300 Laps of Racing Action Concludes With Two Victory Lane Celebrations

Racing in January doesn't happen at many places across the country, but when it does, drivers flock to the racing facility in hopes of being the big winner during the cold winter. That was the case at Lanier National Speedway in Braselton, Georgia, as drivers from many states made the journey for SpeedFest 2009 to compete in the 100-lap Georgia Asphalt Series (GAS) Pro Late Model event and the 200-lap Champion Racing Association (CRA) Super Late Model feature. After 300 laps of racing action, Greg Simpson (PLM) and Kyle Busch (SLM) were celebrating as the big winners of the weekend.

Casey Roderick was on top of the charts as the fast qualifier and pole setter for the CRA Super Late Model 200-lap feature. Throughout the first half of the race, no one could touch Roderick. He kept his Bill Elliott Development Driver #9 machine up front until the halfway break. Meanwhile, Busch was making headway towards the front of the field from his seventh-place starting position. He used the outside lane early to gain a few spots and ended up second to Roderick at the break.

"I think that is about the only time you can do it (going to the high side on new tires)," said Busch. "This track lends itself towards the bottom. On fresh tires, when you have the grip, you are able to access that way, especially when you are able to get up on somebody. They can't really rotate the center that well, but you cannot just jump to the outside after a little bit of a run."

A draw at the 10-minute break inverted the top four, putting Roderick and Busch behind Jason Hogan and Shane Sieg. Busch wasted no time driving to the outside of Sieg for second, then drove around the outside of Hogan for the lead just five laps later. The changes he made during the break seemed to work for the #51 NOS machine.

"We tried some rear steer stuff and some trailing arm stuff. We did a few things up front to try and get the nose to stay down a little bit more," said Busch. "We were just trying to get the car a little more balanced. We weren't bad, but I felt we didn't have the forward bite like the #9 car (Roderick) did, so we just worked on some of that."

Roderick then attempted to make his way back to the top spot, but on a restart, the car slowed and he made the hard turn into the pits.

"On that last restart in the Super race, I pulled to fourth," said Roderick. "It popped in gear, and then popped out and I couldn't get it to go back in. Something broke in the transmission. We had a good car."

Busch ran out the remainder of the laps from the top spot, finishing ahead of Hogan.

"I think this is like six times I have been here in the last six years, and he (Busch) is the only person that has outrun me, so I will take getting outrun by Kyle Busch any day," said Hogan. "We were right there with him, and it was pretty cool to race with him."

Even though his day job is in the NASCAR ranks, Busch still enjoys racing at the local level with the short track warriors. In fact, he brought two different cars to the track and made the right decision on which car to use in the race, as it paid off in the end.

"We were here testing both cars just to get a feel for both and shake them down," said Busch. "This (the NOS car) was a brand new car, so we weren't sure how it was going to run. We wanted to make sure we had that car (the Rowdy Busch car) running well in case something happened to this car.

"Hamner did a great job with the motor all weekend. Jeff was under the hood all weekend tuning on the carburetor, making sure it would run. I have to thank him for that. It was just a solid weekend for us."

Brandon Johnson set fast time for the GAS Pro Late Model 100-lap event, but the top three were inverted prior to the start, putting Kyle Fowler on the point. Simpson got the jump on the start, taking the early lead and holding on to the top spot through a series of yellow flags early in the event, which almost cost him a chance at victory.

"I sort of went at this a little different today," said Simpson. "I thought it was going to be a bit cooler, so I put tape on the grill. We had that incident on the first lap and when I rode around, my car got hot. I was worried about the motor and almost decided to pull in. I kept the fans on and kept the motor just cool enough to give us a good start. We overcame that and I got going good there."

Throughout the majority of the race, Simpson swapped the top spot with Shane Sawyer, as the two drivers appeared to be the class of the field. When the caution flag fell with six laps remaining in the event, Sawyer didn't get slowed down, plowing into the back of Simpson's machine.

"Well at first there it was me and Greg again and I thought we might bring it home, but the lights never came on when they threw the caution and I just got into him," said Sawyer. "I hate it, but it's just one of those deals."

On the restart, Russell Fleeman got the jump and got out to the lead on Simpson, but Simpson kept the pressure on. Coming to take the white flag, Simpson got into the back of Fleeman, moving him up the track and out of the lead.

"Russell and I respect each other and we always will," explained Simpson. "I worked so hard there at the end to roll over. It is so easy to do. I have always been a courteous driver and I don't think I did anything to Russell today to affect that. We were rubbing, but we were racing.

"It turned out good in the end. I was a little worried and didn't know who was going to punt or kick. I was in a good spot, so I just rode it out."

"On the double-file restart, I took the outside because I thought I had a chance out there," said Fleeman. "On the last lap I lost a little bite off the corner and Greg got up underneath me. We tried."

Fowler also made the move around Fleeman to take the second position away from him on the final lap.

"Russell is a good guy," said Fowler. "He has helped us out a bunch in the past. I am glad he is a guy that is cool with that (the contact). I got into him a little harder than I wanted to, but he made a great save. He is one of those class-act guys."

Fleeman, Jason Hogan and John Wes Townley rounded out the top five.

For moreon SpeedFest 2009, including Speed51.com's Trackside Now coverage of the event, click here for the SpeedFest Story Index.

CRA Super Late Model - 200 Laps
1 51 Kyle Busch
2 92Jason Hogan
3 10s Johanna Long
4 72 Scott Hantz
5 51s Michael Pope
6 12 Justin Drawdy
7 67 Jeff Fultz
8 91 Heath Hindman
9 39 Ryan Sieg
10 08 Drew Brannon
11 35 Matt DiBenedetto
12 8 Eddie Hoffman
13 09 John Wes Townley
14 110 Joey Senter
15 23 Jeremy Rice
16 64 Griffin McGrath
17 05 Jeremy Colangelo
18 4 Josh Krug
19 2 Kenny Tweedy
20 38 Josh Hamner
21 31 Tyler Millwood
22 99 Jason Shively
23 16 Austin Siebert
24 29 Allen Karnes
25 60 D.J. Shaw
26 9 Casey Roderick
27 15 Casey Berenbrock
28 10 Jack Landis
29 5 Shane Sieg
30 20 Brian Campbell
31 8s Chris Dilbeck
32 49 Stanley Smith
33 45 DeWayne Buggay
DQ 138 Shane Sawyer
DNS 4n Ben Rowe

GAS Pro Late Model - 100 Laps
1 10 Greg Simpson
2 4 Kyle Fowler
3 98 Russell Fleeman
4 92 Jason Hogan
5 09 John Wes Townley
6 67 Jeff Fultz
7 04 Michael Lance
8 45 Nick Potts
9 2 Dennis Wilder
10 29 James Nailey
11 61 Shane Nalley
12 9 Casey Roderick
13 38 Shane Sawyer
14 15 Cody Smith
15 711 Max Gresham
16 21 Ricky Vice
17 08 Hugh Brannon
18 23 Dalton Grindle
19 52 Kevin Stephens
20 6 Chris Whorton
21 09 Kevin Barrett
22 01 Shawn Simpson
23 15 Zach Rearden
24 97 Jimmy Garmon
25 64 Griffin McGrath
26 8 Eddie Hoffman
27 93 Brandon Johnson
28 18 Billy Fulson
29 41 T.J. Reaid
30 23 Paul Kelley
31 28 Tom Schuette

**Many thanks to 51 Sports**




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