Story by: John Bowen/RACE22.com Reporter

Hudson, NC(August 1, 2009) -- There's one thing nobody can deny and that's Dexter Canipe Jr has been on fire so far this season at Tri-County. With a lot of bigger names in North Carolina Late Models saying they were coming to race Friday night many wondered if Canipe would stand up to the challenge.

If you would have asked me last week who would have been racing at Tri-County tonight I would have easily replied with probably the normal 9 to 10 late models. Never did I expect to see Hickory points leader Andy Mercer, Caraway Points leader Travis Swaim have their cars there along with Hickory stand out Ashley Huffman plus Newport points contender Matt Leicht, the night was shaping up to be very interesting.

One of the big stories coming into the night was David Wilson arriving in a different machine this week as he would be piloting the number 15 DLP Motorsports entry for Buggy Pletcher. Wilson won the USAR 150 last week at Hickory with DLP and some speculated that was the reason for the switch from Lee Faulk Racing? I'm sure we will be hearing a lot more of this situation in the coming days.

As qualifying came to a end there was a very surprising name on top of the charts and that was Maryland native Brian Curry. Curry has been to Tri-County just a few times this season and hasn't had any luck at this many grooved 4/10ths mile track with both his runs ending in a torn up racecar.

With the pole award Curry would be required to role the dice to pick the number of positions that would be inverted before the start of the race. When it was all said and done your pole sitter would be starting from third putting Travis Swaim on the pole and Megan Reitenour in 2nd with her very impressive qualifying effort rebounding from a rough week last week. Dexter Canipe would start 4th with Andy Mercer in 5th making his first start in several years at Tri-County.

As the green flag dropped it looked as if Travis Swaim had returned to his total domination of Tri-County that he displayed 2 seasons ago by checking out with the lead for the first 12 laps with Brian Curry and Dexter Canipe Jr in chase. Lap 12 we would get our first caution when Andy Mercer and Megan Reitenour make contact going into turn 3 resulting in Reitenour spinning putting a damper on her great qualifying effort.

On the restart Swaim would lead Curry, Canipe Jr and Mercer. Swaim gets a incredible jump, but the officials saw it to be to good to be true as they would put the yellow flag

back out and remind both Swaim and Curry that the flag man will start the race. Second try pays off for Curry as he jumps ahead going into turn one and would take the lead and looks to be on a mission to prove that his Pole Award was not a mistake.

Curry wouldn't get the opportunity to check out as Swaim's night comes to a oily halt when his motor lets go coming out of turn two. This is the 3rd motor to blow for them this season and you can tell by the looks on the faces of the crew it was very heart breaking. Ryan Rust and RA Brown would get involved in all of the mayhem as Rust parked his mangled up car and RA Brown's crew made repairs to get him back out.

By this point in the race Mercer looked to be showing that 11 wins this season at Hickory is no fluke as he has gotten his car to the 2nd position for the restart. Canipe and Tyler Brown would make up the 2nd row. On the start Curry looked to be able to run door to door with Mercer for a few laps before Mercer takes the lead. Now Canipe Jr. is working on Curry who is still tucked under the back bumper of Mercer hanging on to the high side.

The battle for the lead starts to heat up as Canipe Jr has pulled door to door with Mercer by 20th lap with Curry still bumper to bumper behind the two battling for the lead. By this time the 7th place qualifier Wilson looks to have got the hang of his new hot rod as he is now in 4th and setting his eyes on the back bumper of Curry. With 15 laps to go Canipe Jr has gained control of this race and looks to be showing Mercer something he hasn't seen much of this year and that's the back bumper of the car leading the race.

As the laps dwindle down Mercer still looks to have some fight in him as he is filling Canipe's rear view mirror full of red. But as the front 2 have their own race going on Wilson has managed to get around Curry and start chasing down the leaders. Wilson would fall a few laps short as Canipe would take home his 7th win of the season at "Canipe-County" with Mercer bringing home a impressive 2nd place run in his very rare appearance. Wilson would have a great first outing his new ride along with Curry having his best finish this year in 4th with Tyler Brown continuing to impress with yet another top 5 finish for the Tennessee Rookie.

One thing is for sure, if you want to see a Late Model race with a lot of excitement and door to door battles Tri-County is the place to be. For the past several weeks we have seen incredible battles for the lead with sometimes 3 cars mixing it up at the same time and I don't see this changing before the end of the season. Will anyone knock Dexter Canipe Jr off his throne at Tri-County? We will see next Friday night!

1. Dexter Canipe Jr
2. Andy Mercer
3. David Wilson
4. Brain Curry
5. Tyler Brown
6. Ashley Huffman
7. Megan Reitenour
8. Monty Cox
9. Matt Leicht
10. RA Brown
11. Travis Swaim
12. Ryan Rust
13. Ryan Glenski