Hickory, NC ~ The weather outside on Saturday was downright miserable, hot and sticky and the Hickory Motor Speedway was feeling the effects of the near triple digit temperatures also, as cars and emotions were sliding all over the place.

The heat could have had an affect on the anger that some exposed, but then again it probably would have happened if it was 45 degrees and down right cold, the UARA series racers are some of the most passionate anywhere. One person it didn't get to was Paddy Rodenbeck, who never fell from the top spot the entire race, and cemented the fact once again after bad luck at Dillon and Orange County that he is the one to beat on any race day. But, there was so much more going on behind him and so many story lines being written

The day started out with 24 cars strong, and a few new, or rarely seen faces in the garage. Former regular, Roger Lee Newton was back, and wasn't there to play as he was near the top of the practice charts the entire day. Another part-time driver there was Jordan McGregor, who has had stellar runs in the limited times he has run in the series. Jordan was also pretty quick in practice, but his full potential would not be seen on this day as a skip in the motor would plague the team for the entire day.

Scott Turlington is a UARA regular, but he had the worst time in practice of anybody at the track, backing his #48 machine into the turn 1 wall in the final session. A new rear clip would be in order, but repairs were made for Turlington to start the event and he ran the ill-handling car to complete the race.. Brandon McReynolds was the other fast car in both practices, and Andy Loden topped the charts in the final session on his final lap.

We rolled into qualifying, and many had rolled into some air-conditioning somewhere, car, haulers, whatever they could find. The speeds were expected to mirror some of the mock qualifying runs in practice, and with the heat still at full blast, the cars fast in practice then were the ones being looked at as pole contenders. And they were, except for one, the man that put op the fastest time of the day, Rodenbeck.

After being 9th in both practice sessions, Rodenbeck blazed the track with a time of 15.315 to lock up the Sunoco Pole Award. McReynolds followed up his fast times earlier to roll of second, followed by Jamey Caudill, Kyle Grissom, and the master at Hickory, Matt McCall completed the top 5. As many cars were loose throughout the day on the slick track, thoughts were that the evenings event could possibly be a "crash fest" of sorts. By race time, the track had cooled off considerably from the 150 degree readings earlier in the day, and the thoughts of carnage never came true. But the racing was intense to say the least.

At the drop of the green, Rodenbeck jumped to the lead but was being pestered by McReynolds for the top spot. McCall uses his experience to get by Grissom on the high side for 3rd, and back in the pack they are 3-wide at some points in the opening laps. Garrett Campbell, who had been on a roll this year until an accident at Orange County last race out, was once again heading towards the front after starting 17th, breaking into the top 10 just 19 laps into the event. It would be short-lived for the Campbell Motorsports team though, as he would have something break on the suspension causing the rest of the night to be very frustrating, and pretty much holding on for dear life.

After the top 7 get strung out just a bit, things get exciting once more at lap 50. Lapped cars are now coming into play, and Rodenbeck handles them like an artist, sometimes threading the needle 3-wide, never letting the traffic break his stride. McReynolds, Caudill, and McCall were being held up pretty bad behind him, and they were on top of each other with Caudill shooting to the low side of McReynolds for 2nd. this move turned out to be costly though, as the car that Caudill wanted to follow was the slower one of the cars racing, and McCall slipped by on the high side for 3rd.

Then McCall set his sights on McReynolds, taking the top spot from the youngster on lap 54. Seven laps later Caudill disposes of McReynolds, and now Andy "Highside" Loden has came into play, moving McReynolds back to 4th. McReynolds night was getting ready to get worse.....quickly. As we slip just past halfway, the race is for 2nd as Caudill slips back by McCall for 2nd. All the while, Rodenbeck is running off into the night.. McReynolds now has his hands full with Grissom, and the two make contact in turn 1, then off of turn 2 Grissom slides high running McReynolds into the outside wall.

That was the beginning of the end for McReynolds, as he fell back through the field and out of contention with numerous pit stops with work on pit road.

"We had a good car, it was just a bad set of tires on there is why we started falling back. I don't know what Kyle's problem is, I gave him room and he hit me once, then just ran me in the wall down the backstretch, the car was junk after that," said a furious McReynolds after the race.

With 60 to go, cars start to show muscle that had been laying back. Caudill is on Rodenbeck for the lead after a restart, and McCall has went to the extreme high side to reel them in. Richard Boswell had not been happy with his car all day, but he was making his own charge into the top 6 on lap 90. This is where the action really starts. Boswell had drove very hard to get where he was, and after another restart for a spin by Grant McGinnis, Roger Lee Newton makes contact with Boswell, but the Jr. Motorsports driver managed to hold on for the spot when another caution comes out for a crash between Joey Bryant and Clint Mills.

Up front McCall had caught Caudill once again using the high line, and moves back into 2nd once more with 48 laps remaining. Boswell and Newton weren't done yet, not by a long shot. Andy Loden had been the king of Hickory the last few years, winning the track championship the last three years in a row. But his venture into running the full UARA tour this year hadn't panned out to his liking, after numerous parts failures and just ill-handling cars, the team was looking forward to going back to Hickory.

Loden did lead the final practice session, and throughout the race he had that "riding" look to him, staying in the top 4 all night. But during the caution for the Bryant/Mills incident, the #29 hits pit road and hood goes up immediately. Night over, the culprit........a bolt came out of the throttle linkage. Another freak part failure, and an end to a great night, Andy thought he had something for the leaders at the end. Rumor is that the team is taking a week off and will not make the trip to Lonesome Pine on July 4th.

Now back to Newton and Boswell once again. On the restart Newton is all over Boswell once more, and two laps later contact is made once more pushing the #88 slightly into the outside wall. Newton goes on, and Boswell begins to lose spots slightly, until he finally falls off the pace on lap 133. As he is riding around under half power, Newton goes to lap him and Boswell cuts in front of the #33 causing contact once more.

Some crew members from the Newton team went down to confront the Boswell team, and order was quickly restored. Boswell would come in to change a tire a few laps later, and as he was exiting the pits the entire wheel came off ending his night of racing. Laps were winding down, and Rodenbeck looked to be cruising to the victory. But it is never that easy, and he had to endure one final caution for a dreaded Green-White-Checkered finish. Kyle Grissom had been running in 4th, but his bad luck seems to never end as he cut down a right front tire and came to a halt in turn 4.

This was Caudill's last chance, as he had just got back by McCall for the 2nd spot 8 laps earlier. There was no chance.. Rodenbeck had been flawless all night, including restarts, and once more he drove off into the night with a great jump off turn 4. Rodenbeck had picked up the very much deserved win, and the smoothest driver in the LMSC ranks came home 2nd. A very entertaining race, and afterwards it got a little more exciting. Dickie Boswell, Richards father, came down on the frontstretch and confronted Roger Lee about the contact, a war of words ensued, and authorities put an end to the situation.

about 13 laps after a restart and it would start to get very loose getting into the corner. Once it starts doing that here, your kinda dead in the water, so we had to let Matt go and got back there and rode a little bit. I have to give it to Paddy and them, they were on a rail."