Story by: Langley Austin ~ langley@RACE22.com

Wytheville, VA(November 7, 2009) -- Three feet ... that was the distance in which Brandon McReynolds claimed victory at Kingsport Speedway in the 15th of 16 UARA-STARS Series races today.

There were many storylines heading into this race given the fact that the track had sit idle since 2002, there was a championship on the line and the locals were hoping for a little home field advantage. Instead of writing an article on the race, I'm going to give you this week's version of News, Notes and Commentary and there's a lot to talk about, so hang on.

RACING AGAIN AT KINGSPORT
The community of Kingsport, TN and surrounding areas showed up today in force for the rebirth of the once weekly operated Kingsport Speedway. Today, Kerry Bodenhamer and the staff of the UARA-STARS Series brought the track back to life for the first time since 2002 and the short track fans in the area took notice. We haven't heard any estimated crowd numbers, but the place looked to have around 2,500 people between the stands and the tier parking areas.

Hopefully this will be a sign of things to come for the 3/8 mile concrete facility and maybe, just maybe racing can return there like it should as the community will obviously support it and there's no excuses that can be made for the track not to operate atleast on a part-time basis in 2010.

GOOD RACE, GREAT FINISH
The UARA-STARS Series race wasn't the barn burner that many of the series events usually are, but hey, they can't all be great. However the finish of this race will have people talking for a while as Brandon McReynolds, Jamey Caudill and Matt McCall were in tight pack coming to the finish of the race.

As I mentioned at the start of this article it came down to about three feet as Jamey Caudill did everything in his power to get by McReynolds, but in the end McReynolds made all the right moves in all the right places to take home his third win of the season. McCall nearly got into the mix on the final restart as McReynolds dove into one with Caudill following and they slowed up just a little and McCall was coming faster, luckily McCall backed off and Caudill kept the car under control and they raced it out to the finish.

TWO POLES IN ONE WEAK
McReynolds was very weak last week following a hernia surgery, but he didn't let it slow him down as the young driver took the pole for the eventually rained out race at Concord. However, he won't be getting his photo taken with the big check for $100 for that pole, but today in Kingsport he laid down another impressive lap and took home the pole award.

McReynolds joked before the race about getting the pole twice in one week and how he would have liked to got to keep last weeks, but he again today proved that you don't want to race him when he's not 100%. He is still recovering from that hernia surgery, but he's feeling much better after claiming yet another victory, his third putting him one win behind McCall as the season wins leader. McReynolds will have a good shot at getting that fourth win next week when the series goes back to Concord to finish the season.

SECOND AIN'T THAT BAD
For Jamey Caudill finishing second probably sucks, I mean when you are regarded as being one of the best Late Model Stock Car drivers of All-Time and maybe the best, finishing second is just ok. However third was the finish Caudill had to be the least pleased with as his bitter rival, Matt McCall finished in that position and basically locked up the championship, needing not much more than to start at Concord this week.

Is the Caudill and McCall feud over? I'm not sure, but one thing is for sure and that is that they were both on there best behavior in todays race. McCall had many chances to take Caudill out and he didn't and likewise Caudill's so called 'teammate', Paddy Rodenbeck finished up behind McCall and had the chance to retaliate on him and didn't. So we'll have to wait and see if there's going to be any more chapters to this story.

CAUDILL-LESS
Speaking of Rodenbeck, the young driver was lacking this week in his pit as his crew chief, Jeff Caudill, Jamey's brother wasn't there. In his place was fellow racer and former Caudill teammate, Richard Boswell and after missing it in qualifying it seems Boswell was able to lead his driver in the right direction and got him to a fourth place finish.

NOT AGAIN
Continuing with Rodenbeck and speaking of his less than stellar qualifying effort, his dad, Pat says he'll take the blame for this one as he and some of the crew gave Paddy a hard time about being too agressive in qualifying last week at Concord. This week it was Pat who took it on the chin as Paddy wasn't agressive enough and didn't qualify as good as the entire team felt he should.

FIFTH AIN'T GOOD ENOUGH
Lee Tissot wasn't exactly happy with finishing fifth in today's race and after getting spun out on a restart I'm not sure I would have been either. Tissot felt Kyle Grissom had basically run over him causing the wreck that eventually sidelined Brennan Poole and took Tissot and Coleman Pressley out of contention for a win. Tissot made it back to fifth and he'll take it, but he said "Look where I could have been," pointing to the top three finishers in front of him.

NO HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE HERE
Many people thought that if there was ever a race that the locals could kind of have a distinct advantage over the UARA-STARS regulars and while some of the locals had pretty good runs and were competitive with the touring regulars, they weren't that great. Nate Monteith was the shining star of the locals qualifying sixth and racing among the top ten the entire race.

Monteith and teammate Wade Day were the top finishing non regulars as well finishing sixth and seventh respectively. Day's course was a long one after qualfying a disappointing 11th and pit to make changes on his car he came from behind and ended the day with a decent run. However, for two drivers with more laps than any of the UARA regulars sixth and seventh isn't good enough.

NO PRACTICE, NO QUALIFYING, NO PROBLEM
Zeke Shell had a challenging day today at Kingsport Speedway as the young driver thought coming out of yesterday's practice that with a little work he could qualify in the top ten. Fast forward to today and he didn't get to practice or even qualify as he was struggling with brake issues despite the fact that they had put new brakes on this morning before practice.

Team represenative, Scott Clark said that they must have had some trash in the brake lines as they were having the problems and once the went through everything it magically disappeared. Shell and the team then made the most of their circumstances and after officially starting 26th, shotgun on the field he raced up to finish eighth and was left wondering what could have been without all the brake issues.

ANY FOOL CAN BUST OFF A FAST LAP AT FIVE O'CLOCK
That was Brandon McReynolds comment when Coleman Pressley went out at five o'clock yesterday evening and busted off the fastest lap of the day. McReynolds and Pressley are buddies and they don't mind taking jabs at one another, but today McReynolds can take as many jabs as he wants to at Pressley after he took home the win. Pressley however had a great run, but got caught up in the wreck when Tissot got turned, but he raced back to finish ninth missing a few parts and pieces on his car.

BACK TO FRONT
Dennis Queen was making his first start on Kingsport Speedway and while it is similar to Newport Speedway, Queen's home track, those similarities wasn't enough to get Queen up front in qualifying. Queen posted the 23rd fastest qualifying time, but like he always does he played the cards dealt to him and made the most of the race coming home with a tenth place finish.

NICE RECOVERY
Jeff Woodward had two cars at Kingsport Speedway this weekend, not because he wanted to, but because he backed his primary into the wall on Friday, but really wanted to make the start in this race. He didn't have the fastest car on Saturday, but he made it work and climbed from a 21st place qualifying effort to an 11th place finish. Not bad for his first start on the 3/8 mile concrete track in Kingsport, TN.

NOT AS EASY AS IT LOOKS
Josh Brock showed this weekend that he has talent, he unloaded off the trailer on Friday and was in the game posting the sixth fastest time overall for the day early on, but making the transition from Super Late Models to Late Model Stocks might not be easy as you would think. Brock first broke a hub on Friday sidelining him for much of the practice, but returned to the track late in the day and picked up where he left off ... fast.

However, Saturday was a different story as the 17-year old driver, who won the Rookie of the Year on the Ken-Ten straight rail Late Model series this year struggled from the start. I'm not sure what happened from morning practice where he was eighth fastest at a 15.182 second lap to qualifying where he was only able to muster a 15.359 second lap and posted the 13th starting spot. Once the green flag dropped the young driver was good, but when you start outside the top ten trouble can find you in these UARA races and it did.

Brock persevered throughout the day getting the lucky dog many times, pitting as much as needed and when the checkered flag fell he had picked up one position from the start finishing 12th. Honestly that's a pretty good debut race for a young driver who had never even driven a Late Model Stock Car before Friday morning, but it's not what he was looking for. Hopefully we'll see this talented young driver get a chance to compete regularly next season and I think he could be one of the top rookies in a season when there will be a lot of talent going for the Rookie of the Year including potentially Clint King and Orange County Speedway Limited Late Model Champion, Michael McGuire.

THIS AIN'T NO MYRTLE BEACH
Coming off of his first career UARA-STARS Series top ten finish at Myrtle Beach Speedway a couple months ago, Luke Laney was looking for some success closer to home as the Tennessee native set his sights on Kingsport Speedway. Laney however would have no such luck as he got bounced around on a tough track before finishing four laps down in 13th.

IN THE PITS TOO EARLY
Kyle Grissom, Keith Stiltner and Brennan Poole were three drivers who found themselves parked on pit road before the end of the race, but that wasn't indicative of how they ran early on. Grissom ran inside the top five early on, but late in the race he experienced mechanical issues and didn't finish, Stiltner had a decent run, but also wasn't able to make it to the finish. Poole was a victim of a Grissom caused crash of Tissot early on and after getting front end damage, he simply couldn't make the car work and parked it.

DUDE, WHERE'S THAT SMOKE COMING FROM
Caleb Holman was sure he had a good car ... he thought he would be one of the contenders expecting to compete in the top ten and possibly even for a top five, but his day went up in smoke on lap six of the race. We're not sure if he blew his engine, but that's what it appeared to be and that cost another local driver capable of running up front a chance to even compete.

HOPE WE GET TO GO BACK
Many of the UARA-STARS regulars weren't really looking forward to traveling to Kingsport Speedway this weekend, due to the long haul and fears about what kind of condition the track might be in given that it had been closed since 2002. However, by the time we left there today many of those same guys were hoping to get the chance to come back there next year as many of them loved the track and the challenges it poses.

CONCORD AGAIN THIS WEEK
For the third time this season the UARA-STARS Series will head to the Concord Speedway in Concord, NC, sort of a home track for many of the series regulars. This will be just the second race however, but after spending two days there last week many people are hoping everything goes smoothly when the series rolls back in on Saturday.

Brandon McReynolds and Matt McCall left Concord as the pole winner and outside pole winner in the qualifying session that was held, but they weren't happy after hearing that the race would be restarted from the beginning with practice, qualifying(again) and the 150-lap race. However
 

several other drivers may be making a start including Matt DiBenedetto, who is an ace at this track and was there helping McReynolds who didn't know if he could race after his hernia surgery. DiBenedetto, Clint Mills and Ross Furr are three names I have heard as possible's for this make-up race and that could make it an even better event.

RACE22.com, of course will be there for all the action and for those of you who can't make it out we'll keep you up to date from the start of practice way past the drop of the checkered flag.