Byrd, Mitchell, Clark, Brady, Newton, Stevens capture Labor Day ‘End of Summer Bash’ victories at Volunteer Speedway

Byrd, Mitchell, Clark, Brady, Newton, Stevens capture Labor Day ‘End of Summer Bash’ victories at Volunteer Speedway

BULLS GAP, Tenn. (Aug. 31, 2019) — The Labor Day holiday weekend marks the unofficial end of summer and you can expect cooler temperatures with fall looming in the near future. But rest assured the racing action Saturday night at Volunteer Speedway was heated with the “End of Summer Bash.”

Tim Byrd of Jonesborough led flag-to-flag in capturing his fourth Crate Late Model victory, while Adam Mitchell of Knoxville recorded his second straight Sportsman Late Model win.

David Clark of Tazewell cruised to the Modified Street win, with Chris Brady of Newport capturing his first Street Stock victory.

Tommy Newton of Seymour won in Mini Stock, with John Stevens of Wallins Creek, Kentucky, getting the Classic victory.

Tim Byrd set fast-time in Crate Late Model qualifying at 13.408 seconds. Byrd and Rusty Webb led the 14-car field to green from the front row, with Byrd rocketing down the front straightaway on the start to power into the lead. Completing the opening lap Byrd led Jason Cardwell, Tim Maupin, Webb and Cameron Skinner.

While Byrd quickly began to distance himself from closest challengers, behind him the racing action involving Cardwell, Maupin, Webb, Skinner, Gary Crittenden and Rusty Ballenger saw them at times two- and three-wide jockeying for real estate. With the race running clean-and-green, Byrd cruised out to a half-track lead over Cardwell and Maupin by lap 23 when caution waved for debris in turn two.

Off the ensuing double-file restart, Byrd remained out front while behind him a free-for-all broke out with aggressive driving. Some say “rubbin’ is racin’” and while that may be true, it can also lead to heated tempers.

With Byrd in control leading, Ballenger got up-on-the-wheel to battle his way past both Cardwell and Maupin to move into second place. The six cars of Ballenger, Cardwell, Maupin, Webb, Crittenden and Skinner were right together. Cardwell, Maupin and Webb all made contact between turns one and two on lap 28, and racing down the backstretch Maupin got turned hard into the outside wall following contact from Webb. With the field slowed down while under caution, Webb drove into Cardwell which ultimately led him to get parked in the pits for rough driving and disqualification by the track’s competition race director.

Back under green for a two-lap sprint to the finish, Byrd captured his fourth Crate Late Model win on the season over Ballenger, Skinner, Cardwell and Crittenden.

“Double your pleasure, double the fun” and that definitely applies to Adam Mitchell. He loves parking in the checkerboard victory lane at “The Gap!” After capturing his first career Sportsman Late Model feature win last week, Mitchell duplicated his success by outrunning Warren McMahan, Rex Coffey, Chris Coffey and Brad Dyer for his second victory. … Dyer and Chris Coffey entered the night of racing separated by only two points in the battle for the Sportsman Late Model championship, and with the duo finishing together Dyer now holds a slim one-point advantage heading into the next race.

Just go ahead and call him butter, because he’s on a roll. David Clark led flag-to-flag in recording his fifth Modified Street feature win in six starts this season. Clark was chased to the checkered flag by Jeffrey Melton, Michael Woods, Kurt Owens and Landon Steele.

Chris Brady proved to be class of the 17-car Street Stock field as he captured his first feature win of the season over Tony Trent, Jason Rollins, Jon Cook and Austin Lefevers.

Tommy Newton captured his third Mini Stock feature win in outrunning John Byers, Chad Manning, Chris Evans and Tommy Cameron.

There’s an old saying that “it ain’t over, until it’s over” and did that ever prove to be true in the Classic feature. Chuck Kilian looked like he was headed to his first ever victory as he took the white flag leading Jim Canning Jr. and John Stevens. Stevens, the current points leader, brought out the caution flag early when he slowed with a flat tire and had to restart from tail of the field before mounting a strong run back up through the field.

With Kilian out front on the final lap, racing into the first turn Stevens drove in high up the banking rim-riding the cushion to get alongside of Canning as they drove off turn two down the backstretch. Clearing Canning for the second spot, Stevens used the same maneuver entering the third turn as he rolled in on the high side of Kilian. They raced side-by-side off the fourth turn to the flag stand with Stevens beating Kilian by about one-foot for his division-leading ninth feature win of the season. Finishing behind Stevens and Kilian were Canning, Nicholas King and Chad Manning.

VOLUNTEER SPEEDWAY – BULLS GAP, TN – SATURDAY, AUG. 31, 2019 – RACE RESULTS

CRATE LATE MODEL (30 laps)

1. Tim Byrd #24
2. Rusty Ballenger #29
3. Cameron Skinner #33X
4. Jason Cardwell #07
5. Gary Crittenden #18
6. Austin Atkins #14
7. Jamie Stanley #5
8. Taran Hurst #22
9. Jackie Hughes #27
10. Kevin Jackson Jr. #20
11. Tim Maupin #2
12. David Robbins #59
13. Chuck McMurray #00

Disqualified (Rough Driving): Rusty Webb #22
Did Not Start: Terry Poore #2

SPORTSMAN LATE MODEL (25 laps)

1. Adam Mitchell #50
2. Warren McMahan #33
3. Rex Coffey #3
4. Chris Coffey #97
5. Brad Dyer #20
6. Kyle Manis #25K
7. Mike Kelley #8
8. Chris Raines #00
9. Joe Bray #76
10. Floyd Self #3
11. Kris Pauley #B54
12. Addison Cardwell #07A
13. Chase Lawson #420
14. Chris Long #75
15. David Bullington #20

Did Not Start: Brandon Waller #71, Lucas Fuller #77

MODIFIED STREET (20 laps)

1. David Clark #13
2. Jeffrey Melton #4
3. Michael Woods #66
4. Kurt Owens #14
5. Landon Steele #S18
6. Eric Hux #01
7. Bobby Petty #XP21
8. Tyler Haynes #11
9. John Grooms #93
10. Nick Presley #69
11. Kaleb Trent #3
12. Logan Hickey #7

Did Not Start: Lance Creasman #C8

STREET STOCK (20 laps)

1. Chris Brady #B00
2. Tony Trent #18
3. Jason Rollins #012
4. Jon Cook #0z
5. Austin Lefevers #14
6. Tony Trent #501
7. Jim Miller #K9
8. Coby Scott #4
9. Tony Grooms #99
10. Colby Long #10
11. Jamie Whitt #1W
12. Charles Anderson #77
13. Brandon Johnson #B01
14. Shawn Henry #25
15. Jackson Austin #11
16. Dan Smith #05
17. Tim Austin #1

MINI STOCK (20 laps)

1. Tommy Newton #T2
2. John Byers #83
3. Chad Manning #7up
4. Chris Evans #41
5. Tommy Cameron #40
6. Walter Walsh #3rd Man
7. John Gulliver #00
8. Damien Holt #18
9. John Fox #94
10. Mitchell Fox #1
11. Samuel Fox #5

Did Not Start: Hayston Collett #21

CLASSIC (20 laps)

1. John Stevens #7
2. Chuck Kilian #96
3. Jim Canning Jr. #31
4. Nicholas King #66
5. Chad Manning #6
6. Tyler Trent #61
7. Robert Kenyon #71K

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CONTACT INFO

Volunteer Speedway: 423-235-5020 www.VolunteerSpeedway.com
General Manager: 423-676-9080
Greg Harvey (Technical Inspection Director): 423-384-3511