Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

Radford, VA(September 2, 2010) -- With twin 100-lappers this past Saturday and one 150 lap event left on the Motor Mile Speedway schedule, the points battle is heating up as it does every year at the Radford, Virginia 4/10 mile track.

With Philip Morris taking his ball and going to play somewhere else, Wayne Ramsey has been the man atop the standings with Brandon Dean nipping right at his heels for most of the season. This past Saturday Ramsey looked to pad his lead going into the final twin 100's of the season, just get a decent finish out the two events on tap for the night and the rest would take care of itself. Instead he saw the unthinkable happen, and Dean became the 2010 Motor Mile Speedway champion.

As the first 100 lap event was due up, the talk of the day was the new guy in town ... CE Falk was fresh off his championship at Langley Speedway and came to run with the tough competition at Motor Mile to try and catch Justin Johnson in the National and State NASCAR points. He was fast throughout practice, but could not knock off Davin Scites for the top spot as he timed in third behind Rusty Skewes. Dean and Mike Looney rounded out the top five with the point leader Ramsey starting ninth.

Before the race even went green Skewes was on pit road with radio problems, but this was the early tone set for all the Frank Deiny Jr. Motorsports drivers. Scites would jump to the early lead with Dean and Falk in tow as they tried to run away from the rest of the field.

After an early caution where Dean had beaten Scites to the line, the top three tried to run away once again, but it was interesting who they were running from. Jamey Caudill, arguably one of the greatest Late Model racers in history was making a rare appearance at Motor Mile, and for a team that is rare to see at the track also. Charlie Long had the famous #2 out for a tune-up for Martinsville in October when Dennis Setzer is once again behind the wheel, and what a better driver to dial it in than Caudill? He was a factor all night in the top five, but just didn't have enough for the leaders.

As Scites starts to apply heavy pressure to Dean for the lead on lap 22, all eyes are focusing back in the pack, then further back in the pack, then the end of the line, as this is where Ramsey has suddenly fallen to. The point leader hits pit road after running just outside of the top five, a broken rocker arm ending his race and possibly his entire day as the second 100 lapper still loomed. The team would thrash hard trying to make repairs.

After running over 20 caution laps in the first 31 laps for two minor spins, we were once again back to green, and hopefully some actual racing. At lap 34 Scites shoots under Dean for the lead and Falk tries to come with him, but Dean closes the door. This battle would rage on for the entire event, as Falk did everything but wreck Dean out of the second spot.

As the race progressed, Scites began to pull away and it became evident that dean was holding Falk up somewhat. Lap after lap Falk would get a run under Dean, but the outside at Motor Mile works well and Dean could keep his machine would up to stay in front, but just barely. Caudill was now in the mix up on Falk and John King was charging to the front as he passes by Kelly Kingery late to take the sixth spot. Up front though, Scites was loving what he was seeing in his mirror.

Scites would easily take the win over Dean, Falk, Caudill and Looney, but the attention quickly focused to the pits and the Wayne Ramsey situation. The engine builder for FDJ, Billy Banks, was on hand and had made repairs to the #42 of Ramsey, he was now ready to go, but would start the second feature from last. As it turned out, it really didn't matter.

The second race had an invert putting Dean on the pole with John King to his outside .King would get the jump on the start and pulled away from the field by nearly five car-lengths before the first caution of the night comes out on lap 11. Derrick Lancaster, Dennis Holdren and Zeke Shell get tangled up off turn two, and in the process Ramsey is collected, his night and championship hopes were completely over. It was one of the worst nights ever in the FDJ stable, as Ramsey had problems in two races losing the championship, Skewes had problems from the front row before the race even started, and Jeff Oleen had a hard crash in Friday practice destroying his car and forcing him to do a start and park in Skewes backup. But Dean, the newest member of the FDJ Army, was still going strong, and well on his way to his first ever championship.

As we go back to green, Falk is not nearly as patient as he was with dean in the first race and knocks him out of the way putting the unsuspecting champion back to fifth in the blink of an eye. Falk would now set his sights on King for the lead, but King would prove to be no pushover for the top spot.

It all started on lap 25 as when Falk got to King, he immediately put the bumper to him and moved him up the track as King came back down into Falk and evened the score. For the next five laps the two would wage a war, with beating and banging every lap, and the two would exit the corners sideways on the edge of wrecking. It was really something to behold, not the kind of racing you see much anymore. It would be halted for a major incident on lap 31 between Dennis Holdren, Andrew Thomas and Tommy Lemons as Holdren drives almost completely over Thomas' car.

After all drivers pulled away immediately, we continue to run 13 laps under caution before the green finally falls once more. At lap 45 Falk continues his assault to the back of King's car before finally making the pass two laps later and takes the lead for good. The run for King would end soon after, as he loses power and hits pit road with power issues, possibly a faulty coil or ignition. It was bad end to the day, but the racers at Motor Mile definitely know who John King is now if they didn't before.

For the next 30 or so laps Falk maintains a five car advantage over Scites with the rest of the field back from them, it was going to be settled between these two. As we approach 25 to go, Scites starts to inch in closer, then closer, could he of been saving something?

With 20 to go Scites is there and dives to the inside of Falk, Falk slips up the track but manages to hold on to the lead. Scites would then pester the Falk machine until ten laps to go when he once again makes his move to the inside, this time making it stick as the two come even across the line.

This is what it's all about, two of the best in the business going at it tooth and nail lap after lap, side-by-side, and not giving an inch. It was shaping up to be one of those classic finishes that gets talked about for years to come. But it was not to be as the caution flies on lap 97 for the spinning car of Andrew Thomas.

It was now a green-white-checkered finish, and as in races past, it takes the Scites machine a few laps to get up to speed. Falk would speed to the victory over Scites, Caudill, Kingery and Looney, proving he is a threat at any track he attends as he picked up a win at his third different track of the year.

Scites was happy with a first and a second, Falk was ecstatic on a very hard fought win, and Dean was in disbelief, he didn't even know he had become the champion yet for sure. And then you look over and you see Ramsey, the guy that had led the points nearly all season and only had to have a few respectable finishes to clinch the title. But as Ramsey said after the race, "Sometimes that's just the way it goes".