Posted by Corey Latham on September 30, 2007, 11:51 pm
Board Administrator

"Smooth And Steady" Setzer Romps At Martinsville Martinsville, VA ~ The Bailey's 300 at Martinsville Speedway is the premiere event for the Late-Model cars on the entire East coast. It is also the most competitive race that all the drivers face every year. Somebody needs to explain that to Dennis Setzer. Davin Scites and Philip Morris would lead the 42 car field down for the green flag on a wonderful Fall day. The two Motor Mile Speedway regulars raced side by side the first 3 laps before Scites would take the lead when Morris went high allowing Frank Deiny Jr. to slip in behind Scites for second. This kind of racing and the carnage that went with it pretty much set the tone for the entire day. The first bit of action that benefited 7th place starter Setzer would come on lap 11. 5th place Owen Miller tried to "dive bomb" C.E. Falk going into turn 1. It didn't work for Owen with him spining and 7 other cars having to take evasive action and spining theirself. No damage was done but Miller did go a lap down when his car wouldn't refire. Setzer would settle into the 5th position but another great story was on his back bumper. 16 year-old rookie Matt DiBenedetto had made a charge from his 9th palce starting spot and would ride the first 100 laps on the bumper of Setzer. 11th place starter Jamey Caudill then latched onto the rear of the DiBenedetto car and the top 8 cars would ride comfortably the first 50 laps. Cautions. And more cautions. While the guys at the front had room to breathe, 10th place on back had some furious battles with some "excessive" rubbing. Lap 34, former Bailey's 300 winner Tony McGuire took a nasty shot into the first turn wall. Lap 47, Jonathan Cash has his right front fender removed by the car in front of him. Lap 59, Cash and Brad Kurtz get together sending Kurtz hard into the backstrech wall. At lap 70 the #81 of Brandon Butler clipped the #17 of Tink Reedy sending both of them spining in turn 1. This accident would also dash the hopes of defending race winner Alex Yontz as he sustained front end damage and his car was never a factor after that. Back up front Morris and Scites had checked out, while the once lead-challenging Deiny had began to stack up the field from 3rd on back. C.E Falk had worked him over for several laps when the two finally got together coming off turn 4 on lap 83 sending both into the inside wall causing minor damage. Your new top 5 is Morris, Scites, Setzer, DiBenedetto and Caudill. Thinking we would make it halfway before anything else happened, the #5 Of Jarame Donley unexpectedly turned down on the #3 of Drew Herring on lap 93 sending them both into the outside wall in turn 2. Donley would be alright, but Herring's damage would lead to the end of his day. The lap 100 halfway break then came with your top 10 being Morris, Scites, Setzer, DiBenedetto, Caudill, Deac McCaskill, Jason Mitcham, Matt McCall, Justin Johnson and Brandon Butler. The top 6 cars were inverted during the intermission giving the top spot to McCaskill. On the start of the final 100 lap segment, Setzer made it known that he was just "riding" those first 100 laps. By lap 106 he had gotten by McCaskill for 2nd and walked down and passed Caudill who had taken the lead at the start. He was in front and the race was his to lose. As Scites and Morris tried to make their way back up from the invert, other cars were charging hard through the field. By lap 120 #51 Matt McCall had moved up to the 6th position from his 30th starting spot. #12 B.J Mackey was also on the move moving from 35th up to 11th. By lap 150 Setzer had begun to set sail on the field.The #06 of Scites finally got past the lapped cars to the inside on the last restart, caught up with the #41 of DiBenedetto and made the move for 3rd on lap 161. Morris had been stuck with him the entire race but had a mirror full of McCall and could not keep the pace Scites was setting. By lap 185 the fastest car on the track was not the leader, but the battered car of Frank Deiny Jr. who had started at the rear of the field on lap 132 after his 2nd accident of the day, and made his way up into the top 10 with 15 to go. At lap 192 a madatory caution would come out setting up the famous 10 lap shootout. Setzer would take the green with Caudill tucked under his bumper through 1 and 2. Setzer gets a great run off 2 and pulls 4 car lengths on Caudill. Meanwhile, the rookie DiBenedetto is giving 3rd palce Scites all he can handle. He makes the move to the inside numerous times but can't get the grip off the corner to clear him. With two laps to go Deiny makes the move under McCaskill for 8th but his time would run out as Setzer takes the win followed by Caudill, Scites, DiBenedetto, McCall, Morris, Mitcham, Deiny, McCaskill and B.J. Mackey rounding out the top ten. In all it was a long day but some great racing. We got to see the veterans Deiny, Caudill, Morris and McCall run up front like we knew they would, and we also got to see the future of racing with the veteran-like performance of rookie Matt Dibenedetto. Plenty of crashes and side by side racing was the fixture all day. Every car on the track had a battle scar or two on it, which is expected, this race is much like fighting a war. Every car except one, the #22 of Setzer. After the race it looked the same as it did when they unloaded it off the truck. "Smooth and steady", it sure got the job done today.