Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

Dillon, SC(September 20, 2009) -- The day started off with some big news at the Dillon Motor Speedway, as the UARA announced the makeup date for the Coastal Plains race. November 7th the UARA Stars will head to the Kingsport Speedway, a track that has set dormant since 2002, but the biggest news in some time came roughly 300ft from the finish line.

What happened just short of the finish could turn out to be a rivalry for the ages as two of Late Model Stock Car racing's biggest and most prominent stars got together while racing for the win. Kyle Grissom just hopes they keep doing what they are doing, as he took home a surprising win Saturday night. And, nobody was surprised more than him, he didn't even know he won after the race was completed and he had climbed from his car.

A strong field of 24 cars were on hand at Dillon, but only 23 would take the green flag. Dylan Presnell saw his day come to an end after the final practice session with a broken rear end. The practice was paced by Coleman Pressley, who had been set on go all day long and was looking as one of the favorites going into the 150-lapper. Qualifying once again saw the cream come to the top, as Paddy Rodenbeck, Jamey Caudill, Danny O'Quinn Jr., Pressley and Kyle Grissom would lead them to the green. Two other fast cars were point leader Matt McCall rolling off seventh and an extremely frustrated Brandon McReynolds starting tenth. The last two cars named wouldn't stay there long.

As the race started, Rodenbeck asserted himself at the front, and set a torrid pace. Earlier in the year at the first stop at Dillon, Rodenbeck "Couldn't get out of his own way" as his father put it, but this time around the #81 was looking stout. Caudill was the only car to keep pace with him in the early going, with former series champion and current NASCAR Nationwide series driver, O'Quinn doing all he could to keep a host of cars at bay. That was the real battle in the early going, as third through sixth was a hotly contested battle. It took until lap 35 but Pressley and Grissom were finally able to clear O'Quinn for the third and fourth spots.

Behind that battle, McCall was steadily moving forward very quietly, while McReynolds was in a feverish rush to get to the front. On the opening lap McReynolds was punted to the high side and went back to 13th, and was having to drive his heart out to make up lost ground. McCall worked his way around Garrett Campbell for the 6th spot on lap 41, and looked to be saving his car while making progress at the same time. Everyone knew that McCall would more than likely be a factor before the race was over, McReynolds just didn't look like he had enough time to make up lost ground. But as always in racing, anything can happen, and it did on this night.

As we approach the 50-lap mark, Pressley has gotten away from fourth and looks to be gaining on the leaders. Coleman has had some bad luck in his past few races with mechanical failures, and the feeling at Dillon was this was the race for him to turn it around. As he came off turn four on lap 47, his car suddenly goes silent, and slowly limps back the pits and parks. Once again bad luck would bite the #59 team, as another expired motor sets them out of another race. Pressley was upbeat despite the setback, and just hoped this was the end of his bad luck heading into Martinsville.

Three laps later it would bite another veteran making their return to the UARA, as BJ Mackey had just muscled his way into the top eight, a right front tire goes down on the #4 machine. McReynolds luck had just gotten better, as both Pressley and Mackey were in front of him, and with the help also of a strong car he makes his way past O'Quinn to take the 5th spot on lap 60.

Attrition would be another one of the stories at Dillon, as cars started to drop like flies. Just as McCall clears Grissom to take over the third spot before halfway, Tyler English and Scott Turlington get together to bring out the caution, Turlington having his night ended. At this point we only have nine cars on the lead lap, and it becomes a turning point for Rodenbeck. Paddy had a commanding lead the entire night, but looked to be running a tad harder than the rest of the field. This may have been the case, because after the caution his car was never the same, as on lap 86 Caudill would take the lead with ease. But he was fixing have company in the form of Matt McCall.

McCall had a "saving" look to his driving style all night, but inside of 50 laps to that all changed. McCall would fly past a fading Rodenbeck with 60 to go and had his sights set on Caudill. Don Satterfield would loose his right rear wheel to bring out a red flag and with a restart on lap 104, one of the best battles in UARA history would begin.

McCall would hound the inside of Caudill, but being pinched down off the corners Caudill was able to keep the momentum going to hold the lead. Lap after lap, the two veterans would race side-by-side, sometimes making contact with both letting each other gather their cars back up. Behind them McReynolds was rolling along, and made his way to the back bumper of Grissom for third, but the night and story belonged to the two drivers up front.

We get a couple of cautions for a few spins, and all the while McCall is hounding the rear of the Caudill machine. It looked as if it was going to run the the checkered this way, until Ryan Hall and Randy Hawkins spin in turn one with 13-year old Ronnie Bassett Jr. taking evasive action hard into the outside wall. Another red flag, and another chance for the crowd to relax before the wild ten lap sprint to the finish.

Caudill would get a good jump on the restart, but McCall was there once again with seven to go. With five to go they go side by side once again, with McCall not being able to clear Caudill on the bottom side and with three to go Caudill pulls his car back in front. Two to go and McCall makes one last run to the inside, but as they come off turn two on the final lap Caudill inches ahead.

McCall dives into turn three on Caudill and the two make contact going into turn four, Caudill takes a long slide and eventually loops it around before the exit of the final corner. McCall takes the checkered flag and as the cars dodge Caudill, Brandon Dean, Garrett Campbell and Randy Hawkins go three-wide across the finish line with Hawkins and Campbell wrecking hard into the inside wall for the fifth spot with Dean taking the position.

Wow. It was over and McCall was about to pull into victory lane or so he thought. Caudill had come around to confront McCall, but was sent to his pits by the officials. McCall had bigger problems though, as there was not a spot for him in victory lane, it was already being occupied by Kyle Grissom and McReynolds and Rodenbeck were behind him.

So where did Matt fit in? He didn't as the veteran was told on the front stretch by the officials that you can't advance your position by spinning another car, he was being scored as the last car on the lead lap. Then it got even more interesting.

As Grissom was given oxygen on pit road from his exhaust being crushed into his car, McCall and Caudill passed by each other on pit road. The two had a heated discussion with Caudill not accepting McCall's apology. They agreed to disagree and both drivers were visibly upset and neither was bashful when explaining their side.

McCall was furious with the UARA for the decision to penalize him for the contact and swore they didn't want him to win the championship this year.

"The officials didn't tell me anything," explained McCall. "They started talking to Grissom and I guess he won the race. I guess you just can't race in this series apparently; Caudill went in there a little high that last lap, I got in there a little hard and touched him just a little and he just lost it. He had been loose in for a while there and had been chopping me off."

So was it just a racing incident?, McCall was asked. Answering the question a little angered and laughing at the same time, if that's possible, "Yeah ..."

Of course Caudill saw it differently and had another angle as to why McCall did what he did.

"You saw it man; hell I just got run into," said Caudill. "I got accused of getting somebody to wreck him last week at Newport, that didn't have anything to do with anything". "His(McCall's) dad came down and jumped in my s&%$ saying the 81(Rodenbeck) and me were teamed up and trying to wreck him and he's(Paddy) running for a championship just like we are(Caudill's brother Jeff is Rodenbeck's crew chief)."

"Jerry Moody owns that race car, I've drove his race car for a long time, he's been real good to me. If it were Matt's car, I would of drove mine slap through it. The 51(McCall) is in a position to win the championship, but he's made his bed, he's gonna have to lay in it for the last 3 races," continued a very angry, Caudill.

Meanwhile, Kyle Grissom was just happy it was over after taking in fumes most of the night as early in the race contact with another car crushed the exhaust in his car and allowed the exhaust fumes to leak into the car.

"To be honest, I would have been happy with 3rd," said a panting Grissom. "The car was no where near 100%, but it was pretty good, but no match for the #50 and #51. My name will go down in the record books as the winner and that is good since we haven't done that yet this year."

Grissom said he was a little in disbelief when they got together, but he knew that it could happen.

"I was watching them in front of me and I didn't really think they would get into one another, they are veterans and both are going for a championship. But at the same time, I was keeping it in the back of my head. I've been on Jamey's side of that before with McCall, he'll move you."

Needless to say, RACE22.com will be following up on the rivalry brewing from Dillon as this could be one of the biggest in some time in the Late Model Stock Car ranks. Of course these two will be seeing each other a lot over the next couple of weeks as they'll both be testing at Martinsville on Wednesday and will no doubt both find themselves in the Bailey's 300 in a couple weeks before the UARA-STARS hits the track again at Hickory on October 17th.
 

UnOfficial Results:
1 - Kyle Grissom #32
2 - Brandon McReynolds #28
3 - Paddy Rodenbeck #81
4 - Danny O'Quinn #44
5 - Brandon Dean #6
6 - Garrett Campbbell #12
7 - Randy Hawkins #03
8 - Brennan Poole #5
9 - Jamey Caudill #50
10 - Matt McCall #51
11 - Ryan Hall #66
12 - BJ Mackey #4
13 - Ronnie Bassett #04
14 - Joey Bryant #11
15 - Don Satterfield #52
16 - Joe Heigl #75
17 - Michael Rouse #15
18 - Scott Turlington #48
19 - Tyler English #18
20 - Coleman Pressley #59
21 - Barry Andrews #1
22 - Kevin Parsons #3
23 - Gary Davis #71