Hickory, NC - August 6, 2005

It was an overcast Saturday in Hickory, NC where Brett Butler would return for the weekly Late Model Series at Hickory Motor Speedway, America’s Most Famous Short Track. This would be a special night for the fans at Hickory Motor Speedway because they were treated to two 50-lap Late Model feature races. There were two Late Model races due to a rain out earlier in the season and for a short period Saturday it looked like it might get rained out again.

The rain came early Saturday and pushed practice back a little, but Brett was able to get out on the track and show that he did have a good car with lap times inside the top 8. Butler has been a roll in recent weeks consistently finishing inside the top 10 and knocking on the door to the top 5 and his first win in the series. After a good practice session, Brett and the team were confident that the car was good and could contend for the win. As qualifying came to a close, Brett would find himself rolling out in the 9th spot for the first race and 7th for the second race giving the 00 car a good starting point for both races to continue his recent success at the short track. It was a unique style of qualifying for the two races. Each competitor would run two qualifying laps; the first lap would count for the first race and second lap would count for the second race.

Brett would start the race with a good car and found no problem keeping the 00 car inside the top 10 and toward the front. In the first half of the race, the 00 car was as good as anyone on the track waiting for the right moment to make a big move. However, on lap 29 Brett would get hit from behind and spun around; hitting the wall and damaging the nose of the car. But Butler would not let this be the end of his night. He battled back through the field to find himself closing back in on the top 10, but he would run out time and finish the first feature in 12th place.

There was no break for the 00 team after the first Late Model race of the night. The team did an outstanding jomaking front-end repairs and getting the car ready for the second race, but it never got the balance back that it had earlier in the first race.

Starting 7th in the second 50-lap race proved to be a test of Brett’s ability as he man-handled a banged-up car around the .363-mile speedway. Despite the difficult handling, Brett raced hard and kept the 00 car on the lead-lap and on pace with the leaders throughout the race. He would go on to post another solid 12th place finish.

Butler is standing strong at 17th in the championship points, leading several full-time competitors despite starting the season late. The next Late Model race for Brett will be Saturday night at HMS.