Sean Rayhall Celebrates First Career Win at Caraway Speedway
Monday, July 30th, 2012
Drew Hierwarter photos
Asheboro, NC (7/28/12) –Sean Rayhall and his team, under the guidance of Tom Pistone, celebrated a UARA-STARS victory for the first time following the Racing Electronics 150 event at Caraway Speedway Saturday night. Rayhall’s win was certainly what the young driver needed as he is still recuperating from his Legends Car wreck at Charlotte Motor Speedway in June.
After qualifying second, Rayhall floated in the top five for the entire race. Four-time Caraway track champion Travis Swaim jumped out front early and led the majority of the race earning the Tilton Most Laps Led Award. At the restart of the second to last caution Swaim got the jump on Rayhall. The two were neck-in-neck for an entire lap, but once Rayhall got out front it was smooth sailing to the finish. Not only was this Rayhall’s first career win, he was also awarded the Circle Wheel/Xtreme Trophy Rookie of the Race award.
While the crowd was watching those two swap paint, the Bassett Brothers and Ben Rhodes were also putting on a good show. The three cars were battling for 3rd position when Ronnie Bassett Jr. turned Rhodes around on the backstretch. Ronnie Bassett Jr. and Rhodes had made contact earlier in the race and both drivers were warned by UARA officials about the contact. Rhodes made a clean 360 degrees turn and blended back into the top five while Bassett Jr. was black flagged and pulled his car off the track.
Devin Jones won his first career Sunoco Pole but it didn’t come without significant effort on the part of his crew. Jones had suffered his third engine failure in as many race weekends during practice on Friday. The team took the car back to their shop for an engine swap and returned on Saturday morning ready to get the job done. Jones floated around the top five all night. Jones was awarded Pigwire’s Electrifying Move of the Race for his ability to hold on to his racecar during some three-wide racing with Dillon and Ronnie Bassett, Jr.
Rookie challengers Brodie Kostecki and Brandon Jones had a rough night during the Racing Electronics 150. Brandon Jones made contact with teammate Will Gallaher during the parade laps of the race. The field was setting pit road speed, when Jones ran into the back of Gallaher. Jones made several visits to the pits and seemed to never fully recover all night. Kostecki brought out the first caution when he spun in turn two. Although he was able to fire his machine back up and drive it to pit road, his numerous visits to pit road left him many laps down.
Trey Marcham had a rough night as well giving the fans a big scare. As he was coming down the front stretch, his motor broke resulting in a fire under the hood. Marcham safely exited his car, but was done for the night.
For more information on the UARA-STARS, visit them online at www.uara-stars.com or call (828) 692-3833. Fans are also encouraged to “like” them on Facebook under the United Auto Racing Association and follow them on Twitter @uarastars.
