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Kevin Kovac
CONCORD, N.C. (November 6) - Jimmy Owens closed the Lowes Foods World of Outlaws World Finals Presented by Bimbo Bakeries and Tom's Snacks with a victory for the second consecutive year on Saturday night at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
And for the second year in a row, the standout racer from Newport, Tenn., shared the post-race spotlight with Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., who secured his second straight World of Outlaws Late Model Series championship with a fourth-place finish in the evening's 50-lap A-Main.
Owens, 38, took note of the similar circumstances after rolling to a $10,000 triumph in front of a chilled sell-out crowd of over 14,000 and a national television audience on SPEED. He marched forward from the sixth starting spot to take the lead for good on lap 18 with a inside pass of Blairsville, Ga.'s Jonathan Davenport, who was bidding for an unprecedented clean sweep of the Lowes Foods World Finals after winning Friday's postponed 40-lap A-Main earlier in the day.
"It's kind of like déjà vu," Owens said after his second WoO LMS win of 2010 and the fourth of his career. "Every time we win here, Josh wins something big here. He's probably glad to see us win."
Richards, 22, captured the weekend's most important prize, outdueling Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., who made a furious charge from the 21st starting spot to finish third, in a dramatic season finale. The young sensation defeated his friendly rival by just four points - two finishing positions - to collect a $100,000 champion's check and become the first repeat titlist of the national tour's modern era (2004-present).
"To come out on top again and become the first back-to-back champion - words can't really describe it," said Richards, who started seventh and briefly peaked at second place following a lap-26 restart. "This means the world to me, all my family, my sponsors and my crew. It's gonna take a little bit to settle in."
Richards engaged in a down-to-the-wire thriller for the points crown with Lanigan, the 2008 champion who entered the World Finals trailing Richards by 22 points and put himself in a hole with poor qualifying times in both rounds of Thursday's time trials. Lanigan came back strong on Saturday, however, finishing fourth - versus Richards's quiet 12th-place run - in the matinee event to pull within six points entering the nightcap.
Lanigan, 40, was relegated to the 21st starting spot in Saturday night's A-Main after winning a B-Main, but he tore through the field in his self-owned Rocket mount. He landed in fifth place behind Richards on lap 24 when he picked up several spots by escaping a scramble between turns three and four surrounding the spinning car of Carpentersville, Ill.'s Dennis Erb Jr., who lost control of his machine while battling for sixth place with Rick Eckert of York, Pa.
Shortly thereafter, on lap 32, Lanigan overtook Richards for third and immediately began to pressure Davenport for second. Lanigan knew he needed to beat Richards by at least four positions - or two if he was able to win the race - in order to steal the championship, but he was unable to climb higher while Richards calmly held the fourth spot to the checkered flag.
Lanigan crossed the finish line in third just over one second behind Davenport, who settled for second place after leading laps 15-17 in the Barry Wright house car. Richards was a half-second behind Lanigan in fourth and Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., advanced from the 25th starting spot to finish fifth and cap a season that saw him place third in the WoO LMS points standings.
"I still feeling like I'm trying to run away from that 29 car (of Lanigan)," a relieved Richards said after climbing from his father Mark's Kentucky Fuel Corporation Rocket No. 1 and lifting the WoO LMS championship trophy in Victory Lane. "Darrell definitely made it tough this year. We went right down to the last lap and it came down to four points.
"Hat's off to Darrell and his guys. They did a heckuva job this year and deserve to be up here as much we do."
Owens also held his high after reaching the winner's circle with his Reece Monuments Team Zero by Bloomquist car. He improved from an eighth-place finish in the afternoon A-Main.
"We were O.K. the first race, but we were just a little bit freer than we needed to be," said Owens. "We came back (to the pits) and pretty much put last year's setup on the car and it was good. I really felt my car getting better and better as the race went on. The harder we ran, the better it was."
Preventing Davenport's sweep of the Lowes Food World Finals - the 27-year-old driver also set fast time in both ends of Thursday's qualifying session and won his two heat races - left Owens with a dose of satisfaction.
"He's been pretty tough this weekend, so it feels good to beat him," Owens said of Davenport. "We're probably about the only one who passed him today. I'm kind of proud of that."
Six caution flags slowed the event, all coming between laps 23 and 29. There were no serious incidents.
Chris Madden of Grey Court, S.C., finished sixth after briefly reaching fifth place. Steve Shaver of Vienna, W.Va., was seventh, followed by polesitter Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., who led laps 1-14 in the Warrior house car; Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., who placed fourth in the WoO LMS points standings; and Clint Smith of Senoia, Ga.
Heat winners were Davenport, Marlar, Erb, Eckert, Owens and John Blankenship of Williamson, W.Va., who retired after spinning out of seventh place to bring out the first caution flag of the A-Main on lap 23. The B-Mains were captured by Vic Coffey of Caledonia, N.Y., Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., and Lanigan.
The 2010 WoO LMS campaign will be celebrated - and nearly $400,000 in points-fund cash will be distributed - on Sunday night (Nov. 7) during the tour's awards banquet at the Great Wolf Lodge in Concord, N.C.
For more information on the WoO LMS, visit www.worldofoutlaws.com.
Results of WoO Late Model Series Lowes Foods World of Outlaws World Finals Race No. 2 (Finishing Position/Start/Driver/Laps Completed/Money Won):
1. (6) Jimmy Owens/50 $10,000
2. (3) Jonathan Davenport/50 $5,000
3. (21) Darrell Lanigan/50 $3,000
4. (7) Josh Richards/50 $2,575
5. (25) Tim McCreadie/50 $2,000
6. (12) Chris Madden/50 $1,700
7. (11) Steve Shaver/50 $1,400
8. (2) Mike Marlar/50 $1,800
9. (13) Steve Francis/50 $1,200
10. (14) Clint Smith/50 $1,100
11. (23) Shane Clanton/50 $1,050
12. (22) Chris Brown/50 $1,000
13. (4) Rick Eckert/50 $950
14. (26) Austin Hubbard/50 $1,150
15. (19) Vic Coffey/50 $900
16. (24) Will Vaught/50 $800
17. (16) Gregg Satterlee/50 $770
18. (8) Ken Schrader/50 $750
19. (10) Jeff Rine/50 $730
20. (17) Scott Bloomquist/50 $700
21. (20) Earl Pearson Jr./50 $700
22. (15) Jeep VanWormer/50 $700
23. (1) Dennis Erb Jr./50 $750
24. (28) Tim Fuller/49 $725
25. (18) Jared Landers/49 $700
26. (29) Chub Frank/48 $0
27. (27) Tommy Kerr/48 $700
28. (9) Billy Decker/28 $700
29. (5) John Blankenship/22 $700
* Earnings include cash contingency award bonuses
Margin of Victory: 0.715 sec.
Yellow Flags: 6 (Laps 23, 24, 24, 25, 26, 29)
Lap Leaders: Marlar (1-14); Davenport (15-17); Owens (18-50)
Provisional Starters:, McCreadie, Hubbard, Frank (WoO); Kerr, Fuller (track)
Rookie of the Race: Hubbard ($250)
WoO LMS 'Bonus Bucks' Winner: Mike Marlar ($500)
Heat No. 1 (10 laps - Top 3 Transfer): 1. Jonathan Davenport, 2. Josh Richards, 3. Steve Francis, 4. Jason Feger, 5. Chris Brown, 6. Shannon Babb, 7. Dennis Franklin, 8. Tyler Reddick, 9. Jacob Hawkins, 10. Bob Gordon, 11. Jill George, 12. Chuck Smith
Heat No. 2 (10 laps - Top 3 Transfer): 1. Mike Marlar, 2. Ken Schrader, 3. Clint Smith, 4. Vic Coffey, 5. Ricky Weeks, 6. Johnny Pursley, 7. John Henderson, 8. Chris Ferguson, 9. Chuck Harper, 10. Phillip Pittman, 11. Justin Labonte (DNS) Brian Ledbetter
Heat No. 3 (10 laps - Top 3 Transfer): 1. Dennis Erb Jr., 2. Billy Decker, 3. Jeep VanWormer, 4. Shane Clanton, 5. Earl Pearson Jr., 6. Russell King, 7. Tim Allen, 8. Dale McDowell, 9. Ricky Thornton, 10. Mark Byram, 11. Dan Schlieper, 12. Jon Gunther
Heat No. 4 (10 laps - Top 3 Transfer): 1. Rick Eckert, 2. Jeff Rine, 3. Gregg Satterlee, 4. Ron Davies, 5. Eric Jacobsen, 6. Eddie Carrier Jr., 7. Tim McCreadie, 8. Tim Dohm, 9. Jason Montgomery, 10. Chad Hollenbeck, 11. Brian Nuttal Jr., 12. James O'Hara
Heat No. 5 (10 laps - Top 3 Transfer): 1. Jimmy Owens, 2. Steve Shaver, 3. Scott Bloomquist, 4. Tim Fuller, 5. Will Vaught, 6. Tommy Kerr, 7. Jared Hawkins, 8. Jay Sessoms, 9. Ricky Elliott, 10. Larry Wight, 11. Kerry King, 12. April Farmer
Heat No. 6 (10 laps - Top 3 Transfer): 1. John Blankenship, 2. Chris Madden, 3. Jared Landers, 4. Darrell Lanigan, 5. Austin Hubbard, 6. Chub Frank, 7. Doug Drown, 8. John Lobb, 9. Kyle Pierce, 10. Zack Dohm, 11. Brad Neat
B-Main No. 1 (10 laps - Top 2 Transfer): 1. Vic Coffey, 2. Chris Brown, 3. Shannon Babb, 4. Johnny Pursley, 5. Tyler Reddick, 6. John Henderson, 7. Jacob Hawkins, 8. Chuck Harper, 9. Dennis Franklin, 10. Bob Gordon, 11. Chuck Smith, 12. Jill George, 13. Jason Feger, 14. Chris Ferguson, 15. Ricky Weeks (DNS) Phillip Pittman, Justin Labonte, Brian Ledbetter
B-Main No. 2 (10 laps - Top 2 Transfer): 1. Earl Pearson Jr., 2. Shane Clanton, 3. Eric Jacobsen, 4. Russell King, 5. Eddie Carrier Jr., 6. Ron Davies, 7. Tim Dohm, 8. Dale McDowell, 9. Tim Allen, 10. Ricky Thornton, 11. Jason Montgomery, 12. Mark Byram, 13. Brian Nuttal Jr., 14. Chad Hollenbeck, 15. James O'Hara, 16. Tim McCreadie, 17. Dan Schlieper (DNS) Jon Gunther
B-Main No. 3 (10 laps - Top 2 Transfer): 1. Darrell Lanigan, 2. Will Vaught, 3. Chub Frank, 4. Tim Fuller, 5. Doug Drown, 6. Jared Hawkins, 7. Tommy Kerr, 8. Austin Hubbard, 9. John Lobb, 10. Larry Wight, 11. Jay Sessoms, 12. April Farmer, 13. Kyle Pierce (DNS) Ricky Elliott, Zack Dohm, Kerry King, Brad Neat
Final 2010 World of Outlaws Late Model Series Points Standings - after 44 A-Mains - (rank/driver/points/deficit to leader):
1. Josh Richards 5908
2. Darrell Lanigan 5904 (-4)
3. Tim McCreadie 5790 (-118)
4. Steve Francis 5682 (-226)
5. Rick Eckert 5576 (-332)
6. Shane Clanton 5534 (-374)
7. Austin Hubbard 5464 (-444)
8. Tim Fuller 5368 (-540)
9. Clint Smith 5328 (-580)
10. Chub Frank 5294 (-614)
11. Russell King 4882 (-1026)
12. Jill George 3590 (-2318)
13. Brent Robinson 3470 (-2438)
14. Brady Smith 3226 (-2682)
15. Vic Coffey 1918 (-3990)
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