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Big Jim Kelley Get Career Victory 168

KENLY _ Big Jim Kelley of Newport will refer to career victory No. 168 as a “gift.”

Kelley, who started third in his Monte Carlo, inherited the lead when the front-running Monte Carlo of Freddie Query of Mooresville faded with electrical problems with 12 laps remaining. Kelley then blocked the Grand Prix of pole sitter Carnell Lee Jr. of Zebulon the rest of the way to take the checkered flag in the Late Model Sportsman 100-lapper of Saturday night’s Sponsors’ Appreciation 260 auto racing program at Southern National Speedway.

“It worked out for us,” said the 36-year-old Kelley, victorious in both Late Model Sportsman features this season. “I’ll take it. It was a gift, but you never know until that checkered flag falls.”

Also taking checkered flags were Clayton’s Steve Mendenhall in the Baby Grands 30-lap national points race, Wil Smith of Raleigh in the Budweiser Pro Trucks 50-lapper, Gary Gardner of Wilson in the Super Stock feature and Jamie Mozingo of Pikeville in the Foss Auto Salvage Stock Look-Alike main event.

Smith, in a Ford, won his first Pro Trucks race in just his second start from the pole. Mozingo and Gardner also registered their first wins of 2001.

Query, who started on the outside front row, bolted out front at the drop of the green flag. Kelley quickly worked past Lee for the second spot, but Query pulled away from a sizable lead.

But Query ran into problems for the second straight week, resulting in Kelley and Lee taking center stage. Lee attempted to dip his Grand Prix below Kelley’s Monte Carlo on numerous occasions _ with the best opportunity occurring on lap 93. But Kelley protected the point.

“I was good,” Lee said of his racer. “I thought I had him (Kelley) several times. I got under him, but he came down and had me on the bottom of the track. I am not in to taking anybody out and he’s tough. He’s being doing it for a long time. It was his experience. It’s hard to get around experience.”

“We were not as good as last week,” Kelley said. “There was a good chance of him getting around me. I was holding him up. I was making my car as wide as possible. That’s part of the game.”

Lee settled for second, with Mark Cash of Chapel Hill claiming third in the Pig Rig Thunderbird. Canadian driver Dean Clattenburg salvaged fourth, while John Batten of Nashville, in a Monte Carlo, dashed from a 13th-place start to fifth.

Controversial developments marked the Late Model Sportsman feature for the second straight week.

A large crowd learned Baby Grands drivers will bump and tangle. The cars are scaled to two-thirds dimensions of NASCAR Winston-Cup cars, weigh 1,300 pounds and are powered by motorcycle engines.

Throughout, Mendenhall, in a Monte Carlo and starting on the outside front row, challenged the Thunderbird of pole-sitting Eric King of Hartsville, S.C. for the point.

Lap traffic factored heavily. Mendenhall benefited from traffic to get around King on the 19th lap. But King was also the beneficiary of lap traffic in reclaiming the top spot on the same lap.

But Mendenhall’s racer tapped King’s racer on the final lap, zipped out front and outraced King to the stripe.

“That’s short-track racing,”said the 44-year-old Mendenhall, who owns 25-plus Baby Grands victories since 1998 and is regarded the scourge of the division. “That’s what it’s all about. That is about as good as you can get.

“I didn’t know (if he could pass King) until that last restart (three laps remaining). “I got a good start and that gave me a chance. I noticed he was getting a little loose and I was able to get the nose of my car up under him.”

King voiced no complaints about the contact and Mendenhall’s maneuver.

“It wasn’t supposed to turn out that way,” King said with a laugh. “I was supposed to block him _ and I didn’t. I had a dream, and I was supposed to win the race.

“But I love it. Lap cars played a factor. Lap cars and the cautions very much hurt us.”

King wound up second, followed by Kent Baledge of Alexandria, Ind., in a Monte Carlo, Don Sterck of New Baltimore, Mich., in a Monte Carlo and John Lunsford of Noblesville, Ind., in a Monte Carlo. Sterck later won the five-lap Dash for Cash from King, Baledge and Lunsford.

King regards Mendenhall king of Baby Grands drivers but grinned and added, “he’s not going to be there for long. I’m coming.”

Smith possesses 53 Four-Cylinder victories but didn’t expect his first Pro Trucks triumph to occur in just his second start. Smith dominated from the pole after finishing third in his debut.

“When I got through the first corner, I knew the truck was good,” Smith said. “When we got through the second corner, we knew it was going to be really, really good. Then we just wanted save the tires. Gary Early Fabrications won it for us.”

However, Smith was left uneasy by a late-race caution in the 50-lapper.

“That upset me,” he said. “I would have rather rode to a half-lap win, but we knew we had an awesome, fast truck. We were on greasy tires, but we worked it and worked it and, before I knew it, we had a six car-length lead.”

Smith forced veteran Pikeville driver Linwood Mozingo to settle for second in a Dodge. Mozingo started fourth.

“We had a good truck,” Mozingo said. “Where we finished was about what we had. We were pretty good, but Wil was the only one we didn’t have anything for. We are better than we were and we’re getting there. We’re going to win one.”

With a third-place finish in a Ford, Tony Cooper of Coats posted the second-best finish of his career. Mickey Adams of Wilson, in a Chevrolet, fought off the Ford of Goldsboro’s John Jones for fourth place. Brandon Head of Goldsboro, last week’s winner, finished back in the back after an early-race spin.

Gardner, second in the opener and third in the second race, described his first Super Stock victory as “better than I ever imagined.”

Gardner, who started third in his Monte Carlo, overtook race leader Gary Davis of Kinston, in a Grand Prix, on the 28th lap, pulled away and easily withstood a late caution.

In the opener, Gardner found himself in a similar situation, but could never get past race winner Ron Langley of Elm City.

“I had a lane this time,” Gardner explained. “Ron kept it on the bottom, but Gary couldn’t keep it on the bottom. I just waited for his car to wash up; I knew I had plenty of time.”

Runner-up Davis notched his best finish since the 1993 season, when he won six Super Stock races at SNS.

“The right rear tire give up,” Davis said of his car. “Until then, the car was running good and handling good. I guess we are satisfied. We feel like a win is not far away.”

Perry Bauer of Clayton charged to a season-best finish of third in his Monte Carlo. Jerry Howard of Wilson placed fourth in a Cutlass, while Stacey Pate of Pikeville salvaged fifth in a Monte Carlo.

Langley, the points leader after winning the first two races, emerged an early casualty with his Cutlass’ ignition problems.

Jamie Mozingo ruled the 30-lap Stock Look-Alike main event. The brunt of the racing occurred just behind his Camaro, with the Camaro of Scott Davis taking second on lap three and the Camaro of points leader Jon Howell grabbing that position on lap 10.

In the meantime, Mozingo sped to his 40th career victory.

“I was not pushing it too hard,” Mozingo said. “But we need tires bad. We haven’t changed tires yet. We were a little bit tight in the middle, but I attribute that to tires.”

The outcome proved disastrous for Howell. Instead of strengthening his points lead with a runner-up finish, Howell’s racer failed the post-race inspection and was disqualified.

Thus, Junior Mewborn of LaGrange, the winner in the 2001 second, finished second, with Muriel Brock of Grantham third in a Camaro, Davis fourth and Dwayne Taylor of Snow Hill fifth in a Monte Carlo.

“The car was good,” Mewborn said of his Monte Carlo, “but the Camaros are a little quicker. They have got us by two- or three-tenths of a second.”

Davis survived a wild ride down the frontstretch.

“I just lost (control of) it,” he said with a grin.

Racing resumes at the 4/10-mile banked oval Saturday night with the Bailey’s 300. The lineup: Stock Look-Alike, 25 laps; Stock Four Cylinder, 25 laps; Late Model Sportsman, 100 laps; Pro Trucks, 50 laps; and Late Model Stock, 100 laps.