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Nine Whelen Modified races to be shown on VERSUS: The inaugural appearance of NASCAR racing on VERSUS is set for Wednesday, Aug. 4, with the Riverhead 200 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event from Riverhead (N.Y.) Raceway. The Riverhead 200, which will be contested on Saturday, July 31, will be the first of nine telecasts to air on VERSUS between the NASCAR Whelen Modified and Whelen Southern Modified Tours in 2010. VERSUS first entered its partnership with NASCAR in 2009 with Quest for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, a weekly half-hour series that followed the 12 drivers competing in the 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup. In September 2010 the network will launch NASCAR - Next Generation, a series which will profile some the future stars of the Sprint Cup series. In addition to its NASCAR offerings, VERSUS is also the exclusive cable television home of the IZOD IndyCar Series. VERSUS' nine-race schedule will premiere with one-hour race telecasts airing on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. ET. All races will re-air the Sunday following the initial telecast.(NASCAR PR)(7-23-2010)

There is an old adage that says some things never change. Friday night was a prime example of how some things never do change. With handicapping in effect Mike Rutherford was able to get himself into one of the top 12 starting spots. When things played out Rutherford was slated to roll off 12th because of his point average over the past three weeks. Some of you may recall that the 5k used to work best in race that had 3-5 caution flags with one coming somewhere around 15-20. These races usually played into the hand of the Kaylor Petro car and this past Friday was no different. On the lap two caution flag Rutherford was sitting in his 12th starting spot. A long green flag run would ensue running all the way up to five to go. Josh Stoyer was out front with a comfortable lead. Stoyer held the lead over Tiff Skias early in the event with Robert Crawford taking over second before half way. When the cross flags were displayed it was Stoyer, Crawford, Skias, Rutherford and Jeff Wilson in the top 5. Rutherford slowly picked his way through the field but at this point was in trouble because the lead cars were gone by about a strait away and Rutherford was running out of time. By lap 20 he was into third place and the yellow flag was in the air. A collective sigh came from the non 5k followers as now Crawford and Stoyer were left to fend off the 5k in his “idea” situation. At the drop of the green Rutheford would pick off Crawford and go to second. Story would hold strong at the top spot until two laps to go when he would get passed by the 5k on the low side. Stoyer was running the top most of the event and stayed loyal to the line, but Rutherford was fast enough on the bottom to go to the top spot. A late race restart gave everyone a shot at Rutherford but they couldn’t do anything with him and Rutherford was back in victory lane in one of his few starts this year. After the race Rutherford would say the new Hyper is nothing like the old Hyper car was. Although he feels both are good, the new one has little of the same temperaments. The new car of course being the 2010 down tube Hyper. He would continue saying he didn’t know who the leader was in the long green flag run so he was just getting the cars he could. Rutherford closed victory lane by saying they might take some time off and get everything together for the big money shows. So when the big races roll around at the end of the year, just remember, even though he didn’t race a lot this year, some things never change.

Gessaman came into the July 23rd show tied with Nick Ruhl for the point lead in the Chargers. Geesaman had six wins so far this year and has seemingly dominated the Chargers, but a few weeks of bad luck kept Ruhl right there with his consistent finish’s. Geesaman said he doesn’t care all that much about points right now and he has no plans to start driving conservative, he wants to win and the points will pretty much take care of themselves. Friday was a good chance to see he is no lying. As cars scrambled and diced for positions, Geesaman saw opening and drove right up the middle of the track into the runner up spot. Dave Reightler enjoyed the lead for a while until he got to high and Geesaman was by. It was a hard surface with the top dusted off so when Reightler got out of the grove Geesaman drove by the lead and the eventual victory. Geesaman would say he liked that track Friday. Rough, dry, hard to drive, those are the tracks I like. Heck, the crappier the better said the driver of the 81 car. It brings out the driver and makes you stay up on the wheel and up on the wheel he was as he took win lucky number seven.

Hieber would start fourth in the main event and unlike the week before, Hieber would waste no time taking the top spot from Bob Snyder. Hieber said after the race he decided to diamond the corner to make the pass. Meaning he drove on the inside, slide high in the middle of the corner and then drove off low again. Once out front Gary had one caution to deal with on lap nine. Out of the caution the 56 car was again off in the distance. Hieber had few worries as he drove to another victory and extended his point lead. In victory lane Hieber would say his biggest worry was the 66 driven by his brother Kyle, other than that he felt he had the car to win.

In the theme of some things stay the say, there is always a chance for change. Brock Zearfoss and his new team have been hoping for that change. The bad luck finally was gone Friday for Zearfoss as he climbed into the 2 car and drove it victory lane. Zearfoss was running second to Tom Kohler when around lap eight the 5 car shot off the track giving the lead to Zearfoss. I just kept thinking I’m next Zearfoss said when asked what he was thinking running second to the 5 car. He continued I knew we were next if he broke and when he did I thought for sure we would, its just been our luck. It was an emotional victory lane for Zearfoss who had a little scare at the end of the race when the caution flag flew on lap 23. Zearfoss would be unchallenged at the end driving away in the two lap shootout. He said I really wanted to win for Adam and Susquehanna Valley here at Linda’s and get us back on track.

You may look at the 600 points and say what happen? Yes, Brian Carber is the new point leader. Friday night after the feature cars were sent to the scale and point leader Ryan Wilson along with two other drivers did not report to the scale. For Wilson it can be looked at as a salty night as his big point lead is not only gone but the driver that at one point this season seemed a lock to win it all fell to second in the points. What happen? No one is quite sure. There was a drivers meeting Friday to tell all Drivers that they should watch to see if they are to go to the scale as it had become an issue over the past few weeks. Word in the pits had Wilson’s driving off the track to miss the spun 11z of Zach Light. Unfortunately, even though Wilson came back onto the Speedway to go to the scale, officials felt it to late to allow him to do so. You can look at it three ways. From the stand point of Wilson and the 29 team it flat out sucks. Lose the point lead, lose everything you worked so hard for all in one motion even when you can right back onto the Speedway and you were trying to miss a car. Then you can look at it from the Speedway’s view of, there is no way to tell if Wilson could have had a crew member there to add weight to the 29. I can’t honestly say I believe Ryan nor his team would have done it, but try to explain that to the third party, which would be Brian Carber. Carber comes in as the other drivers voice who would say how is it fair for that driver to get points when he didn’t follow the rule. It does say in the rules the drivers are given at the start of the year about scaling procedures. Overall it’s a bad spot to have at this point in the season when points seem to creep into becoming a factor weekly. If nothing else the point race just got a little more exciting and watch the 29 car, Trying to right a wrong could be on the mind of the Maytown Missle this week.