Story by: John Bowen ~ johnbowen@RACE22.com

Hickory, NC(August 11, 2009) -- Last week everyone in attendance saw one of the greatest Late Model Stock Car races in the history of Hickory Motor Speedway and with the full moon out and temperature nothing shy of steaming, everyone knew it was going to be another great night of racing.

To no ones surprise Andy Mercer would take home his 12th pole of the season and if history would repeat itself he would be in victory lane or would he? Chris Lawson would qualify on the outside with James Goff, Rob Fuller and Paddy Rodenbeck rounding out the top five in the 16-car field.

Green flag drops and the inside line of Mercer and Goff power past Lawson and at lap five these three are running nose to tail. As the field gets settled in, a caution comes out on lap seven when Fuller makes contact with Candace Muzny and sends her spinning in front of the field in turn two collecting the #6 machine of Cole Miktuk who is fresh off a very strong run last week, in which he finished a career best second.

After the restart it doesn't take long for Goff to flex a little muscle and take the lead from Mercer on lap 9 and would continue to be the class of the field at lap 25. Mercer would continue to follow closely as Rodenbeck gets back into form and is running 3rd. On lap 39 Mercer looks under Goff and takes the lead as Rodenbeck has closed in on the top 2 cars. Halfway and Mercer is showing the crowd something they have seen all year and that's the #10 car out front with Goff and Rodenbeck still following suit. One driver on the move at this point is David Wilson in his Mercer prepared race car. Wilson has made it to 4th by lap 55 and looks to be the only car on the track that will be able to contend with Mercer.

The 2nd caution of the night waved as Jesse Lefevers goes for a spin coming out of turn four on lap 60. On the restart Wilson moves into 2nd and is chasing down his new teammate after his 8th place qualifying effort. It proves true that cautions breed cautions as the yellow waves again on lap 68 due to Grant Wimbish spinning Fuller in turns three and four. Under the caution Goff has brought his car to pit road with Mechanical issues that would end their best run of the season to date.

Here is where everything gets exciting. Fuller shows his displeasure with Wimbish and Wimbish bumps into the back of Fuller of the front stretch. Fuller then locks down the brakes causing the 57 machine to sustain a good bit of damage. The two continue to play demolition derby on their way back to the pits with at times Wimbish's brother, Josh getting involved in the action. The officials park the two drivers but not before a confrontation occurs on pit road that would get everyone on their feet.

On the restart Mercer leads Wilson, Rodenbeck and Muzny down to the green flag. Its starting to look as if its going to be the Mercer and Wilson battle to decide the winner until on lap 72 Wilson has a ball joint brake on his brand new race car that sends his car hard into the turn one wall with the tire, rim and wheel hub rolling down the track and his impressive night would be over.

With just over 25 laps remaining Mercer would continue to find himself in the lead with Rodenbeck, Muzny who is having her best run ever at Hickory, Miktuk and Canipe top five. By lap 85 Muzny has worked her way past Rodenbeck and with just 15 laps remaining would have her eyes set on the leader. Canipe has made his way past Miktuk for 4th. She would run out of time as Mercer would take home his 12th win of the season at Hickory and continue his Pole/Win streak.

Muzny would wow the crowd and impress a lot of people with her 2nd place finish after being spun early on in the race. Rodenbeck would bounce back from his rough Friday night outing at Ace Speedway to finished 3rd, Canipe Jr. and Miktuk would complete the top five finishers. Neil

Meredith would bring home his career best finish at Hickory with a 6th place finish.

A couple things are for sure. This race wasn't as exciting as last weeks but you could definitely tell the full moon was out as many of the front runners either had mechanical issues or tire issues that would plague there nights and knock them out of contention.