Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

Concord, NC(August 10, 2010) -- The "first" things in life are always special. Your first day of school. Your first car, your first job. In the racing world nothing is sweeter than picking up your first victory, no matter where it is. For Garrett Campbell, it was his day in the sun this past weekend as he finally picked up his win in the UARA series, and it had been a long time coming.

Campbell has been fast for two years now in the series, but just hasn't been able to put all the pieces together. Last year it was qualifying that was a thorn in his side, but this year that has changed completely and at Concord it was no exception. Campbell blistered the track to pick up his second pole of the season, with championship contender Brennan Poole to his outside. Rookie Clint King timed in third, with former UARA and current Camping World Truck Series competitor Paddy Rodenbeck making an appearance in the fourth spot. Lee Tissott would round out the top five, with point leader Coleman Pressley having another dismal qualifying run in the 11th spot. But we all knew Pressley would race better than he qualified, and we were right.

As the field went green, it only took 300 feet for Rodenbeck to see red. As the field dives into turn one, Kyle Grissom gets into the back of Rodenbeck sending him into the outside wall. It looked to be OK at first, but with the cars all being together at the start someone was bound to get collected, and that someone was Jeff Melton who slams his right side hard into Rodenbeck. Bo Foust also got collected in the accident, but he, Grissom, and Melton would continue to race, as Rodenbeck took the walk back to the hauler, his car destroyed, although he did let Grissom know how he felt before he got back to his pits.

Before the caution was displayed, Poole was able to get around Campbell for the lead but it would be short-lived. Campbell would hound Poole lap after lap as they steadily pulled away from Clint King in third. The most fierce battle was for fifth as Tri-County winner Matt Kurzejewski had it and Ronnie Basset Jr. wanted it. The two would have a dogfight for many laps until a pass was made, but not by Bassett as Pressley had caught them both and put Bassett in his wake on lap 24. Up Front just two laps before, Poole had held off as long as he could as Campbell finally got by for the lead and began to set sail.

Kurzejewski proved to be one of the harder cars to pass on this night, as he could keep his car would up on the high side even though people would have the preferred inside groove against him. Pressley found this out in his march to the front, as he tried for nearly 20 laps to get by, and it made us wonder how much of his stuff that he burned up in doing so, did he have anything left for the leaders? Kurzejewski looked to just be a stumble in his progress.

Campbell was long gone by lap 50, and the top four cars were strung out. Pressley was on the move though, as he caught Tissott for fourth and got by on lap 58, and then began give chase to King in third. The Kurzejewski and Bassett battle was still raging on also, and after some contact Basset picked up the sixth spot on lap 62. The two had gone tooth and nail from the drop of the green, and after the race some words were spoke looking forward to the next race, but rivalries are nothing new to the UARA.

By lap 76 Pressley had caught Clint King for third and was beginning to make a move under him. King had looked in his mirror to see Pressley coming, and turned up the wick himself putting Poole, himself and Pressley all together. It would come to an end as the caution waived on lap 78 for Tissott who was in fifth, as he had a right front tire go down. Right front tires would end up being a severe problem on this night.

After the green waived again, Pressley and King put on a great show as the two went side-by-side for nearly ten laps before Pressley was able to get by on the inside for third. Likewise was the battle for seventh at the same time between Michael Rouse and Robert Johnson, as theirs went even longer. Johnson had made a pit stop on the Tissott caution and was charging through the field. We are slowed once more for Clint King falling from fourth and hard into the turn one wall......a right front tire the culprit also.

The leaders take the green once more, and this time with under 50 to go Poole doesn't let Campbell get away immediately and tries to go to his inside. After a few laps of pestering Campbell, Poole drops back a tad and has his hands full with a charging Pressley. The two drivers who are also roommates have had their share of run ins this season, as is expected when you are the two top dogs in the series you are bound to step on toes. Would it happen again? Not exactly.

Pressley would look to the inside of Poole repeatedly entering turn one, but Poole would take the low line that Pressley had used to get to the front each time. After some very close racing and some slight contact, Pressley makes his way by Poole on lap 109 for second. As soon as the pass was complete, Poole began to drop like a rock through the field, had there been contact with Pressley that caused a flat tire? No, the flat tire had nothing to do with the racing, but a broken hub would make the rest of the evening long for the second place man in the point standings though.

By the time Pressley had got around Poole for second, Campbell was gone in the distance. But with clean air in front of him, Pressley began to click off some of the fastest laps of the race and caught the leader with 20 to go. Ronnie Bassett had now inherited third, but his day went south too with 18 to go as a broken alternator wire would end his day, the car had been running off the battery for 20+ laps and finally ran out of power.

As Bassett went to pit road, Campbell slips getting into turn one, and that was all Pressley needed. He had made an amazing run through the field and walked the leader down from a good distance back, it looked to be his race from here on out. But Campbell was too close to victory to be denied on this day.

With 11 to go the caution comes out once more, this time for Scott Turlington with a blown tire down in the dogleg. Under caution another tire goes flat, this time under the machine driven by third place runner Kuzejewski. He had much greater problems though as it also busted his brake rotor. This put Robert Johnson, who had pitted earlier in the event and came from the back up into the third spot.

The field gets the green with five to go and Pressley takes off to a four car-length lead before the lap is completed. But Campbell is too close to the front, he can smell it, and digs down and begins to reel him back in. As they come to take the white flag Campbell gets in to the back of Pressley, and they take the white side-by-side. As they enter turn one Campbell runs Pressley high and goes to the front, bringing Johnson with him to fall into second, the same way they would cross the checkereds.

Victory lane was an exciting place, as the Campbell bunch is an exciting bunch anyway. This was special though, as they have been one of the best cars in numerous races, and just didn't have luck on their side. Tonight they had luck, and they had one heck of a driver behind the wheel who wasn't going to accept anything less than first. As Campbell climbed from his smoky car after his burnout, the only one happier was his grandfather Don Clapp, who has wanted nothing more than to see his grandson pick up a victory.

Behind an ecstatic Johnson with his best finish ever in second was Pressley and some would figure he would be sore about the way he lost the race, but when you saw the facts you knew there was no way he could be. His right front tire was flat, he was hanging on for dear life the last 5 laps and was happy he brought it home at all. Look for the drivers thoughts on the nights action on the Video interviews on RACE22.com this week as well.

Results:
1 - Garrett Campbell #12
2 - Robert Johnson #11
3 - Coleman Pressley #59
4 - Michael Rouse #23
5 - Jerry Miracle #82
6 - Julia Dawson #1
7 - Lee Tissott #27
8 - Scott Turlington #48
9 - Brennan Poole #5
10 - Matt Kurzejewski #10
11 - Ronnie Bassett #04
12 - Kyle Grissom #32
13 - Clint King #07
14 - Kaleb Pressley #54
15 - Jeff Melton #6
16 - Buster Bennet #31
17 - Brian Conforth #63
18 - Bo Foust #22
19 - Paddy Rodenbeck #81
DNQ - Clint Mills #2