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Lucas Oil PR
UNION, Ky. (May 31) - Jimmy Owens of Newport, TN inherited the lead when race leader Don O'Neal suddenly pulled off the track with six laps to go as he went on to win the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series sanctioned 22nd Annual Ralph Latham Memorial on Saturday Night at Florence Speedway. Owens earned $10,000 for his first LOLMDS event win of the season as he becomes the 12th different winner in 17 races so far this year. Eddie Carrier Jr. of Salt Rock, WV finished second followed by Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, IA, Earl Pearson Jr of Jacksonville, FL and Rick Combs of Bethel, OH.
The race was a dandy from start to finish as O'Neal and Owens would grab the top two spots right from the get go as they opened up a several car length advantage over the third place running Darrell Lanigan, Combs and Jerry Rice. Carrier, who started sixth, was coming to the front in a hurry as he moved by Rice on lap three to gain the fifth position and two laps later he went by Combs for fourth.
O'Neal's lead was a at least car lengths over Owens with five laps recorded, but Owens made up ground quickly on O'Neal as Owens tried a different line on the track than O'Neal as he was able to pull even with O'Neal at the line to score lap 12 right before the two would pick up the tail end of the field.
With heavy traffic in front of the duo they would see Lanigan close the gap, but Lanigan ran into trouble on lap 18 when he got too close to the burm on the inside of turns three and four trying to pass underneath of Owens which caused severe damage to the left front suspension of his car. The yellow flag would come out for the first time in the race for debris and at the same time Lanigan would slow on the backstretch as his night ended on the back of a wrecker as he had too much damage to continue.
On the ensuing restart O'Neal would still be the top dog with Owens still holding down second and a new threat to those two as Carrier was close behind in third replacing Lanigan in the running order. On the restart and with a clear track in front of him O'Neal would set sail building a good lead over Owens would was now having to contend with Carrier to keep ahold of his runner-up slot.
At the halfway mark O'Neal looked to be unbeatable at this point as he had fought off all challenges that Owens had thrown at him but more lapped traffic would await O'Neal as Owens and Carrier closed down the advantage that he had. Jerry Rice who was running in the sixth position and was gaining ground of the frontrunners slowed and pulled out of the race spoiling a possible late race bid for a top five finish.
Carrier would then overtake Owens for second making a nifty move and with 35 laps in the books it was O'Neal, Carrier, Owens, Combs and Birkhofer in the top five positions as those drivers had moved to the very top of the track against the outside wall. With ten laps to go Owens would hunt down Carrier racing past him as he was attempting to set up a showdown in the final laps.
With 44 laps scored O'Neal would exit turn four in the lead but suddenly O'Neal slowed and made a hard left turn into the infield as mechanical issues forced him from the race as he was headed to the five laps to go signal by the flagman. Owens who was right behind O'Neal when this occurred would now inherit the lead and have a clear track in front of him for the final five circuits.
Owens would go without a challenge from anyone else as he sped on for the victory in the Mike Reece owned/Reece Monuments/Gantte Appraisals/VP Racing Fuels/PRC/Red Line Oil/Cornett Engines sponsored Bloomquist Race Cars Ford Fusion.
Completing the top ten were Steve Casebolt, John Gill, Josh Williams, Brad Neat and Wayne Chinn.
In preliminary action at Florence R.J. Conley topped the 58 entrants in PRC Time Trials with a fast lap of 16.356 seconds. The heat races were won by Darrell Lanigan, Don O'Neal, Jimmy Owens, Rick Combs, Jerry Rice and Eddie Carrier Jr. The B-Mains were taken by Victor Lee and Robby Hensley.
The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will take next weekend off with the $2.9 million dollar season resuming June 12-14 at Duck River Speedway in Wheel, TN, North Georgia Speedway in Chatsworth, GA and Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, AL. For more information on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series you can visit www.lucasdirt.com or call the series office at (951) 532-2503.
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