Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Myrtle Beach, SC(August 16, 2009) -- Not many drivers have endured the kind of season that Alex Yontz has this year and most would have folded under the pressure, but not Yontz, who climbed back to the top of the food chain with a UARA-STARS Series victory at Myrtle Beach Speedway.

Yontz had racked up five victories this season at Caraway Speedway, but only left the track with two of the trophies after being disqualified from three of the wins. Yontz felt as if he'd been targeted and cheated with the disqualifications of which the last one came under unusual circumstances, so he and his new team vowed never to return to Caraway and set their sights on the UARA.

Yontz has had plenty of success in the past on the UARA-STARS Series tour collecting wins in almost every recent season, but this year this would be only his third start of the season. The young driver came close to winning in his first start for his new team just eight days before at Ace Speedway, but was unable to pass a dominant, Brandon McReynolds in a short sprint to the finish after running second the entire race.

Yontz wasn't going to let that happen again, but he didn't dominate the race like he had hoped and he had plenty of competition. From the drop of the green flag Yontz put his pole winning car out in front of the field and was pulling away from the field before the first caution waved on lap 24 when series regular, Scott Turlington appears to have blown an engine. This tightens the field up and puts Coleman Pressley, Paddy Rodenbeck, Brandon McReynolds and Corey Lajoie up on Yontz' bumper.

The drive of the race so far has been NASCAR Camping World Truck Series driver, Chad McCumbee, who is a hometown driver, who started his career at Myrtle Beach Speedway and despite an eighth place qualifying effort, the young driver is up to seventh. Yontz held on to the lead until lap 48 when Pressley made his presence known and took the top spot away dropping Yontz back to second and now McCumbee is up to third.

Then on lap 56, McCumbee took over the top spot, but only for a lap as Pressley went right back to the point as the two continued a side-by-side battle for the lead and kept the crowd on their feet. McCumbee would lead one more lap on lap 61 only to turn the lead back over to Pressley who was ready to hold on to the top spot and was hungry to get his first UARA-STARS Series victory.

Pressley held down the position through a couple of cautions which included a lap 106 tangle between Myrtle Beach Speedway regular, Justin Milliken and two-time winner this season on the tour, Paddy Rodenbeck. While Pressley set the pace out front McCumbee's climb to the top of the charts was over as he was fading fast as he loses second, then falls to ninth before pulling in the pits and ending his night with an issue with his oil pan.

Pressley stayed out front, but Yontz was on the charge and looking to take the lead back as he gets up and along side the leader. Both of these drivers were hungry for a victory, but behind them as the laps are winding down young, Garrett Campbell is making his way up to the top five and has put himself in the front of the field. On lap 148, Yontz takes Pressley to task and steals the lead away and would never look back en route to his first win of the 2009 season on the UARA tour.

Pressley would garner his best finish of the season with a second place effort with Campbell climbing all the way to a third place finish, his best effort of the season as well. Rockingham winner, Corey LaJoie would finish fourth while the favorite coming into the weekend, Jamey Caudill, who won the biggest race of the season last November at Myrtle Beach in the Seneca 400 would finish fifth.

Brandon McReynolds took home a sixth place finish with multi-time Myrtle Beach Speedway track champion, Rick Smith finishing seventh and Brennan Poole picked up his second consecutive eighth place effort, which was his second top ten finish on the UARA tour. Luke Laney, who hasn't made but a couple of starts so far this season in the series finished ninth ahead of season wins leader, Matt McCall, who had an uncharacteristically off day and was never a factor.

For Yontz this win has to help erase some of the seasons bad memories at Caraway and gives him and his team a huge boost just over a month before the Bailey's 300 at Martinsville Speedway, the biggest race of the year for all Late Model Stock Car competitors. Yontz is a previous winner of the Bailey's race and is hoping to turn in a performance similar to the one he had this weekend when it comes time to hit the 1/2 mile track in Martinsville, VA.
 
Unofficial Results:
1 - Alex Yontz #98
2 - Coleman Pressley #59
3 - Garrett Campbell #12
4 - Corey LaJoie #71
5 - Jamey Caudill #50
6 - Brandon McReynolds #28
7 - Rick Smith #8
8 - Brennan Poole #8
9 - Luke Laney #24
10 - Matt McCall #51
11 - Kyle Grissom #32
12 - Justin Milliken #2
13 - Paddy Rodenbeck #81
14 - Ryan Hall #66
15 - Clay Rogers #54
16 - Grant McGinnis #41
17 - Michael Rouse #15
18 - Randy Hawkins #3
19 - Darrell Wallace Jr. #76
20 - Chad McCumbee #20
21 - Joey Bryant #11
22 - Robbie Mew #25
23 - Scott Turlington #48