Sophia, NC (September 22nd, 2007) - Perseverance. It's word most race drivers know all too well. It's a word you use to lift yourself up when times are down. When your luck continues to run into walls and every road looks like a dead end.

Brian Loftin knows all too well what the word means. After winning four events in the Whelen Southern Modified Tour's inaugural season, he surprisingly went winless in 2006. After destroying a brand new race car in the Tour's third event at Nashville's Music City Motorplex in April, his frustration was at a breaking point. Loftin made front page news with his post race altercation with Chuck Hossfeld and his team. NASCAR sat the thirty year old driver and his father down in the trailer after the race and followed it up with a monetary fine soon afterwards. Loftin loaded up his destroyed car and with his family and team took a few weeks off to regroup and refocus. Rumors started to swirl that the he was going to hang it up.

His first trip back to the race track was at the Friendship Motor Speedway in Elkin, North Carolina in a car that Loftin's father-in-law had purchased from David Pinnix. The car had strong runs with its previous driver Brandon Ward, and with Ward redirecting his focus to the Hooters Pro Cup Series, the Loftin’s and Clarence "Clev" Rierson invested in a car that had the potential to bring him back to the forefront of southern modified racing. That first race saw an early exit with an overheating problem, but had him running strongly in the top five before the issue had developed.

Fast forward to the car's next start in August at the Advance Auto Parts 199 at Bowman Gray Stadium. Loftin qualified fourth quick in Rierson's blue QMF Metal and Electronic Solutions #23 and was in contention for the win until a late race tangle with then leader Frank Fleming ended his night in eleventh spot. By the time Loftin and his team got to Martinsville Speedway for the Whelen Made in America 300, Loftin sent a clear message to the Whelen Modified Tour regulars that his brand new crimson red L&R Transmission #23 would be a contender to be dealt with, as he qualified 10th and was running solidly with the leaders before the Lap 80 melee in turn one ended his night against Martinsville's SAFER Barrier.

The following Monday after Martinsville, he qualified eighth quick in Rierson's car at Ace Speedway and brought home a top three finish. Momentum was on his side. He qualified fifth at the next Caraway race before electrical problems ended his night on lap 6. So, when his team unloaded his familiar crimson red #23 at Caraway this week, the word perseverance had quickly come to mind.

Loftin drew eight in the qualifying order and proceeded to break Burt Myers' track record that he set in the Tour's season opening event in March. Usually, when someone breaks a track record (which has been the case three times this year) the speeds improved dramatically. Tim Brown's new qualifying record at Bowman Gray, and Frank Fleming's run just the week before at Southern National quickly come to mind. But Loftin only squeaked by Myers' record by .009 seconds and .06 MPH.

Current WSMT point leader L.W. Miller would time in second quick with Burt Myers third, Tim Brown and Jason Myers rounding out the top five. Loftin would redraw fourth, with Frank Fleming drawing the pole with Tim Brown to his outside. Burt Myers redrew third, Junior Miller fifth, followed by Jason Myers, George Brunnhoelzl, III and WSMT point leader L.W. Miller starting tenth.

With all his championship adversaries starting in front of him, I asked L.W. Miller during the pre-race autograph session what was going through his mind, and if his brake problems from Southern National were cured. "Same thing. I mean, I've got to approach this race just like I've approached every other race and try to win. Winning races is what got us in this position this year so, yeah. I've got to be careful and be safe. The race car's awesome and we're doing real well in qualifying. The last two races up here we've qualified second. We're creeping up on it and I've just got to go out there and take my time and pick my way to the front and try to come out of here with a win tonight. I hope we've got our brake issues fixed after last week. That was definitely a long race but the car's working great. Jimmy Baker, hat's off. He does an awesome job preparing this car and it's awesome."

Tim Brown, who is currently chasing L.W. for the championship, added his prerace thoughts. "It's a long race and it's a 150 laps and we've just got to try and be there at the end and try to win this thing and maybe he'll run about fifth or something and we can close some more and do the same thing in the last race and win this thing (the championship) or if he has a glitch or has trouble or something we've got to capitalize on it. But, right now our mindset is just try to win the race and let everything fall like it falls. We were real good in practice. It's just that this place is different. We've struggled here from time to time and we've been strong here, so I hope tonight is one of those nights where we're strong and maybe we'll get us a win here. It would sure be nice to win at Caraway. Our sponsor Hayes Jewelers is right here in the back yard ten miles up the road and it would be big for us to get them a win here."

But what really caught me off guard was Brian Loftin. With all he'd been through this season, you could tell in his pre-race attitude that he knew something we didn't, going into this event. "That thing's really.....everywhere we've had it, it's been real quick. It kind of surprised me that we were that fast in qualifying. I mean, we didn't work on that at all. We were working more towards race trim. I want to come away with the big trophy out here tonight, that’s what we came for and what we've been working towards all day but, I guess we put it to them for those two laps too! We're coming out of here with the trophy. Unless something stupid happens, we're coming home with the trophy. We've had enough bad luck; I think it's over with."

So with Fleming and Brown on the front row, the field rounded turn three and four towards starter Jeff Bunton's green flag. Tim Brown cleared Frank Fleming heading into turn one and led the first lap. Fleming quickly tucked in behind the Hayes Jewelers Chevrolet and proceeded to mirror his every move. As the two raced down the backstretch and dove into turn three on lap two, Fleming would take the lead away and lead lap three.

As the race for the lead was going on, Junior Miller would get under Burt Myers for fourth and bring L.W. Miller with him as Brian Loftin would move under Tim Brown for second in turn three as the field completed lap five. Burt would move to the high side of the race track as both Jason Myers and John Smith would pass him in the race's opening stages.

As the field completed lap ten, Frank Fleming led over Brian Loftin, Tim Brown, Jason Myers and Junior Miller fifth. Sixth through tenth were L.W. Miller, John Smith, Burt Myers, George Brunnhoelzl, III and Brian Pack.

By lap fifteen, Fleming and Loftin had opened a half straightaway lead on Tim Brown and the rest of the field. Loftin was all over Fleming's back bumper as the two raced off turn two. George Brunnhoelzl, III would sneak past John Smith and Burt Myers as the field completed lap twenty. Five laps later, Fleming began to open up about four car lengths of a lead on Loftin as the two continued to hold a half straightaway lead on Tim Brown who was followed closely by Jason Myers, Junior Miller and L.W. Miller. The gap was a half straightway back to George Brunnhoelzl, III who lead Burt Myers by three car lengths as he continued to struggle with his ill handling race car.

The first caution of the night would fly at lap 29 as J. Wesley Swartout would spin his HIK Motorsports Ford off turn two and come to rest against the inside grass. Swartout would duck on to pit road to survey the damage as the field crossed the start-finish line to complete lap 31.

Frank Fleming led the field to the caution flag followed by Brian Loftin, Tim Brown, Jason Myers and Junior Miller fifth. Sixth was L.W. Miller with George Brunnhoelzl, III ducking out of seventh to hit pit road, followed by Burt Myers, John Smith and Brian Pack. Brunnhoelzl, III would pull up to the pace car to pit on lap 32 and his team would go to the rear of the car for an adjustment to both the left and right rear. NASCAR called for the one to go as the field crossed the line and the race would restart at lap 33 with Brunnhoelzl, III just making it to the back of the line as the leaders took the green.

Burt Myers pulled his signature move on the restart and leaped to the outside of John Smith as the two raced for seventh and eighth as they raced to turn one. On the very next lap, Brian Loftin would look to the inside of Frank Fleming as the two raced for the lead heading into turn one on lap 34. Fleming worked the high side as Loftin was down low and the two raced side by side for the lead. With no love lost between these two competitors after their run in earlier in the year, the fans were on their feet as the two raced wheel to wheel for the lead. Loftin talked about racing with Fleming for the lead. "We've had our run-in's but when a man respects you on the race track, you give it back. So hopefully, we can keep going like that." Frank Fleming also complimented Loftin racing him clean for the lead. "I left that night at the Stadium. You know, I don't think he did. He's been a little ill and hadn't really talked to me or nothing but I'm more of a man than that. I'll go up and shake his hand. You know, He got a run on me up at the Stadium and there wasn't room there and if I had been in his shoes, I'd probably done the same thing but I'd try to not wreck him. But, we had a great race tonight. There wasn't no problems, he raced the way he was supposed to race and I did the way I was supposed to. So, that puts on a better show for the fans like that. Don't nobody want to tear these cars up." But as the two raced off turn two at lap 35, Loftin would clear Fleming and take the lead heading down the backstretch for the final lead change of the night.

While the race for the lead was going on, Burt Myers continued to work the high side and pulled up next to L.W. Miller for sixth as the two raced down the backstretch and into turn three and Myers would clear the Baker #36 for sixth on lap 38 as the two raced off turn four.

The rundown at lap 40 had Brian Loftin leading followed by Frank Fleming, Tim Brown, Jason Myers and Junior Miller. Sixth through tenth were Burt Myers, L.W. Miller, John Smith, Brian Pack and Brian King.

The next caution would fly at lap 50 for a three car incident involving Jay Mize, George Brunnhoelzl, III and J. Wesley Swartout. Mize came to a rest at the bottom of turn two against the concrete curb as Swartout and Brunnhoelzl, III tangled at the top of turn one. Under this caution, Dean Ward would pit Rusty Harpe's #71 followed by Brian Pack and Gene Pack, who was sporting sponsorship from his local hangout in Myrtle Beach, Clubhouse Food and Spirits. Mize and Swartout would rejoin at the tail of the field, while Brunnhoelzl, III would hit pit road for more work on his white number 20 which he has been carrying on his car since Martinsville. Swartout's crew would go to the left front of his car as Dean Ward would lead the cars who pitted off pit road.

Junior Miller's team would make a last minute decision to hit pit road at lap 55 as George Brunnhoelzl, III followed the Riggs Racing # 69 to pit road. Swartout and Brunnhoelzl, III would rejoin the field as Junior Miller continued to sit on pit road while the team went to the left rear of the car. Miller would make it off pit road and rejoin at the tail end of the field just as the leaders headed off turn four to take the green at lap 56.

Brian Loftin continued to lead at lap 60 followed by Frank Fleming, Tim Brown, Jason Myers and Burt Myers. L.W. Miller continued to ride in sixth spot with John Smith, Brian King, Brandon Hire and Earl Baker rounding out the top ten. Jay Mize would retire his Mize Construction/CertainTeed #8 on lap 61 with steering issues as Frank Fleming started to experiment with the high groove while continuing to follow Brain Loftin. Meanwhile, back for the fifth and sixth positions, things were beginning to get physical between Burt Myers and L.W. Miller.

At the halfway mark, Brian Loftin held a half straightaway lead on Frank Fleming who had another half straightaway back to Tim Brown who was holding on to third spot. Jason Myers led brother Burt Myers for fourth and fifth with L.W. Miller continuing to look for a way past the black #1 while holding on to the sixth spot. John Smith was seventh, followed by Brian King, Brandon Hire and Earl Baker tenth.

Zach Brewer worked his way into tenth spot past Earl Baker on lap 82. I wanted to make a note of this because Zach and his team got little to no practice with his Link's Flooring, DMC Auto Exchange Toyota while fighting an ignition problem all afternoon. This drive to the top ten would earn him the PowerAde "Power Move of the Race" award for his ten position improvement after the race was complete.

Three laps later coming out of turn two, Burt Myers and L.W. Miller's cars got out of shape as Myers appeared to "brake check" L.W. which cost Miller a spot to John Smith. L.W. would comment about the incident with, "Well, I knew he was mad because when I got into him the one time he brake checked me so yeah, I knew he was pretty fired up but what are you going to do? I can't follow him all night. If I can get by him, I've got to take the chance so I did and that's what happened but like I said, Hey, that's hard racing. I'm a hard racer. I know all about it." Burt responded with, "Well, when a man's car is going away, and you're supposed to be a decent race car driver like Leslie claims he is, and the man's car is going away in front of you and he's running on the bottom, doesn't the sensible thing to tell you is to pass him on the outside? If he would have just tried to pass me without hitting me, everything would have been fine but hey, he was the one who had something to lose tonight, not me. So, it wasn't very smart and he's going to keep running into people and it's going to come back on him if he's not careful."

This allowed Jason Myers to open up a straightaway on Burt Myers and John Smith, who snuck by L.W. Miller as he was trying to gather up his race car as the three raced down the backstretch. But, it didn't take long for L.W. to work his way around John Smith's Johnson Granite #25 and work his way back to the rear bumper of Burt Myers. But as the two raced into turn three, Burt dove low to give the top lane to L.W. and as the two rounded three and four, L.W, was up alongside Myers. What happened next was a pretty clear message from the driver of the black #1 that he was not pleased with L.W. as Burt began to drift up to the wall exiting turn four leaving L.W. no choice but to get on the binders and save his car from the concrete wall. Smith would again sneak by L.W. as Miller hard to work to clean off his tires for another run. Many up and down pit lane after the race were not surprised by these actions from Burt, but with Miller's championship hopes on the line, his moves were going to have to be more certain for the rest of the race distance.

NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour Director Mark Suddreth was also not pleased with the display of Burt's driving tactics and sent a message to the spotter of the #1 car that I'd heard many times before this season. "Tell the driver of the #1 car that the race is in front of him and not behind him. That's his final warning."

Meanwhile, back up front, Brian Loftin clicked off lap 93 while continuing to hold a half straightaway lead on Frank Fleming who was second, Tim Brown third, Jason Myers fourth and Burt Myers fifth. John Smith was back to sixth with L.W. Miller seventh, Brian King eighth, Brandon Hire ninth and Zach Brewer tenth.

Loftin continued to catch the tail of the field and was putting cars a lap down at a fairly quick pace. But while Loftin would clear the traffic, Tim Brown was closing in on Frank Fleming for second spot. Brown would start to work on the low side of Fleming as the two raced off turn two, but just couldn't complete the pass. "I killed the right rear messing with Frank. I needed to get by him a lot earlier and I didn't and it's one of them deals where you bide your time and try to be patient and be smooth and save the tires because I thought we had the car to win and then when it's time to go and it don't take one or two times of spinning them hard and that's it and I spun it five or six times trying to get by him real bad and it just costs us tonight. He kept me pinched down on the bottom and that caused it to be real loose up off and we got a big motor in that thing and once it gets loose it just spins all up the straightaway and if you do that four or five times and you're done" Brown commented after the race.

Seventeen laps later at Lap 110, Brian Loftin was leading Frank Fleming and Tim Brown as the three raced together through lapped traffic. Fourth was Jason Myers with Burt Myers fifth, John Smith sixth, L.W. Miller seventh, Brian King, Brandon Hire and Zach Brewer holding on to tenth spot. L.W. would pass John Smith for sixth and again pull up to the rear of Myers' black #1.

But things between L.W. and Burt weren't quite finished as the two raced down the front stretch and into turns one and two. Miller had gotten a run underneath Burt as the two raced into turn one. L.W. was fighting with a broken drive flange on the left rear of his car which caused him to be loose on corner exit, giving Myers one last shot at L.W.'s left rear nerf bar and he gave one last tap to the Baker #36 as L.W. pulled away. "The left rear drive flange actually broke which was allowing it to strip so I had to be really easy getting into the corner and real easy getting off the corner or else the car would just turn sideways on me and more or less, I was just driving with the right rear tire. Then he got into me after I passed him but I expected it, I knew it was coming." Miller commented.

The next yellow would come at lap 126 with J. Wesley Swartout spinning off turn four and coming to rest against the inside concrete wall. Under this yellow, Earl Baker, Junior Miller, Burt Myers and Brian Pack would visit pit road for more adjustments.

Four laps later the lights would go out on the pace car and the field would make a 20 lap run to the finish with a restart on lap 130. Brian Loftin would resume his half straightaway lead only a single lap after the restart as Frank Fleming would run two full laps side by side with Tim Brown, who dove underneath Fleming but still could not close the deal as the two raced to lap 140.

But at the checkers, nobody was touching Brian Loftin. Frank Fleming did a masterful job of holding off Tim Brown for second with Jason Myers fourth and L.W. Miller's Caraway streak coming to an end with a fifth place finish.

In Victory Lane, a jubilant Brian Loftin celebrated with his crew while wife Melissa was in tears. "I tell you what, this is a long time coming. We've had race cars capable of this but we just haven't been able to put it together for whatever bad luck reasons and this, that and the other. I've got to thank all these guys for sticking by me. I tell you what, they work their tails off and I told them, "We came to win the race tonight". We set the track record and sit on the pole. That was just a bonus, but we came to win the race and that's what we did. We had a dominant race car. I was surprised we were that quick in qualifying. Like I said, we came down here and we wanted to win the race. We set the race car up to win the race and anything aside from that was just a bonus. I've got to thank all my sponsors for sticking with me too. L&R Transmissions, QMF Metal and Electronic Solutions without them, we couldn't be here."

When I asked him about this new car, he added, "Every time we've had it out, the thing's just been a bullet. I tell you what, Bob Bruneau's got one heck of an engine under this thing. It's more than anything I've ever driven and it makes our job a lot easier but this race car was absolutely on a rail. I mean, I didn't have to run it but half the race. I mean, I was just riding out there. It was fun but I tell you what, they better watch out for the last week because I think we're going to be on a roll now."

Second Place finisher Frank Fleming leaned inside Loftin's car in victory lane and shook hands with Loftin, congratulating him on his win. Then he talked about racing with Tim Brown in the closing stages of the race. "He had a great car and he's a great driver also. He run me clean and he got all up under me and beside me. I think we got wheel to wheel two or three different times. He give me room to run and I could get a better bite than him coming up out of the hole and really, my car was working better there. I wanted to go in on the bottom and I wanted to come off the corner up a car length or so and I just couldn’t make my car do that all in one corner unless Tim was up under me. You know, he forced me to get up there and I could come off, so it's just a great race for us, I'm proud of our team and the way we've done here in these last three or four races and maybe we'll put a win together. A win's what we want and we're not going to be satisfied until we get a win. We're going to come back here in two weeks and if anybody wins it, they're going to have to outrun this car again."

When I asked him if he could pinpoint exactly where he and his team are lacking to break through for their first tour win, he added "Well, it looks like to me like it's a different car every week. You know, it just looks like somebody's just a little better than we are each week. We've just got to keep coming back and keep working on this thing. Our car wasn't perfect. We've got to work on it a little bit, come back in two weeks and see what we can do."

Third Place finisher Tim Brown wasn't pleased with third, but added "It's a good run for us but we needed to come here and win. Frank's car was good tonight and we just couldn't get by him. I think we had a car that could have ran with the 23 but we used it up pretty good messing with the 07 there and hat's off to those guys, they worked hard and Loftin. He deserves a win and he got a win tonight but they're going to have to work hard to come back and beat us in two weeks."

Fourth Place Jason Myers was happy with his top five run. "We had a top five car. I think we might have had a third place car but Frank had a real good car early in the race and was able to stay up there with it and Tim could get under him but couldn't get by him. I was hoping Tim could get by him and then I could go with him. I knew if we got in front of Frank, we could hold him off. But I knew if we got in front of Tim, he was more than likely going to get us back. Tim had a real good car. Hey, we'll take it man. After, like you said, after bouncing back from a motor to working on this thing all week long just trying to get it ready. Jay Foley got us a motor together and he got us to the race track. That's what I love about Jay Foley, he ain't never let me miss a race and I want to thank him for that. But, yeah we had a good car. We got a little free with about 50 to go and we were in a position where we could stay there. If we'd have been seventh or eighth with 50 to go, we'd have probably finished seventh or eighth. You Know? Like I said, nobody ever really put any pressure on us from behind, so I don't know who all was good behind us. Track position means a lot with these cars. I mean you know, if you're a tenth of a second faster than a man, it's hard to get away from him. I mean, after a few laps if you keep hitting it right you can get a good distance but I don't know. We'll take it. After blowing five motors this year, I'll take anything in the top five."

Finally, L.W. Miller had to settle for fifth. "Yeah, we didn't intend to run like we ran tonight but I'll definitely take it. I told Jimmy (Baker, Crew Chief) right at the first caution, whatever lap the first caution was, I told him that the car's not bad but it's really not good and I said there's something goofy going on because the car was very inconsistent and it would just turn sideways out of nowhere and it just proceeded to get worse and worse and by the last probably 20 laps I was just hanging on. I mean, if I got in the corner and tried to woah it down, it more or less acted as a ratchet on the rear end it was letting the thing free roll and it would get out from under me but you know, we're lucky to finish how we did with the problem. So, to limp along like that and come out of there with a fifth place finish, we'll take it. Baker Motorsports does a great job of putting a great car underneath me every week so at least we already know what our problem is. We can fix it, come back in two weeks and put her up front."

NASCAR's Jason Mitchell asked him about his thoughts on the points and reminded him that it's not over. "Nope. We lost a little bit of points to Tim tonight but I knew coming into this race if I finished in the top five tonight and I repeat a top five finish in the next race here, we'll win the championship. But tonight I wasn't concerned with that until I realized we had nothing to win with and then I turned it into trying to just survive and do the best I can. So, we come out of here with a fifth place and didn't lose a whole lot. We lost ten points on him so, we'll go into the next race up here and that ought to put us in a pretty safe if we don't have anything bad happen, we ought to be able to get a good run in there and hopefully come out of here the champion."

L.W. Miller leads Tim Brown by 45 points heading into the finale at Caraway Speedway this Saturday night. With Burt Myers' 12th place finish this week, he's eliminated himself from championship contention. Only Tim Brown still has a mathematical shot at racing L.W. for the title. If Tim Brown wins the finale Saturday night, L.W. has to finish ninth or worse in order for Brown to win the championship. I asked L.W. if he's been in this situation before with his two previous ASA/SMART Tour championships. "When it was the SMART Championship in 2003, I believe I had to beat Jay Hedgecock by 7 positions or I had to be within 7 positions of Jay at the last race to win it, which we did and the 2004 championship, I think Junior Miller was behind me by, or I had to be within 7 or 8 positions of him at the end of that race and we did. So, we've been to that point many times but it's not easy by all means. Is it on my mind? Absolutely."

Tim Brown knows what he's up against this week, as well. "Yeah, that's not likely to happen. I mean, I'm coming back to win next week but unless he has trouble, he'll pretty easily just ride around and run top nine or ten so the pressure's definitely on us to perform well next week and he can come out here and ride around and run ninth so we needed him to have worse luck tonight and we needed to win tonight but we didn't and that's how it shakes out and we'll just have to see how we do next week. I mean if L.W. winds up getting wrecked over spinning somebody out earlier on in the year then that's of his own doing and not any of mine and if something like that happens then all I can hope for is that we're good enough that night to capitalize on it and win it. But like I said, you want to win it just by being strong and all that but I'll take it any way I can get it, know what I mean?"

Regardless of the outcome, there will be a new name on the beautiful new Whelen Southern Modified Tour trophy Saturday night. Tim Brown is a 6 time Bowman Gray modified track champion, and L.W. Miller is a two time SMART Modified Tour champion.

Grandstand gates open at 6 PM. Admission is just $20.00 with kids 11 and under admitted free. Mod Series Scene will be on hand with live updates and a full race report after the event. For more information about Caraway Speedway, visit www.carawayspeedway.com.