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RACING
NEWS
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| Reitenour Wins Race While Rival Miller Wins Championship | 
by Skip Wall
If you attended Sunday’s race at Hickory Motor Speedway for only 10.00 you got a bargain. If you didn’t attend the race you missed one heck of a race.
Ryan Miller and Megan Reitenour waged a fierce battle all year in the Super Cup Stock Car Series Championship battle. They closed out the season with another tough tussle in the Extreme Trophies 100 with only 32 points separating them, and Reitenour came away with the win and Miller taking the championship by less than ten points.
Miller, who came into the event needing only to finish three positions behind Reitenour or better to secure the title, was not content to put it on cruise control. He battled his fellow Ohio resident the first thirty laps until he took the lead from Reitenour.
The pair had come in contact on more than one occasion this year and they did, once again, in this final race. This time, contact between the two on lap 46 of the 100-lap event left Miller spinning in turn 2 and collected by Rock Harris. However Reitenour suffered a flat tire in the same incident.
Harris upset of the accident rammed over the Miller machine causing Miller to pit with steering box issues on the RJ Corman Railroad Group ride. Harris parked for the night and was even penalized for roughhousing on lap 4 of the event.
 On lap 62 Reitenour was inching her way back thru the field when she dumped Jimmie Crabtree Jr. coming off of turn four drawing the ire of race director Johnny James.
Reitenour herself faced a black flag and placed at the rear of the field.
Racing with a mission, it took only 22 laps for Reitenour to regain the lead on lap 84 passing Miller, who just pulled over and let her go. She would lead the rest of the way picking up her third win of the season.
“My spotter told me to let her by and concentrate on the championship since we were running in front of our sponsor. I would have liked to have won the race however this championship means the world to me” said a jubilant Miller who claimed this was his biggest night in the world of racing.
Not only winning the race, Reitenour also picked up the Rookie of the Year title.
 “I was on fire out there and wanted to win the championship but I came up a little short” said Reitenour in victory lane.
“I turned Crabtree around and I apologize for that and I also got into the 71 (Miller) but that’s just racing. I was just going for the win just like they were.”
Miller finished second, followed by Rob Jones, Crabtree and Mike Williams. Williams has finished in the top five for the last three straight races.
For Crabtree who has visited victory lane this year, he wasn’t very sentimental.
“That’s the way it was again this year. I got took out. That track is not a one groove track and I was giving her room but was protecting the bottom. She just needs to learn about passing on the outside. I would have taken her back out if I hadn’t burned all the rubber off my tires. But im a better man than that, and she was going for a championship and I didn’t want to get involved. Plus there is always next year if we can get the series to run closer to home” he said.
Jody “Hurricane” Harrison won the pole but only led the first lap before being tagged by Harris which also took out Iowa resident Jeremy Miller.
 Harrison had some other spins and even backed into the wall, however he recovered to an eighth place finish. But he was still all smiles after the race.
“I started on the pole and it all went downhill from there” he says smiling.
“I thought I had a flat tire but all the body mounts were broke and it made the car wobble. We still had a great time and can’t wait for next year.”
There were 13 cautions in the event, and four were caused by Brian Harrison spinning in turn two.
In winning his first championship, Miller had nothing but praise for his Lonnie Rush Enterprises team and his sponsor Rick Corman pictured below.
“We finished every race this year and finished no worse than fifth. And to me that means a lot from this team” he said.
“I think gaining a lot of experience is what has helped me the most. We really came on strong in winning those two races back to back. I learned in the end to be more patient and to take care of these heavy cars.”
“I was concerned when the 92 (Reitenour) turned me about mid point, but I kept my cool” he said referring to the spin with Reitenour and Harris. “So when she caught back up I just let her by since I was the better person in the incident. That’s all right, it came out good.”
Miller says that this championship really gets a jump start on his career. He isn’t sure what he will do next year however he is looking at the Camping World East of NASCAR or the ARCA Series. He would like to keep the Rush Enterprises team intact however a lot depends on the sponsorship dollars and whether or not his owners and sponsors will allow him to move to another series.
For series director Joe Schmaling, he is one happy man in completing his first season as a director of a new series.
“I can’t be more happy. I am very satisfied where the Super Cup Series is at. We started at Hickory, the birthplace of stars, and we finished here. I would like to keep it that way. In fact we ended up in this race with 4 more cars than we had last year here for the exhibition race. To me and the sluggish economy, that is an accomplishment within itself” said a relieved Schmaling. “We will start working on next season within the next two weeks” he says.
While the Super Cup race was all about the youth, it was far more a different story in the ISCARS series’ twin 75 lap races sharing the same billing.
Cordova AL driver Danny Bagwell won both races. He is a 19 year veteran of the series formally called the Goodys Dash Series.
In the first race he overtook former USAR driver, Randy Humphrey, with less than five laps to go and pulled away. Rounding out the top five was former Daytona 500 winner Geoff Bodine, Gary Young and Brad Queen.
In the second race he bested Bodine, Ned Combs, Johnson and Young.
 That race wasn’t without controversy as well. In the first race, young female driver Chelsea Schilling got spun by Bodine early in the race. However she recovered to finish ninth in the 75 lap race.
In the second race Young tangled with Humphrey and both tagged the wall hard. Both blamed each other for the incident which took awhile to load up Humphreys car.
The races finished both seasons for the Dash and Super Cup.
ISCARS director Randy Claypool, hinted that the series will have a 16 race schedule for next year and some possible changes on the cars for next season.
While the race was delayed a day for inclement weather, the crowd may have been light with not much advertising with the rainout, however fans had no idea of what a show this day put on that included a mini-concert and a stunt show with Hollywood Stuntman James Smith. All for a mere 10.00.
Unofficial Results of Extreme Trophies 100
Super Cup Stock Cars
1. Megan Reitenour, Miamisburg OH
2. Ryan Miller, South Charleston OH
3. Rob Jones, Hagerstown MD
4. Jimmie Crabtree Jr. Muncie IN
5. Mike Williams, Conover NC
6. Brian Harrison, Rennick WV
7. Larry Wilcox, Denver NC
8. Jody Harrison, Rennick WV
9. Harvey Harrison, Rennick WV
10. Rock Harris, Yadkinville NC
11. Kevin Kromer, Walnut Creek PA
12. Ricky Gillespie, Floyd VA
13. Jeremy Miller, Fairfield IA
14. Todd Peck, Glenville PA
15. Keith Wolfe, Glenville PA
Unofficial Results of 1st ISCARS Race 75 laps
1. Danny Bagwell
2. Randy Humphrey
3. Geoff Bodine
4. Gary Young Jr.
5. Brad Queen
6. Brandon Burris
7. Ned Combs
8. Matt Johnson
9. Chelsea Schilling
10. Joey Jones
11. Jason Shultz
12. Ben Walker
Unofficial Results of 2nd ISCARS Race 75 laps
1. Danny Bagwell
2. Geoff Bodine
3. Ned Combs
4. Matt Johnson
5. Gary Young Jr.
6. Brad Queen
7. Randy Humphrey
8. Chelsea Schilling
9. Ben Walker
10. Brandon Burris
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