Myers captures Whelen’s 500th race

Published: September 20, 2008

MARTINSVILLE — Burt Myers passed Ryan Preece on lap 221 and appeared to be the one to challenge the dominant car of the race.

With the caution coming out, however, Myers was relegated to move back to second and found himself further back from Preece as the field began to spread out.

Myers knew he could pass Preece, but catching up to him was a whole different story.

Myers, who won his first race of the season just eight days prior, caught and passed Preece on lap 271 and pulled away to win the Made In America Whelen 300 on Saturday at Martinsville Speedway, the 500th race in Whelen Series history.

The win by the Walnut-Cove, N.C., native was the first win by a Southern Modified driver at Martinsville since the southern and northern drivers began competing together back in 2005.

“The 3 car looked like, the longer we ran under green, he started to lose his handling a little bit and that played into my favor,” Myers said about Preece.

Myers’ victory spoiled what was looking like a perfect day for Preece. The 17-year-old driver led 265 laps, pulling away from the rest of the field in the first half and most of the second half, but on a couple of restarts, Myers was able to stick with Preece, who earlier in the day sat on the pole.

“It was a long race I could say the least. Getting passed at the end, man, that’s a way to lose,” said Preece. “The track kind of changed on us.”

The race featured 16 caution flags, forcing the race to go longer and allow shade to cover most of the track by the time Myers took the checkered flag.

Overall, Myers led twice for 35 laps to make him and Preece the only drivers to lead the race. Matt Hirschman started 10th and came home third to extend his streak of top-10 finishes to six.

“I’m really happy with how we raced. We fought hard and worked hard to get up to where we did,” Hirschman said. “Those were some hard earned spots we gained.”

Rounding out the top 10 were Reggie Ruggiero, Ted Christopher, Todd Szegedy, Woody Pitkat, Edward Flemke Rowan Pennink and Brian Loftin.