While Long put some distance between himself, Tissot and Pope out front, just outside the top five Monteith was knocking on the door trying to overtake Nogradi for the fifth spot. After sticking the nose of his mount underneath Nogradi racing off the corners on several occasions, finally on lap 18 racing off the fourth turn Monteith grabbed the position, which also opened the door for Zeke Shell to follow through and move into fifth, dropping Nogradi back to sixth.

Long held right at a half-straightaway advantage over Tissot and Pope when Royce Peters brought the event’s first caution out on lap 23, with the nose of his car resting down against the inside wall between turns one and two.

With scattered thunderstorms around the East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia region, which had produced a delay of an hour and a half earlier in the night just at conclusion of the second race on the program when heavy rain moved across the track, while under yellow for the Peters incident light sprinkles began to fall.

But right before restart the moisture began to dissipate. Back under green immediately an eight-car freight train led by Long, Tissot, Pope, Jones, Monteith, Shell, Nogradi and Anthony Anders began circling the .375-mile banked concrete oval. Shell suddenly slowed exiting turn two on the backstretch with transmission trouble and dropped down to the inside, where he coasted around the track trying to get the car in gear to no avail, thus bringing the caution out on lap 34 when his car stalled on the front straightaway and had to be pushed by the wrecker back into the pits.

Long was showing the way out front over Tissot, Pope, Jones and Monteith going back green. Pope got inside of Tissot racing into the first turn on lap 36 to challenge for second place, and secured the position on lap 38 when he cleared Tissot racing off the fourth turn. Just three circuits later on lap 39, caution waved again when Mark Christian, Joey Trent and Rick Pannell got together in the fourth turn.

The top five in the running order ready to go green were Long, Pope, Tissot, Jones and Monteith. Racing into the first turn Jones tried to get inside of Tissot, but Tissot slammed the door shut which resulted in the driver’s side on Jones’ ride bouncing against the inside concrete wall. Down on the opposite end of the track between turns three and four, Jones suddenly slowed with a left-front flat tire which had resulted from the wall contact to bring out the caution.

Ready to attempt once again to get back under green flag racing conditions, Long brought the field back up to speed as he led Pope, Tissot, Monteith and Nogradi. Monteith got inside of Tissot between turns one and two working lap 39, and down at the north end of the track as they raced off the fourth turn Monteith moved into the third spot.

With Pope glued to Long’s rear bumper as they were about four car lengths ahead of Monteith, racing into the first turn on lap 50, Pope got into Long sending the leader spinning and bringing out the caution. Long was sent to the tail of the field for bringing out the caution, and Pope also had to drop to the rear for aggressive driving.

Following the racing incident between Long and Pope, Monteith moved to the front as the race leader ahead of Tissot for a 10-lap sprint to the finish. Monteith smashed the loud pedal and quickly put about five car lengths between his True Line Construction Co./KBM Commercial Properties/Pizza Plus/BSA Security Co./Performancenter Racing Warehouse/Upchurch Racing Engines/Griffin Radiators/Circle Racing Wheels/Pro Fabrication Exhaust/Hayworth Racing Brakes/Amsoil/Brown & Miller Racing Solutions/Five Star Race Car Bodies/ProParts Engineering Performance/The Joie of Seating/Sherwin-Williams/Primetime Designs Race Decals/WD Performance/Monteith Racing/No 44 Chevrolet Impala, and Tissot. With the two-to-go signal given by the flag man, Tissot was closing in on Monteith. But hanging on with all he had, Monteith recorded his sixth Late Model Stock victory on the season over Tissot, Nogradi, Anders and Ryan Stiltner with a strong fifth-place run.

Completing the top-10 finishers were Kres VanDyke, Jones, Long, Pope, and Whelen All-American Series national rookie points leader Austin Peters.

Following the cool-down lap the top-three finishers pulled into the front straightaway victory lane area for post-race driver interviews. Monteith, feeling under the weather after being diagnosed in mid-week with walking pneumonia, was also suffering effects from carbon monoxide fumes inside his car and had to be treated by track paramedics and given oxygen.

“As bad as I feel tonight, I’m just elated to have gotten the victory,” said Monteith after getting out of his car in the pits at his hauler. “To be quite honest, I was hoping today would be a rainout because I knew it was going be tough to try and race 60 laps tonight. There for that final 10-lap run to the checkers, I was just hoping to be able get a little bit of lead over (Lee) Tissot and then somehow hold him off for the win. I don’t really know how I did it, because it was all I could do to hold myself up in the seat I felt so bad there towards the end of the race.

“Early on in the race once I got into fifth place, I didn’t really think I would be in the thick of things looking for the win. I was just trying to hang on for a good finish to help us out points-wise. The deal between Blake (Jones) and Tissot allowed us to get into fourth in the running order behind Tissot, and then we got around him for third and I didn’t really know what to think when up ahead of me there on lap 50, all at once I saw (Daniel) Pope spin (Adam) Long. All of us drivers’ know the track rule promoter Robert Pressley has – you spin the car ahead of you and it brings out the caution, both the car you spun and yourself will restart at the rear of the field. With us moving into the lead, I just gave it my best effort and drove with everything I had in me those final 10 laps. This win tonight was a gift, because I definitely wasn’t going be able to overtake Long and Pope if they hadn’t of tangled. I was just wanting to hold on for a third place finish. But, a win is a win – and we’ll take this one.”

John Harrell grabbed the lead over Chuck Crigger completing the opening lap of the “Absolute Plumbing” Street Stock feature, while Roger Neece and Jared Broadbent were side-by-side at the flag stand battling for the third spot. Broadbent, from Spruce Pine, N.C., cleared Neece for the position on lap 6 racing off the fourth turn. Racing into the first turn on lap 8, Broadbent drove to the outside of Crigger to challenge for second place. On the opposite end of the track between turns three and four, Broadbent passed Crigger for the real estate. Crigger lost third in the running order on lap 10, when Neece got around him as they raced off the second corner.

Harrell had a rearview mirror full of Broadbent, and on lap 16 racing into turn one Broadbent got to inside of Harrell. Harrell would not go down without a fight, as the duo battled for the lead until finally on lap 21 racing off turn two Broadbent, driving the Carolina Sign Source/JM Motorsports/No. 74 Chevrolet Monte Carlo, powered into a lead he would not relinquish as he went on to record his second straight victory. Finishing behind Broadbent were Harrell, Neece, Paul Shull and Rob Austin.

Tyler Goodwin of Kingsport wheeled his Bank of Tennessee/Bancsec Inc./Rockstar Graphix/No. 64 McAulay Motorsports ride to a division-leading 12th Legends victory over a hard-charging Adam Gray, Hubert Whitehead, Tony Wiggins and Drew Shortridge.

Twin features were held for the Rookie Pure 4 division. In the first race Billy Byington jumped out to the lead and appeared headed towards the win, but two laps from the finish he was passed by Jimmy Hillard. Hillard’s time on the point was short-lived, as Jonathan Reed of Kingsport got around him on the white-flag lap en route to capturing his second consecutive victory. Reed was chased to the checkers by Hillard, Byington, David Trent and Tim Abelseth.

A spirited battle between five cars battling for the victory in the second 12-lap event saw Kingsport ’s Dylan Bates, a student at Sullivan South High School , emerge with his third Rookie Pure 4 feature win over Hillard, Lee Shults, Brandon Byington and Trent.

NASCAR WHELEN ALL-AMERICAN SERIES “DALTON DIRECT CARPETS” LATE MODEL STOCK (60 laps)

Showing Finish Position, Starting Position In Parentheses, Driver Name, Car Number, Hometown, Laps Completed In Parentheses

1. (6) Nate Monteith #44-Blountville, TN (60)

2. (1) Lee Tissot #7-Asheville, NC (60)

3. (4) Paul Nogradi Jr. #02-Clinton, TN (60)

4. (9) Anthony Anders #36-Easley, SC (60)

5. (8) Ryan Stiltner #22-Grundy, VA (60)

6. (11) Kres VanDyke #15-Claypool Hill, VA (60)

7. (3) Blake Jones #80-Sevierville, TN (60)

8. (2) Adam Long #3-Pounding Mill, VA (60)

9. (5) Daniel Pope II #16-Smyrna, TN (60)

10. (14) Austin Peters #66-Kingsport, TN (60)

11. (16) Joey Trent #26-Gray, TN (60)

12. (15) Mark Christian #43-Blountville, TN (59)

13. (17) Rick Pannell #33-Kingsport, TN (59)

14. (10) Hayden Woods #87-Piney Flats, TN (58)

15. (7) Zeke Shell #97-Johnson City, TN (34)

16. (12) Wayne Hale #19-Bluff City, TN (23)

17. (13) Royce Peters #38-Kingsport, TN (23)

18. (16) Dean Barrett #82-Abingdon, VA (19)

19. (19) Jamie Harrison #76-Church Hill, TN (10)

20. (20) Don Monteith #4-Blountville, TN (2)

“ABSOLUTE PLUMBING” STREET STOCK (30 laps): 1) Jared Broadbent #74; 2) John Harrell #19; 3) Roger Neece #22; 4) Paul Shull #48; 5) Rob Austin #25; 6) Chris Tunnell #6; 7) Rick Smith #33; 8) Tony Ward #7; 9) Mark Hawkins #44; 10) Chuck Crigger #71

LEGENDS (15 laps): 1) Tyler Goodwin #64; 2) Adam Gray #37; 3) Hubert Whitehead #3; 4) Tony Wiggins #4; 5) Drew Shortridge #32; 6) T.R. Ward #09

ROOKIE PURE 4 #1 (12 laps): 1) Jonathan Reed #51; 2) Jimmy Hillard #74; 3) Billy Byington #11; 4) David Trent #57; 5) Tim Abelseth #66; 6) Lee Shults #74s; 7) Robin Hughes #75; 8) Dylan Bates #6; 9) Tammy Cross #41; 10) Austin Gray #71; 11) Roger Light #44

ROOKIE PURE 4 #2 (12 laps): 1) Dylan Bates #6; 2) Jimmy Hillard #74; 3) Lee Shults #74s; 4) Brandon Byington #11; 5) David Trent #57; 6) Robin Hughes #75; 7) Jonathan Reed #51; 8) Tim Abelseth #66; 9) Austin Gray #71; 10) Tammy Cross #41; 11) Roger Light #44

Kingsport Speedway is located at 2961 North John B. Dennis Highway. For more information, call the office at (423) 288-5992, track promoter Robert Pressley at (828) 215-2077, or visit the Web site at www.NewKingsportSpeedway.com