Philip Morris swept both ends of a 75 lap Late Model Stock season-opening double header on Saturday night at Langley Speedway in Hampton, Virginia.
The four-time NASCAR Whelen All-American Series champion dominated the headlines during the event, breaking the track record in qualifying with a 15.095 second lap previously owned by Nick Smith, before taking top honors in both events.
Morris took the first race, after a challenge by CE Falk came up short when Falk was blocked by a lapped car while fighting with Morris for the lead late in the race. Morris suffered slight right-front damage during the first race but was able to repair it during the break between races.
“The first race was a lot of sliding around with tires getting warm, we got some damage to the car and it made a difference,” Morris said. “That’s what happens in the first race until you get your setup set, but I come from dirt racing and tonight was about as close as you can get to it.”
Falk was less than pleased after climbing out of his car, saying “the 19 car (Cameron Bowen,) I guess just went completely brain dead, which is probably not new and he was just all in the way. It killed the nose on our car and killed our shot to win.”
The second race featured the most controversial outcome at the speedway since Bill Mullis revived it prior to the 2017 season. Morris won under dubious circumstances, having been allowed to take a pair of fresher tires with 10 laps to go after a puncture caused him to spin in the waning laps.
READ MORE: What’s the deal with the Langley tire situation from Saturday night?
Morris would go on to pass Connor Hall for the lead with five to go and sweep the nights races to close out the 2018 Langley Speedway season premiere.
“We got the car where it needed to be and was able to stay with it and just outlasted everybody,” Morris said. “We started out with more than 25 cars, it was just survival of the fittest. We knew we were getting the invert, so we wanted to save some tires for the second race, but I don’t think anybody saved tires.”
The race began with Brenden Queen leading the field to green due to an eight-car invert, with Connor Hall alongside. Hall and Queen proceeded to trade the lead, and trade hits on each other’s cars, Morris joined the duo briefly but began to slip back.
With Morris slipping back, Greg Edwards emerged to challenge Queen and Hall but after a restart, Queen and Edwards made contact, with Chase Cabre behind Queen, causing Edwards to spin and prompting officials to send Queen to the rear but he was having none of it, and staged a protest with his car on the front stretch before being removed from the track and parked for the night.
“We got screwed out of a win as usual,” Queen remarked. “I don’t understand what I’m supposed to do when the 4 car (Cabre) lifted my rear tires up the whole way down the back stretch and basically just threw me into Greg (Edwards) and I get black flagged for it, it just seems like I always get the short end of the stick.”
The complete results from both 75 lappers can be viewed below.
LMSC Race #1 Results:
- Philip Morris
- CE Falk
- Justin T Carroll
- Mark Wertz
- Anthony Alfredo
- Chase Cabre
- Connor Hall
- Brenden Queen
- Danny Edwards
- Garrett Bunch
- Ryan Vargas
- Nicholas Sanchez
- Greg Edwards
- Colin Garrett
- Nick Smith
- Thomas Marks
- Logan Jones
- Cody Carlton
- Woody Howard
- Casey Wyatt
- Cameron Bowen
- Craig Eastep
- Tyler Hughes
- Rodney Boyd
- Ruben Garcia
LMSC Race #2 Results:
- Philip Morris
- Connor Hall
- Ryan Vargas
- Danny Edwards
- Greg Edwards
- Cody Carlton
- Mark Wertz
- Woody Howards
- Chase Cabre
- Brendan Queen
- Tyler Hughes
- Nick Smith
- Casey Wyatt
- Craig Eastep
- Thomas Marks
- Colin Garrett
- Cameron Bowen
- Garrett Bunch
- Nicholas Sanchez
- Ruben Garcia
- Anthony Alfredo
- CE Falk
- Justin T Carroll
- Logan Jones
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Nobles, from Norfolk, VA is a veteran of covering Late Model Stock Cars in Virginia and The Carolinas. Nobles has also covered Super Late Models, Dirt Modifieds, Tour-Type Modifieds, and the K&N Pro Series East.