Story by: Corey Latham ~ corey@RACE22.com

Concord, NC(November 16, 2009) -- Finally, it was here. The UARA season finale was upon us, and if you start thinking about previous years past, it looked to be a barn-burner. We've had point leader's wreck, fights in the pits, scuffles in the spotter stand, dragging fenders by the point leader, pretty much everything you can thing of, why would the race at Concord to end the 2009 season be any different?

Matt McCall all but had the championship locked up heading into this weekend, and while he did win the title, it was nerve-racking in typical UARA fashion. Coleman Pressley took the win, but that was another story all together.....ahhh, where to start. After being rained out two weeks ago, the Concord race had become the season ending event, and everyone had come to win. Brandon McReynolds locked up the pole there before the rain hit, and once again this week he did the same under blue skies.

Kyle Grissom had locked up third, followed by point leader McCall, Paddy Rodenbeck, and Matt DiBenedetto making a rare start in the same Steve DeWalt owned car he took the victory with here a year ago......before they took it away in post-race tech. The big story of qualifying was Brennan Poole, who had been fast in practice but expired an engine in the last session. An engine was brought from Tommy Lemons Motorsports, actually a motor Brandon Butler had run earlier this year, and the team made the change complete just before the cars were rolled on to the starting grid. And this Danny Cox engine turned out to be a beast.

It became pretty evident in the first ten laps that McReynolds was going to be hard-pressed to beat on this night. His Dodge powerplant would simply out-motor the competitors down the straight away and crew chief, Nick Hutchins had it turning excellent through the corners, which was bad news for the rest of the field. Two drivers that seemed to be making headway in the early going was Poole after starting in the back, and 14 year-old Clint King making his first ever Late Model Stock Car start. But the ending results for both drivers would differ greatly on the super fast Concord, NC track.

King and Poole would find themselves in a very different situation on lap 37, as King was nosed into the fronstretch wall and Poole had made his way all the way from 22nd to the top ten. King had just passed by Poole and as he was battling Concord veteran Greg Petersen, the car looked noticeably loose lap after lap off turn four. It finally got too loose and as he corrected off the corner it snapped back into the outside wall, causing heavy damage and ending his day. Not the way he wanted his first race to go, but after practice and his limited time racing on the track, he is going to be a force to be reckoned with in the 2010 season.

As we get past the 50 lap mark, another factor starts to cause havoc for the teams, tires. The Goodyear tires have been a concern for all local racing this year, but the UARA tire problems have been very limited after having issues early this season. But at the Concord track something just didn't mesh, as a rash of problems started to hit the top contenders. Brandon Dean was the first to experience problems, as he cut a tire in the early stages running in the top 5. Obviously we're not sure if the tire issues were due to the tires themselves or setups and trash on the track, but either way there were a lot of issues for a lot of different teams.

McCall had just moved into second past Grissom, when his rival and closest pint challenger Jamey Caudill had the same fate a few laps later. Caudill's next move looked to be costly at the time, as he simply parked his ill-handling car seeing his championship chances go out the window. But things change fast. Just a few circuits later on lap 67, the unexpected happens, as McCall loses a motor, ending his bid for a win and causing many people to pull out calculators to crunch point figures, and the Caudill team goes feverishly to work to change the tire to get back out. Only one problem, if Caudill had stayed on the lead lap after the tire change and finished 5th, he could possibly win the title. But after parking the car, the #50 team was now eight laps down.

It would take a large miracle at this point, but his night went from bad to worse so it turned out to be a moot point. During the same time that Caudill had returned to pit road after getting the tire changed, he went down another lap under caution as Matt DiBenedetto had him blocked in. But Matt suffered the same fate, as he tried to exit pit road running "About 115mph" as he stated, but was unable to stay in front of the pace car. This would set up an exciting event during the race, as the DiBenedetto machine was a handful in the first half, but after pitting for a punctured tire and some adjustments, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver would get up on the wheel for the final 50 laps of the race.

We get to lap 103 and a few story lines are taking place ... The best battle is for the third spot, as Rodenbeck wants to keep it, and Pressley and Poole want to take it away. Pressley had been working on Paddy for some time, making some contact, but nothing to get the driver out of shape. As they did this, Poole was coming as he had done all race, and caught up with the pair to join the battle. As this was going on, Caudill's car erupts in smoke entering turn one, spinning to a stop. His motor had expired as well. Very strange indeed, both the top dogs have motor issues in the same race after not having a problem the entire season. The McCall team breathes a sigh of relief, but as crazy as this night had been, they were scared to celebrate just yet.

With the championship out of the way, the story was now the race, or should I say the Brandon McReynolds show. After talking with his crew-chief, he said Brandon wasn't even running 75%, and it looked it as he pulled away and left the field after every restart. But, Brandon had started the season off with terrible luck, and after winning a week ago at Kingsport, lady luck reared her head once more at Concord on the #28 team. We get to a caution on lap 114, and McReynolds hits pit road with a flat left front, the tire had simply came apart. He loses a lap and hits the track again, his chances of victory sitting in shreds around a wheel.

Now it was Grissom's turn at the helm and while he had nothing for McReynolds, nobody else had anything for him either. Pressley and Poole finally get around Rodenbeck for second and then Roger Lee Newton comes up to challenge Rodenbeck. Newton is a Concord veteran also, winning a truck championship there along with many Late Model races and at every event he runs with the UARA, he gets faster as the race goes on. This night was no different, as Newton had carved his way through the field, and as he got to Rodenbeck, contact was made sending Paddy around in turn one. Needless to say, Paddy was upset, but not as upset as the leader Grissom during the caution. Flat tire for Grissom showed that leading this race was not the place to be.

Under 20 laps to go and this race is going to be decided between roomates, Pressley and Poole. As the laps click off, Poole applies more pressure to the rear of Pressley and looks to have a slighty faster car, just not fast enough to pass. It is at this point with 10 to go that Pressley really gets up on the wheel, Poole has given him a few shots to the rear bumper and Pressley simply reached down a little further and drove the wheels off the car. For the last 10 laps he was sideways going through turn one all the way to the dogleg down the backstretch, he wanted this win. And he took it, beating Poole to the line followed by Newton, Clint Mills, and DiBenedtto after he got the lucky dog with 12 to go and came through the field all the way to the top five.

It was intersting to say the least, but that is always the case in the UARA finale. From the drama between the problems with the championship contenders, the tire issues, leaders having problems, and the showdown between Pressley and Poole, this race had it all. Congrats to Coleman for the race win, McCall on the championship, and the entire UARA series and drivers for making 2009 what we thought it would be among other racing series..............the best there is.

Check back this week for driver interviews and other tidbits from Concord as we head to "The Beach" later this week.
 
Results:
1) #59 Coleman Pressley
2) #5 Brennan Poole
3) #33 Roger Lee Newton
4) #2 Clint Mills
5) #18 Matt DiBenedetto
6) #21 Michael Rouse
7) #54 Kenny Brooks
8) #32 Kyle Grissom
9) #48 Scott Turlington
10) #81 Paddy Rodenbeck
11) #63 Brian Conforth
12) #31 Ryan Robertson
13) #92 Dennis Queen
14) #28 Brandon McReynolds
15) #12 Garrett Campbell
16) #14 Greg Peterson
17) #24 Matt Kurzjeweski
18) #9 Chad Mullis
19) #6 Brandon Dean
20) #50 Jamey Caudill
21) #51 Matt McCall
22) #07 Clint King