Story by: Mason Dunn ~ mason@RACE22.com

Hampton, VA(August 20, 2009) -- Woody Howard laid claim to his second win of the 2009 season on Saturday with a combination of strength and a dash of luck. Howard took the pole with a time of 16.341 seconds just a touch over 87 miles per hour average around the .395 mile flat oval. Mark Wertz would start to Howard's outside followed by Paul DeBolt and CE Falk in row 2. The Edwards brothers have been experiencing some problems in qualifying of late and they continued on Saturday as Danny and Greg would start 11th and 12th respectively.

A field 20 strong, the second largest to the 200 lapper from earlier in the season, took the green flag ready to compete for 100 laps and one trophy. Howard shot to the lead at the drop of the green flag and makes quick work of putting ground between himself and the rest of the field. DeBolt attempted to follow in Howard's footsteps and get past the 55 of Mark Wertz for second place on the inside but after several laps of side-by-side racing Wertz would prevail. CE Falk was right on DeBolt's rear bumper and looking to make his way to the front.

The first caution flag of the night was displayed on lap 4 as contact between the 84 of Greg Edwards and the 1 of Kyle

Waltz would result in Waltz looping his Chevy at the exit of turn 4. Under the caution the cars of Chris Johnson and Casey Wyatt pulled down pit road and both would end up parking their cars for the night.

Back under green Falk went straight to work making his way to the front and began by passing DeBolt for third place on the track on the high side and turns his attention to Mark Wertz for second. Meanwhile Dean Shiflett and Matt Waltz both made it past the machine of DeBolt shoving the 34 back to seventh on the track.

CE Falk closed in and began to stalk the 55 of Mark Wertz and after much mirror filling he would make the pass to take over second place on the track on lap 18. Meanwhile, CE's brother Wes was beginning to make moves of his own starting with getting past Matt Waltz for sixth place on lap 29. Wes' efforts were quickened as contact sent the cars of DeBolt and Dean Shiflett spinning off turn 4 bringing out the second caution flag of the day on lap 44.

Cautions breath cautions became a minor theme during the middle stretch of the race as 2 laps after the green flag came back out the caution was right back out again as the 38 was spinning down the backstretch on lap 46. Then another 2 laps later the caution flag was waved again for the fourth time of the night as Greg Edwards looped his 84 machine going through turn 4.

Upon the restart CE Falk began to launch his most serious bid for the lead and began to make looks to the inside of Howard but would soon realize that Howard wasn't giving up an inch of that inside line. So in impressive fashion Falk pulled his machine to the outside line and was able to complete the pass for the lead on lap 55. Meanwhile Wes Falk and Danny Edwards were making moves as Wes was poking his nose inside of the 55 for third and Danny had moved his 26 machine into fifth on the track.

Wes Falk would complete the pass over Wertz on lap 74 and it appeared as if someone deflated Wertz tires as he began to drop through the field. The crowd on hand was stunned as on lap 83 CE Falk put the 84 of Greg Edwards a lap down. Just when things appeared to be settled smoke began to pour out of the leader's car and then two laps later flames erupted from under the hood of Falk's car after an oil line broke spewing oil all over the heads prompting the caution and ending the 40 car's night.

Upon the restart, Howard had resumed the lead and had the lapped machine of Greg Edwards between himself and the second place machine of Wes Falk. Danny Edwards had moved his machine up 8 spots from his 11th place starting spot to third just on Wes Falk's bumper. After a small scuffle on the restart the field got back straightened out and Howard would cruise his 21 JL Motorsports machine to his second victory of the season by 1.638 seconds over Wes Falk who posted his best finish of the season.

As a result of his late race misfortune CE Falk saw his points lead over second place Danny Edwards take a huge hit as it would decrease from 32 to 6 points with the track's next event being twin 75's on August 29th as the Crossroads Fuel Late Models have a week off for the USAR Pro Cup event at the track.

Results:
1) (21) Woody Howard; 100
2) (41) Wesley Falk; 100
3) (26) Danny Edwards; 100
4) (4) Matt Waltz; 100
5) (06) Dean Shiflett; 100
6) (34) Paul DeBolt; 100
7) (12) Doug Warren; 100
8) (48) Shawn Balluzzo; 100
9) (55) Mark Wertz; 100
10) (01) Jeff Shiflett; 100
11) (1) Kyle Waltz; 100
12) (84) Greg Edwards; 99
13) (44) Robbie Babb; 98
14) (90) Terry Carroll; 98
15) (18) Jason Rudd; 98
16) (40) CE Falk; 93
17) (38) Duane Shreeves; 46
18) (17) John Staton; 41
19) (10) Casey Wyatt; 4
20) (47) Chris Johnson; 4

Points after 8-15:
1) (40) CE Falk, 552
2) (26) Danny Edwards, 546 (-6)
3) (55) Mark Wertz, 490 (-62)
4) (27/84) Greg Edwards, 486 (-66)
5) (21) Woody Howard, 430 (-122)
6) (41) Wesley Falk, 418 (-134)
7) (01) Jeff Shiflett, 410 (-142)
8) (06) Dean Shiflett, 382 (-170)
9) (48) Shawn Balluzzo, 352 (-200)
10) (1) Kyle Waltz, 350 (-202)
11) (4) Matt Waltz, 348 (-204)
12) (90) Terry Carroll, 326 (-226)
Race Winners; CE Falk(7), Woody Howard(2), Danny Edwards(2), Greg Edwards(1)