North Carolina Ace SpeedwayFive Races with Five Different Winners Posted:5/4/2010 Five Races with Five Different Winners Kyle Grissom Victorious at Ace Speedway Kyle Grissom climbed out of his car and raised a weary right hand before slinging the contents of a water bottle everywhere in a brief celebratory shower. Flexing his biceps probably would have been more appropriate. Brennan Poole of the The Woodlands, TX set the Sunoco Pole at 15.790 with Ace's last year champion Speedy Faucette on the outside of the front row. It would be Poole to take the point for the first ten circuits followed by another local past champion Rodney Cook, Grissom, Faucette and Alex Yontz as the top five. Grissom will overtake Cook on lap five. Five laps later he claims the lead from Poole never to look back. The Concord driver put forth a powerful performance and secured his first victory of the season in Saturday night’s main event for the United Auto Racing Association at Ace Speedway. “Once we got started, the car, it was hooked up,” he said. “I wanted to get the lead early. We did, and from there it was just trying to get a distance and keep the tires on it, keep the brakes on it.” Grissom’s No. 32 car led all but the opening 10 laps and dominated at times before successfully navigating the green-white-checkered ending that extended the finish into overtime, six laps past the scheduled 150-lap length. So it became a show of strength from Grissom, who gained a sense of vindication in the fifth feature of the season for the touring Late Models series. He entered the UARA’s Ace visit having produced back-to-back results of second place. Those oh-so-close efforts and two top qualifying runs during previous tour stops whetted the 20-year-old’s appetite for a breakthrough victory more and more. “It’s been a long time coming,” Grissom said. “We’ve had real good cars all year and just haven’t been able to win one, so this feels good.” Asheville’s Coleman Pressley finished in the runner-up spot and Walnut Cove’s Alex Yontz captured third. Hamptonville’s Robert Johnson claimed fourth while Reidsville’s Rodney Cook, the points leader in Ace’s weekly Late Models division, placed fifth in popular fashion. Pressley and Scott Turlington both did double duty over the past few days. Pressley ran the Nationwide race at Richmond on Friday with an impressive 18th place finish. Turlington ran the Denny Hamlin Foundation fundraising event at Southside Speedway on Thursday night and brought home a respectable 7th place finish there. Grissom, Pressley and Johnson formed a second-generation parade of top finishers whose fathers once competed on NASCAR’s brightest stage. Johnson, for instance, is the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Junior Johnson. “This isn’t one of my better race tracks, so to get a second-place finish is pretty good,” Pressley said. “We had a pretty good car. It just wasn’t as good as Kyle’s. He’s well deserving of a win right now, so good for him.” As Grissom clicked off the final laps with minimal resistance, it appeared that a comfortable 66-lap stretch of green-flag racing would take the field — which started with 20 cars — to the checkered flag. Caution one flew when Tyler English erupted an engine on lap 18 and the dropped fluids quite a long way around the speedway. Jay English (Tyler's dad) said that the flywheel broke and cut thru the oil pan. The field would be red flagged for the Ace track crew to attend to this oily mess. The field will remain green with battles going on all over the track. Scorer A.J. Bodenhamer was quick to see a part fly off of the the Julia Dawson car on lap 68 and the caution will fly will fly for the second time. Julia posted on her facebook page "Horrible luk. Lost the right front hub around 50 laps in. Fortunately kept it off the wall." She did indeed do a great job of holding her line in the track and keeping control of her car. Cook dropped to the tail of the lead pack when his No. 14 Ford sustained collateral damage from a four-car pileup just past the race’s midway point on lap 79. This third caution also involved Alex Yontz, Ronnie Bassett Jr., Matt Kurzejewski, Michael Rouse and John King II. King had hopes of turning his luck around at Ace but that would not be the case as his night would end at this time. Cook rallied back throughout the latter half of the feature. He stood there soaked in sweat and emotion immediately following the conclusion, catching his breath and contemplating the struggles that delivered his fifth-place showing. “It don’t matter how you get them as long as you get them,” Cook said. “You have to work so hard to try to get back up there. … I’m just It appears that Grissom will sail to a smooth finish but less than two laps before the scheduled conclusion, contact between Jason York and Garrett Campbell triggered the race’s fourth caution period, which swung overtime into effect. Then, on the green-white-checkered restart that punctuated everything, contact knocked Brennan Poole’s No. 5 car out of second position as a gaggle of cars stacked up, leaving turns one and two resembling an accordion. Poole will come home as the ARbodies Hard Luck winner of the race. “I about wrecked going into (turn) one,” Grissom said. “That’s all I know. I don’t know if it was my fault or if Brennan got into me, I’m not sure. But I know I about wrecked and got it gathered up and just tried to get back to the line first.” Robert Johnson had a great run for the day coming home as the UARA Rookie of the Race and also receiving the G Force Shift of the Race honors after gaining 12 positions during the race. 3V Performance came home as the Comp Cams Engine Builder of the Race and UARA Late Models (150 laps): 1. Kyle Grissom 2. Coleman Pressley 3. Alex Yontz 4. Robert Johnson 5. Rodney Cook 6. Lee Tissot 7. Scott Turlington 8. Jason York 9. Clint King 10. Garrett Campbell 11. Michael McGuire 12. Brennan Poole 13. Matt Kurzejewski 14. Speedy Faucette 15. Ronnie Bassett 16. Michael Rouse 17. John King II 18. Julia Dawson 19. Tyler English 20. Grant McGinnis In the 15-lap Mini Stocks race, Clemmons’ Chuck Wall picked up his second victory at Ace this season by holding off Thomasville’s Michael Tucker in a spirited sprint to the finish line. Wall’s No. 81 car led from green flag to checkered flag and cruised during the early portions of the non-points event. By the time the white flag came out to signify the last lap, Tucker’s No. 31 car, having reeled in Wall, peeked high and low in an attempt to locate a passing angle. Wall slammed the door as the pair exited turn two. Coming out of the final corner, Tucker’s car ducked low and nearly pulled side by side with Wall’s machine during the dash to the finish. Burlington’s Mike Herron placed third among the small five-car field. Mini Stocks (15 laps): Chuck Wall, Michael Tucker, Mike Herron, Randy Freeze, Ray Chandler. Saturday night’s other winners at Ace were Reidsville’s Daryl Gwynn (25-lap Southern Ground Pounders Modifieds), Garner’s Rodney Dye (25-lap Southern Ground Pounders Limited Modifieds) and Raleigh’s Tommy Buxton (25-lap Southern Ground Pounders Sportsman). Press Release by Adam Smith / Times-News and Wink Bodenhamer