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True Value/AAA Security Night

CAPRON, Va. (June 8) — Frank Deiny Jr. of Mechanicsville, Va., notched his very first Southampton Motor Speedway feature win in the 100-lap RaceWorld.com Late Model Stock Car portion of Friday evening’s NASCAR Weekly Racing Series program, sponsored by True Value and AAA Security.

Brandon Butler of Richmond, Va., earned the pole for the event with a 94.799-mph qualifying effort. Deiny was second-quickest, while 2000 track champ Nick Woodward of High Point, N.C., and Jim Williams of Chesapeake, Va., made up Row 2.

As the race got under way, Butler jumped into the lead, bringing Woodward along with him and kicking Deiny back to third place.

Deiny rode in third place until lap 11 when he ducked under Woodward on the frontstretch. The two dueled door-to-door until lap 13 when Deiny pulled ahead on the back straightaway. Mike Shearin of Emporia, Va., tried to follow in Deiny’s tire tracks, but was forced back in line behind Woodward. The exchange allowed Butler to stretch his lead to five car-lengths.

The night went sour for points leader Jamey Caudill of Four Oaks, N.C., on lap 18. Starting ninth after a subpar qualifying performance, Caudill was collected when Williams spun in Turn 1 and his car ended up wedged, on two wheels, between Williams’ machine and the outside wall. Caudill was unable to continue and was the first retiree from the event. He was credited with 24th place.

After a red flag for cleanup, the race resumed with Butler taking a three-car-length lead over Deiny. Caution flags at laps 38, 49, 51 and 74 kept the field bunched as the event headed toward its conclusion. Butler, Deiny, Woodward and Shearin continued to hold the top-four spots.

Back under green on lap 74, Deiny began to pressure the leader. On the 76th circuit, he drove to the inside of Butler in Turn 4 and pulled even. Deiny nosed ahead to lead laps 77 and 78, while Butler regained the upper hand on laps 79 and 80. The race’s eighth and final caution flag, at lap 81, brought a momentary halt to the battle for the lead.

As the field rolled toward the last green flag, Butler decided to vary his restart technique, waiting until he was well off of Turn 4 before hitting the accelerator. The big winner in that ploy turned out to be Woody Howard of Chesapeake, Va., who slipped up to the high groove and moved from sixth to fourth, bypassing Wayne Grubb of Richmond and Shearin.

Butler, meanwhile, fashioned a two-car-length lead over Deiny. Working methodically, though, Deiny narrowed the gap and, by lap 92, the lead duo was nose-to-tail.

Deiny began his bid for the victory on lap 93, ducking inside of Butler in Turn 2. Squeezing between Butler and a slower car, he cleared Butler’s machine off Turn 4 on lap 94, taking the lead for good.

Over the final circuits, Deiny was able to extend his lead and won by 0.602-second — about three car-lengths. Butler was the runner-up, followed by Woodward, Howard and Shearin.

In Victory Lane after the race, Deiny revealed that his strategy was to lay back a bit until the end: “Yeah, I wasn’t getting paid to ride right then. Just hung out and, hopefully, he’d start slipping late in the race and he did, so everything worked out. If it hadn’t have worked out, I’d have looked bad, y’know? Me and Brandon, we’ve run hard years and years ago and we’re pretty good friends, so it was fun to race with him.”

In his comments, however, Butler sounded a somewhat less-than-friendly note: “We had a good car. Frankie was a little better than us. I thought he could have given me a little more room there toward the end. He all but wrecked me, but I guess I’ll just have to remember that.”

On Caudill’s early exit from the event, Butler said, “Hated to see Jamey have a bad night, but, hopefully, we’ll capitalize a little bit on that and get back in the points race a little bit.”

For Woodward, a 16-time winner at SMS in 2000, the quest to return to form continues: “This was a lot better than we were three weeks ago and a lot better than we were five weeks ago when we run third. We’re getting better. The car was pretty good tonight. It was a little quicker on the stopwatch at the end of the runs — not as quick as we’d like it to be, but we’re getting there.”

Despite his mishap, Caudill retained the points lead. He holds an 18-point edge over Shearin, 280-262. Butler, who started the year with two miserable outings, has rebounded nicely with five straight top-five runs and is fourth in the standings, only 40 points out of the lead.

 True Value/AAA Security Night

   LATE MODEL STOCK CARS - 100 laps

1.  Frank Deiny Jr. - Mechanicsville, Va., 100
2.  Brandon Butler - Richmond, Va., 100
3.  Nick Woodward - High Point, N.C., 100
4.  Woody Howard - Chesapeake, Va., 100
5.  Mike Shearin - Emporia, Va., 100
6.  Wayne Grubb - Richmond, Va., 100
7.  Chris Hopkins - Petersburg, Va., 100
8.  Terry Allison - South Mills, N.C., 100
9.  Tony Grady - Raleigh, N.C., 100
10. Denny Hamlin - Chesterfield, Va., 100
11. Albert Falk - Chesapeake, Va., 100
12. Mike Conner - Gloucester, Va., 100
13. Bud Kenny - Virginia Beach, Va., 100
14. Max Smith - Roanoke Rapids, N.C., 100
15. Andy Bell - Norfolk, Va., 99
16. Brad Rigdon - Norfolk, Va., 88
17. Shawn Balluzzo - Hampton, Va., 81
18. H.C. Sellers III - Ringgold, Va., 80
19. Jeff Sipe - Middletown, Pa., 80
20. Jim Williams - Chesapeake, Va., 62
21. Ray Hackett - La Plata, Md., 50
22. Rodney Taylor - Petersburg, Va., 48
23. Mike Queen - Chesapeake, Va., 23
24. Jamey Caudill - Four Oaks, N.C., 17
• Pole: Butler - 94.799 mph.
• Hard Luck Award: Sipe.
• Hard Charger Award: Howard.