Hagerstown Speedway
Red-hot Owens grabs first Hagerstown victory
Jimmy Owens cruises toward his first Hagerstown victory. (pbase.com/cyberslash)
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (April 20) — Entering Saturday’s Stanley Schetrompf Memorial, Jimmy Owens hadn’t won at Hagerstown Speedway, and he hadn’t been atop the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series point standings in 2013.
The 41-year-old driver from Newport, Tenn., Lucas Oil’s two-time and reigning champion, took care of both those by leading all but four laps of the 50-lap main event at the historic half-mile oval for a $10,000 payday. | Slideshow | Video
Owens made a sweeping pass around turn two on a fourth-lap restart to overtake leader Steve Francis of Ashland, Ky., and second-running Jamie Lathroum of Mechanicsville, Md., then dominated the rest of the way to become the eighth winner in eight series events at Hagerstown. Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., advanced five positions to finish second in the 32nd annual running of the event, nearly two seconds back. Vic Coffey of Caledonia, N.Y., was third followed by Francis, while Gregg Satterlee of Rochester Mills, Pa., rallied from 18th to round out the top five finishers.
“This is kind of a relief,” Owens said. “This track has been eluding me a little bit. We’ve ran good and ran good and never brought home the win. It’s good to get this win here tonight.”
Lathroum and Francis occupied the front row with Francis pulling ahead at the outset. The third-starting Owens went to the outside on an early restart to take second from Lathroum, then continued his run outside turn two to edge ahead of Francis. Owens pulled ahead by more than four seconds in the next five laps.
Owens had a six-second lead and was into lapped traffic by the 15th lap as Pearson moved into third and began pressuring Francis. Pearson took second six laps later and Owens was still out of sight when a lap-26 caution bunched the field.
On the restart, Owens resumed his domination while Coffey, who started fourth but slipped back to sixth early, took the third spot from Francis.
Owens motored through lapped traffic the rest of the way, never threatened by Pearson in winning his second straight Lucas Oil event.
“This is a new car,” Owens said. ”This is about the fourth or fifth h race on it. I was a little worried about it at first, but we were able to get the kinks worked out of it and it seems to be rolling pretty good right now. I hope we can keep it going.”
The victory moved Owens into a 15-point lead over Don O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., who entered the race leading the series points but ended up 21st.
“Jimmy was dominant here tonight,” Pearson said. “We really didn't have anything for him. To come here and get second and show that we have a good car feels good and that will help us in the points.”
Coffey was pleased with his third-place run.
"We had a real good car tonight. We took a little different line there than most of those guys coming off of turn four that really helped me to get into the top three,” he said. “That was really a heck of race between all of us, just too bad it wasn't for the lead. We will take third place and head to West Virginia tomorrow.”
Notes: Owens drives a Mike Reece-owned Bloomquist Race Car with a Cornett Racing Engine and sponsorship from Reece Monument, Gantte Appraisals, Red Line Oil, FK Rod Ends and Sunoco Race Fuels. ... Owens won on the series two weeks earlier at Lone Star Speedway in Kilgore, Texas. ... Overall he’s won three of his last four starts in finished second in the fourth event. ... Among drivers failing to make Hagerstown's feature lineup: Tyler Hershey, Devin Friese, Steven Axtell, Kenny Moreland, Frank Plessinger, Jerry Bard, Jason McBride and Pancho Lawler. ... On the undercard, Rick Singleton won the first-ever RUSH tour victory for Crate Late Models, earning $2,500. ... The Lucas Oil Series was rained out on Friday at Roaring Knob Motorsports Complex in Markleysburg, Pa., but completes its shortened weekend on Sunday at West Virginia Motor Speedway in Mineral Wells, W.Va.
Stanley Schetrompf Memorial: (1) Jimmy Owens, (2) Earl Pearson Jr., (3) Vic Coffey, (4) Steve Francis, (5) Gregg Satterlee, (6) Dan Stone, (7) Steve Shaver, (8) Billy Moyer Jr., (9) John Blankenship, (10) Eddie Carrier Jr., (11) Jamie Lathroum, (12) Marvin Winters, (13) Scott Bloomquist, (14) Nick Dickson, (15) D.J. Myers, (16) Dennis Erb Jr., (17) J.T. Spence, (18) Bobby Pierce, (19) Kenny Pettyjohn, (20) Jared Landers, (21) Don O'Neal, (22) Austin Hubbard, (23) Brian Birkhofer, (24) Gary Stuhler, (25) Jerry Lierly, (26) Brian Tavenner. Fast qualifier (among 34 cars): Winters, 19.402 seconds. Heat race winners: Lathroum, Owens, Francis, Coffey. Consolation winners: Myers, Satterlee. Provisional starters: Landers, Hubbard, Erb, Lierly.
