Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Newport, TN(August 31, 2009) -- Newport Speedway + the UARA-STARS Late Model Stock Car series = Fireworks and while the August 29, 2009 race wasn't as exciting it has been in the past, it still had it's share of carnage and excitement.

Rain plagued the racing world this season including the UARA-STARS which has saw two races this season get rescheduled due to rain, which hadn't happened in over two years and while rain threatened the entire day at Newport Speedway it didn't stop the action ... for long anyways. The first rain shower hit the track just as Jamey Caudill was attempting to make his qualifying run as the last car to make his two laps just before 6:00pm.

Caudill despite rain drops beginning to fall knocked the first car out, Matt McCall off the pole and completed qualifying as a complete down pour ensued and everyone headed for cover. Once the track was dried off the action resumed as all the other divisions competing turned in qualifying laps around 7:30pm and a shortened autograph session took place for the huge crowd in attendance.

Once all the pre-race festivities were completed and a short race for one of the support divisions the 22-car field for the UARA-STARS Series hit the track for 150-laps of racing action. The UARA race was supposed to have run late in the program, but with the threat of rain once again, the race was moved up and all the drivers knew they could be racing to just past halfway.

That knowledge certainly changed the way some of the front runners would race, but was on the mind of everyone in the field. The green flag waved with Caudill, McCall, Paddy Rodenbeck, Kevin Leicht, Kyle Grissom, Brennan Poole, Scott Turlington, Garrett Campbell and Stephen Gahagan completing the top ten starters.

McCall got the jump on the start and took over the lead, but something that you rarely see is Caudill racing hard in the early laps of the race, but with the threat of rain, the veteran was on his game and quickly took back over the top spot. Caudill would put his car firmly out in front of the field while there was a lot of shuffling for positions back through the field.

One driver who had a great qualifying effort whose expectation for a good run went away early was two-time winner this season, McReynolds, who seemed to slip back from the start in the outside line. On the contrary the outside line was working for Coleman Pressley and Jake Crum, who were making their way toward the front from 15th and 16th place qualifying efforts respectively.

Rodenbeck, who had paced some of the practice sessions coming into the event saw his night go up after hard contact with K. Leicht and then a little more contact as he tried to save his position and clipped Poole. The contact with Poole ripped Rodenbeck's door off and led the first caution of the night and also cut Poole's tire leaving nearly a six inch cut, but didn't completely cut the tire down and only left it leaking down for the rest of the race.

The caution was actually caused when Rodenbeck got sideways and bunched the field up and Pressley, who was making good use of the outside line went for a spin. Pressley's run from a 15th starting place up to seventh had ended, but the driver was able to continue.

The cut tire would play a factor for Poole, but never would go down saving a great finish for the rookie driver. Back up front Caudill was leading the way, but just as the halfway mark was passed he lost the lead to K. Leicht, who had been on the move since the drop of the green flag. Just passed the lap 110 mark the caution waved again and this time it was Ryan Gray going for a spin after contact from behind by Turlington. Gray avoided contact from other cars and got his car turned around.

The next caution wouldn't take long to fly as Gahagan makes contact with Matt Leicht and ends the young drivers night. Shortly after the field went back green they would see the final caution of the night fly and subsequently the red flag would emerge with only nine laps to go and Kevin Leicht on the edge of securing his second career win, the first of which came at Tri-County Motor Speedway in 2006.

However, luck wasn't with Leicht as far as the rains continuing and as the cars sat idle on the backstretch for a very light rain, which was nothing compared to the rain that the series raced in at Lonesome Pine Raceway back on July 4th, the race was to resume after a roughly thirty-minute delay. Most of the drivers felt that the track was safe to continue, but to be on the safe side the UARA officials decided to wait it out after looking at the weather radar.

Once the red flag was lifted and the green flag went in the air, Caudill went to the whip and craked it on Leicht as he made his move with the field coming to the stripe with two to go. Caudill would pull away from Leicht, who would slip into the clutches of third place running, McCall, but would hang on for a second place finish. For Caudill it was his 97th career win in Late Model Stock Cars and his 13th career UARA-STARS Series win, of which he is the all-time wins leader.

Caudill's win also allowed the veteran to chip away at McCall's points lead, but not by much as McCall took home a third place finish. Finishing fourth was Grissom, who started eighth and fifth was Poole, who lost a position late in the race due to the fact that the gash in his tire was allowing it to slowly leak, but this was the rookie drivers first top five finish in UARA-STARS competition.

Dennis Queen, who started shotgun on the field after pulling his car out of line to work on it following qualifying moved his way up to a sixth place finish slipping past Crum, who restarted sixth. Crum also allowed Garrett Campbell to make his way past for seventh while he settled for eighth. The eighth place finish was the least of Crum's worries following the race as the driver was feeling the effects after contact with another driver earlier in the race allowed carbon monoxide to get to the young driver.

After being taking to the hospital following the race Crum was treated and released after having a lot of oxygen pumped into him. The young driver is ready to bounce back as he intends to compete in the New Hampshire race for the NASCAR Camping World East Series on September 18th. McReynolds tough night ended with a ninth place finish as the young driver was never a factor and Gray recovered from his spin to finish 10th.

One driver who was hoping to have a good finish was Dylan Presnell who is from nearby Sevierville, TN and collected a win just a few weeks earlier in a non-UARA sanctioned event. However, the young driver, who practiced fast on Friday and Saturday missed it by just a tick in qualifying and started 11th and was never able to mount a challenge and was caught up in several fender banging incidents on his way to a 13th place finish.
 

After Pressley's impressive early race run from 15th to seventh and his subsequent spin, the young driver wasn't able to get back up front and finished 11th. Turlington's top ten qualifying effort was impressive for his first trip to Newport, but he was never able to backup his speed in the race and finished 12th. Lance Gatlin finished a quiet 14th after winning a non-UARA sanctioned race on the track back on July 25th. Despite the damage to Rodenbeck's car from the early contact with K. Leicht and a couple laps later Poole, the young driver soildered on to finish the race in 15th, the final car on the lead lap.

No, it wasn't the typical rock 'em, sock 'em fender banging multi-car crashing action that Newport Speedway is used to when the UARA-STARS come to town, but in the end it was an exciting finish delayed by a small rain shower and a veteran driver taking home another win. Jamey Caudill continues to etch his name into every Late Model Stock Car record book and will no doubt go down as one of the greatest Late Model Stock Car racers ever ... maybe even the BEST EVER!
 
Results:
1 - Jamey Caudill #50
2 - Kevin Leicht #2
3 - Matt McCall #23
4 - Kyle Grissom #32
5 - Brennan Poole #5
6 - Dennis Queen #92
7 - Garrett Campbell #12
8 - Jake Crum #1
9 - Brandon McReynolds #28
10 - Ryan Gray #04
11 - Coleman Pressley #59
12 - Scott Turlington #48
13 - Dylan Presnell #83
14 - Lance Gatlin #13
15 - Paddy Rodenbeck #81
16 - Jeff Myers #11
17 - Randy Hawkins #3
18 - Scottie Hicks #17
19 - Stephen Gahagan #47
20 - Matt Leicht #01
21 - Kaleb Pressley #54
22 - Lee Tissot #44