HMS NOTEBOOK: Lee
doubles up, stretches his lead
Posted: Wednesday,
June 5, 2013 11:32 pm | Updated: 11:36 pm, Wed Jun 5, 2013.
By TOM GILLISPIE
Special to the Record
HICKORY,
N.C. -- Shane Lee pulled a rare double last Saturday at Hickory Motor Speedway,
as he won both the Late Model and Limited Late Model races.
Lee
also stretched his Limited lead to 50 points over Landon Huffman, and he took a
six-point lead over Jesse LeFevers in the Late Model standings.
Lee,
last year’s Limited track champion, topped a 15-car Limited field, with
pole-sitter Sheflon Clay finishing second. Brayton Haws was third, Casey Pierce
fourth and Monty Cox fifth.
Lee
started third in the Limited race and caught the leader, Huffman, around lap
20.
“We
wouldn’t have caught him without a caution, and his tire had a slow leak in it
and we made up the gap,” Lee said.
In
the Late Model race, Lee led every lap and finished ahead of 2012 HMS Late
Model track champion Austin McDaniel. C.J. Hulsey, Grant Wimbish and Ashley
Huffman filled out the top five. Jesse LeFevers, the 2011 track champion and
the points leader entering Saturday, finished seventh in a 14-car field.
“We
had a caution about lap 70; then Austin and me ran about a car length apart for
the next 30 (laps),” Lee said.
Naturally,
he enjoyed the twin win.
“That
was my second goal for this year, after getting the first Late Model win (on
April 13),” said Lee, who has three Limited and two Late Model wins on the
year.
Additional
results from last Saturday:
>>>
Adam Beaver won the 4-Cylinders race from the pole, followed by Nathaniel
Kanupp, Eddie Gilbert, Donnie Harmon, Randy Freeze and Chase Pollard.
>>>
Kenneth Roberts won the pole and topped a five-car Renegades field, with Darren
Dickinson, Gregory Austin, Shawn Hayes and Carroll McKinney filling out the
field.
>>>)
Jonathon Smith took a 10-car Street Stocks feature, followed by pole-sitter
Kevin Eby, Marshall Sutton, Mark Whitten and Trey Buff.
Other
HMS points
McKinney
has a 42-point lead over Austin in Renegades; Kanupp leads Harmon by two points
in 4-Cylinders; Don Fenn is eight points ahead of Steve Davis in Classis
Sportsman Racing; Eby leads Marshall by six points in Street Stocks, and Jeremy
Birch has a four-point lead on rookie Jason Smith in Super Trucks.
McDaniel
has a six-point lead over Lee is ZLOOP Challenge points. Matt Piercy (12 back)
is third and LeFevers (14 back) is fourth.
Trivia
question
Who
won four straight NASCAR Grand National (now Sprint Cup) races from the pole at
Hickory Motor Speedway?
Upcoming
HMS schedule
•
The Late Models, Limiteds, Street Stocks, Super Trucks, Renegades and
4-Cylinders are set to run on Saturday.
•
On June 15, the Late Models, Limiteds, Street Stocks, trucks, Renegades and
Sports Classic cars will be racing.
•
The UARA-Stars are scheduled to race at Hickory on June 22. Ronnie Bassett Jr.
of Winston-Salem won the last UARA race at HMS on March 23.
•
The Knights of Destruction — the Crash-A-Rama series — are slated to visit HMS
on July 28.
Other
tracks
•
Trey Gibson and Anthony Anders were winners in Late Model races on May 25 at
Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Easley, S.C. Gibson was a regular at Hickory in
2012, and Anders raced there part-time. Both men are from Easley.
•
Clay Rogers won the April 20 X-1R Pro Cup Series race at HMS. He also won the
other two Pro Cup races held this year, April 6 at Dillon, S.C., and May 17 at
Kingsport, Tenn. The May 4 race at Anderson, S.C., was rained out. The Pro Cup
Series is set to return to Hickory on Oct. 19.
Happy
birthday
Bobby
Allison will be 76 on Dec. 3. J.D. McDuffie would have been 75 last Dec. 5, and
Cup drivers Kevin Harvick (38) and Ryan Newman (36) will have birthdays on Dec.
8.
Worth
quoting
Two-time
track champion Dennis Setzer, on some of the top drivers he raced against at
HMS: “Max Prestwood (Jr.) and me raced hard, and I appreciate the heart he put
into it. Scott Kilby (and) Dexter (Canipe Sr.) were terrific. And there were a
lot of great racers who didn’t have the equipment to really be competitive.”
Trivia
answer
Bobby
Isaac won both Grand National (now Sprint Cup) races at HMS in 1969 and two
more in 1970, his Cup championship season. In fact, he won all four races from
the pole.
Isaac,
from Catawba, ran eight GN races at Hickory. In his first four tries, he
finished 26th, third, third
and second.
Tom
Gillispie, the author of “Angel in Black: Remembering Dale Earnhardt Sr.,”
writes about racing at Hickory Motor Speedway for HDR Sports. He can be reached
at nc3022@yahoo.com.
Contact: I can be reached at tgilli52@gmail.com or nc3022@yahoo.com. Also, my Twitter handle is EDITORatWORK.
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