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Hale wins ‘Road to Charlotte’ season-opener at Kingsport

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (March 23) – Before a good opening night crowd at Galaxy Kingsport Speedway, Wayne Hale of Piney Flats, Tenn., started from the pole position and led the 50-lap NASCAR Late Model Stock feature flag-to-flag in capturing the Car Quest Auto Parts "Road to Charlotte" qualifier victory Friday night.

Hale’s fast lap of 15:542-seonds in qualifying earned him the pole for the feature, with Reece Milton grabbing the outside front-row starting berth. Lining up third through fifth were R. J. Stanley, Nate Monteith and Jeff Berry.

At the drop of the green flag, Hale won the drag race into Turn 1 over Milton to grab a lead he would never relinquish throughout the 50-lap Late Model Stock feature. At the stripe to complete the first lap, Hale was closely pursued by Milton, Monteith, Stanley and Wade Lopez. The event’s first caution waved on lap 2 for a spin in Turn 4 by Rick Pannell.

With Hale riding on the point going back green, Monteith worked the high groove between Turns 3 and 4 on lap 3 to overtake Milton for the runner-up spot, also bringing Lopez along for the ride into third place and dropping Milton back to fourth. Hale was comfortably cruising out front in the lead, but Monteith had a rear view mirror full of Lopez in the battle for second place.

Lopez worked under Monteith to pull alongside as the duo crossed the start/finish line on lap 13 running door-to-door into the first turn. Using the bottom line to his advantage, Lopez completed the pass for second place racing off (Turn) 2 down the backstretch, setting his sights on the race leader Hale.

Hale, driving the Dalton Direct Carpet/A1-Transmission/Action Graphics/KLB Race Cars/Robinson Race Engines/No. 19 Monte Carlo, halfway into the 50-lapper held a 10 car-length lead over Lopez, Monteith, Milton and Berry. Running sixth through tenth were Stanley, Kres Vandyke, Mark Ketron, Jeff Gilder and Adam Dean.

Hale’s advantage over Lopez was erased on lap 29 when the second caution waved when Stanley and Vandyke got together on the backstretch, sending Stanley into the pits for quick attention from his crew and to the rear of the field for the restart.

For the first time in the race Hale had Lopez glued to his rear bumper as the race went back green with Monteith, Milton and Berry in tow. Hale flexed the muscle under the hood of his Chevrolet as he quickly opened back up a four car-length lead over Lopez, but the pace was slowed for the final time on lap 35 when Gilder looped his mount in Turn 2.

Berry made his move on Milton in their battle for fourth place on lap 37, pulling alongside as they raced into the first turn side-by-side. With Milton getting loose racing off the second corner, both Berry and Ketron slipped by, dropping Milton back to the sixth spot.

However, up front over the final circuits it was all Hale as the popular driver raced to the season-opening 50-lap Road to Charlotte qualifier feature victory over Lopez, Monteith, Berry and Ketron. Completing the top-10 finishers were Vandyke, Milton, Dean, Stanley and Bill Garrett.

"Man, visiting Victory Lane sure is a good way to begin the new racing season," said Hale after climbing from his car. "This car tonight was probably the best handling racecar I’ve ever sat in. I really need to thank Kerry Bodenhamer at KLB Race Cars over in Hendersonville, N.C., for building me such a great ride.

"With the cold weather tonight it sure was a little hair-raising there at the beginning of the race. The car was kind of hard to handle there for about the first five- to seven laps until some heat got into these Goodyear tires. Besides the great sponsors I have on the car, I also need to thank the guys on the crew who work so hard preparing this racecar – and they are my brother, William Hale, Bill Lingerfelt, Bill Morris and J.R. I also want to thank my wife and two kids for putting up with me and all the time I devote to racing."

Bill Garrett of Johnson City, Tenn., moved into the lead on lap 4 of the Sportsman 30-lap feature and never looked back in winning over Paul Shull, Bruce Blessing, Caleb Holman and Rod Collins.

Chuck Crigger of Surgoinsville, Tenn., led wire-to-wire in winning the 25-lap Street Stock feature over Scott Robinson, James Proffitt, Kenny Holder and Stacy Castle.

Randy Bethea of Newport, Tenn., held off Alton Satterfield, Jeff Maupin, Chap Slaughter, and Hank Hall in winning the 25-lap UMP Modified feature.

Larry McKnight of Clintwood, Va., captured the Charger 4-Cylinders feature win over Bill Coleman, Linton Perry, Larry McKnight Jr. and Marty Catron.

Josh Adams of Murfreesboro, Tenn., held off a hard-charging Jay Beebe, Raymond Williams Jr., Keith Brooks and Jim Scuse in winning the 20-lap Pro Challenge feature.

Darrell Gillespie of Kingsport, Tenn., raced to victory in the 20-lap Legends feature over Ron Humble, Ronnie McCarty, Rusty Sarver and Adam Sarver.

Doug Kerrigan of Murfreesboro, Tenn., captured the 20-lap Mod Lites victory over James Worley, Chris Manning and Randy English.

LATE MODEL STOCK (50-laps)

   1.Wayne Hale #19-Piney Flats, TN 
   2.Wade Lopez #83-Abingdon, VA 
   3.Nate Monteith #44-Bristol, TN 
   4.Jeff Berry #61-Kingsport, TN 
   5.Mark Ketron #26-Kingsport, TN 
   6.Kres Vandyke #15-Abingdon, VA 
   7.Reece Milton #16-Kingsport, TN 
   8.Adam Dean #81-Bristol, TN 
   9.R. J. Stanley #18-Bristol, TN 
  10.Bill Garrett #4-Johnson City, TN 
  11.Jeff Gilder #51-Kingsport, TN 
  12.Rick Pannell #33-Kingsport, TN 
  13.Brian Blevins #40-Clintwood, VA 
  14.Billy Lane #14-Kingsport, TN 
  15.Allen Hawkins #77-Kingsport, TN