July 16, 2011 - On a hot Saturday afternoon, the speedway filled up with the super late models of the Ray Cook promoted Southern Nationals. Chris Madden took the win the previous night at Bull's Gap, TN and essentially had the championship all wrapped up but before being crowned the champ he and the rest of the drivers had to survive the high banks of the Taz. Last season's finale was one of the best races witnessed all year with Madden and Jonathan Davenport racing side by side for the closing laps.

Race fans hoped for the same tonight. The track surface was ran in and the night of racing began with hot-laps and qualifying. The visiting Southern Nationals took to the track first to battle the time clock and Vic Hill made the best of a challenging track surface and took the pole with a lap of 11.386 seconds.

The Modified Street class qualified next and out of the 15 cars to take a lap the 56H of Jordon Horton was the fastest with a time of 13.696 seconds.

Robbie Sands then took the Classics pole with his lap of 14.342 seconds.

The pole for the Pure Street division went to Appaches Quinton.

The feature event was next on the agenda and it would be started by Vic Hill with Tony Knowles beside him. The cars blasted into turn one and Vic Hill emerged as the leader but quickly got passed by Knowles as the leaders began to pass the tail end of the field. Madden followed the two and he was also trailed by Billy Ogle Jr. A lap 11 caution for an incident in between turns three and four brought the field together. At this point track officials were hurrying up the program due to weather moving in from the south. On lap 16 hill was right there and working the low side but three laps later Johnny Pursley found a rut in turn one and then contacted the outside wall bringing out the second caution.

The top three were Madden, Hill and Ogle Jr. While Hill and Madden were battling for the top two spots Ogle had settled in at second and the fight was on for the remainder of the top five spots by Boles, Jacobsen and Kerr. The pace was slowed again on lap 36 for another incident which gave Hill another shot at the point. Madden got the jump again but three laps later he once again heard Hill on his rear quarter. Every time these two would hook up a caution flag would fly and on lap 43 it flew once again this time for the leader Madden who had a tire issue.

With 43 out of 53 laps completed the race restarted and the pack was now chasing Hill. Ogle Jr. kept pace with Hill on the restart but three laps later the caution flew again and the pack had to be restarted. Madden was making a mad dash through the field to get back to the front but his charge fell short as he finished 6th with Hill taking the win and the check for 5,300 dollars. Ogle Jr. Made it up to second with Eric Jacobsen finishing in the third spot. Tommy Kerr fought hard to get the fourth spot with Mark Vineyard rounding out the top five. Hill went into victory lane and took home the check but the series title went to Chris Madden. Finishing second in the Southern Nationals points was Tony Knowles and third place in points went to Johnny Pursley. It was another great side-by-side finale for the series and fans are already looking forward to next year's event.

Schaeffer Oil Southern Nationals Results
1 1 Vic Hill
2 201 Billy ogle Jr.
3 5 Eric Jacobsen
4 4T Tommy Kerr
5 4 Mark Vineyard
6 44 Chris Madden
7 22 Mike Weeks
8 86 Jeff Neubert
9 93 Donald Bradsher
10 T0 Travis Fultz
11 11B Stacy Boles
12 33 Brian Reese
13 7 Brian Smith
14 09 Johnny Pursley
15 24H Phil Helton
16 18M Jeff Smith
17 26 Tony Knowles
18 10 Chad Ogle
19 28 Jeff Wolfenbarger
20 40 Marvin Cook
21 5H Bryan Hendrix
22 26X Jake Knowles

The Four-Cylinders were next and Joey Allen held off Holloway and Braden for the win with Mark Wallace finishing fourth and Ethan Hansard fifth.

Four Cylinder Results
1 A00 Joey Allen
2 A27 Allen Holloway
3 B7 Bubby Braden
4 1 Mark Wallace
5 22 Ethan Hansard
6 52 Daris Breeding

The Modified Street class was next to race with Jordon Horton leading them into turn one. He held the point until lap 12 when his machine fell off the pace yielding the lead to Warren McMahan. Chris Collinsworth was now second and Tony Horton third. McMahan stayed away from trouble and took the win. Collinsworth, Tony Horton, Gary Blanken and Robbie Buchanan rounded out the top five spots.

Modified Street Results
1 33 Warren McMahan
2 77 Chris Collinsworth
3 56 Tony Horton
4 5 Gary Blanken
5 P21 Robbie Buchanan
6 88 Brad Davis
7 4 Clyde Overholt
8 17 Leonard Bray
9 54 Larry Burke
10 55 Howie Sturgill
11 24 Allen Holt
12 3 Tim Hatfield
13 56H Jordan Horton
14 44C Phillip Nichols
15 20 Scottie Adkins
16 69 Nick Barnard
17 1 Scott Johnson

The Classics were next with Sands at the point with Joe Keck alongside. Sands had to hold off a charge from Keck to get the win and was able to do just that to capture the checkered flag; however, the results were unofficial until after the results of a protest against Sands were announced. Joe Keck was given the win after the 17-car of Sands was found to be illegal.

Classic Car Results
1 8 Joe Keck
2 34 Phillip Shockley
3 7 Jim Yeary
4 2 Ron Rudder
5 1 Daris Breeding
6 5 Phillip Sands
7 17 Robbie Sands DQ'd

The Pure Street class raced last with Appaches Quinton and Jason Long leading the race early with Jonathan Miracle in third and Austin Atkins fourth. Miracle pressured Long at lap four but could not clear him. A lap 7 caution slowed the pace as fluids were dropping on the clay. The fluids were from the leader Quinton and he had tho leave the race giving the point to Long with Miracle and Atkins rounding out the top three. Tony Spoon and Jason Whitaker rounded out the top five for the restart. Miracle tried the low side on lap 8 but Long stayed ahead of the pack. The top three put on a great show for the remainder of the race with one caution slowing the pace and finally giving Miracle and Atkins one last shot at the win. In the end it was Long taking the checkers as the rain began to fall.

Pure Street Results
1 15 Jason Long
2 41 Johnathan Miracle
3 14 Austin Atkins
4 27 Gary Harville
5 26 Jason Whitaker
6 O7 Tony Spoon
7 15 Apaches Quinton
8 23 Paul Whitley
9 77 T.J. Knuckles
10 94 Dustin Eldrige
11 28 Justin James DNS

Once again Tazewell Speedway thanks the Southern National Series and its fans and drivers for coming back to the Taz and putting on another great show. Upcoming races on the Tazewell Speedway schedule include a July 30th regular racing program which will feature dollar hotdogs once again and on August 8th there will be another kids night with 20,000 nickels on the front stretch for them to pick up (ages 14 and under). Thanks to all the great fans that continue to support Tazewell Speedway on a weekly basis.