Jacksonville, NC(August 17, 2010) -- T.J. Barron took his seventh Limited Late Model win of the season at Coastal PlainsRaceway Saturday night, but it came at the expense of Jerry Burns and in a swirl of controversy as the race came into the final laps.

Barron and Taylor Howard led the field down and stayed side by side until Barron pulled into the lead on lap three of the sixty lap feature. On lap five Ken
 

Mercer spun in turn one and the restart was all Howard needed to grab the lead. Burns followed into second and two laps later an ill-handling Barron fell to fourth as Brandon Clements got by. Things were really getting racy as on lap nine Barron got back into third and on lap ten Burns took the lead from Howard. On lap twelve the yellow flew again for debris in turn one. Burns remained in front at the restart, with Barron and Howard following while Gary Davis and Clements swapped fourth place over the next several laps.

The last yellow of the night flew on lap twenty-four when Brent Wells grenaded something under the hood going into turn one. Barron clearly had problems on restarts as both Howard and Davis got by while Burns resumed the lead. On lap twenty-seven Barron got third back and on lap thirty-four he passed Howard for second, setting the stage for the most competitive Limited Late Model race of the season at Coastal Plains.

Over the last fifteen laps Burns and Barron raced side by side with Barron diving into turn one taking a slight lead down the backstretch and Barron coming back strong on the outside in turns three and four.

No doubt the battle up front was exciting, maybe even too much for the flagman. The white flag came out as Barron and Burns completed lap sixty, with Barron just edging Burns at the line, but the checkers came out a lap later when Burns had an advantage.

Track officials acknowledged the error immediately and moved Barron into victory lane.

To add insult to injury to Burns' night he backed his car into the frontstretch wall as he was doing victory doughnuts while under the impression he had won, bending the rear. A disgusted Burns left the frontstretch celebrations and dragged his second place car to the scales. "I can't say anything right now," said Burns. "It's hot, I'm so upset, I can't talk right now."

For Barron, who has dominated the east Carolina race track this season, this win was the toughest. "I had work for that one," said Barron, "Jerry did a great job. I tried to move my line up at the end and I thought he'd do what he did two weeks ago and pinch me down. There was a big controversy at the end of the race about who won. I guess the track through two whites, and we came out on top."

Howard had the best seat in the house, taking third, while Mercer battled back from his spin to finish
fourth ahead of Davis.

Race Results:
1 - T J Barron
2 - Jerry Burns
3 - Taylor Howard
4 - Ken Mercer
5 - Gary Davis
6 - Chris Burns
7 - Ron Brown
8 - David Warren
9 - Brandon Clements
10 - Chris Smith
11 - Brent Wells