Story by: John Bowen ~ johnbowen@RACE22.com

Hudson, NC(September 12, 2009) -- Tri-County Motor Speedway had one final race on schedule before their 2009 season came to a close and it was a beautiful day for this to happen, but the turn of events on this night will have the fans and competitors talking about it for a long time.

Dexter Canipe, Jr. has already clinched the Late Model Stock championship and with the North Carolina State Championship coming down to the wire between Hickory Motor Speedway champion, Andy Mercer and Caraway Speedway champion, Travis Swaim, they would both be on hand for tonight's events. From the drop of the green flag, these two would be the players along with some lesser successful drivers this season.

Mercer would lead the field down to the green after qualifying on the pole with a 16.274 second lap around the 4/10 mile track and would have fellow Hickory competitor, Ash Huffman starting second with a 16.357 second lap around the track. Following them to the green flag would be Grant Wimbish, who is fresh off his career best finish last week at Hickory with a third place effort and again this week the UARA-STARS Series points leader, Matt McCall would be returning as his crew chief. Canipe and Swaim would complete the top five starters.

As the green flag dropped Huffman got a great start and quickly took the lead from Mercer as the field is getting settled in coming down the back stretch. Mercer, Canipe and Swaim all want that second position pretty bad, but coming out of turn four the three are three-wide, Canipe gets a little loose and Mercer checks up just to have contact from Wimbish setting him sailing across the nose of Swaim and into the inside wall head on making very hard contact. Lap one looks to be in the books and Mercer is on the back of the tow truck along with his NASCAR North Carolina state title hopes. His crew chief, David Mercer and crew go to work feverishly assessing the damage which looks to be very severe and after several caution laps the crew gets the car rolling just enough to go back out and make some laps.

With a complete restart called, Huffman and Wimbish will lead the field back to the green flag with Huffman taking the lead. By lap ten, the car on a mission is Anthony Anders who showed up 5 minutes before qualifying after breaking down on the way to the track and has now worked his way to the eighth position. As Huffman checks out the battle for second is heating up. Swaim on the inside, Wimbish on the outside the duo beat and bang a little. Ty Dillon has now moved into fifth with Anders in tow in sixth. RA Brown was running 5th but pulls off the track having loose lugnuts, ruining his chances as a top five finish in the season finale.

Lap 24 brings about the second caution of the night as Megan Reitenour and Doug Mate make contact on the front stretch sending Mate spinning. Reitenour comes down pit road to the attention of her new Blair Addis Motorsports team for this weeks race after splitting from her season long team, Leicht Motorsports a few weeks back. On the restart Huffman again pulls ahead of Wimbish as Canipe has battled his way past Swaim to take the third spot, but Swaim bounces back and regains that position and pulls back up to the door of Wimbish.
 
Canipe back to fourth followed by Anders who has now worked his way to 5th and has a mirror full of the Richard Childress Racing Development drivers, Ryan Gifford and Ty Dillon. Huffman now has a commanding lead over the
 

battle for second as Wimbish is doing everything in his power to hold on and Swaim is doing everything in his power to stay patient with him and not end up wrecked like Mercer. This battle continues through lap 50 and by lap 65, Swaim seems to have lost all patience with Wimbish as he starts to rough him up a little as they beat and bang. Meanwhile, Huffman has a straightaway lead on the field and lapping all the way up to tenth as his best run of the season continues as he looks poised to pick up his first win of the 2009 season. 
 
As the battle for second continues, Gifford has worked past the fifth place car of Anders as Anders falls off pace and will bring out the caution on lap 78. This isn't what Huffman wanted to see as he was in a league of his own, but behind him Wimbish and Swaim have to be licking their chops. Wimbish would stay in 2nd followed by Swaim, Canipe and Gifford. As the field takes the green Wimbish misses a shift and will shake the field up behind him as Swaim takes 2nd with Gifford to 3rd. Swaim is breathing down the back bumper of Huffman and the battle is heating up as the caution flag flies once again on lap 81 when Tyler Brown stops on the back stretch due to shifter issues sustained when Wimbish missed his shift. As a result the Doug Mate goes for a spin on the back stretch in his first start of the season at Tri-County.

Now we have the two fastest cars of the night and certainly at this point starting on the front row for this double-file restart. Huffman on the inside, Swaim on the outside and Swaim gets a slow start but hangs in there as Wimbish is getting bounced around for third. Swaim takes the lead on lap 82 on the outside and looks to be in control, but another caution comes out on lap 88 when Sean Bierly sends Josh Burchette spinning in turn two causing the field to scatter in every direction.

Reitenour and Amanda Lynch who is piloting Reitenour's old ride barely squeak by and that will give us a 12-lap shootout to the finish with Swaim on the point, Huffman on the outside, Wimbish, Gifford and Dillon rounding out the top five. Huffman takes the lead on the restart and Gifford takes third away from Wimbish, who is now battling Dillon for fourth. Two laps later Swaim shows he is the class of the field as he takes over the lead for the final time and Canipe has now worked his way past Dillon for fifth as the field takes the checkered flag.

Travis Swaim hasn't had much success on the Tri-County 4/10 mile speedplant this year blowing an engine while leading in his first start and destroying a race car while running fourth in the next. Some said he might as well stay away, but the team bounced back. The veteran flexed his muscle when it counted like only a three-time Late Model Stock Car track champion could and with Mercer's issues, he may have won the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series North Carolina State Championship as well, but he'll have to have another solid night at Hickory Motor Speedway tonight, Mercer's home track to solidify that honor.

Congrats has to go out to Swaim for his win and congrats to Dexter Canipe, Jr. for winning the track championship, certainly two of today's best Late Model Stock Car drivers.

Race Results:
1) Travis Swaim
2) Ashley Huffman
3) Ryan Gifford
4) Grant Wimbish
5) Dexter Canipe Jr
6) Ty Dillon
7) Tyler Brown
8) Monty Cox
9) Megan Reitenour
10) Josh Burchette
11) Amanda Lynch
12) Andy Mercer
13) Doug Mate
14) Jeremy Burns
15) Sean Brierly
16) Anthony Anders
17) RA Brown