Ryan Preece Wins Martinsville!!!!

[ron.brown11]

Ryan won his very first Whelen modified race there at Martinsville in 2012, driving the Mohler Ol Blue #3 mod. Tonight he drove a car that he & his dad built in their garage. He started on the front row and took the lead on lap 2, and lead the next 50,or so laps. During a yellow, he made 2 stops for fuel and a tire (they can't change any tires at the same time as adding fuel). That dropped him back to about 11th, but he was back leading in about 15 laps. He lost the lead later when he stopped for his last tire, during a yellow. He restarted 9th I believe, and just drove it to the front. He beat 4 time Whelen champ Justin Bonsingnoir (spelling?) by over a half second. What a strong race for Ryan. Hopefully that will translate to his Cup race on Sunday.

Ron Silk won the season championship by about 8 points over Justin. Both drivers won 5 races each this year. This is Silk's 2nd championship, as he won it in 2011.

[ron.brown11]

Big Money Matt Hirschmann ran in the top 5 basically all night. Only dropping down during pit stops. I really thought going into tonight's race that Matt was going to be the guy to beat. He finished 4th, and never lead a lap. He's won several races since he broke his left arm at Thompson Speedway in Aug. He had surgery on it, and missed about a month of racing. Matt never runs for championships in any series. As his nickname says, he just hunts big purse shows, and wins a lot of them. He and his father build his cars. Tony Hirschmann was a great driver in his day too. He's also a Cup series spotter, I just don't recall who he spots for though.

The race tonight was a fun race to watch. There were a couple multi-car wrecks and a handful of spins. It was really Cool seeing the Wood Brothers 60s era modified pace the field to the green, with Donnie Allison driving it. Also joining the Wood's car was Ray Hendrick's Red Flying #11. What a site that was. I think one of Ray's family members drove the #11.