BRASELTON, Ga. -- Wrigley’s Night at Lanier National Speedway, presented by Hampton Inn & Suites of Flowery Brach, seemed to bring out the colors in everyone, as the Wrigley’s gum trademark yellow was the color of the evening. While rain moved in and forced the postponement of the Super trucks, Sportsman, and Opened Wheeled Modified events, the action in the other events have the over two thousand people in the grandstand wanting to come back for more!

Starting off the evenings events, the Bandolero Bandits and Young Guns took to the track for their 20 lap feature. Kason Plott, driver of the #99 held on to take the victory in the Bandits division and overall winner, while the #88 driven by Dalton Robertson, was the fastest in the Young Gun division collecting the win. In the Street Stock division, it was the action that happened off of the track that was the headlines. Coming to the green, #69 of Doug Sexton, captured the lead, and held on until lap 11, when his car became loose on the back straight causing him to back off of the gas to regain control, giving the lead to #8 of Mike Childers. Childers would hang on to the lead for the remaining nine laps capturing the checkered flag, but did not pass the Lanier technical inspections, giving the win to Sexton.

Preparing for the upcoming INEX Legend Nationals to be held at Lanier National Speedway on October 8-10, the INEX Semi-Pro, Masters, and Pro divisions was the action divisions. As 17 Semi-pro’s took the green flag with #46 of Tyler Kivett and #44 Dusty Summers on the front row. Kivett’s #46 dove into the low line of the 3/8’s asphalt oval and took the lead on lap one. On the third lap of the event, Tyler Edwards (#7) stalled entering turn one, while the #21 or Matt Huntsacker and the #39 driven by Josh Morris would spin at the same time in turn 4, bringing out the first caution flag. The caution flag would appear three more times during the event, all happening ironically on lap 8. The beginning of the malay would be when the #01 of Tyler Lester spun in turn two, due to oil and fluids being on the track. After a great job by the LNS track clean up staff, the track was ready to double up to take the green. The green flag fell, with the #46 taking the lead, but the caution would appear before the #46 came back to the line, failing to complete a lap due to the #84 of Cody Alford spinning in turn three. Once the field was lined up again, preparing to take the green flag coming out of turn four, a four car pileup would force the yellow to stay out. Involved in the incident was #63 of Justin Grimes, #39 of Kenzie Rushton, outside pole sitter, #44 of Summers, and #89 of Sean Shalvoy. Due to time constraints the race was shortened from 20 laps to 10 laps, leading to a green, white, and checkered. Kivett’s #46 machine was hooked up, as he lead the field to the green, and the white flag, and looked to be headed for victory lane, until he appeared to get loose in turn four, as Douglasville, GA’s #41 Davey Matthews passed Kivett to take the checkered flag. Matthews said in victory lane, “The oil made it messy. I hate it for Tyler (Kivett), but he got loose and we was able to get around him. That race was crazy!”

As the fans and track officials was looking forward to seeing if the wiser and professionals in the INEX Legends Pro and Masters combined division would run a caution free race, that question would shortly be summed up quickly. Jimmy Henderson in the #24 Pro, and #18 Doug Stevens lead the green to the green, Henderson would dive to the inside to get the early advantage. On the back straight, Stevens would use his years of racing to pass Henderson on the high side. On lap one, the caution flew for the first time, as the #05 of Pro racer Bayley Currey spun in turn three. The caution would fly again on lap 12 as the #9 of Bobby Fox, #01 of Hoyt Demis, and #3 of Rick Geddes all collided into each other in turn one. Taking the checkered on lap 20 was Doug Stevens and his #18 machine. Stevens later said in victory lane, “It has been a while since I have been in one of these Legends cars. It is a customer’s car that they wanted me to try out for them.” Masters division winner was #8 of Larry Friddle. Friddle would sum up the evening in Victory lane by saying, “We went from last (last week’s race) to first in my second race here. This is great! Man, my eyes are full of dust!”

Easley, SC native Kyle Benjamin and his #71 lead every lap of the Pro Challenge division, as he held off #32 Jacob Wallace, #2 Brady Boswell, #7 of Hunter Kent, and #1 Austin Raines to round out the top five.

In the 20 lap Mini-Stock race, #25 Scotty Beck grabbed the early lead and appeared to have his pinto in cruise control until the #12 of Steve Hill applied the pressure on the white flag lap, as Hill was able to hang on leading the final turn of the event, capturing his sixth win of the year. The highlight of this event was on lap 7 when the #01 of Aaron Calvert appeared to get loose in turn three. As he was fighting to regain control of the car, he slammed into the “safer” barrels in turn four, causing the red flag to appear as 50 gallons of water needed to be dried up. Calvert was able to climb out of his car without injury. Hill brought a smile to everyone’s face in victory lane by saying, “I had the pressure on my tonight. I didn’t know if I was able to do it or not. This win is for my son. He brought his girlfriend, who hasn’t ever been to a race, so the pressure was on, and now she knows what a race winning car looks like.”

Next weekend, August 8th the divisions that was postponed due to rain, will run double features. Lanier National Speedway is Georgia’s only NASCAR Sanctioned track, and is located on Highway 53 in Braselton, GA, across the street from the world famous Road Atlanta. For more information visit the fastest site on the web, www.lanierspeedway.com.

RESULTS

Bandolero Bandits – 20 Laps
1. #99 Kason Plott
2. #1 Hunter Hazelwood
3. #12 Will Davidson
4. #62 Rusty Sutton

Bandolero Young Gun – 20 Laps
1. #88 Dalton Robertson
2. #11 Nick Hazelwood
3. #98 Amber Fleeman

Street Stocks – 15 Laps
1. #69 Doug Sexton
2. #84 Nathaniel Carlisle
3. #8 Mike Childers

INEX Legends Semi-Pro – 10 Laps
1. #41 Davey Matthews
2. #4 Kyle Plott
3. #444 Kodi Sunley
4. #9 Matt Drake
5. #44 Dusty Summers
6. #89 Sean Shalvoy
7. #63 Justin Grimes
8. #46 Tyler Kivett
9. #55 Matthew Johnson
10. #54 Alex Fox
11. #21 Matt Huntsacker
12. #01 Tyler Lester
13. #93 Jake Knight
14. #39 Kenzie Rushton
15. #95 Josh Morris
16. #84 Cody Alford
17. #7 Tyler Edwards

INEX Legends Masters – 20 Laps
1. #8 Larry Friddle
2. #00 Randy Gunton
3. #17 Phillip Young
4. #01 Hoyt Demis
5. #3 Rick Geddes
6. #9 Bobby Fox

INEX Legends Pro – 20 Laps
1. #18 Doug Stevens
2. #11 Dustin Ash
3. #44 Dusty Summers
4. #99 Alex Kemph
5. #71 Brecken Snow
6. #24 Jimmy Henderson
7. #05 Bayley Currey
8. #2 Kyle Hendershot
9. #97 Brandon Lynn

Pro Challenge – 25 Laps
1. #71 Kyle Benjamin
2. #32 Jacob Wallace
3. #2 Brady Boswell
4. #7 Hunter Kent
5. #1 Austin Raines
6. #9 John Morgan Tullis
7. #18 Jesse Hoek
8. #12 Trevor Hoek
9. #11 Melina Rolo
10. #29 Anderson Bowen

Mini-Stock – 20 Laps
1. #12 Steve Hill
2. #25 Scotty Beck
3. #28 James Nash
4. #28 John Nash
5. #11 William Earnest
6. #01 Aaron Calvert
7. #3 Brandon Amos