IT'S TIME TO RACE!!

November 7, 2009 Pro-Trucks Take Center Stage at NSS by Andy Sandall - FASCAR Media (11.07.09) The 5th Annual Florida State Pro-Truck Championship 100 was the much-anticipated main event on the evening’s race card, but with a full program encompassing the Modified, Sportsman, Superstock and Strictly Stock divisions, a Veteran’s motorcycle parade and a rib-eating contest on the start/finish line, there was plenty of entertainment on show at New Smyrna Speedway on Saturday night. With the interval festivities complete the Taylor Racing Products Pro-Trucks rolled out onto the grid for their 100 lap feature. After a hard afternoon of testing, tweaking and qualifying the line-up was set and a twist was announced – the race would run with a full-field inversion. Putting the fastest cars at the back made this a memorable race, with fast qualifier #22 Scott Bishop and #99 Kevin Henry biding their time from the green flag and cleverly allowing the traffic to slowly calm down and get into line before starting to make their way through the field towards the front. The #15 of Cody Blair, making his second start of the night, provided the early excitement as he worked his way through the pack, only to see smoke start to billow from his truck on the back straight. A trip to pit-lane to modify his bodywork gave temporary relief, but his night ended for good on the 13th lap with the first retirement of the race. The restart saw Henry quickly moving through the traffic, taking the outright lead before an incident in turn 2 brought out the caution flags again, with Thomas Warnick’s #7 getting squeezed between two passing cars and getting out of shape. Two trips to pit lane for Warnick followed, the first seeing him miss his pit crew and having to make a second lap to re-enter pit lane, but on his second trip the smoke coming from his engine compartment indicated more than a single mechanical issue, with the flames coming from under the hood now obvious to the fans in the stands. With the driver evacuated and the fire crews working quickly to extinguish the blaze the race was red flagged to allow a proper clean-up of the pit lane before starting once again. After all the excitement the race restarted with the #99 still out in front but with the other NSS regulars working their way into the leading pack. Another caution came soon after with #20 Anthony Sergi turning the #96x of Austin Howell in turn 1 to send both trucks to the rear of the restart. The pace truck was back out on track again soon after with three trucks getting too close in turn 2 and causing the cars behind to take avoiding action. The green flag saw Henry, #22 Scott Bishop and the #96 of Ben Kennedy breaking away from the field to lead up at the front as the race settled down for a long caution-free run. At 2/3rds distance the race was down to 9 remaining trucks, with the three runaway leaders slowly being reeled in by Sergi. With just 5 to go the race came to life again as #96 Kennedy finally realized it was time to make a move on #22 Bishop, pushing alongside him but with the fast qualifier fighting back to keep the advantage. The white flag indicated one lap to go and lapped cars around the track all adding to the excitement, with the #27 of Michael Soukup seeing his engine giving up on the back straight, meaning the decisive moments of the race all took place in a hazy cloud of smoke! With Henry having successfully navigated the last lap to take the win it was down to Kennedy and Bishop to provide the excitement, with Kennedy making one last desperate lunge down the back straight to claim 2nd place by inches on the line, bringing the appreciative crowd to their feet. A very happy Henry climbed from his truck in Victory Lane after the celebritory burn-out and had a lot of people to thank, "I gotta say a big thanks to Ford and Ford Racing... all the guys back at the shop (they) just did a tremendous job with this new Ford motor." said Henry as he got ready to pose for the Victory Lane photo. For Ben Kennedy, his second place finish at the line helped secure the 2009 New Smyrna Speedway Track Championship for the Pro-Trucks. "I never thought we'd get past Bishop" said Kennedy, "Man that was some fun!" There is one big race remaining for the Pro-Trucks as they will play a supporting role at the upcoming Governor's Cup on November 21st. The Trucks will go for 50 laps around the high-banked half-mile in the MJS Concrete Pro-Truck 50 in support of the 2009 Season Finale 200 lapper for the Super Late Models. OFFICIAL RESULTS NEW SMYRNA SPEEDWAY NOVEMBER 7, 2009 Strictly Stock - Features Finish Start Car Driver 1 4 89 William Hindman 2 6 60 Ernie Tumeinello 3 3 59 Chris Brannon 4 7 95 Chuck Hill 5 8 13 Andrew Chandler 6 10 63 Glenn Rhodes 7 2 21M Maureen Dahm 8 9 9 Curt Steer 9 5 3 Dustin Higdon 10 1 18 Tim Walters Modified - Features Finish Start Car Driver 1 5 22 Jason Boyd 2 6 4B Alan Bruns 3 3 66 Jerry Symons 4 8 9X Kurt Jett 5 4 2X Austin Howell 6 7 54 David Hite 7 2 97 Matthew Wheeler 8 1 330 Joe Gerard, Sr. Sportsman - Features Finish Start Car Driver 1 1 27 Philip Luizzo 2 6 23 Mike Pletka 3 3 49 Jason Foster 4 8 44 Michael Seay 5 4 66 Andrew Nicholls 6 5 57 Eddie Furtak 7 2 39 Russ Moore 8 9 51 Ed Kennedy 9 7 4B Timothy Todd Jr. Trucks - Features Finish Start Car Driver 1 1 99 Kevin Henry 2 5 96 Ben Kennedy 3 14 22 Scott Bishop 4 11 20 Anthony Sergi 5 6 72 Keith Lilley 6 13 17 Colby Clements 7 7 27 Michael Soukup 8 3 17X Ken Lilley 9 2 97 Clinton Clark 10 12 33B Logan Bordeau 11 10 24 Bruce Bennett 12 9 96X Austin Howell 13 4 32 William Stacy 14 15 7 Thomas Warnick 15 8 15 Cody Blair Super Stock - Features Finish Start Car Driver 1 10 211 Jarrett Korpi 2 8 15X Cody Blair 3 9 56 Bobby Holley 4 11 01 Scott Smith 5 2 86 Richard Goodrich 6 1 00 Bob Trombley 7 4 14 Geno Smith 8 5 21D Mike Dahm 9 13 61 David Russell Sr 10 3 23 Edward Barber 11 12 58 Robert Skinner 12 7 15 Michael Wofford 13 6 16 David Russell Have an opinion on this story? 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