Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Radford, VA(August 9, 2009) -- The night started calm and clean, but by the time the field came to the finish line nearly every racer there was mad at another, but in the end Philip Morris ended an eight race losing streak that dated back to May 30th.

In qualifying Chad Harris and Tommy Lemons bested a field of 30-cars to make it an all Marlowe Racing Chassis front row with Philip Morris third and a surprisingly strong effort by Australian, Dane Rudolph putting him fourth. Mike Looney, Jerame Donley, Frank Deiny, Brandon Dean, Jordan Pennington and Richard Boswell completed the top ten starters in what looked to be a star-studded field of cars.

At the drop of the green flag Harris put his car out front, but it didn't take long for Lemons to start putting pressure on the leaders back bumper. Lemons then jumped out front and looked as if he might have the car to beat, but Deiny from his seventh starting position was pouncing on one car at a time as he charged to the front. Deiny quickly put Looney and Donley in his rear view mirror and then put a fender under Rudolph taking over fourth as positions swapped throughout the field.

Jason Mitcham, who was making his return to Motor Mile Speedway for the first time this season looked strong early from his 11th place qualifying effort as he raced up to eighth quickly. Boswell, who hasn't had a great qualifying effort yet this season at Motor Mile, started tenth, but he was looking to make his move to the front as he has in both his previous starts. Meanwhile as the top cars weren't making any moves it was sixth place running, Rudolph who had his hands full with Dean for the position.

Looney, the winner of the last race two weeks ago made a move to the inside of third place running Morris, but as he went to pass him the two made contact getting Morris a little sideways, but Looney got the worst of the deal spinning to keep from wrecking Morris. Looney would head to the rear of the field and that put Deiny behind Morris for the third position for the next restart. The next restart would be short lived as DeWayne Howard makes a move to the inside of Jamie Byrd near the rear of the field and the two made contact sending Howard's car up on top of Byrd's right rear tire.

Deiny wasted no time getting the third spot away from Morris and just as quickly put himself on the inside of Harris for second and went blowing by him. Deiny looked to be strong and it wouldn't be long before Lemons would have his rearview full of the black Toyota Camry, FDJ Motorsports chassis. Deiny's run was slowed then as John King and Lee Blaker get together sending Blaker spinning and slowing the field once again.

A couple laps after the green flag waves and Deiny is making his way into the lead for the first time, but at the same time Morris has pounced on Harris, who after starting on the pole seems to have his cars handling slipping away from him. Harris handling issues were no match for the front bumper of Donley's car as the two made contact that sent Harris spinning. Harris would restart at the rear of the field, but Donley was able to keep his position, which angered the three-time Motor Mile Speedway track champion.

"I guess it was my fault," a very frustrated Harris said of the incident. "I got black flagged a few weeks ago for a similar incident and somehow when he(Donley) gets into me and it's my fault. I don't know how this works."

With Harris heading to the rear of the field, there's no doubt there will be a shake up in the points standings as Harris, Deiny and Morris came into the event within just a few points of one another, but Harris would rally to get a good finish. Meanwhile back up front Deiny looks like he's going to wear the field out as he has his FDJ Motorsports machine out in front of Lemons, Morris and Donley. The green flag goes in the air and just as quickly as he lost the lead to Deiny, Lemons loses the second position to a strong Morris, who hasn't won since May 30th.

Throughout the field there was some great racing taking place and especially a great battle between Derrick Lancaster and FDJ Motorsports development driver, Pennington for the tenth position. These two would race hard lap after lap with Lancaster keeping himself in front of the young driver for much of the race. Caraway Speedway regular, David Latour adds himself to this battle as does Thomas Hartensveld as the four cars race in a tight pack all looking to break into the top ten.

Back up front Deiny looks to have the race in hand, but Boswell is making his bid for the fourth position as he looks to the inside of Donley. Boswell eventually completes the pass and looks to Lemons, who has been able to keep himself glued to Morris after the two-time NASCAR National Champion passed him for second. Just outside the top ten Looney, who was trying to bounce back from his early spin gets together with Latour, Kyle Hall and Hartensveld as the foursome bounce off one another. In the end the caution waves as Owen Kelly ends up as the victim of this incident as he goes for a spin.

A few laps later while Mitcham is making his bid for the fifth position as he looks to the inside of Donley, Morris and Lemons make contact as Lemons makes his move to the inside. Lemons checks up and tries to make sure Morris nor himself spin and Boswell catches Lemons in the left rear. While it would cost Lemons several positions he was able to continue and this would put Boswell up to third, but without a caution he's way behind Morris, who is way behind the leader, Deiny.

Lemons didn't let the contact get him off his game however as the young wheel man puts his car on the outside of Mitcham and takes the fifth position away as he sets his sights on Donley. A couple laps later and Lemons shows his strength as he blows by Donley taking fourth and looks to be on the trail to get back up to Boswell for third. With Mitcham back in sixth, Dean is all over him for the position and eventually takes it away as the young driver looks to be headed to yet another top five finish if only he can get by Donley now.

Deiny is setting the pace out front with Morris second, Boswell third and Lemons fourth, but a little ways further back Rudolph and Hartensveld are battling hard lap after for a top ten position. Another battle late in the race really begins to heat is between Pennington and Kelly Kingery as the two swap some paint and the position before Pennington goes for a spin ending what looked to be another top ten run for the young driver, who hasn't finished outside the top ten since joining FDJ Motorsports.

The caution waves with just a few laps to go which will send the race into overtime as a green, white checkered finish coming up. In this caution a great run for Mitcham is ended as he gets his car trashed on the back straightaway. The field comes down for the green, but just as quickly goes back under caution and the intensity rises again as Deiny has a mirror full of Morris for the final restart.

As the field goes green Deiny doesn't get away from Morris and it looks to be shaping up to be a great finish ... how great no one knew, but as the cars went through turns three and four coming back for the checkered flag the leaders make contact. The two great veteran drivers are side by side in one of the closest finishes ever as there's much less than a foot between the two.

Both drivers are sure that they've won the race as Deiny pulls into victory lane and Morris spins around to grab the checkered flag to take a victory lap. The official gives Morris the checkered flag as Deiny's team and Morris' team jaw back and forth over the finish. Morris completes his victory lap and the crowd is into it as the near capacity crowd cheers and boos depending on who they like and who they thought won the race.

With Deiny climbing from his car in victory lane as Morris comes around to pull in there himself, Morris pulls right up to the nose of Deiny's car and bumps with him nose to nose as to let him know he's in his spot. Deiny comes around the car and leans into Morris' window and shares his thoughts with him and you can hear Deiny clearly say "you got one coming to you soon". Morris then climbs from his car and he's very calm about the situation.

"The last few laps there I was just looking at, you know, who was in front of me, not who was behind me," Morris said. "I really wanted to win a race. About four or five years ago I lost a race to Frank(Deiny) the exact way that I won it tonight."

Deiny wasn't calm, he wasn't happy as he felt that the late race contact shouldn't have happened and he didn't seem to appreciate being raced that way and he vowed that Morris wasn't going to win again and that he would wreck him to make sure of it.

The crowd continued to make noise the entire time the top three finishers were on the track for the post race interviews and photo opportunities. One fan yelled out "Where's Jason Lawrence when you need him?", if you remember Lawrence and Morris had a similar run-in late in the 2006 season that ended with Lawrence wrecking Morris intentionally ending his bid for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series National Championship. Deiny could easily become the "Jason Lawrence" of 2009 if he sticks to his word and wrecks Morris in any of the final four races of the season.

Meanwhile behind these guys at the finish was Boswell, Lemons, Donley, Dean, Hall, Rudolph, Hartensveld and Latour. Harris rallied to finish 11th after getting turn around off the front bumper of Donley earlier in the race.

This was just another incredible race in a season that has seen all-star events week after week on the 4/10 mile speedplant in Radford, VA. Motor Mile Speedway is set to be back in action next Saturday night, August 15th with twin 75-lap races and with the excitement in the last few weeks and without the normal week off between races it could get interesting.

Unofficial Results:
1 - Philip Morris #26
2 - Frank Deiny #4
3 - Richard Boswell #88
4 - Tommy Lemons #27
5 - Jerame Donley #51
6 - Brandon Dean #5
7 - Kyle Hall #68
8 - Dane Rudolph #18
9 - Thomas Hartensveld #36
10 -David Latour #89
11 - Chad Harris #3
12 - Kelly Kingery #57
13 - John King #21
14 - Jamie Byrd #15
15 - Derrick Lancaster #25
16 - Owen Kelly #73
17 - Jordan Pennington #24
18 - Barry Cash #6
19 - Craig Stallard #38
20 - Lee Blaker #32
21 - Dewayne Howard #37
22 - Jason Mitcham #05
23 - Adam Long #20
24 - Mike Looney #47
25 - Rusty Skewes #41
26 - Bruce Anderson #86
27 - Zeke Shell #97
28 - Andy Farve #39
29 - Andrew Thomas #69
30 - Jerry Godbey #87