Nate Monteith picked up his first wins of the season Saturday night at Lonesome Pine Raceway in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stock Car ranks.
Monteith qualified second to Texas’ Cole Glasson for the first 35-lap Late Model Stock feature. On the opening lap of the race, Monteith would pull to the top spot over Glasson.
At the halfway mark, 2014 track champion Wayne Hale began to work on Glasson for second place, completing the pass shortly thereafter. Monteith would continue to lead, but Hale was making up ground.
With five laps remaining in the race, Hale had made it to the rear bumper of Monteith’s machine. Monteith would hold Hale off and take the win, his win at Lonesome Pine since 2012.
Monteith and Hale would start side by side for the second Late Model feature of the night.
Monteith would take the lead over Hale on the opening lap, bringing Glasson along from the third place starting spot.
The first yellow flag of the race would wave on lap four when the No. 17 machine of Greg Bohannon Jr. stalled on the backstretch.
Back under green, Monteith would regain the lead, with Hale retaking second from Glasson. Lap 20 would see the second caution period of the race when Steve Deskin spun in turn two, collecting Dalton Hopkins.
Monteith would again pull to the lead on the restart while Hale and Glasson went into a hard battle for second place real-estate. After three laps of battle, Glasson would root Hale out of the way and take over the position.
With six laps remaining, the yellow flag would fly again when the No. 51 of Blake Orr went around at the exit of turn two.
With the green flag waving once again, Monteith would battle with Glasson for the top spot until lap 33 when the final caution was triggered for a spin by Danny Casteel in turn four.
Set for a green-white-checkered restart, Monteith would get the jump on the restart, with Glasson coming on strong from second. On the final lap, Monteith and Glasson would continue to battle, with Glasson able to get only to Monteith’s rear bumper. The duo would exit the final turn coming to the checkered nose to tail, as Monteith captured the win.
“It feels good to be back in Victory Lane,” said Monteith. “It feels like this is the way it’s supposed to be.”
Monteith lost his grandfather just two weeks ago and the two-time NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Tennessee state champion said he knows his papaw would approve.
“I know this would have made papaw proud,” added Monteith.
Monteith spoke about the handling on his car and also a problem he experienced in the second feature.
“The car was a little tight in the first race,” Monteith said.” The first half of the second race it was really, really good. Then we had that caution at lap 20 and the brake pedal went to the floor. I ran the rest of that second race without brakes.
I appreciate the Nance’s for giving me this opportunity. This car is a heck of a hot rod.”
Elby Harrison and Rob Austin made up the front row for the Modified Street feature.
At the drop of the green flag, Harrison would jump to the lead over Austin. Harrison would show the way through lap 15 when the first caution of the race waved for debris on the frontstretch.
Harrison would choose the outside lane on the restart, with Austin taking the inside. Harrison would rocket to the lead on the restart and lead the remaining 15 laps for his second win of the season.
William Hale would take to an early lead in the Pure 4 feature.
Michael Nelson would begin to work to the inside of Hale on lap six, with Jason Ketron also tagging along. Hale would begin to pull back to a comfortable lead at the halfway point, as Nelson and Ketron would settle into second and third, respectively.
With five laps remaining, Nelson would get a strong run on Hale and dive to the inside to take over first place. Ketron would also make the pass, but was unable to run Nelson down. Nelson would lead the remaining four laps to claim the win.
Rocky Yates would open the 25-lap Mod 4 feature by jumping to the lead over Freddie Taylor Jr.
Jason Yates would take the second position from Taylor Jr. on lap 10 and begin to chase down the No. 3 of Rocky Yates. The run by Jason Yates would not be enough, as Rocky Yates would claim his third win of the season. –
Doug Austin grabbed the lead on the start of the 15-lap Pure Street feature and led flag-to-flag for the victory.
Blaine Harrison would take the win in the 10-lap Bandeleros race.
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