BAILEY'S FALL CLASSIC
October 28, 2001

Triplett Turns In Dominating Performance In OCS Finale!!

ROUGEMONT – David Triplett knew he had a fast car. In the late stages of the 200-lap NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Late Model Stock Car Division race Sunday at Orange
County Speedway, he proved it to everyone else.

The event was the featured attraction of the Bailey’s Fall Classic, the final program on Orange County Speedway’s 2001 schedule.

Triplett, who resides in Durham, earned the pole position for the start of the race and dominated the field in leading the opening half of the event.

Triplett’s hopes of winning, seemingly, were damaged on lap 124 when he was tapped from behind by the lapped car of Eric Sartin of Kermit, West Va.

Triplett went spinning in the frontstretch and was placed at the rear of the lead lap cars in ninth place when the race went back under the green flag on lap 139. Sartin was black-flagged by NASCAR officials and penalized for starting the accident.

Triplett, who also had to work his way around several lapped cars, quickly went to work. He
got around Durham’s Jason Gullie for seventh place on lap 146. He later got past Todd
Massey of Haw River for fifth place on the 154th circuit, followed by a pass of Brent Briggs
of Hurdle Mills for the fourth spot one lap later.

On lap 157, Triplett worked by Chuck Lawson of Providence for the third spot on the track.
After he made his way past Terry Dease of Oxford on lap 160 to take over second place,
Triplett set his sights on race leader Justin Snow of Danville, Va.

Triplett managed to work his way around Snow and back into the lead for good on the
163rd circuit. From there, he pulled away to take the checkered flag.

"I knew I had a good car and now everybody out here knows that I had the best car today,"
Triplett said in Victory Lane. "I knew I had the car to beat if I could get back up there and get back out front.

"I have to thank those guys out there that knew I was faster and let me go on past them,"
Triplett added. "It was awesome to sit in a car that ran that good."

While Triplett was busy trying to figure out how he was going to get back up near the front to challenge for the lead, he had the aid of veteran race performer Jay Fogleman of Durham, who was spotting for him.

"He told me to just stay calm," Triplett said. "He said that we had the car to beat. I was
frustrated at first, but he kept my head straight and talked me through it. I actually got back
to the front quicker than I thought I could."

Earlier in the race, Triplett seemed nearly assured of a victory when a 10-car pile-up on lap
37 wiped out a host of possible contenders for the checkered flag.

Peyton Sellers of Danville, Va. had started on the outside of the front row beside Triplett
and was running in second place when his car got loose and spun coming out of turn two.

The spinning vehicle wound up creating a road block, which gathered in a host of cars that
started in the top 10 of the 32-car field.

Among those involved were Barry Beggarly of Pelham, Scott Kirkpatrick of Burlington,
Wayne Grubb of Mechanicsville, Va., Deac McCaskill of Benson, Dease, Richard Landreth of Pine Hall and Frank Deiny, Jr. of Mechanicsville, Va.

Beggarly, Grubb, Landreth and Deiny were all damaged to bad to continue challenging for
a victory, while McCaskill and Kirkpatrick each lost laps during the incident. Dease did
manage to stay on the lead lap and wind up with a fifth-place finish at the end.

"I hate that all those guys got knocked out the race like they did," Triplett said. "I would have like to have won the race with them in it."

With a host of top drivers knocked out of contention, the battle for top 10 positions became
heated among the other drivers in the field.

Lawson, who started 26th in the field, wound up taking the runner-up spot on the track after
he got past Snow for the position on lap 180.

Snow wound up taking third place on the track, while Briggs, used a pass of Dease on lap
183 to finish in fourth place.

Massey placed sixth in the field, followed by Gullie in seventh place. Brad Kurth of
Kernersville finished in eighth place and was the final driver on the lead lap.

McCaskill took ninth place, while Brandon Butler of Chester, Va. finished 10th. Both drivers were one lap down at the end.

Roxboro’s Glenn Stovall made a big jump from the start of the race, finishing in 12th place,
one lap down at the end after beginning the event from the 31st starting position.

By TIM CHANDLER
C-T Sports Editor