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Canipe Wins Race, Mercer Wins Title, Swaim Claims NC State Title

Story by: Chris Romano/RACE22.com Contributor

Hickory, NC(September 13, 2009) -- Championship Night at Hickory Motor Speedway was a foregone conclusion for Andy Mercer, who had clinched the Late Model title coming into the last points event of the season, but the field at the venerable speedway didn't make things easy for the 2009 champion.

Dexter Canipe, Jr rocketed away from his outside pole position, besting polesitter Steven Wallace as the field took the green into turn one. Wallace quickly fell to third as Jason LeFevers took over second spot, while Coleman Pressley and Kyle Moon rounded out the top five. The order stayed like that until lap eighteen when Wallace challenged LeFevers and took back second.

Canipe extended his lead but two quick yellows in succession, on laps thirty two and thirty three, respectively, bunched the field to give Wallace one more chance. It was Pressley, however, on the restart that took the second spot from Wallace and gave chase to Canipe. LeFevers pitted under the caution and gave up fourth position to the best battle of the evening as Chris Lawson, Moon, Mercer, Cole Mituk and Travis Swaim all contested the spot.

With ten laps to go there was no catching Canipe, but Wallace and Pressley raced side by side for second, with Wallace getting by on lap forty-three. They stayed that way through the checkers, with Lawson just taking fourth from Swain at the finish line. Mercer finished sixth.

"It's an honor to beat Steven Wallace and Coleman Pressley, they come from good backgrounds," said Canipe. "But, we've been on a roll here the last three weeks, the car has been absolutely great. It all goes back to my dad. It's so easy to drive these things when they're that good."

In second, Wallace was looking forward to next week's big event at Hickory, the annual Bobby Isaac Memorial 200. "It was too loose at the start," said Wallace.  "We brought our car out here to get ready for next week. We learned a little bit and we'll make our car better."

Pressley thought third was predictable. "We had a third place car. Congratulations to those two guys, we've got just to go back now and do our homework."

But the night belonged to Mercer, who dominated the 2009 season in Late Models at Hickory. "It's awesome," said Mercer. "We've been racing here for five or six years and we narrowly missed several championships in the Limited division and Late Model and we finally got us one."
 
The race also solidified Travis Swaim as the 2009 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series North Carolina State Champion.  Swaim came into the weekend down over 20 points, but with a couple DNF's early in the year at Caraway Speedway, he had quite a few points to gain by racing.
 
Swaim, a three-time champion at Caraway, took home the win on Friday night at Tri-County Motor Speedway while Mercer was crashed out.  That race coupled with a fifth place finish at Hickory was enough to help him claim the 
 

Photos by Debra Slater-Manter
 Dexter Canipe, Jr.(88) makes the pass for the lead on Steven Wallace(66).

Travis Swaim(21) makes his move past Andy Mercer(10) for position. With Swaim's win at TCMS on Friday he moved past Mercer for the NASCAR NC State Title.

Dexter Canipe, Jr. celebrated his second victory in as many weeks at Hickory Motor Speedway.

In the Late Model Trucks, 14-year old, Clint King picked up his first career victory on the 3/8 mile track, which he had struggled at in two previous appearance on the PASS Truck tour.  This was his third win this season.

North Carolina state title.
 
Also in the Late Model Truck race, young Clint King was making his first start in the tracks truck division after dismal finishes in two PASS Truck Series starts earlier in the season.  King made the most of his third start at Hickory as he took home his first win on "America's Most Famous Short Track".
 
Results:
1 - Dexter Canipe Jr. #88
2 - Steven Wallace #66
3 - Coleman Pressley #59
4 - Chris Lawson #51
5 - Travis Swaim #21
6 - Andy Mercer #10
7 - Kyle Moon #19
8 - Cole Miktuk #6
9 - Neil Meredith #36
10 - James Goff #33
11 - Grant Wimbish #57
12 - Jesse LeFevers #43
13 - Akinori Ogata #83
14 - Candace Muzny #92
15 - Mike Sboro #99
16 - Jeff Stankiewicz #45
17 - Doug Mate #14