Rodney Wing extends point lead with I-30 victory

Rodney Wing extends point lead with I-30 Speedway victory

Little Rock, Arkansas (June 8, 2002) - Rodney Wing returned to victory lane and extended his point lead in the process as the O’Reilly SUPR Late Models returned to I-30 Speedway. Wing started on the pole for the feature after nabbing the B&K Underground Top Qualifier award in his B&K Underground/Boland Performance Keith Craft powered Chevrolet Monte Carlo Rocket.

But while Wing started on the pole and won the race, the first half of the show was once again the Tommy Surrett show as the hometown competitor quickly grabbed the lead and appeared to be headed to his second win in as many weekends. Surrett led the first 18 laps before he suddenly pulled to the infield with a faulty MSD.

Wing admits that he and the crew have struggled to get the handle of his new car but he feels that they may have found a setup they like. “We’ve been struggling with this new car here and we kind of come on to something this weekend and its been working pretty good. We got on the pole last night and just slipped up a little bit and ended up fourth and we got on the pole again tonight and was able to hold on to it.” Still Wing acknowledged that Surrett would have been tough to handle. When asked how his car handled on the slick conditions, Wing stated, “it seemed to be pretty good, not quite as good as Surrett’s but he had a little trouble and we were able to capitalize on it.”

Wing held a decisive lead over the field when took the checkers in a race slowed by just one caution at the end of lap 1. Wing lapped all but the top 13 cars. With the win, Wing now leads Kenny Merchant by 137 points in the championship standings.

Finishing second, in his strongest showing to date on the O’Reilly SUPR Late Model tour was Sheridan, Arkansas’ Brian Holloway. Holloway was excited to get a good finish in front of the home crowd in his BMH Logging/Lanny’s Flow Service/BMH Graphics Keith Craft powered Chevrolet Monte Carlo GRT but the leg work was accomplished in the heat race when Holloway started 8^th and followed 6^th starting Rodney Wing to the front to earn the outside pole. “When we rolled off the trailer everything went good tonight. I had a good leader to go to the front in the heat race and I figured I could follow him. I followed him in the feature too but that’s alright I’ll take second to Rodney, it’s like a win to me.”

Ryan Plaisance continued to his strong run of late, a charge that has raised Plaisance up to 4^th place in the O’Reilly SUPR Late Model Championship standings with a third place finish tonight. Plaisance started 6^th and grabbed 4^th place at the start. Plaisance felt his car really didn’t come around to well after the halfway point but when it did, he was able to work his way through some lapped traffic and he caught but could not pass Holloway before the checkers waved. Plaisance credits new sponsor Chief Edison Chouest for his resurgence of late.

Curt Lipsey recorded a solid 4^th place finish just ahead of Odie Green, who after early season struggles has quietly moved inside the top 10 in the O’Reilly SUPR Late Model Championship standings. David Ashley, Kenny Merchant, Kennith Crowe, Jay Blair and Shane Harris rounded out the top 10. Harris was awarded the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger award as he started 18^th and passed 8 cars to finish 10^th.

26 O’Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand. Curt Lipsey, Kennith Crowe and Rodney Wing won the heat races with Rob Litton winning the last chance race.

Official Results:

1. Rodney Wing

2. Brian Holloway

3. Ryan Plaisance

4. Curt Lipsey

5. Odie Green

6. David Ashley

7. Kenny Merchant

8. Kennith Crowe

9. Jay Blair

10. Shane Harris

11. Marlon Wild

12. Shane McCloud

13. Sam Patrick

14. Troy Withers

15. Rob Litton

16. Terry Henson

17. Tommy Surrett

18. Davin Bates

19. Jon Mitchell

20. James Ward

21. Keith Craft

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