Summer has almost come to an end. Schools around East Tennessee and Southwest Virginia are back in session and, that ultimately means the start of Friday night high school football.
Under the guidance of former NASCAR racer Robert Pressley, Kingsport Speedway’s rebirth in 2011 has been very successful with good crowds and action-packed racing action. But only two track points races remain, with one being a Friday night show and the season-ending event scheduled for Sunday, Aug. 28 at 3 p.m., following the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event the night before at nearby Bristol Motor Speedway. Expect an announcement soon regarding some “surprise” NASCAR racer(s) who will stay overnight in East Tennessee and race at Kingsport Speedway on Sunday afternoon.
Whelen Engineering Night at the Races is scheduled Friday, Aug. 19 at Kingsport Speedway. Headlining the racing program at the .375-mile banked concrete oval will be the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model Stocks (60 laps), along with Street Stock (30 laps), Pure 4 (25 laps), Legends (20 laps) and Rookie Pure 4 (10 laps) racing.
Close points battles highlight the Late Model Stock, Street Stock and Pure 4 divisions, with first and second in points in each class separated by only six points.
The latest NASCAR Whelen All-American Series point standings (click link to view national point standings through Aug. 16 – http://hometracks.nascar.com/node/228) ranking the top-500 drivers nationally, continues to find the trio of Nate Monteith (Blountville), Lee Tissot (Asheville, N.C.) and Daniel Pope II (Smyrna) ranked inside the top-20.
Monteith ranks eighth in the nation (leads Tennessee State NASCAR points), while Tissot sits 14th, and Pope holds down the 17th spot. Also ranked in the top-100 is Johnson City’s Zeke Shell in 75th.
The top three of Monteith, Tissot and Pope are separated by only 15 points in the Kingsport Speedway standings, with just six points between Monteith and Tissot. The top five in Late Model Stock points are Monteith (289), Tissot (283), Pope (274), Shell (199) and Housewright (171). Monteith leads the Late Model Stock division with eight feature wins and all totaled has recorded 19 top-five finishes in 19 events this season. Besides Monteith’s eight Late Model Stock feature wins, Tissot has captured five victories and Pope has three wins, with Shell, Nogradi Jr. and Wade Day each with one victory.
Jeff Counts of Castlewood, Va., with 165 points leads the Street Stock standings over Surgoinsville’s Chuck Crigger by six points (159). Third through fifth in the standings are only separated by 11 points. Rob Austin of Castlewood with 121 points, 70-year-old Paul Shull of Church Hill at 111 points, and Chris Tunnell of Wise, Va., with 110 points. Behind Crigger’s divison-leading nine victories, Duke Bare has three wins, while Counts, Austin, Shull, and Roger Neece each have one victory.
Excitement surrounds the Kingsport Speedway Pure 4 division, as John Ketron of Kingsport not only leads the Pure 4 track point standings, he stands atop the NASCAR Finalist Program Division III national points leaderboard. Bristol’s Mark McCrary is second in the national standings behind Ketron.
In the track Pure 4 standings, Ketron has 263 points and McCrary 257, with Lewis Slagle of Asheville, N.C., third with 231. Fourth and fifth, respectively, in points are James Mills of Wise, Va. (195), with Bill Coleman and Jason Ketron, both from Kingsport, tied for fifth with 168 points. John Ketron, McCrary, and Kingsport’s Chris Neeley are tied with four victories each, while Keith Helton has two victories and Dean Slagle has visited victory lane on one occasion.
It’s been a stellar 2011 racing season for 15-year-old Hayden Woods of Piney Flats, a student at Providence Academy in Johnson City. Woods has been a dominant force in Legends division, with nine feature wins to firmly place him atop the point standings over Bristol’s Cody Johnson, Zack Walton of Blountville, Drew Shortridge of Abingdon, and Greg Turner of Nickelsville, Va.
The pit gate opens Friday, Aug. 19 at 4 p.m. Grandstands open at 5:30 p.m.
Practice is tentatively scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., with drivers’ meeting at 6:55 p.m. Qualifying is slated for 7:15 p.m., to be followed by racing getting the green flag around 8 p.m.
Adult grandstand admission is $10, with kids age 12-and-under admitted free. Tier-parking adult admission $10 per person (plus $10 vehicle fee). Pit passes are $25 with a NASCAR license, $35 without a license. NASCAR license forms are available at the track office during the week, and they will also be available at pit sign-in the day of event.
Tell your family, friends, neighbors and co-workers all about the exciting, action-packed weekly racing programs at Kingsport Speedway. You don’t want to miss it!
Kingsport Speedway PR
