Caleb Heady Scores First SMART Modified Victory at Florence Motor Speedway
In only his second modified start 16-year-old Caleb Heady was the quickest qualifier with a lap of 85.684 M.P.H. driving the Tommy Balwin Jr, #7NY. The air temp. was cool with a breeze but the on-track action was hot.
After the redraw, Heady started 7th with Jeremy Gerstner and Jason Myers starting on the front row. On the initial start Gerstner raced out to a half-lap lead over Myers and Brian Loftin while Heady gradually worked his way into 4th place but a lap 25 mandatory yellow flag tightened up the field.
On the restart, Heady took over third and one lap later raced by second-place Loftin which brought himself to Gerstner’s rear bumper. By lap 27 Heady slipped by Gerstner who faded to third behind Loftin.
Heady’s lead lasted until lap 42 when the caution flag flew for a spin by Dennis Holden in turn 4. That caution gave the field the opportunity to pit for a fresh tire and adjustments. Heady was the first to return from his pit stop and lined up behind Burt Myers and Gary Putnam who did not pit. At the drop of the green Putnam took over the lead that was short-lived.
Burt Myers was the next one to run in clean air when he raced by Putnam on lap 53 but by lap 60 Heady with the fresh tire raced back into the lead.
John Smith’s spin on lap 63 brought out the next yellow flag and the field tightened up again with Heady leading Tim Brown, Brandon Ward, Gerstner, Loftin, and Bobby Labonte. Brody Jones, a former Bowman Gray winner, made hard contact with the front straight wall and showed his displeasure with the Mike Norman crew on pit lane. On the ensuing lap 64 restart, Tim Brown flexed his muscle inching by Heady at the line but Heady held him off to lead lap 65 and was never headed after that. With the laps running out Labonte made a bold move coming off turn 4 running 3 wide inside Brown and Loftin.
Labonte prevailed taking over the runner-up spot and then turned up the heat chasing down race leader Heady but came up a car length short at the checkered flag.
Brian Loftin held on to third with Gary Putnam and Burt Myers rounding out the top 5
Time of race-57:52
Cautions-(4)- lap 25-42-63-64
Lap Leaders-#55(1-26)-#7NY(27-42)-#77(43-52)-#19(53-59)-#7NY(60-630-#83(64)-#7NY(65-75)
Finish
1-7NY-Heady
2-25-Labonte
3-15-Loftin
4-77-Putnam
5-1-B.Myers
6-24-Smith
7-2-Ward
8-4-J.Myers
9-07-Holdren
10-83-Brown
11-55-Gerstner
12-97-Dauzat
13-12-Norman
14-18-Yates
15-92-Jones
16-76-Weber
Story by: James Snape
Victory Lane photos by James Snape
On track photos by Crystal Snape