Nashville, TN (April 1st, 2007) - When the 2007 Whelen Southern Modified Tour released it's schedule for this season, there were both positive and negative thoughts and remarks about the tour heading west to Nashville, Tennessee and the historic track that has previously hosted Winston Cup's "Music City 420" events and jump started the careers of such notable weekly track champions such as Sterling Marlin, Darrell Waltrip and the late Bobby Hamilton.

Nineteen cars made the trip to Nashville with Andy Seuss from New Hampshire, Rich Kuiken, Jr. of New Jersey and J. Wesley Swartout from Pennsylvania being the only three drivers who traveled from the northern states to compete with the predominantly southern based teams and drivers.

Saturday Night's Bud Pole Qualifying started under cloudy skies with a rather large front moving in from the southwest that was sure to soak the competitors if the winds blew right, and a brief shower halted qualifying about halfway through. NASCAR officials had trouble with the timing lights after both Bobby Hutchens and Gene Pack had run their laps, and while trying to get the light problem figured out, ASA officials rolled their "Last Chance" race consisting of 8 cars onto the track. The ASA Late Model Series was in town as well as the CRA Late Models which had the modifieds pitted out behind Turn 2 of the track in a remote parking lot that had easy access to the tunnel that burrowed under the exit of turn two and led on to the backstretch. The ASA Late Models ran a 200 lap event on Saturday night following Modified qualifying, while the CRA Late Model event followed the WSMT's Whelen 150 on Sunday afternoon.

So, while the incoming weather only halted qualifying for about 30 minutes, Walnut Cove, North Carolina's Burt Myers would take home another Bud Pole Award for his All Star Truck Repair team after posting a lap time of 18.467 seconds at 115.26 MPH. The fastest lap ever turned at Music City would still be held by Tracy Hines in a USAC Sprint Car which is a little over 8 miles per hour faster at a 17.192 seconds, and 123.546 MPH. I had wondered to myself on the drive out to Nashville if the Modifieds would be faster than the USAC cars, and I got my answer Saturday night. Second quick was Andy Seuss with L.W. Miller timing in third, Brian Loftin fourth and Brain King rounding out the top five.

But when the fans filed in on Sunday afternoon, they not only came to the Motorplex with beautiful clear and sunny skies, they also saw one of the fastest and most exciting races the WSMT has put on in it's short, two year history. Current WSMT point leader L.W. Miller re-drew the #1 pill to start his John Baker Plumbing and Utilities Pontiac along side Walnut Cove's Jason Myers in his new black and gold DMC Auto Exchange Chevrolet. Bud Pole winner Burt Myers would draw pill #9 as the redraw this week was set at 10.

New Hampshire native and True Value Modified Series driver Andy Seuss made the trip from his home state to take on the likes of Tim Brown, Junior Miller and current WSMT point leader L.W. Miler in a race that had varying degrees of race strategy. Seuss had told me as he rolled his car towards the pre-race weigh in that he and his Rockingham Boat/Manchester Urology team had totally rebuilt his car after destroying it twice over in New Smyrna during the nine night war known as the World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing in Florida this past February. Seuss' team rebuilt the whole front clip and welded it back into place, not having a well known chassis jig in their shop and passed on the WSMT opener in Caraway to make sure everything was right for Nashville.

As the cars were lined up on the front stretch, the drivers were introduced to the crowd much like they used to do at some of the bigger races up north in the past by introducing them from the rear of the field forward and having the driver walk across a stage and wave to the fans. It was a nice touch that I'm sure many of the drivers and fans appreciated as many of the WMST events are pre-race "meet and greet" style events and the drivers usually just strap in and go racing. So, kudos to the Nashville staff for doing it "old school" style. On a side note, Nashville's Music City Motorplex is owned and run by the same people who operate Pocono Raceway, so I'm sure Mr. Joe Mattioli III and his family were happy to host a modified race at their facility after having such a long history of Race of Champions events at Pocono in the past.

The cars were lined up behind an orange (Tennessee orange or Richie Evans orange? You decide!) Ford Mustang pace car and the field warmed their tires for three pace laps before the cars took the green flag.

The green flag flew just short of 2 o'clock and L.W. Miller wasted no time beating Jason Myers to turn one. Miller would lead the first four circuits before Tim Brown passed Miller on lap 5 and led until lap 14 when Andy Seuss made his presence known and passed Brown's Hayes Jewelers Chevrolet. Seuss would lead until lap 29 as J. Wesley Swartout dove under Seuss' # 70 heading into turn one and Swartout, who started off with a very tight set up drove off into the next zip code as he would "check out" and dominate the middle stages of the event.

The other notable thing that was happening as the leaders diced for the top spot was a very determined Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Brandon Ward, who charged from his dead last starting position of 19th after missing qualifying due to an engine change to work his way into the top 10 on lap 19. Ward and company had spent their Saturday night in Nashville stuck behind their hauler until about 11:30 PM switching out engines in David Pinnix's #42 car. Ward had missed the season opening event at Caraway due to a broken sway bar mount and his team was determined to show their driver is championship material, and not just a rookie contender. By lap 50, Ward was running third with the two time WSMT Champion Junior Miller hot on his heels as the "King of the Southern Modifieds" worked his way forward after starting 14th.

Ward would later tell me he was driving to make it up to the crew, and to gain back spots lost by possibly qualifying better: "You know, coming back from last week, we broke a track bar mount at Caraway and we had to fix that this week and came here and what little bit of practice we got, we were good but with about 15 minutes to go we locked a motor up. We changed it, these guys, man I owe it to them, they worked hard. We were all here until about 11:30 last night and like I say, thank them for their hard work. Rayco Safety, David Pinnix, Professional Restorations and Exceldyne for making this happen for us and you know all the money and hard work they put into it. We did have to come from the back and we knew we were going to have to go you know, not terribly hard but we had to go at the beginning you know we had to make up some lost ground and the race car was just a tick free. We needed just a little bit more at the end but like I say, for the amount of laps that we had, I'm real proud of them. They did a great job."

Swartout would lead lap 50 by a full straightaway over Seuss, Junior Miller, Gene Pack, George Brunnhoelzl and Tim Brown as L.W. started to fall back out of the top 10. The radio chatter began to pick up about ten laps later as Tim Brown would call in with reports of a car leaking oil, but not quite sure who it was.

Smoke from the right rear of L.W.'s #36 would be the tell tale sign as NASCAR posted the 36 for a black flag consultation on lap 74 right before the halfway lap as Swartout would continue to lead in his beautiful HIK Motorsports #26 car. Seuss had settled into second with Ward, Junior Miller and Tim Brown rounding out the top 5. Sixth through tenth were George Brunnhoelzl, Brian King, Gene Pack, Burt Myers and Chuck Hossfeld.

Miller would say later about the leaking oil: "I thought somebody was leaking oil and come to find out it was me and I said on the radio "Somebody's dumping oil ahead of me it's all over my windshield" and they got back on the radio and said "It's you" and about 2 laps later I lost my power steering. So, from that point on, I was hanging on and I couldn't see so I kinda fell to the back and got to where I could get a little room, so I broke my windshield so I could reach up and wipe it clean. Once I got the windshield clean to where I could see again, I started digging back up through the pack and I just, you know I couldn't, I had to go into the corner and just let the car kind of let the car turn itself because I couldn't steer it."

L.W. would drop even further out of the running as NASCAR continued to keep a close eye on the smoking #36 and by Lap 80 Miller would be passed by both Brian Loftin and Bobby Hutchens and looked to be falling out of contention while not answering the consultation flag that was called for previously at lap 74.

Miller would say his problem was visibility, and not falling back by plan: "No, I was riding there about mid-pack about 5th or so and that's where I was riding. When I really dropped back, I couldn't see so I just got back there where I had room and I reached up and ripped the top of the windshield loose so I could get my hand up there and clean it. That's the reason. I didn't intend to drop back as far as I dropped back. I intended to ride about 5th and then go. We had a great race car."

By lap 80, Tim Brown had moved his Hayes Jewelers #83 back into fourth past Junior Miller and began his climb back towards the front and by lap 85 the leaders began putting cars a lap down with Greg Butcher's #44 being the first victim. Swartout's lead was slowly diminishing as Seuss, Ward, Brown and Junior Miller would catch him in heavy lapped traffic at lap 94. Brian Pack, Frank Fleming and Earl Baker would be the next group to fall a lap down as the leaders continued their torrid battle for the top spot while dicing in heavy traffic. Seuss would take back the lead bringing Brown with him past Swartout as Bobby Hutchens was next to fall a lap behind as the leaders completed Lap 100.

You could tell the intensity was picking up by lap 115 as Brown was all over Seuss' back bumper looking for a way past and back into the top spot. Greg Butcher would be the first driver with a tire problem at Lap 111 as he would lose the left front Hoosier on his Clemmons Speed Shop #44. Butcher would limp around to pit road and the race would stay green. Nine laps later, Brian Pack would lose a left front tire as well and limp very slowly back to pit road but still no sign of a caution flag. Three laps later Brown and Seuss would split the lapped car of Earl Baker on the back stretch as Baker was in the middle lane and not really low enough for the leaders to pass him and two laps later Chuck Hossfeld would draw the caution as he backed his Hill Enterprises/Coors Light Pontiac into the outside wall just before the entrance to turn three.

Hossfeld and Jason Myers would hit pit road under this caution as L.W. Miller had slowly worked his way back forward and this caution worked to his advantage as he was able to close back up to the leaders. The restart would come at lap 130 as the lapped cars would double up to the inside lane with Brown leading the outside line with Seuss, Ward, Miller, Swartout, L.W. Miller and Brian King being the only seven cars on the lead lap.

At Lap 140 Tim Brown continued to show the way with Andy Seuss right on his back bumper. Just two laps later the final lead change would come as Seuss had a run to the inside of Brown's metallic blue #83 entering turn three and made slight contact with the left rear nerf bar and "moved" the six time Bowman Gray Champion up out of the lower groove and past him to take the lead.

Seuss would later say of the contact: "Well, it was probably worse looking than what I meant it to be you know? He got held up by a lapped car and he wasn't going to go around him either way so, I didn't mean to move him but he must have checked up and then I got hooked and I couldn't get off him and I hate to race Tim like that because Tim's always been an excellent competitor to me and always very clean so, but I guess I got to take it and we'll take our first win back to New Hampshire."

The final caution would fly on lap 149 as Brian Loftin would make hard contact with the turn three wall, with George Brunnhoelzl spinning in turn four. Loftin's L&R Transmissions, QMF Solutions #23 was heavily damaged from the right front corner to the right rear wheel and Loftin was visibly shaken on pit road after the event. Brian's father Bobby Loftin was also visibly upset with Chuck Hossfeld and reports were that Loftin met Hossfeld on pit road after the race, with Brian also joining in on the fracas that was later broken up by members of Tim Brown's crew, NASCAR officials and track officials. Both Hossfeld, the Hill crew, Bobby and Brian Loftin were seen leaving the NASCAR trailer after the race after two consecutive weeks of incidents involving the two drivers.

This would set up a NASCAR "Green, White, Checkered" finish with Seuss leading over Brown, L.W. Miller, (who had worked his way past Brandon Ward and Junior Miller) and Brian King.

When the green came out for the final restart, Seuss would pull a two car length lead over Brown who immediately dropped to the bottom of the track with some sort of electrical problem opening the door for L.W. to chase down Seuss for the win. But Miller could only close the gap to about a half second as the 20 year old driver from Hampstead, New Hampshire would win over L.W. Miller, Brandon Ward, Junior Miller, Brian King, Tim Brown and J. Wesley Swartout.

Later, Seuss would say he wasn't told of Brown's failure to get up to speed on the last restart: "Uhm, No, I didn't know he had problems on the radio. I didn't know any of that but, I just knew I just had to drive it as hard as I could. I've kind of got this theory that if I have a better car and I just drive it as hard as I can, they can't catch me so I don't have to worry about it."

In Victory Lane, a happy Andy Seuss climbed from his car and waved the Sunoco checkered flag, but the biggest surprise was the authentic Victory Lane guitar given to the winner. Andy would say from Victory Lane: "I tell ya, the best part of this is, over the winter we went down to New Smyrna and wrecked the car hard and these guys worked so hard to get it back together and we worked so hard, we came down here and we haven't changed the tire pressure or nothing and I knew I just had to save it and they put an awesome car under me to do that and I had it at the end. Me and Tim (Brown) were real matched and I guess I got to thank L.W. for messing with him and you know if the race was a little longer, L.W. might have been coming, but I'll take it any way."

When asked of his pre-race strategy to just ride it out and save tires: "Yeah well, I knew we going to ride, and Tim told me he was going to ride and then he jumped out front so I wanted to lead some laps too, I'd never done that so, did that then the 25 went out and then he really went out and then I wondered if it went green if I would have enough time to catch him so, I turned it on about halfway and then probably around 38 to go I think they told me "It's a Saturday night shootout, you and Tim, Go and you got to get it", so I was pretty much all out for that end and Tim got me and pushed me up into the marbles with the lapped cars so, we had to chase him down a little bit but you know, I'll take it and I just can't thank Rockingham Boat, Summit Signs and Manchester Urology enough you know? I'm living my dream out here and they gave us enough money to help out with the travel expenses and let us travel down here and represent them pretty good."

Two time and defending Whelen Southern Modified Tour driver Junior Miller would come home fourth in his Riggs Racing, Advance Auto Parts Dodge. "It was a pretty decent day. If we'd have had a little bit more bite in it, we'd have been a whole lot better off. We just rode along there for about 75 laps and then picked the pace up a little bit and it didn't take long for it to get loose. I just needed a little bit more cross-bite and we'd have had a car good enough to win the race if we just would have had a little bit more cross-bite in it." Miller would also add as the defending winner of last year's Greenville-Pickens event, "Yeah, we enjoyed that place and we're going to see if we can do the same thing we done last year."

Fifth place finisher Brian King is still trying to come to grasps with how and when to go on the worn out surfaces the WSMT races on. "It was definitely uh, I really like the track. It's just such a wore out place. It's hard to, I'm still adjusting to what I need for the race and still be able to get the car qualified even though this wasn't an impound race and we could do some things. But, I still haven't quite figured out how to make the car last the whole race without burning tires off but, neither did a lot of other guys when we came here. So, you know I enjoyed coming here. It's a little further than I'd like to go but it was fun to be here and come to a place like this and happy to come away from here with a 5th place finish and a whole car. I felt like I was running too slow but I just couldn't pick it up. It was lap 50 and I just couldn't pick it up. I felt like I knew I wasn't going to make it and then lap 100 came and I was still about in the same situation so, and we were starting to lap a bunch of cars so I was really expecting Burt and Jason and those guys to come flying by me at the end and then I look and they're in front of me so, I was kind of surprised by that but I didn't really know what to expect. I thought I had messed up by running too fast, too early. But, it worked out okay."

Next week, the Whelen Southern Modified Tour heads back to Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Greenville, South Carolina for a 150 lap event. Tire wear was the big story last year as Junior Miller led every lap en route to the victory over Tim Brown. When Brown came over to look at the right rear on Miller's #69, he was amazed at the amount of wear the tire did not show, while others struggled to hang on and commented they felt like they were on ice at the end of the event.

Bud Pole Qualifying will go off at 6 PM, on Saturday, April 7th. L.W. Miller continues to lead the WSMT Point standings over Burt Myers, Junior Miller, Tim Brown and Brian Loftin.

Mod Series Scene will be on hand with Live Updates and a post race report from Greenville-Pickens.