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Butler Claims the 2001 SMS Late Model Championship

CAPRON, Va. (Oct. 5) — Jamey Caudill of Four Oaks, N.C., scored his second victory of the season in the 100-lap RaceWorld.com Late Model Stock Car portion of Friday’s NASCAR Souvenir Night program, presented by Mike Duman Auto Sales and WLQM 101.7 FM, at Southampton Motor Speedway.

Caudill’s victories provided bookends for SMS’s championship points season. His first win came in the season opener, while Friday’s event closed out the points battles for 2001.

Brandon Butler of Richmond, Va., claimed the pole for the race, qualifying at 94.855 mph. Doug Godsey, also of Richmond, shared the front row with Butler.

On the intial start, Godsey got the jump and pulled ahead of Butler in Turn 2. A caution flag, the first of a season-high 15, slowed the field before a lap went on the board, though, and the drivers regrouped for a complete restart.

Under way again, Butler grabbed the advantage, motoring in front Godsey out of Turn 4. Godsey followed Butler for a couple laps, then muscled him aside and took the lead off Turn 2 on lap 3.

Taking exception to the move, Butler sent Godsey spinning when the leaders got back to Turn 4, prompting another yellow flag. Both Butler and Godsey were sent to the rear of the field as Caudill, who started third, assumed the lead.

Only two more laps had passed when Butler and Godsey were at it again. This time, Godsey got into Butler in Turn 4 on lap 5. The retaliatory strike went awry, though, and Godsey ended up crunching the nose of his machine against the outside wall.

Godsey and Butler both drove away from the incident. Butler returned the rear of the field, lining up in 20th place, while track officials directed Godsey to the sidelines for the evening.

When the race resumed, Caudill opened a two-car-length gap over Mike Shearin of Emporia, Va., the new second-place runner. Tommy Cherry of South Mills, N.C., was positioned in third.

Another flurry of caution flags began on lap 36. More yellows followed on laps 43, 45 and 47. All the while, Caudill was able to maintain a fairly comfortable margin as Shearin fended off Cherry.

On lap 49, Shearin and Cherry scuffled on the backstretch. Shearin held on to the second spot, but Cherry slipped back to fourth as Terry Allison of South Mills scooted by. Within three laps, Allison was hounding Shearin for second place.

Meanwhile, the hits just kept on coming — cautions at laps 66, 73 and 77. With the attrition mounting, Butler began to creep back into contention. On lap 64, he returned to the top five. He gained two more spots when Allison and Cherry wrecked in Turn 2 on lap 84. Two ensuing restarts were ruined by more caution flags.

Back under green, Shearin looked ready to challenge Caudill for the top spot, staying within a car-length of the leader. Before the scenario could play out further, though, the field was back under yellow. The final 13 circuits were completed without further incident.

On the last restart, Caudill leaped to a 3-1/2 car-length advantage. Shearin tried to rally, but could only narrow the gap to two lengths by the finish as Caudill won by 0.439-second.

Butler was third to the line, followed by John Staton of Chesapeake and Chris Hopkins of Petersburg, Va.

In Victory Lane after the race, Caudill commented on his evening’s work: “We had a good run. Had a pretty good race car. I think everybody was hanging on. I hated to see Doug and Brandon get together. I didn’t want to win it that way, but we’ll take ‘em any way we can get ‘em.”

Caudill also offered a tip of the cap to runner-up Shearin: “He had a good car and ain’t nobody I’d rather race in front of than Mike. I know, if he’d have got by me, he’d have done it clean and I’d have raced him the same way. Just have a great time racing these guys down here. There’s a lot of good, hard, clean racing. A lot of cautions tonight. Took a while to get it in, but we finally got it in. Glad it’s over.”

For his part, Shearin would have liked to have seen fewer yellow flags: “If we’d have had a long run, I think I had something for him (Caudill). We just kept having them cautions and that hurt me. “

Third-place Butler offered his take on the events of the night: “What a wild night! Sorry (about) what happened there at the start. I’m a little tired of not getting any respect out here and, sometimes, you’ve gotta try to earn your respect, so, I don’t know, I’ve gotten beat on and beat on and I’ve took it and took it. I don’t like to do that to anybody. Sorry we got together and, then, he (Godsey) kinda tried to come back at me. We both coulda had a good run. He probably still coulda won the race.”

With Godsey sidelined and finishing 21st, Butler claimed the 2001 SMS Late Model championship. In the final points tally, he was 76 ahead of Godsey — 1024-948.

Race Results
Friday, Oct. 5, 2001 -
NASCAR Souvenir Night presented by
Mike Duman Auto Sales & WLQM 101.7 FM

   LATE MODEL STOCK CARS - 100 laps

1.  Jamey Caudill - Four Oaks, N.C., 100
2.  Mike Shearin - Emporia, Va., 100
3.  Brandon Butler - Richmond, Va., 100
4.  John Staton - Chesapeake, Va., 100
5.  Chris Hopkins - Petersburg, Va., 100
6.  Scott Worley - Long Island, Va., 100
7.  Mike Conner - Gloucester, Va., 100
8.  Jim Williams - Chesapeake, Va., 100
9.  Bud Kenny - Virginia Beach, Va., 100
10. Kirk Stewart - Moseley, Va., 99
11. Ty Miller - Mineral, Va., 99
12. Andy Bell - Norfolk, Va., 90
13. Terry Allison - South Mills, N.C., 83
14. Tommy Cherry - South Mills, N.C., 83
15. Max Smith - Roanoke Rapids, N.C., 83
16. Owen Miller - Emporia, Va., 76
17. Ken Rountree - Gates, N.C., 65
18. Danny Wyatt - Emporia, Va., 64
19. Steve Owens - Barco, N.C., 31
20. Bugs Hairfield - Chesterfield, Va., 24
21. Doug Godsey - Richmond, Va., 4
22. Robbie Babb - Chesapeake, Va., 2
• Pole: Butler - 94.855 mph.
• Hard Charger Award: Worley.
• Hard Luck Award: Cherry.