Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Wytheville, VA(September 22, 2009) -- Often times my phone rings with unfamiliar numbers and famliar voices on the other end ... yesterday was one of those times as Danny McCall, father of Matt McCall was on the other line and wanted to share his side of the story on some comments made by Jamey Caudill following Saturday night's UARA-STARS 150 at Dillon Motor Speedway.

McCall read the story on RACE22.com on Monday morning and saw the following quote from Jamey Caudill;

"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.

Needless to say the comment from Caudill about Danny jumping Caudill at Newport concerning Caudill and Paddy Rodenbeck being teamed up against his son jumped off the page and caused him to call and give me his side of the story.

"You know there's always two sides to every peanut butter sandwich," the elder McCall started off.

McCall was a little baffled at the way that Caudill phrased what he had to say as McCall didn't recall the situation going down at all like Caudill did. McCall explained his version of what went down in great detail.

"You know it all started when Caudill won at Newport, the series typically tears down a drivers engine after their second win of the season and Caudill simply asked Matt and I if we would mind if he tore down after Dillon since he was going to refresh the motor then anyways. Of course we didn't mind, we know that Jamey(Caudill) isn't cheating, there was no question in our minds."

"I asked him to do me a favor and said; 'How about telling your brother to tell his driver(Rodenbeck) to lay off us early in the race'. He had beat on us and nearly took Matt out in the early going and I know he's young and wants to go; I remember when Matt was just like that, but he just needs to calm down."

McCall went on to explain that Caudill then asked 'What are you saying?', to which McCall replied 'Do you think we're working together or something?' McCall said that then Caudill went on to say 'We're not a team, we're not together ... what are you saying we're ganging up?'

"I told him that people usually say what's in their heart, so if that's what's in his heart, then maybe that's what happening," explained McCall. "Jamey came back to me later and said 'I'm really tore up about what you're saying, I can't believe you would think that', but I just let it go. I didn't say anything out of the way and I certainly didn't jump his #%$& as he said; I don't have to do that."

Looking back on the situation, McCall admits maybe he could have handled it differently, but he was really
 

surprised to learn of McCall's comments when reading the story from the race early Monday morning.

"Maybe I should have went to Jeff, but it's his brother and I told him that, I mean it's his brother, come on."

When asked about the last lap incident, McCall didn't mince words and feels that the last lap rule should be something that the UARA looks at.

"They went at hard, but if you chop someone off you kinda have to expect to get bumped and that's exactly what happened. Caudill blocked as much as he could and Matt tried to drive him clean, but he took all the racing room and left Matt no other choice. The UARA said that if the contact had happened earlier in the race it might have been looked at as a racing deal, but not on the last lap and that just doesn't make any sense."

"They say they are trying to make a platform for the young drivers to learn how to race in NASCAR, but NASCAR would never penalize someone for contact on the last lap, that's not how the NASCAR thought process works. Having a rule just for the last lap is like being a little bit pregnant, you either are or you're not and either it's a rule on all 150-laps or it's not."

McCall said that Matt tried to aplogize after the race, but Caudill wouldn't accept his apology or shake his hand. McCall said he's tried to instill in Matt that you leave what happens on the track, on the track and you never bring it to the pits, because he feels it unprofessional.

"You gotta move forward, that's Dillon and we're on to Hickory," concluded McCall.

We were unable to contact Caudill today, but stay tuned to RACE22.com as we intend to give everyone invloved in this situation their chance to speak their mind on Late Model Stock Car racing's Largest website and there will certainly be more chapters to this story.

It certainly looks like this rivalry between the UARA's biggest stars and two of the most prominent names in Late Model Stock Car racing may well continue into the next UARA-STARS Series race at Hickory on October 18th, but while the series is off these two may well see a lot of each other at Martinsville Speedway for the Bailey's 300 on Sunday, October 4th.