Merchant grabs title, falls shy of 10 wins
Story courtesy DirtonDirt.com

By Bryan Wimberley

MAGNOLIA, Miss. (Nov. 14) Kenny Merchant was virtually assured of his third OReilly Southern United Professional Racing championship heading into Pike County Speedways Jambalaya 100, and it was guaranteed when Rob Litton fell out of the race on the 24th lap.

But Merchant, the West Monroe, La., driver who previously won SUPR titles in 03 and 08, still had a goal to achieve at Pike County his winningest series season.

Merchant had a bit to overcome though, after a flat tire knocked him out of the second spot, he got together with a lapped car, and then faced overheating problems at the midway point.

It started to try and run hot, so we started to try to ride there halfway through the race, but to run 4th I guess that isn't bad for having to go to the back, Merchant said. "I would have like to have won tonight if no other reason to try to win 10 shows, because that would have been my best (season) ever. But that is the way it goes.

Merchants nine victories tied his victory total from 2003 and he enjoyed one of the hottest streaks of his series career started on Labor Day with four straight victories. He would like to have made it five at Houston Raceway Park.

We went to Houston and won our heat down there, was going for five and I left a rocker arm nut loose on the motor and we messed up a valve, but we caught it before it really messed up something, Merchant said. "So that was my fault, but we I feel like we had a shot going 5-for-5.

Merchant didn't plan on running for back-to-back championships, and he struggled in SUPR races before notching his first 09 series victory on Memorial Day weekend.

I guess to me we have been more on our game this year, Merchant said Our Trak-Star cars are great and the Wall 2 Wall motors are great. It takes the whole package, my crew and my wife for letting me do it because you know they are a lot of long hours that goes into this stuff. And we have had a lot of luck also.

Mitchell nets hard charger honors
Jon Mitchell of Nash, Texas, started on the pole of the consolation race, outrunning Doug Begnaud by a third-track margin to win the lone last-chance event. Then he decided to gamble with soft rubber in the 100-lap feature, which led to a 17th-to-sixth run and hard charger honors.

I am surprised, too, because we were on (Hoosier) 1300s and almost everybody else were on 2400s (harder tires), Mitchell said. We had a really good run.

Mitchell advanced nine positions and into the top 10 by lap 24. He was involved in a lap-76 caution with Kevin Sitton and Ray Moore, but Mitchell retained his position and climbed to the fourth position over the next 10 laps. He lost spots to Kenny Merchant and Anthony Burroughs on lap 87 and finished sixth.

Odds and ends
Track owner J.F. Gasquet announced an all-time high car count in the history of Pike County with 202 cars competing in seven divisions. ... Brian Deroche won the Crate Late Model feature over Rodney Barber. ... Drivers failing to make the SUPR feature: Kennith Crowe, Chad Poston, Timothy Culp, Alan East, David Burkhalter and Kevin Kennedy. ... O'Reilly SUPR competitors will open the 2010 season on Feb. 25-27 at the Dirt Track at Texas Motor Speedway for the Texas World Dirt Track Championship, an event that will also include modifieds and limited modifieds. ... The TMS dirt track also plans a Sept. 16-18 event, but the divisions haven't been announced. ... SUPR ends the season with three first-time winners in '09: Billy Moyer Jr., Chris Brown and Chris Holley.
 

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Corporate sponsors of O’Reilly SUPR include: AFCO, Barber Specialties  Inc., Bert Transmission, Brodix, BSB Manufacturing, Dura-Lite Racing Wheels, GRT Race Cars, Hinchman Uniforms, Hoosier Tire Southwest, J&J Motorsports, Keith Craft Inc., Larry Shaw Race Cars, Lile's Custom Home's, Master Vac, O'Reilly Auto Parts, PBM Performance Products, Peterson Aluminum, Trick Wild, Triple A Diesel Service and Wall 2 Wall Performance. (Story courtesy DirtonDirt.com)=