Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Hickory, NC(September 12, 2009) -- With nothing to lose and a whole lot to gain, Andy Mercer and his team ready to head to Hickory Motor Speedway tonight for the season finale in a car he's never raced before.

"We were hauling last night," said Mercer in a Saturday morning phone interview. That's all he could say about last night, that's all he would say about being crashed out in Friday nights 100-lap race at Tri-County Motor Speedway. The veteran went there knowing he needed a good finish to stay alive in the race for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series North Carolina state championship, but after qualifying on the pole, he was turned into the wall on lap one.

Mercer has had a great season, but with the Hickory Motor Speedway championship in the bag, he headed to Tri-County hoping to gain enough points to stay ahead of
 

Caraway Speedway track champion, Travis Swaim, who was at Tri-County hoping to gain enough points to pass Mercer. Swaim's plan seemed to be up against a brick wall from the start of the evenings action as Mercer qualified on the pole by almost a full tenth of a second and Swaim qualified fifth among a 17-car field.

The lap one turn of events when Grant Wimbish got into Mercer and turned him nearly head-on into the inside wall on the frontstretch, changed everything for both drivers. Mercer found himself completely dejected and walking from his badly beaten race car and Swaim found himself with a chance to capitolize, but the veteran driver, who has won the Caraway Speedway championship three times now wasn't excited about it.

When interviewed by track announcer, Alan Dietz during a live broadcast of the race on RaceTalkRadio.com, Swaim was humble when asked about Mercer's crash.

"That's not how I wanted to win it," said Swaim, whose car actually has a nearly identical setup on it as Mercer's as Swaim is a customer of Mercer Race Car Engineering, which is owned by Mercer's brother, David.

Swaim went on to win the race while Mercer despite a nearly destroyed looking race car soildered on to a 12th place finish, for Mercer it would seem like almost a dagger in the heart.

"He's probably 13 to 14 points ahead now," said Mercer about the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series North Carolina state championship battle.

Neither driver wishes the other any bad luck, but that's exactly what it will take for Mercer to win the title now, but he's certainly not wishing that Swaim.

"He'd have to have bad luck, but I'm going to wish that on anyone. We had our bad luck and unfortunately it came when we needed it the least, so we'll see what happens tonight."

Swaim really felt bad about what happened to Mercer, Mercer described him as "almost sick" about what happened, but this puts him in the drivers seat for his first NASCAR North Carolina state title. Swaim reiterated his earlier statement "That's not how I want to win it" when he was in victory lane, showing the amount of respect these two tough competitors have for one another.

Mercer and Swaim will be at Hickory Motor Speedway for the final points earning race in North Carolina for NASCAR Whelen All-American Series as they both chase the North Carolina stat title, but one of them will be in unfamiliar territory. While Swaim hasn't logged as many laps at Hickory as Mercer, it will the track champion, who may feel the most out of place as they go into tonights race. Mercer won't be piloting his car after the damage took it's toll last night.

"Bent the pockets, trailing arm, broke the motor mounts, but I don't think either of the clips were bent," explained Mercer. "That's all we were worried about, that's been a good car with 22-wins and we're glad we didn't kill it last night."

Mercer will be behind the wheel of the same car that Dexter Canipe, Jr. drove to a fifth place finish last night at Tri-County and drove to the track championship, but for Mercer it's not going to be like being in his own car.

"It's a coil over car and not a big spring like ours, so we won't have exactly the same setup, but I think the car will be good. I can't say how much I appreciate Dexter(Canipe) and those guys letting us run this car tonight. We had the car to beat last night and I hope we can say the same tonight," concluded Mercer.

Mercer will no doubt be uncomfortable without the car he's driven to 14-wins this season, but he's a racer and very good one and he's going to overcome this and you never know what might happen in tonights race. Swaim could have the same kind of bad luck and these two could battle to the finish for the North Carolina State title and while Mercer doesn't want to see that happen, he'd certainly accept the state title just the same.