3-wide. Brandon McReynolds found out how racy it was in the beginning as Roger Lee Newton and Richard Boswell II found their way
Clay Greenfield(84) got turned around after contact while battling for the lead. The wreck got big as the field tried to play dodge ball with a few getting wrapped up in the early race crash.
around him in the early going. Boswell then motored around Newton to move up to 6th from his 11th place starting spot on lap 25. Jamie Yelton is all over Caudill for second, Jake Crum is lurking, and Alex Yontz is coming to the front in a hurry after starting out back after the lap 5 caution. Towards the back of the pack is some of the best racing you'll ever see, as Scott Turlington, J.R. Allen, Brad Kurth, Kyle Grissom and Corey LaJoie filling in for Dillon Smith are all side-by-side.
Halfway 1.Mccall 2.Tissot 3.Caudill 4.Yelton 5.Crum 6.Boswell 7.Newton 8.Brandon Dean
9.Brown 10.Yontz
"The Duel"
Alex Yontz despite always having struggled on the 4/10 mile Tri-County track, drove hard and raced through the field even making it up to the top ten during the early part of the race before dropping back again due to a jumbled restart.
As McCall was making everybody look bad, there was one battle that was ongoing the entire race, well.....until one got tired of battling. R.A. Brown is the defending winner of this race and was tough, but Brandon Dean was equally tough. Those 2 raced side-by-side not for a couple of laps, but for nearly 60 laps inside the top ten. Dean on the high side and Brown down low, Brown could get the run through the corner but Dean would pull the momentum down the straightaway. They raced like that the whole time and never made contact, until lap 123. Brown decided to change it up, and go to the outside, and when he did the #99 of Dean slid high in turn 4 spinning the #60 of Brown around. It was very entertaining while it lasted.
RA Brown(60) ongoing battle for position with Brandon Dean came to an end when the two made contact and Brown spun in turn three.
Getting A Little Rough
As always in any race, it was down towards the end and that's "go time". And the one who was "going" was Richard Boswell II or "Boz" as we like to call him. He had been in the top 6 the entire night, but with 60 to go he gets by Yelton for 5th. Then at lap 102 it was Crum for 4th. Then 3 laps later, takes 3rd from Caudill. And at lap 128 he passes Tissot for 2nd. All the while, the Crum, Caudill, Yelton battle is a great one behind him. Yelton and Crum have a spirited battle, and Yelton gets by, then makes contact with Caudill sending him up the track allowing Crum to follow him through. Crum gives Yelton a shot to the rear but he gathers it back up, only to run into turn 1 too hard and Crum goes back by with ease.
This three wide battle was part of the rough going late int he UARA 150 at Tri-County Motor Speedway. Above Kyle Grissom(32), Brad Kurth(9) and Darrell "Tiger" Wallace, Jr.(76) get three wide while battling for position. Wallace and Grissom later had some heat going on the track and again on pit road following the race.
Am I Harry Gant?
Back in the 80's Harry Gant was the bridesmaid more times than anybody wants to ever be, 9 times to be exact before his first Winston(now Sprint) Cup win. Richard Boswell II hasn't had that many 2nd place finishes, but since Bristol has finished 3rd, 3rd, 2nd and 3rd. And earlier in the year had another 2nd place at Orange County, he is most definitely the hottest driver on the tour at this point in the year. And yet again at Tri-County he was runner-up once again. The bad thing was he was actually catching McCall at the end, but the laps were not in his favor. Boswell just smiled after the race and shook his head, "I'm gonna win one of the things eventually". I have no doubt in that statement.
RIchard Boswell(72) was on a charge late as he made it all the way to his third second place finish of the season. The UARA's version of "Harry Gant" just can't seem to break through for that first win despite having one of the best cars every week.
TOTAL DOMINATION
Matt McCall has pretty much won in everything he's got in. He has a track championship at Hickory, a UARA championship, was a driver for Robert Yates last year in the Bush Series, and this year at Tri-County he won all three of the Triple Crown races, in 2 different cars. But this night was especially impressive, it was against the best Late-Models around. And it was in a brand new car that had only been raced once before, the week before, and slayed them then also. If dominating in a 2009 never before raced Pistone LTO car wasn't bad enough, the added Toyota Camry headlight and bumper decals really got them talking, it was the cherry on top. It wasn't even close, he straight up whipped the fire
Tom Pistone(left) and Matt McCall(right) were all smiles in victory lane after dominating his second straight race in a weeks time at Tri-County Motor Speedway, this week thumping the stars of the UARA-STARS Late Model Stock Car series.
out of them and drove off into the night. And the car is for sale, because as I told you last week car owner, Tom Pistone says it's outdated, wonder how many people will be in line for that one?
Race Results:
1. Matt McCall
2. RIchard Boswell
3. Lee Tissot
4. Jake Crum
5. Jamie Yelton
6. Jamey Caudill
7. Roger Lee Newton
8. Brandon McReynolds
9. Alex Yontz
10.Andrew Carlsen
11.Jordan McGregor
12. Kyle Moon
13. Scott Turlington
14. JR Allen
15. Thomas Hartensveld
16. RA Brown
17. Darrell Wallace, Jr.
18. David Latour, Jr.
19. Garrett Campbell
20. Brad Kurth
21. Brandon Dean
22. Corey LaJoie
23. Clay Greenfield
24. Kyle Grissom
25. Chase Austin
26. Jesse LeFevers