Altamahaw, NC(June 20, 2009) -- At Ace Speedway, Speedy Faucette has pretty much had run of the place the past two years. This year has been no different, as he has taken the pole in nearly every race and won all but 3 races.

Now make that 4. After this past Friday night, it looks as if Rodney Cook has found his groove from a few years ago, as he took home the 75 lap Late-Model victory going away.

After a shakeup in management this past week at Ace, it was questioned whether the track would be open at all. All was well as the teams pulled into the track and once again there was a nice field of 15 Late-Models. Reigning champion Dean Fogleman was back after destroying the front of his car a week before and it looked to be better than ever as he was in the top 3 in both practice sessions. The usual suspects were quick too, Cook, Turner, Faucette and Rumley.

Speedy on the pole. We can all just about count on that by now, as he once again laid down a blistering lap as quick as some of the runs earlier in the year, when the track wasn't as slick with 90+ degree weather outside.. Cook was 2nd fastest, followed by Dustin Rumley, Fogleman and Ryan Wilson, who seems to be turning his Ace Speedway bad luck around. One driver noticeably not in the top 5 was Robert Turner, as put his #13 in the 7th spot.

"We were good in practice, I just don't know. We needed to tighten the car up and I didn't think we went that far, but we obviously did, we'll be fine for the race though," said a disappointed Turner.

Ace has the pole-sitter draw a number each week and after Speedy drew a 1 last week, 5 was the number pulled by a young fan from the crowd. Wilson was now on the pole, with his rival of the year at Ace, Fogleman, to the outside. The green waved and it got wild quick.

Wilson got the jump on Fogleman and takes the lead, with Rumley following him through on the low side. Faucette gets a little loose in turn one on lap two and the rear of the #37 swings out and hits Fogleman knocking him high and out of the groove. Cook has moved into thirrd and Rumley waste no time taking the lead as he passes Wilson for the top spot on lap 4. Two laps later, Cook blows by Wilson and Turner (who started 7th), follows in the hole bringing Faucette with him.

The action comes to a stop with our first caution of the night, as Brad Kurth and Fogleman get mixed up in the pack, sending Bobby Griffin with no where to go and hard into the turn 1 wall. Kurth would soon retire with a broken exhaust and Fogleman would soldier on being competitive, but after the race looking at the rear wheels, it was amazing he could even drive the car at all. The Accident on lap 9 knocked the rear-end completely out of whack, and he drove the remaining 66 laps with the right rear tire completely pushed forward against the fender, some 4 inches off from where it should have been.

Rumley had been holding the distance between him and Cook before the caution, but now Cook was on his bumper. After the restart, Cook begins to pester Rumley and at lap 17 he makes the move and takes the position. And that was pretty much it as Cook began to put distance between him and the rest of the field. While Turner and Faucette disposed of Rumley for second soon after Cook took the lead, but the veteran was long gone. Unless a caution were to come, they would never catch him, but you know a caution was just around the corner.

They would get their first chance at lap 35, but it didn't matter as Cook once again began to pull away. As they ran, Turner began to pull away from Faucette in 3rd and behind them the real battle was between John Moore and Jason Payne for the 6th spot. Moore has been the surprise of late, running better each week and coming home in 3rd the last two races for his best finish ever in the Late Model division. The two dogged each other lap after lap, eventually catching 5th place running Ryan Wilson.

Cook had ran away lead, but low and behold a caution with 10 laps to go for ..... well who knows, but it made it exciting. Or gave it the potential to be exciting, but Cook would once again begin to pull away, but Turner stayed a little closer this time, until he looses the front end off turn 2 and allows Faucette to take second with 3 laps to go. A battle was going on for 5th, as Payne and Wilson ran side-by-side the final 6 laps with Payne taking the spot on the last lap.

Wilson had good reason to give the spot up though, as he crossed the stripe he parked suddenly, with smoke rolling from the inside of the car. Wiring on the car had began to burn 30-laps earlier from the engine and with 5 to go they had burned up into the car, causing the young driver to breathe in the toxic fumes from the burnt plastic. Wilson was attended to by local EMS, but was fine and will run at Caraway Speedway on Saturday night.

All the races this year have been very exciting at Ace and even though Faucette has been dominating, he has had either Turner or Cook on his bumper for every event. But on this night, it was pure domination on Cook's part and the rest of the field was left in the dust. Momentum swings are a part of racing at every track and if last night was any indication, the momentum may have just swung into a different direction.

Cook now has two victories in a row and one thing is for sure though, it makes it just that more exciting for the fans to have another player up front.

Unofficial Results:
1 - Rodney Cook
2 - Speedy Faucette
3 - Robert Turner
4 - Dustin Rumley
5 - Jason Payne
6 - Ryan Wilson
7 - John Moore
8 - Dean Fogleman
9 - Coy Hedrick
10 - Kevin Parker
11 - Mike Chambers
12 - Robert Zook
13 - Brad Kurth
14 - Bobby Griffin
15 - Elliott Jewell