WE ARE ...
LATE MODEL STOCK CARS!

DiBenedetto WINS Bristol 150 for UARA-STARS Series

WE ARE ...
LATE MODEL STOCK CARS!

 

Thompson Metal 150
Bristol Motor Speedway
 May 17, 2008  
 
 

    Fn St                 Name Laps Behind
    1 2 #44 Matt  DiBenedetto – Hickory, NC 150 0
    2 1 #55 Alex Yontz – Walnut Cove, NC 150 -0.731
    3 12 #30 Cliff Daniels – Smithfield, VA 150 -1.264
    4 15 #76 Darrell Wallace Jr. – Concord, NC 150 -1.488
    5 9 #74 Caleb Holman – Abingdon, VA 150 -1.996
    6 17 #88 Curtis Truex Jr – Mooresville, NC 150 -2.225
    7 20 #72 Richard Boswell II – Mooresville, NC 150 -2.709
    8 18 #33 Roger Lee Newton – Concord, NC 150 -2.734
    9 5 #8 Jamie Yelton – Forrest City, NC 150 -3.159
    10 23 #48 Scott Turlington – Richmond, VA 150 -3.772
    11 16 #28 Brandon McReynolds – Mooresville, NC 150 -4.168
    12 21 #2 BJ Mackey – Rock Hill, SC 150 -6.473
    13 6 #18 Scott Andrews  Jr. – Trinity, NC 149 -1 Laps
    14 7 #81 Paddy Rodenbeck – Odessa, FL 149 -1 Laps
    15 32 #11 Joey Bryant – Wilmington, NC 149 -1 Laps
    16 27 #12 Garrett Campbell – Asheboro, NC 147 -3 Laps
    17 11 #85 Brent Raymer – Concord, NC 145 -5 Laps
    18 29 #36 Thomas Hartensveld – Mt. Ulla, NC 142 -8 Laps
    19 4 #50 Jamey Caudill – Mooresville, NC 139 -11 Laps
    20 31 #84 Clay Greenfield – Clarksville, TN 133 -17 Laps
    21 3 #1 Jake Crum – Statesville, NC 125 -25 Laps
    22 8 #77 Clint Mills – Marshville, NC 119 -31 Laps
    23 25 #25 Ross Furr – Concord, NC 119 -31 Laps
    24 24 #52 Brad Sams – Richardson, TX 117 -33 Laps
    25 13 #98 Andrew Carlsen – Huntersville, NC 81 -69 Laps
    26 14 #19 Kyle Moon – Mt Ulla, NC 69 -81 Laps
    27 30 #13 Lance Gatlin – New Market, NC 53 -97 Laps
    28 19 #27 Stephen Gahagan  Jr. – Marshall, NC 47 -103 Laps
    29 28 #16 Daniel  Pope II, Smryna, TN 46 -104 Laps
    30 26 #69 Steve Blackburn – Prestonsburg, KY 33 -117 Laps
    31 22 #41 Nate Monteith – Blountville, TN 29 -121 Laps
    32 10 #71 Corey LaJoie – Concord, NC 18 -132 Laps
It's Bristol Baby!!!!!

Saturday night under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway. Does anything sound better than that? While the taxi-cabs were having parade laps at Charlotte, the UARA Series put on one heck of a show at the "Worlds Fastest Half-Mile". And once again, as he has done many times already in his young career, Matt DiBenedetto showed why people say he's driving years above his age. He went out and played his cards right and took home the victory in the "Thompson Metal 150".

43 cars took qualifying times in the afternoon, with Alex Yontz backing up his fast practice time with a lap of 15.867 to secure the Sunoco Pole. With the field being rather large, and the fact that there were to be no heat races as the UARA usually runs, the

Matt DiBenedetto his family and the Mitch West Racing team celebrate the biggest win of the young drivers career at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday, May 17th.

competitors had to really mash it to make it into the top 30 cars. Paddy Rodenbeck turned in a stellar lap good enough for 7th, but hit the wall and had to start from the rear. Last years pole sitter, Payne Pickles, had a right front hub break on his second lap entering turn 2. Pickles hit the wall violently, but luckily was unhurt and seemed more worried about his car than anything else. Rookie Andrew Carlsen had his best qualifying run of the year with a 13th, and the cars of Caleb Holman (9th), and Brent Raymer (11th) were tops of the "non-regular" cars. Defending champion Ross Furr was so frustrated with his car during practice, he rolled out the backup with 0 laps on it for time trails and put it in at 24th.

As the green flag waved, one thing was obvious. This was really fast. I mean ridiculous fast. The late-models are faster there than the big Cup boys if that

Ross Furr and the RFR Racing Team roll out their back-up car after practicing their primary car near the middle of the pack of 45 cars that practiced on Saturday afternoon.

gives you an idea. As everyone looked for a night of carnage, it never really developed. But it did happen to some. After DiBenedetto took the lead off the start and he and Yontz set sail, everyone looked to be "just riding" to feel their cars out. Well, rookie Corey Lajoie went after it hard and got to the inside of Holman for 5th, and thinking he was clear he firmly planted the #71 into the backstretch wall off turn 2. This caution on lap 17 proved to be action packed as Andrew Carlsen lost a left rear wheel. Richard Boswell had a right rear tire go down and had to pit for fresh rubber. Furr, starting deep in the pack, made contact with the #12 machine of Garrett Campbell and had make numerous pit stops for repairs. The repairs to Furr's car proved to be all for nothing, as he was later forced to make suspension repairs and finished 31 laps down to the leader in 23rd.

During the times we did go green, the cars of

This is about all that was left of Payne Pickles' fast ride after losing a wheel in qualifying and slamming the wall violently in turn number two, luckily the car was all that was hurt aside from Pickles' pride.

DiBenedetto and Yontz looked to be in another zip code. By lap 35 they were lapping the back of the field causing the cars of Jake Crum and Jamey Caudill to make it a 4 car race. Back in the pack, after getting new tires the #72 of Boswell was on a mission. Knowing he had a good car, he didn't force the issue and steadily made his way back up into the top 15 by the halfway mark.

Halfway: 1.DiBenedetto 2.Yontz 3.Caudill 4.Clint Mills 5.Jamie Yelton 6.Cliff Daniels 7.Holman 8.Jake Crum 9.Darrell Wallace Jr. 10.Brent Raymer

The halfway point also saw the demise of points leader Jake Crum's good run. While running with the dominant cars up front all night, the #1 car started to lose positions quickly. It almost all came to an end quickly as the car finally just died in front of the field nearly causing a large log-jam wreck. As Crum pulled

Alex Yontz(55) and Matt DiBenedetto(44) were by far the class of the field, but Jake Crum(1) and Jamey Caudill(50) had strong cars, but mechanical troubles kept the two from contending for the win toward the end of the race.

into the pits and the crew went to work, the culprit was found, a bad alternator. Crum finished 25 laps back in 21st.

As the 100 lap mark approached, the two leaders found themselves lapping the 12th place car. They also found that Jamey Caudill had been laying back a bit. Caudill made the move around DiBenedetto for second on lap 102, only to have a right front tire blow 3 laps later putting him into the turn 2 wall. The contenders for the 2 dominant cars were gone, it was down to the 2 that started on the front row.

A caution would come out on lap 118 when the lapped car of Joey Bryant gets tagged by the 3rd place car of Cliff Daniels and spins off turn 4. Taking evasive action, top-ten running Clint Mills slams the inside wall ending his night. On the restart DiBenedetto decided it was time to go. After running second nearly the entire night, he showed that he

Curtis Truex, Jr.(88) and Darrell Wallace, Jr.(76) each had stellar performances in their first trip to the Bristol Motor Speedway.  Wallace started 15th and finished fourth with Truex starting 17th and finishing 6th, each driver moving up eleven positions.

was holding just a little back as he drove around the outside of Yontz and into the lead to a 6 car length advantage after 1 lap. Or course it wouldn't be quite this easy.

It looked as if the #44 ride had it all locked up, but low and behold the #48 of Scott Turlington loops it around in turn 4 bringing out the final caution of the night. UARA puts the field under red flag conditions to ensure the maximum amount of green flag laps to the end. That was fine with everyone except our leader.

As the field was put back under yellow, the DiBenedetto machine would not refire and had to have a push from one of the Bristol track vehicles. Finally, after DiBenedetto was back up in his leader position, they were let go with 4 to go. The caution was the break that Yontz needed, he had lead the whole race, he knew the car was good. But on the restart, Dibenedetto jumped out to a 4 car lead in his Pistone LTO Chassis and that was all she wrote. "MattD' was a winner at Bristol. And to think that just a few months ago, this kid was just getting finished with drivers-ed. Remember his name, you haven't heard the last of it.

Melling Select Rookie, Paddy Rodenbeck(81) qualified in the show only to crash his car into the outside wall on the next lap.

Andrew Carlsen(98) and his Chase Pistone Racing Team had a great qualifying effort and had a good run going until he encoutered mechanical troubles late.

Thomas Hartensveld(36) got into the wall during practice, but his THR team made quick repairs and got him in the show.

Missing the show was; Joe Pellegrino, Justin Boston, Bryan Dauzat, Dillon Smith, Matt Lofton, Keith Stiltner, Casey Holt, Vic Hill, Brad Kurth, Nick Howell, Ryan Salomon, Payne Pickles and Wayne Hale.

Steve Blackburn(69) making a rare UARA appearance made the show and was looking to have a strong run until he was taken out in the early laps and finished 30th.