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The Race:
Whelen Southern Modified Tour 150 presented by Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet
The Place: Greenville-Pickens (S.C.) Speedway The Date: Saturday, April 5 The Time: 8:00 p.m. ET Track Layout: 1/2-mile paved oval Race Purse: $25,920 2007 Winner: Junior Miller 2007 Pole: Burt Myers
Rk Driver Points
1 L.W. Miller 180 2 Ted Christopher 170 3 Brian Loftin 165 4 Tim Brown 160 5 Bobby Grigas 155 6 Ronnie Silk 150 7 Jason Myers 146 8 Matt Hirschman 142 9 Frank Fleming 138 10 Andy Seuss 134
Schedule:
Saturday: Practice 1:00-2:30 p.m., Time Trials 6:00 p.m.
Fleming Hoping 2008
Will Be His Breakthrough Season
GREENVILLE, S.C.
– Veteran NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour driver Frank Fleming (No.
07 Patterson Automotive/ProHealth Care Pontiac) has won a lot of races and
championships throughout his career, but the popular 48 year-old Mount
Airy, N.C., driver is still in search of his first career Whelen Southern
Modified Tour victory.
There’s not another team or
driver in the garage area that doesn’t think Fleming will snap his winless
streak in the very near future, possibly as soon as Saturday night’s
150-lapper at the famed Greenville-Pickens Speedway.
“We’re getting pretty close to
finally winning one of these races,” Fleming said. “It really goes back to
the way we finished off last season with three second-place finishes in
the last four races and the other race, we finished third. We’re starting
to lead a lot of laps and that’s very important in this business. If we
can lead laps and finish in the top five, like we’ve been doing, we should
win a race sooner or later.
“We got the season off to a
great start by leading some laps at Caraway a couple weeks ago. I made
some changes to the car in the off-season trying to make it better and
anytime you make changes like that, you can either get better or worse. I
think I made it a little worse so we, as a team, know we need to go back
in another direction.”
Fleming admits that coming so
close to winning a race only to finish a close second has been somewhat
frustrating.
“I’m 48 years old and I’m now
in my 28th year of racing so I got kind of a late start,” Fleming said.
“I’ve had a great career as being pretty much a Saturday night racer. I’ve
won a lot of races in about every kind of racing I’ve ever done except the
Whelen Southern Modified Tour. I made the comment several years ago that I
was going to race until I turned 50, but I’ll be 49 this summer so I may
have to extend that a little bit.
“To finally win a Whelen
Southern Modified Tour race really would be the icing on the cake for me.”
In fact, Fleming’s goals are a
little bit more than just winning a race.
“Winning the Whelen Southern
Modified Tour championship is a possibility if I can get my car running as
competitively as we were in the last half of the season last year,”
Fleming said. “To have a chance at winning the championship, I’ve got to
keep finishing these races and being consistent. I know I’m still
competitive and can win one of these races. I’ve just got to keep putting
together consistent finishes so I can put myself in the best position. I
know I’m going to win one of these races sooner or later. It’s been tough
to be so close to winning but not being able to finish off the deal so
far. If I don’t win a race this year, I will be disappointed. My time is
going to come.”
Would finally winning a Whelen
Southern Modified Tour race be the highlight of Fleming’s racing career?
“I don’t know because I’ve won
a lot of races and all of them were special to me,” Fleming answered.
“It’s been like six or seven years since I’ve won one of these races. If I
can win a race here pretty soon, I’d probably act like it was the biggest
win of my career. I’d be tickled to death. All the wins I’ve had in my
career were special for different reasons. To win a race with it now being
NASCAR-sanctioned and with the support that the Tour gets from Whelen,
yes, it would be very special to me.”
Mike Herman Jr. to
Make Second Start Saturday at GPS
KANNAPOLIS, N.C.
– The view out the cockpit will look considerably different to Mike Herman
Jr. this racing season.
For the past 16 years, full
fenders have been the norm, but Saturday night at Greenville-Pickens
(S.C.) Speedway, Herman will see massive 15-inch Hoosier Racing tires
through his windshield.
Herman and long-time sponsor
Fireside Hearth & Home will make the move to the open-wheeled NASCAR
Whelen Southern Modified Tour in 2008. Modifieds are NASCAR’s oldest
division and Herman is happy to make the switch.
“My first chance to drive a
Modified was in 2006 and I absolutely loved it,” Herman said. “It’s a
driver’s car and you have to be aggressive behind the wheel. The stock car
has gotten to the point where you have to be easy and finesse the car. You
really have to back off the gas early, easy in and hard off, but you can
get after it in the Modified.”
For everyone that has
witnessed a NASCAR Southern Modified Tour show, you know first hand how
Modified drivers “get after it.”
Fans this Saturday night at
Greenville-Pickens will see 150 laps of wheel-to-wheel, bumper-to-bumper
action.
The race Saturday night will
mark Herman’s second start in the Whelen Southern Modified Tour.
The first race came back in
August 2006 during the Advance Auto Parts 199 at Bowman-Gray Stadium.
It’ll also mark Herman’s first Whelen Southern Modified Tour start away
from the famed quarter-mile track at Bowman-Gray.
“I’m looking forward to racing
the Modified away from the Stadium,” Herman said. “I really don’t know
what to expect but I think I’ll figure it out pretty quick.”
News & Notes
The race:
This event is the second of 12 races on the NASCAR Whelen Southern
Modified Tour schedule. It is the only race in 2008 at Greenville-Pickens
(S.C.) Speedway.
The procedure:
The starting field is 26 cars, including provisionals. The first 24 cars
will qualify through two-lap time trials. The remaining two spots will be
awarded through the provisional process. The race will be 150 laps (75
miles).
Greenville-Pickens
History: There have been two NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour
races at Greenville-Pickens Speedway.
The Tour’s first visit to the
famed half-mile track came in April 2006 with Junior Miller taking the
victory. Qualifying for the first race was canceled due to inclement
weather.
In the Tour’s second visit to
Greenville-Pickens last April, Burt Myers won the pole and it was Miller
scoring the repeat victory in the Whelen Southern Modified Tour 150
presented by Kevin Whitaker Chevrolet.
Down To One:
There was one figure noticeably missing from the garage area last Saturday
at Southern National Raceway Park in Kenly, N.C., for what turned out to
be an event that had to be postponed due to inclement weather.
Two-time Tour champion Junior
Miller wasn’t in attendance due to the death of his father-in-law. Miller
had said prior to last weekend that he was only going to be running a
part-time schedule in 2008.
That leaves Burt Myers as the
only driver to start every NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour race since
2005, the first season under the NASCAR banner.
2008 SUNOCO ROOKIE OF THE YEAR STANDINGS
Driver Points
1. Buddy Emory 10 2. Zach Brewer 9 3. Scott Rigney 8 4. Rich Kuiken Jr. 7 NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour Special Awards Standings
COORS LIGHT POLE AWARD
Tim Brown 1
SUNOCO ROOKIE OF THE RACE AWARD
Buddy Emory 1 FEATHERLITE MOST IMPROVED DRIVER Thomas Stinson 1 POWERADE POWER MOVE OF THE RACE Andy Seuss 1 |
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