|
Dean Ward weathers the storm for first UARA STARS victory
Elkin, NC (July 31) – After a long rain delay and threatening storms on the way, Dean Ward set on the SUNOCO Pole and went on to lead every lap and come away with his first UARA STARS victory in the KLB Race Cars / American Energy LLC 150 at Friendship Motor Speedway.
As the first group of cars went onto the speedway for the mandatory scuff laps, Mother Nature showed up and put action on delay for a couple hours. UARA STARS Officials along with Friendship Motor Speedway personal began drying the speedway and getting drivers and crews ready for qualifying.
Ward would turn a 14.768 to claim his first UARA STARS SUNOCO pole award and bump UARA regular Mark King who had his best start of the season on the front row. Jamey Caudill coming off his second win of the season a couple weeks ago at Newport Speedway had one of the quickest cars in practice but was in the first group of qualifiers and couldn’t get a hold of the track and ended up with a thirteenth place staring spot. Caudill wasted no time coming through the field, climbing to fifth just a little over halfway, and eventually racing his way to a strong second place finish. Caudill’s strong performance earned him the East TN Trailers hard charger of the race with eleven spots gained.
RH2way Rookie contender Kyle Grissom had his best start of the season qualifying fifth and came away with a seventh place finish one spot ahead of fellow Rookie contender Steve Pendergrass. Grissom was the highest finishing Rookie.
Some top ten points contenders had problems and lost some valuable points. Tony Grady broke an axle plate and finished sixteenth. Nick Hutchins, RA Brown and Brandon Ward fell out with mechanical problems.
Keith Stiltner turned his season around and finished a strong fifth place. Stiltner has had top ten finishes this season but has had small problems that has keep the team from their usual top five finishes. Even with bad luck Stiltner has climbed his way into the top ten in the Championship Chase.
This was the second race Ward had competed with UARA STARS; his first race was at South Boston earlier this season where Ward fell out early with mechanical problems. Ward driving a Darrell Poe Performance Chevy Monte Carlo was all smiles in victory lane. “I was supposed to be at work today at NEXTEL Cup driver Kevin Harvick Racing but Kevin let me off and told me I had better run well. He should be happy, this makes my 176th win, so maybe he will be happy with that”, commented Ward.
UARA will be back in action this coming Friday night August 5th at Anderson Motor Speedway. For more information contact UARA at 828-692-3833. www.uara-stars.com
|
