Championship in four seasons.

McCall played head games of sorts in what he did and didn't say and how he acted on pit road and in the race immediately following the bump at Dillon, at Hickory Caudill threw his chances at the championship away in retaliation. Caudill spun while McCall was on his inside and while McCall contends that Andy Loden had spun Caudill, Caudill felt sure that McCall had made the contact. Caudill attempted to gas his car up with McCall on the inside to take him out, but when that didn't work, Caudill again tried to dump McCall by hitting him hard from behind. This only cost McCall a couple of positions while Caudill was penalized by series officials with a stop and go penalty costing him valuable points. McCall then went on to win the series championship, his second career UARA title and leaving Caudill, the series wins leader still without a championship.

The rivalries of the 2009 season kept all of us entertained and we're thankful for these drivers making and keeping our races entertaining and adding that extra little twist to them that keeps us on the edge of our seat. Morris vs Deiny, McCall vs Caudill, McReynolds vs Crum, Faucette vs Cook and all the other great rivalries we saw this year including Stephen Gahagan vs Matt Leicht, David Wilson vs Ryan Gifford ... it's what Late Model Stock Car fans live for!

WORST of 2009 #1 ...
~Alex Yontz Disqualifications
At this time last year, Alex Yontz was coming off of a great UARA-STARS Series season with a second place points effort, becoming the first driver to win in a Late Model Stock Car at Bristol Motor Speedway twice. Previous to 2009, Yontz was known for being the only driver to ever win a Late Model Stock Car race at Martinsville and Bristol and he was known for being one of the greatest drivers of all-time. 2009 rolled around and Yontz was in a new position hooking up with Dave Dunlap to race after his crew chief, Ed Berrier left to pursue an opportunity with a NASCAR Nationwide Series team.

The move to Dunlap proved to provide fast race cars for the young driver and within no time he was headed to victory lane, April 4th to be exact, but that was also the exact date of his first disqualification and a moment, that for Yontz would be forever(or at least for this year) frozen in time. Yontz was busted at Caraway after his crew chief, Dunlap had engineered a mechanical weight shifting device, it would be a huge setback for a young driver, who had accomplished nearly every big goal a Late Model Stock Car racer could. Yontz could however overcome the huge disqualification, but that would mean that he would have to keep his nose clean for the rest of the season.

However, that wasn't something that was likely to happen, because Yontz was super fast week in and week out and now driving the Barber Automotive car, another Dunlap chassis, he was being heavily scrutinized by track officials. The scrutiny was something he and his team had to expect after there early season cheating scandal and Yontz would slip up once again at Caraway just a couple weeks after winning the biggest race of the season and being strip searched(reportedly looking for some sort of traction control device). Yontz' won one of the twin races on July 25th and in the pre-race drivers meeting he and every other driver was told that they must come straight to the pits for tech, with no victory lap or celebration allowed.

It was a strange request by the track, but the winner of the first twin, Travis Swaim, the eventual season champion had listened and did exactly as he was told, but Yontz on the other hand didn't listen and didn't immediately hit pit road. Yontz was tossed out without any recourse available and while many excuses from his supporters were offered, the fact remained that there were none that mattered, because he didn't listen, no matter the circumstances and was disqualified either way. This time Yontz had the fans sympathy so to speak, Yontz was the 'bad guy' in the first disqualification, but this time, Caraway Speedway track owner, Russell Hackett was dealing with the 'bad guy' label.

Despite the second disqualification, Yontz had a chance to remove the label of 'cheater' that he had been hit with in the beginning of the season and it looked as if he may overcome it as he made it through the grueling Martinsville Speedway tech with little changes to make to his car. He had passed the ultimate test, he had begun to gain momentum on establishing himself once again as the great of Late Model Stock Car racing that he is and not some 'cheater'. Yontz in the mean time had picked up a UARA-STARS victory and a second place finish in two starts in that car following his latest disqualification and he was well on the road to a reputation recovery.

The biggest setback yet was still to come as Yontz took to the Myrtle Beach Speedway, the site of his UARA-STARS Series win in pursuit of a Myrtle Beach 400 victory, one of
 

the big races where he had not yet picked up a win. Yontz was fast, super fast as he had been every time he took to the track and this time he was on the outside pole for the second biggest fall Late Model Stock Car event and looking toward a victory. Yontz' thoughts of a victory came crashing down on the Sunday morning of the race when as he was off in the stands talking with family and friends a member of his crew had removed lead from his car and Yontz' was being removed from his second place starting position and would be forced to run a heat race.

This 'cheating scandal' couldn't have come at a worse time and while Yontz claims to not know the intentions of his crew member, it doesn't matter, he's still ultimately responsible. Yontz to his credit stood up during an interview with Doc Love on Kickin' Asphalt Radio Show and took the responsibility while sticking to his story of not knowing about it. However, the damage had been done, the 'cheater' label had now tainted past victories, just because people in racing believe that when you do something once, you were probably always doing it ... it's a myth, Alex Yontz wasn't known as a cheater in the past, but because of a season filled with turmoil, that's all people can think about.

FINAL THOUGHTS ...
~A Season to Remember
2009 wasn't that much different than any other season really as there are always story lines that we follow and think about years later and we will remember bits and pieces of the 2009 season. Hopefully we hit the nail on the head of the things that you remember, no, not all of you, because not all of you were apart of all these things. These top six of the 'best of' and 'worst of' are my memories of the season, they are exactly what I remembered when I sat down to review the season and those six of each are among the most important things that happened this season.

I hope that all of you have had a great Christmas and I hope you got everything you wanted from your family and enjoyed your time. I also know that someone somewhere(and maybe several of you) won't be happy at all with the things I wrote and that's OK too. However, I hope everyone will enjoy this "Best & Worst of 2009" and I hope that all of you will check back to see the RACE22.com version of the Best 9 Drivers, Best 9 Races, Best 9 Finishes, Best 9 Moments, Best 9 Appearing Cars, Best 9 Crashes, Best 9 Quotes and Best 9 Rivalries, cause we've had a lot of fun doing this and hope you have that much fun reading it.
 

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