Sophia, NC - When you ask most Southern Modified fans which driver has the last name of "Miller" they're most likely going to respond with the name of 2 time WSMT Champion, Junior Miller. But here lately, there's been another driver with the same last name (albeit not related) that has been grabbing all the attention and headlines from the "King of the Southern Modifieds." Thirty four year old Dunshore, Pennsylvania driver L.W. Miller took home his third win of the 2007 Whelen Southern Modified Tour Friday night at Caraway Speedway, and his fourth straight victory at the 4/10th's mile track just off NC Route 64 in Sophia, North Carolina.

The heat index Friday afternoon played havoc with the drivers who were working on long runs and complaining of a slick track surface so much that NASCAR officials halted practice twice in search of fluid many drivers said was on the track, but could not be found.

Bud Pole Qualifying would retain its status quo with Walnut Cove, North Carolina's Burt Myers continuing to keep his name in the 2007 record books with his fifth straight pole of the season. Second quick was Brian Loftin, returning after a two race break with a brand new, crimson red L & R Transmission Chevrolet, and third was Tim Brown, who was celebrating his 36th birthday and would re-draw the pole for the feature.

2006 Whelen Modified Tour Rookie of the Year James Civali was making his first Whelen Southern Modified Tour start at the wheel of Roger and Sandra Hill's Coors Light, Le Bleu Water Pontiac and would re-draw the number two pill after timing in 5th quick in his first visit to Caraway.

The race would take the green flag just after 8 PM with Tim Brown getting the early jump on Civali and lead lap one. But Civali had plans of his own and took the lead away from Brown as the field completed lap number two. Maybe the first lap was Civali's little birthday gift to the driver of the Hayes Jewelers #83?

Civali would break away from the rest of the field and lead the single file procession through the early laps with Brown still holding second, Brian Loftin third, L.W. Miller fourth and Burt Myers rounding out the top five.

Winston-Salem's Dean Ward was behind the wheel of the late Rusty Harpe's #71 modified that he purchased from Earl Baker before his untimely death and Ward dropped to pit road with what looked to be overheating problems on lap 28. The week was filled with salutations to Rusty as Caraway hosted a big event in Rusty's honor on Wednesday night. Dean would have a strong run on Sunday in the same car during the ASA Southern Modified Tour event at Friendship before getting tangled up with lapped traffic, taking him out of the top five.

The rundown at lap 30 still showed James Civali leading over Tim Brown, Brian Loftin and L.W. Miller, Burt Myers fifth with Frank Fleming, Junior Miller, Brian King, Bobby Hutchens and Brian Pack rounding out the top ten.

The first pass among the leaders didn't come until lap 37 when Brian Loftin made a power move on the outside of Tim Brown for second and two laps later took the lead from James Civali with a similar outside pass on Lap 39.

Civali would drop back to fourth by lap 40 with Loftin still showing the way over L.W. Miller, Burt Myers, Civali and Tim Brown fifth. Everybody else just seemed to be riding in a single file procession saving their tires and equipment for later in the race.

Junior Miller would make his move on Civali for fifth on lap 43, while Loftin and L.W. would put on an epic side by side battle for the lead with L.W. taking over on lap 46. This would be the final lead change of the night as L.W. took command of the event from this point forward.

At lap 50, L.W. would show the way over Brian Loftin, Burt Myers, and Frank Fleming with Junior Miller fifth. Sixth through tenth were James Civali, Brian King, Tim Brown, Bobby Hutchens and Jason Myers. Also at Lap 50, Brain Pack would bring his Showtime Video and Tanning # 81 to pit road and retire with overheating problems.

Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender J. Wesley Swartout would be the first car to go one lap down at Lap 56 with part time runner Jay Mize being the next at Lap 61.

The rundown at Lap 60 had L.W. Miller holding a steady car length lead over Brian Loftin, Burt Myers, Frank Fleming and Junior Miller. Brian King was sixth, followed by Tim Brown, James Civali, Bobby Hutchens and Jason Myers.

By lap 70, L.W. looked as though he was toying with the field as he opened up about an eight car length lead over Brian Loftin, who was holding a four car length lead over Burt Myers, Frank Fleming and Junior Miller running in a tight pack and all racing for the third through fifth positions.

James Civali would continue to lose ground back to eighth position at Lap 75 with a very loose race car. "I guess we started the race too free and you know, used the tires up without even trying to. The car was too good in the beginning and about lap 75 the car just started falling off and started getting real, real free and you know I was praying for a caution."

Nashville winner Andy Seuss would fall a lap down on Lap 76 and a lap later would park his Manchester Urology, Rockingham Boat number 70 with handling problems. "The car just wouldn't go" commented Seuss after the event. Seuss' team loaded up early and was the first hauler out of the track headed back north to New Hampshire to get Andy to Monadnock in time to run a True Value event on Saturday.

L.W. would continue to show the strength of his John Baker Plumbing and Utilities Pontiac as he opened up a half straightaway lead over Loftin, Frank Fleming, Burt Myers and Junior Miller by Lap 80. L.W. Miller commented after the race about his cat and mouse game with Loftin during the race's early stages "I typically wouldn't have gone as hard as I did at the beginning but the car was just so good, I just said "Well, I'm going to go ahead and go" because I was still riding and I could pull away. Brian Loftin would get to me and they'd say "He's within five cars" and I'd just push the car a little bit harder and drive away and then they'd say "Okay, you got ten cars on him" and then I'd ride for a little while more. I mean, the car was just on a rail."

By lap 100 it looked to be a three car breakaway with L.W. Miller holding a steady lead over Brian Loftin with Frank Fleming holding down third and a healthy lead over the next five cars running in a group. As Fleming would cross the Start/Finish line, fourth place car Burt Myers and company would just be entering turn three.

Of course, with it being the Fourth of July, you can't have an Independence Day celebration without fireworks. Any time you get Junior Miller and a driver with the last name of "Myers" relatively close to each other on the race track; it's a pretty safe bet sparks are going to fly. Miller was working over Burt Myers just past the 100 lap mark as Burt was trying to hold on to a very loose race car. Of course, Burt is also known for making his black and orange Chevrolet very wide at times and Miller would not waste any time in letting the young Myers know he was holding up his progress to the front.

Miller would look high and try to swoop low underneath Burt numerous times as the two raced for the fourth and fifth positions. Laps 107 and 108 were the lighting of the fuse as Miller continuously laid heavier and heavier hits to the rear of Myers' black #1. As the two exited turn four on lap 109, the signature pyrotechnic "Boom!" everybody was waiting for finally went off as Burt looked to have stomped on the brake pedal while exiting turn four, which in turn sent the two time champion behind him sliding towards the inside concrete wall on the front stretch. The crowd stood in unison as Miller saved his Riggs Racing Dodge, but lost three positions to Brian King, Tim Brown and Bobby Hutchens.

Brian King, who had advanced to fifth because of the incident, had a front row seat and explained what he saw after the race. "Burt was motioning Junior to the outside and I don't know if Junior's car was too loose or whatever, he just didn't want to go to the outside. So, I don't really know. I was just trying to stay out of it, but Burt said he really didn't brake check him. He just didn't get in the gas and bunched us all up. But, you know Junior's usually a pretty aggressive driver and I know they've had bad blood before so, you know I was just trying to stay out of the way so I didn't get gathered up in whatever wreck there was, because I knew there was going to be one. But, I just don't think Junior's car was good enough to go to the outside where Burt wanted him to go and that was the only piece of track he was going to give him. It could have been huge because Tim got into me and busted my bumper and could have very easily knocked my suspension off. I ended up shooting Junior out of line because I couldn't get stopped and Tim hit me and you know, it could have collected us all because I'm thinking there were 5 or 6 cars nose to tail right there with us and Burt was kind of holding us all up a little bit but you know he's been doing this a long time and he knows how to make what he's got last."

After Miller regrouped his car, King set off after Burt for the fourth spot, but on lap 116 he would get loose entering turn one as Tim Brown got into the back of the Adams Towing and Recovery #17. "I was really battling loose in the center and Tim, if I could run my line and run my groove and get smooth, I could pull off from Tim. But if I caught somebody or caught Burt, he would start changing the way I had to drive and that would allow Tim to catch me. If he got into me, and I think he was so crazy loose, he was about to lose it when he bumped me and that's the thing, you're so loose you can't put a bumper on anybody. We all just guessed it was going to be tighter than it was, and then we were all surprised."

This would set off a chain reaction incident in turns one and two as King checked up to save his sideways car, with Brown already sideways due to the contact and Bobby Hutchens coming in with nowhere to go and making contact with Brown's metallic blue #83 sending Brown into the spin cycle.

Just before this caution, Jason Myers and surprise top ten runner Brandon Hire had worked the outside groove around James Civali who had been dropped back to 12th. This caution is what Civali needed as Burt Myers, Junior Miller, Tim Brown, Civali and Bobby Hutchens hit pit road to make tire pressure adjustments. Hutchens would win the race off pit road with Burt Myers, James Civali, Junior Miller and Tim Brown following.

The race's next restart would only go one lap as J. Wesley Swartout would lose control of his HIK Motorsports #26 off turn two and come to a rest in the middle of the back stretch without contact on Lap 123. Under this caution, George Brunnhoelzl and Rich Kuiken, Jr. hit pit road service as the field lined up for another restart.

Race leader L.W. Miller would comment about the track conditions during these restarts "When the caution came out at Lap 120, I really didn't want to see a caution because I'd said "Boy if thing goes green all the way, we're killing them." Unfortunately, when the caution came out at Lap 120, by that time, we'd run so hard for so long there was a ton of rubber on the race track and riding around under caution I got crap built up on the rear tires and I just couldn't get in the gas there for about three or four laps after that first restart and I think that, there was one more restart but that gave Loftin a chance a run up under me and he got loose just because the track at that point was pretty slick."

The race went back green on lap 126 with Brian Loftin applying heavy pressure to the back of Miller's Pontiac. But on Lap 130 his chances for taking the win after two races off ended up on top of the curb at the bottom of turn four as he let his car roll to the bottom of the track after spinning from contact with the rear bumper of the #36 car. Loftin would also lose a lap trying to rock his car back and forth off the heavy curb. "I wasn't gonna wreck him by any means, I don't want to wreck anybody but he's doing what he's trying to do to win as far as blocking a little bit and slowing down a little bit extra getting into the corner expecting me to hit him so you know, moving him a little bit is one thing. But No, I would have never wrecked him. He was doing what he had to do. He's a great race car driver and he deserved to win."

This would move Frank Fleming to second with 15 laps to go. The green flag restarted the race on lap 135 and things really started to get interesting when James Civali dove to the very bottom on the backstretch taking it three wide between himself and the lapped car of Jay Mize, with Zach Brewer to his outside. Brewer, a former Goody's Dash Series competitor, was making his first Whelen Southern Modified Tour start aboard a new black and red #18 Troyer chassis car, and had a made a previous start at the ASA Southern Tour race at Hickory Motor Speedway a few weeks earlier. Civali amazingly pulled off that move and set off after the blue and white #31 of Gene Pack who was next in line. But as the two cars exited turn four on lap 136, Gene Pack's car was turned hard right into the outside concrete wall as Civali dove low after making slight contact with the Lowe's Home Improvement car. "We finally got a caution there at the end and changed the car a lot and changed a whole bunch of stuff and came back from the back and fought a little bit with those lapped cars that were running the middle of the track and stuff and got around them and once we got up to the top six or five we couldn't do much more. We were running out of tire and I couldn't even push the gas anymore down the straightaway" commented Civali after the race. Pack's night would come to an end after making another lap around the track while not being able to steer his car with the heavy right front damage to the suspension.

Frank Fleming started thinking of his younger days while running second to L.W. in the race's closing stages. "I've still got a lot of fire left in me and I drove my heart out tonight and a lot of people who would have seen me 15 years ago know I would have put the bumper to L.W. I know I would have, but things are different today. This is a Class A act here. L.W. is a super driver. He's never roughed me up and I'm not here for that, now. I want to win. I think I made the grandstands stand up and cheer for me tonight to try and pass him and that's what I wanted to do. I had a chance and I took a chance of losing the second spot to Brian King but that's how bad I wanted to win. I took that chance and I felt if there weren't about four or five laps left if he had gotten up alongside me I could have run him hard on the outside for a couple laps and we wouldn't have fallen back no further than third or fourth so I was just happy to be competitive."

The race's final caution came at lap 141 as Brian Loftin and Bobby Hutchens got together in turns three and four, ending Loftin's night as he was pushed back to the pit area by a wrecker after not being able to re-fire his red #23 car. Hutchens pulled away with no damage and resumed as the last car on the lead lap.

While not quite a Green, White, Checkered finish, L.W. took the race's final green flag at Lap 146 with Fleming giving chase, followed by Brian King, Jason Myers and Brandon Hire fifth. James Civali, Tim Brown, Burt Myers, Zach Brewer and Junior Miller rounded out the top 10.

At the end L.W. Miller would win his fourth straight Whelen Southern Modified Tour race at Caraway holding off Frank Fleming, Brian King, Brandon Hire and James Civali. Sixth through tenth were Tim Brown, Burt Myers, Jason Myers, Zach Brewer and Bobby Hutchens. Junior Miller was the last car on the lead lap in eleventh.

With this win, L.W. Miller reclaims the lead in the Whelen Southern Modified Tour point standings over Junior Miller with Burt Myers third, Tim Brown fourth and Jason Myers fifth. Zach Brewer took home the PowerAde "Power Move of the Race" Award for his move forward from the 20th position to come home ninth, while Tim Brown won the Featherlite "Most Improved Driver" Award for improving his finishing position from the last WSMT event by 9 positions. Thomas Stinson won the Sunoco Rookie of the Race award.

In Victory Lane, L.W. talked about his night. "We had a great race car tonight. We had a real good car. The 23 was real good. I could pull away and they'd tell me when he was catching up and I could pull away again. The car is awesome. I mean, Baker Motorsports....I tell you what they got me in an awesome piece, we've come here three times this year and win. What an awesome race track, all these guys on this crew have had two and a half months off and we made it back and they came back strong as always. It's just an awesome race car and I got to thank all these great people for coming out. Thank the good lord for letting us all live in America here on the Fourth of July weekend, and thanks all these guys that we race against, good clean race and thanks to the Hackett's for an awesome race track and letting us come race here and I just can't say enough about Baker Motorsports. Jimmy and Danny Baker and all the guys on this team, they work their butts off."

Miller also added "Frank, I've got to congratulate him. He had a great run. The 23 car had a good run at me. Frank would run hard at me for about a lap and a half and then I could pull him a bit. We have an awesome race team. We work hard at it and I guess you know it just pays off. I love racing at this place. I love racing at all the tracks we go to but Caraway's always been my track, you know? So, I just can't those guys enough. Rupert Sink and James Sink they stepped up and sponsored us. Sink Tower Erection for this race and Bimco Supply was also a sponsor for this race. So you know, picking up some sponsors here and there. So, it's been a real good season. Other than Greenville, we've had the best season anybody could ever ask for."

Second Place finisher Frank Fleming was pleased to improve from his last finish at Caraway. "Yeah, we put on a good show, the car did. I want to thank Patterson Automotive Group out of Mount Airy for staying with me for so many years like they have and Pro Health Center; they've been with me for several years, too. But this team and crew have worked hard. They've put me a good car together and the last time we were down here we put on a good show but we started from 15th and we finished 4th I believe, but we made it up to second. But tonight, I just sit there and run a good hard pace and I got to start 5th. I tried to save my tires but I hurt my right front a little bit too much, but I kept my right rear under me and that was okay. L.W. had slowed and he give me the outside, I got up there but I just couldn't pick my throttle up. That thing was pushing. I'm sure a lot of ya'll were trying to help me get around him but that right front just wouldn't holding up. I want to congratulate him; he put on a good show. It ain't bad to run second to him and the team that he's got, the car he's got and the driver he is so, we done okay. We'll come back next time and try to win it again." When I asked him about his improvement from his last WSMT finish in the Spring, Fleming added "I expected to run for the win, and that's what we did. I wanted to be a car in contention to win this race. If we can keep putting ourselves in contention to win, we will win. You know, I'm smart enough to know that. L.W. and them boys got a class act; he's one heck of a driver. He's young, they got great equipment, hey, he's hard to outrun and this sport is getting tougher and tougher. Really, to run in the top five is an accomplishment. You don't know it but there's eight or ten cars that can win on any given night at one of these races. It used to be there was four or five cars and if I didn't run in the top five I'd had a bad night. But a lot of nights, I'd run a competitive eighth, ninth or tenth. You know, everybody has just stepped it up with these cars. The knowledge is out there, the engine people are here. It's just hard to win. I was just glad I had my chance."

Third Place finisher Brian King continues to learn how to save his equipment for the long run on the worn our surfaces the WSMT races on. "We really thought we were going to have a better car than that. It just got a little too loose and we had to go into defensive mode and actually everything worked out. Some cars fell out. Maybe we'll get them next time. Congratulations to L.W. he had a heck of a car. I'd like to thank Adams Towing, Little Gym, Davis Harley Davidson and Brogden Cars and Limos. I really would liked to have seen a caution 50 laps sooner to cool my tires off and kind of get everything back under me but, that long run kind of hurt us. But you know, what threw us off a little bit was, last year at this same race the track actually tightened up at night. But, for whatever reason it looked like everybody guessed it was going to tighten up because there were so many of us that were loose. So, I think we all just guessed the wrong way and we should have just done what we always do when we come to Caraway and make sure it's pushing in the middle. That's probably my fault, but I was judging off of last season and evidently, Caraway is just going to be Caraway."

Fourth Place finisher Brandon Hire comes home with his best career WSMT finish. "We came in this evening and I hadn't drove in eight months. We were really tickled to finish the way we did. We started 11th but I felt we had a better car than what we qualified at but it's been a while so I was a little timid in qualifying and we knew we were in the show as long as we made a lap. So, we started 11th, and we just kind of pick and choose a little spot here and there and dodged a wreck and missed a few of them and come to the end of the race we had a pretty good car. I wish we would have been up there doing it for the win. I felt like we had a car that could have been possibly there but just came up a little but short but I'm really, really thrilled about it."

When I asked him if the finish was good for better reference in the future, he had this to add. "Yeah, absolutely. I definitely learned tonight patience, and tire management. These cars are so easy to burn the back tires off of them. I'm used to a Late Model stock car, little bit harder tire, little bit less motor and these things are just a different animal and really on these long runs you've got to be patient with it and exercise that. Tonight, thanks to my crew chief and my spotter calming me down and hopefully this will carry over to the next time we run."

Finally, fifth place finisher James Civali and his remarks about Caraway. "Oh it's a cool place. It's a real fun place. It's just a tire eater. You just can't keep tires under it. If they went to a little bit harder tire like we run up north on the tour, it'd be a lot better but everybody's trying to conserve tires the whole race and that's how you get that 110 lap green flag run because everybody's just riding. So, at the end I guess it was good racing with everybody trying to get back to the front in a hurry but I just had no tire left. I just used it up at the end trying to get back to the front at the end and that's all we could do."

When I asked him to clear the air for the northern fans that will start the rumor mill about him and his WMT car owner Don King splitting up, Civali added, "No. I mean Don was excited that I was going to run this. He wanted me to get into another car. Because we, Don and David Hill they talk all the time about car setup and everything and they struggled with Hossfeld on the setup and Woody hasn't really been on the tour car yet so, it's good for me to get into the car almost for him to try and see if the car is really good or if they were struggling with the setup because we've been trying to help them setup the car and David all along said that he didn't think it was the setup, it was just that he was struggling with the driver getting used to the car. So, we're trying to make sure Woody adapts quickly and it's good for me to get into another car and its good experience for all of us, really. We're really happy in the 28 car. I couldn't ask for more. I mean, we've been running for a while with them and hopefully we can get the championship this year. We're trying, we didn't have a very good run at Loudon but we're trying to get back up there. The 28's been real good. Every week we come to the track and the car is good. I mean off the truck, the car's perfect. We haven't had any problems with that car all year, just that driveshaft broke on us at Loudon and that was a tough deal and every week, we've been fast. Stafford, Thompson we're really strong at. We're really strong at Thompson but we got a flat tire the last time we were at Thompson but the 28 car's been on for us every race. You can't ask for much more than that."

Civali would go on to win the Whelen Modified Tour event at Twin State Speedway on Sunday, while Burt Myers would dominate the ASA Southern Modified Tour event at Friendship Motor Speedway.

The next Whelen Southern Modified Tour event is at the historic Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina for the Advance Auto Parts 199 weekend. Friday Night, August 3rd the Whelen Southern Modified Tour will hold its Budweiser Pole Qualifying session, while the regular Whelen All American Series Modifieds will have a 50 lap feature event. Also on hand will be the Legends, Bandoleros and Thunder Roadsters from the INEX Racing Series.

Saturday Night, August 4th Bowman Gray will host the Advance Auto Parts 199 for the Whelen Southern Modified Tour and a 40 lap race for the weekly Bowman Gray Sportsman division. Jason Myers is the defending champion of the Advance Auto Parts 199. Mod Series Scene will be on hand with Live Updates from Bowman Gray on both Friday and Saturday night, and yours truly will be in the spotter's stand Friday night working with modified driver Jeremy Stoltz.

Be sure to come by and say hello after the night's events.