Posted by Corey Latham on December 4, 2007, 12:20 pm
Board Administrator

Kenly, NC ~ After waiting a week from the rainout at Southern National Raceway Park, the drivers and crews were ready to get down to business. The racing fans had picked their favorites and some wondered if Denny Hamlin was just coming for "show". He did come for "show" after all, he showed everybody there he was serious and took the winners check of $15,000 to take his first "Thanksgiving Classic" win. Denny had qualified in the 7th position the previous week, with only the top 15 being locked down and the rest of the field having to run heat races to advance. Well, that all went haywire when it was annouced that teams had a $2000 "buy-in" option if they didn't advance in the heats. Extra provosionals were added, teams bought spots, a whole pre-race of craziness and unhappy drivers and teams. This is a story all in it's self, we'll have more on this later in the week. "HEAT RACES GALORE" Originally 4 heats were sheduled to be run but that number went down to 3 earlier this week. In heat one Alex Yontz would start from the pole and lead every lap, but not without some heavy pressure towards the end from Stacy Puryear. The real action was happening toward the back as Rodney Cook and Curtis Truex Jr. found themselves running together again, literally. Truex had spun Rodney out of the tranfer spot at Martinsville on the last lap in Sept., and once again bulldozed his way past Cook in the early going. Rodney let him know under an early caution that it wasn't acceptable, and furthered his point spinnng Truex the first lap back green. Cook seemed to have a bullseye on his Ford, a few laps later Scott Wise pulled the same move, roughing Cook up for the position. On lap 11 Cook is rear-ended by Kirk Leone, in turn pushing him into the #41 of Wise spinning him off of 4. Rodney is hit with a black flag and told to go to the end of the field. After the race Cook made a b-line to Wise's pits to "discuss" the situation. Heat one ended with Yontz, Puryear, Scites, Burbage, Clay Jones and Joe Heigl being the only cars to advance. Or so we would think. Heat 2 started with a big wreck on the backstrech on lap one. The cars of Terry Carroll, Justin Johnson and Leigh Caruthers all recieve heavy damage and their day is over. C.E. Falk also recieved damage but was able to continue. The rest of the race would be uneventful with Ryan Rhodes taking the win followed by Scott Young, C.E. Falk, Joey Coulter, Cam Strader and Cliff Daniels advancing. Daniels started from the tail of the field and got the final tranfer spot after wrecking his car before qualifying the week before and making repairs. Little did we know how good this car was going to be later on. In the final heat to determine the field, it was the Chad Harris and Michael Rouse show up front. They would break away from the field but not before Gary Causey showed he had a great handling car, passing the 4 cars starting in front of him and walking down the leaders to finish 3rd at the line. The only incident was when Sherman Davis Jr. got into "The Fearless One" Chrissy Wallace causing her to spin. Scott Turlington and Louis White take evasive action and spin themselves, but all were able to drive off. At the stripe it was Harris, Rouse, Causey, Brandon Butler, Michael Hardin and Jamie Yelton taking the final transfer spot. Before the main event, we had almost forgotten about the 10 lap "Last Chance" race. Only 3 cars would advance, and with all the cars in this one, we knew it would be wild. Turn 1 lap 1, Logan bunning let it be know he didn't want to go home, spinning Payne Pickles and ultimately collecting the cars of Scott Wise, Curtis Truex Jr., Rodney Cook and a few others. Wise and Truex would go to the garage with heavy damage, ending their day, well at least Wise's day. Mini-stock star Adam Murray would roar from the back to the lead, but behind him Wayne Patterson, Terry Brooks, Bunning, and Cook were playing bumper cars. Bunning bumps his way up to second, but will be put back out of the transfer spot the same way he got up there. Murray wins followed by Brooks and the #1 of Cook. MAIN EVENT STORY CLICK HERE