 Jason
Myers ended a 71-race winless drought with a NASCAR Whelen
Southern Modified Tour victory on Saturday at Langley
Speedway in the Newport News Shipbuilding/BayPort Credit
Union 150.
Myers, out of Walnut Cove, N.C., displayed a strong car
throughout the evening, but took advantage of some bad luck
at the expense of Corey LaJoie to earn his first win since
Aug. 5, 2006 at Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C.
LaJoie, who led a race-high 71 laps, experienced
transmission problems while leading the field to the green
flag on a Lap 107 restart.
LaJoie – a NASCAR K&N Pro Series East regular who won that
series’ visit to the Southeastern Virginia track in June –
was filling in for Burt Myers, who injured his left arm in a
shop accident on Friday and looked to have the car to beat
after rookie Danny Bohn experienced mechanical problems at
the outset of the event. Bohn, earlier in the day, won his
first career Coors Light Pole Award.
Frank Fleming finished second followed by Andy Seuss in
third. John Smith and Tim Brown finished fourth and fifth,
respectively.
Kyle Ebersole, Thomas Stinson, Gary Putnam, Joe Scarbrough
and points leader George Brunnhoelzl III rounded out the
top-10 finishers.
For Myers, the win was an emotional one for the veteran as
he dedicated the win to members of his family for various
reasons.
"Where do I start," said Myers in Victory lane. "It's my mom
and dad's [wedding] anniversary this weekend, my wife's
grandmother is battling cancer and we've got to get home to
spend some time with her and this win is for her."
Myers was fast all day during practice and it appeared from
the start of the race he had a fast car, although he had
trouble getting his No. 4 Wendell Edwards Ford to get going
on the restarts.
"I missed a couple of shifts on the restarts, but this car
was so good today," Myers added. "I want to thank all the
people who came out tonight to the race and without them we
don't have a place to race at and when your car is good like
mine was tonight, you love to race on this track - I love
this place."
Fleming, who announced prior to the last event at Bristol
Motor Speedway that this would be his last season behind the
wheel of his familiar No. 40 AutosbyNelson.com Ford,
finished a strong second and was all smiles after the
finish.
"I want to thank all these boys on my crew and my brother
leads this team and they really gave me a good car tonight,"
Fleming said. "We struggled a little bit in practice and
they worked on the car for qualifying and we also made some
changes at the break and they hit on it and man it worked
for us."
Seuss rebounded from an early pit stop to collect just his
second top five finish since April.
"We made an early pit stop because we wanted to make some
changes to the car before the break to see if that is what
we needed to do and the car came around and we were finally
able to end some of our bad luck and have a good finish."
Seuss added.
The race was slowed four times by caution with a pair of
incidents taking out contenders for the win. On lap 101,
points leader Brunnhoelzl spun on the backstretch and was
stuck in mud when cost him several laps to take him out of
contention.
On the restart after Brunnhoelzl's spin, LaJoie, was not
able to return to action after his transmission problem on
the track triggered a three-car accident that ended the
night for Michael Speeney and Mike Norman on Lap 107.
Brunnhoelzl holds a 44-point advantage over Jason Myers in
the championship point standings with three races remaining.
Bohn, Brown and Ebersole complete the top five.
The win also gave Myers a locked-in spot to the UNOH Battle
At The Beach on the .4-mile oval at Daytona International
Speedway next February during Speedweeks.
The NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour is back in action
next on Sept. 8-9 at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway
for the GreenPointe Energy Southern 75 and the UNOH Showdown
combination event with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
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NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour
Newport News Shipbuilding/Bayport Credit Union 150 Unofficial Results
Saturday At Langley Speedway, Hampton, VA
Lap length: 0.395 miles
(Start position in parentheses)
1. (7) Jason Myers, Walnut Cove, N.C., Ford, 150 laps, 65.772
mph.
2. (11) Frank Fleming, Mount Airy, N.C., 150.
3. (4) Andy Seuss, Hampstead, N.H., 150.
4. (10) John Smith, Mount Airy, NC, 150.
5. (3) Tim Brown, Cana, VA, 150.
6. (6) Kyle Ebersole, Hummelstown, PA, 150.
7. (9) Thomas Stinson, Chester, VA, 150.
8. (15) Gary Putnam, Concord, NC, 149.
9. (12) Joe Scarbrough, Richmond, VA, 146.
10. (5) George Brunnhoelzl III, West Babylon, N.Y., 145.
11. (13) Bryan Dauzat, Alexandria, LA, 143.
12. (2) Corey LaJoie, Concord, NC, 108, transmission.
13. (8) Michael Speeney, Newtown, PA, 108, suspension.
14. (14) Mike Norman, Lewisville, NC, Ford, 107, accident.
15. (1) Danny Bohn, Freehold, NJ, 2, rear end.
Race Statistics
Time of Race: 54 minutes 3 seconds
Margin of Victory: 2.739 seconds
Fastest Qualifier: D. Bohn * (92.224 mph, 15.419 seconds)
Caution Flags: 4 for 17 laps.
Lead Changes: 6 among 4 drivers.
Lap Leaders: T. Brown 1-6; G. Brunnhoelzl III 7-22; C. LaJoie 23-37;
J. Myers 38-51; C. LaJoie 52-107; T. Brown 108-115; J. Myers 116-150.
Standings: 1. G. Brunnhoelzl III, 349; 2. J. Myers, 305; 3. D. Bohn,
291; 4. T. Brown, 281; 5. K. Ebersole, 277; 6. F. Fleming, 272; 7. A. Seuss,
265; 8. J. Smith, 260; 9. T. Stinson, 258; 10. M. Speeney, 254. |
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