Hudson, NC(June 5, 2009) -- Much to every one's surprise 18 Late Model Stock Cars were out in force to contest for the victory in this years Firecracker 150 at Tri-County Motor Speedway.

Hickory Motor Speedway regular, Grant Wimbish would qualify on the pole with Caraway Speedway regular, BJ Mackey posting the outside pole speed. Wimbish's younger brother, Josh, Drive for Diversity driver, Megan Reitenour and Richard Childress Racing prodigy, Ryan Gifford rounded out the top 5.

After Tri-County Motor Speedway's "infamous" dice roll, G. Wimbish would be rolling off 4th putting Reitenour on the point in front of what legendary Late Model Stock Car driver and former NASCAR National Weekly Racing Series Champion, Dexter Canipe, Sr. claims to be the largest crowd to ever attend the speedway.

The first 40 laps would be all Reitenour, all the way as she pulled away from Mackey and G. Wimbish but the man on the move would be the RCR Development driver, Gifford. Gifford had worked his way up to second and began to reel in the lighting fast car of Reitenour. Gifford tried low, but she shut the door, Gifford tried high, again Reitenour was doing all she could to protect the top spot.

Lap 51 Gifford made a switch move and took his car into the marbles to get past Reitenour and brought Mackey and now 3rd place driver and Newport Speedway regular, Kevin Leicht with him. The next 25 laps Gifford would take off and seemed to be the car to beat, but a lap 76 caution for debris would change everything.

Now with the field bunched it looked to be just what Leicht needed to make his bid for the top spot. Under caution a bizarre incident took place as RA Brown was attempting to pull up to pit when he made contact with Monty Cox sending Cox up into the air and ending both drivers night.

On the restart Leicht took his Leicht Designs Ford Fusion to the front and just like Reitenour and Gifford, Leicht was calling for his luggage as he began to check out on the field. One car on the move was three-time winner already this season, David Wilson in his Lee Faulk Racing mount. Wilson didn't get the qualifing effort the team would have liked, but battled his way up to second with 25 laps to go and began setting his sights on Leicht.

All that was needed was a caution for Wilson to catch up and with five laps to go G. Wimbish gets sideways coming out of turn two and loses control while battling for third with Gifford. This would set up for a Green, White, Checkered shootout to the finish.

If you have been to Tri-County this year you know that Wilson loves the high groove and it had looked as if Leicht's car was very fast on the high side so with the double file restarts this one was going to get interesting. Leicht on the inside, Wilson on the outside with Gifford on the back bumper of Leicht. This one is going to be an exciting finish and as everyone in the stands stood on their feet the green flag waved and before the two leaders get to the end of the front straight away Leicht and Wilson make contact.

Into the wall goes Wilson and going down into turn one Leicht drove up the race track to put a block move on the three time winner. All while, Gifford had gotten his nose in the mix battling door to door with Leicht for the lead. The white flag was out and Wilson was giving it all he had to catch back up to Leicht

Unfortunately for Wilson he would have to settle for third behind Leicht and Gifford in this years edition of the Firecracker 150 at Tri-County Motor Speedway. For Leicht this was his first win of the season outside of Newport Speedway, where he has won six races already this season.

Leicht apologized to Wilson for the contact on the final restart and said that he missed a shift, but for the fans in attendance it was a great finish to the biggest race of the year on the 4/10 mile track. For Gifford, the second place finish felt good, but the young driver said that he learned a lot. Most of all he learned that he needed to be more patient in a long race and was looking forward to the Dwight Huffman Memorial, which is a 177-lap race at Hickory Motor Speedway this coming Saturday night.

For Wilson, third place wasn't good enough and he was visibly upset after about the late contact with Leicht, but after a poor qualifying effort he and his team will take the third place effort. Wilson did state that he wouldn't forget about the way Leicht raced him next time the two are on

the track together.

One guy who didn't make any noise this week was four-time winner already this season at Tri-County Motor Speedway, Dexter Canipe, Jr. Canipe had a terrible qualifying effort outside of the top ten, but raced his way up to a sixth place finish by the end of the race. Just ahead of Canipe and completing the top five finishers was Mackey and Reitenour.

It was a great race at Tri-County Motor Speedway and the crowd as we said earlier was incredible and hopefully the action will be as intense this Friday night as the Late Model Stock Cars are back in action again for a 50-lap main event.

Official Results:
1) Kevin Leicht
2) Ryan Gifford
3) David Wilson
4) BJ Mackey
5) Megan Rietenour
6) Dexter Canipe Jr.
7) Tyler Brown
8) Ty Dillon
9) Anthony Anders
10) Josh Wimbish
11) Sean Brierly
12) Grant Wimbish
13) Chuck Jensen
14) Ryan Rust
15) RA Brown
16) Monty Cox
17) Jason Cochran
18) Ryan Glenski