ROOKIE DRIVER CODY PRUITT TAKES FIRST NASCAR LATE MODEL WIN AT MESA MARIN

Source: Dave Grayson
Date: 06/13/2005

Evidence that this second, 40 lap, main event might be intensive came the very moment the green flag was dropped. Robby McLaughlin, starting on the outside pole, was reported to have missed a gear shift just as the green flag flew. The result was a bottleneck in traffic that led to a seven car pile up in turn one.

With the track cleared, and the race underway again, A J Destefani came out of the front row to take the point for the first seven laps before Josh Horn passed him. Horn appeared to be strong but he had Roy W. Degeer, a two-time winner this year, coming at him. Degeer landed on Horn's bumper on lap 10. Their pace was slowed by a lap 18 caution due to a crash involving Jeff Destefani.

On the restart Degeer passed Horn to lead the 23d but slid high in turn four, the following lap, which allowed Horn and Brian Richardson to get around him. Richardson got around Horn just as the next caution flag came out due to a turn three crash involving the cars of McLaughlin, Mike Alexander and Travis Newsom. The race was then red flagged to allow emergency officials to tend to an engine fire in Newsom's car.

Richardson led the field at the lap 27 restart; Degeer made quick work of passing Horn for second and the battle for the lead was on. However, the drama connected with this race was not quite over. With four laps to go Degeer pulled his Ford to the inside of Richardson's Chevrolet in an attempt to take the lead. The two cars lightly touched each other in turn one and Richardson went spinning around. Degeer, with Horn right behind him, drove through the incident only to find himself on the receiving end of a bump by Horn that resulted in both cars spinning through turns three and four. Degeer and Horn wound up at the tail end of the lead lap cars while Richardson took his car behind the wall.

All this while a very patient Cody Pruitt had been firmly entrenched in the top five and watched his competitors ahead of him beat and bang on each other. Pruitt found himself in the lead, during a green-white-checker finish, with Eric Richardson, who won the first of the twin main events earlier, right on his bumper. A good restart allowed Pruitt to get just enough breathing room to run out the final three laps for his first NASCAR Late Model win. Richardson hung onto second while Kyle McDermott, Jeff Smith and Mike Lay completed the top five.

Traditionally speaking race fans tend to love the sight of a first time winner and when Pruitt climbed out of his McMillian Homes and Realty Chevrolet in victory lane the fans really showed him their appreciation.

After the race the very excited winner said, "we had a great night, everything just went our way. We've had some bad luck this year and now finally it's coming together for us. It's a blast, I'm so thrilled right now I can't explain it."

Eric Richardson was especially pleased with his second place finish tonight in light of the fact that he was one of the seven cars that was involved in the lap one crash. He had to bring his car to pit road twice, during the caution flag, to have jagged sheet metal cut away and duct tape patches placed on the trunk lid. When the race restarted one lengthy piece of duct tape worked its way loose and flew behind the car like a giant kite tail.

Commenting on turning disaster into a second place finish, Richardson said "first off, congratulations to Cody. I got up next to him and he stuck in there and drove real clean. He had a good car tonight and he deserved that. I had to make two pit stops and work my way from the back and my crew never gave up on me."

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