West Virginia Motor Speedway
Carrier collects $10,000 Lucas Oil victory
Eddie Carrier Jr. celebrates atop his car. (DirtonDirt.com)
MINERAL WELLS, W.Va. (April 21) — Kentucky native Eddie Carrier’s West Virginia credentials are confirmed.
The 42-year-old driver from Salt Rock who moved to the Mountaineer State to drive for Carl Grover Motorsports in 2002 scored a special victory Sunday on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, grabbing $10,000 with a 50-lap triumph in front of the terraced hillside grandstands at West Virginia Motor Speedway. | Slideshow | Video
Carrier took the lead from race-long leader Brian Birkhofer of Muscatine, Iowa, on the 33rd lap and kept fellow home-state driver Josh Richards of Shinnston in check late in the race for his first Lucas Oil victory of the season and fourth of his career.
“It’s kind of my home state now ... ” Carrier said in victory lane. “To win it on a pretty big stage like this, I mean, you know, you’ve got some of the best drivers in the country here. To win it with the Lucas Oil, that makes it special.
“The car was just excellent today. We unloaded it out of the trailer and everything was just working. We qualified well, we won our heat races, we put the right tires on and made the right adjustments — finally.”
Richards, who misjudged the third turn in the early laps and got into the wall, rallied after a lap-two pit stop to finish second, nearly tracking down Carrier in the final laps. Don O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., finished third in struggling on too-soft tires while Birkhofer faded to fourth after leading the first 32 laps. Two-time series champ Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., who entered the event leading the series points, fell into a tie with O’Neal after a 13th-to-fifth run. Pole-starting John Blankenship ended up sixth.
Birkhofer got the jump early but and his hands full with Carrier by the 14th lap as the frontrunners mixed it up on a track shortened to 4/10-mile from its original 5/8-mile configuration. Carrier nearly pulled ahead of Birkhofer a few times, including just before the halfway point when he made a high-side charge on lap 24 that nearly saw him collected by the slowing car of Dennis Erb Jr. between turns three and four.
The midrace caution gave Birkhofer a reprieve as he edged comfortably away for a few laps, but Carrier, O’Neal, Steve Francis and Blankenship were soon hot on his heels with Carrier sliding past on lap 33 to take command just before yellow for the slowing Wayne Hughes.
Just after the next restart, Francis ended up against the turn-one wall after tangling with Steve Shaver on the frontstretch. Francis suffered race-ending damage and Shaver, who pulled alongside Richards in turn two during the ensuing caution to discuss the incident, was also out with a flat left-front tire among other damage.
That would be the final yellow as Carrier pulled comfortably away while Richards, up to fifth for the restart, quickly moved into third and hounded O’Neal before slipping by on lap 44.
But by then, Carrier’s lead was too big to erase as Richards made up ground but never could make a serious challenge in the final six laps.
“We killed the wall and knocked the right-front suspension off, and I just wanted to tag the tail and ride around,” Richards said. “We just kept picking ‘em off one at a time and the car was just really good.”
Notes: Carrier’s Rocket Chassis has a Grover Racing Engine with sponsorship from Engines Inc., Blue Ridge Machinery & Tools, Hess Stewart & Campbell PLCC and Integra Shocks. ... Carrier has competed in every Lucas Oil Series event and moved up to 10th in the standings. ... Carrier notched his first series victory since April 12, 2008, at the former K-C Raceway near Chillicothe, Ohio. ... Sixteen of 25 starters finished on a demanding oval. ... Five cautions slowed the action, all for single cars except the lap-33 restart that eliminated Steve Francis and Steve Shaver. ... Provisional starter Austin Hubbard of Seaford, Del., took Optima Batteries Hard Charger honors with his 25th-to-12th run. ... Hubbard battled his own backup car that was driven by leading series rookie Bobby Pierce of Oakwood, Ill., whose hauler broke down near the previous night’s event in Hagerstown, Md., and needed a car to continue the series chase. Pierce finished 13th. ... The series made its first visit to WVMS since Scott Bloomquist's 2010 Hillbilly 100 victory. ... Among drivers failing to make the feature lineup were Zack Dohm (engine), Chris Garnes (scratched from heat), Chuck Harper (hit turn-two wall in heat), Bob Adams, David Gibson Jr., Jacob Hawkins (engine problems in heat) and Australian visitor Ross Nicastri. ... After a weekend off, the Lucas Oil Series returns to action May 3-4 at Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Ill., and Paducah (Ky.) International Raceway. Both 50-lappers pay $10,000-to-win.
Lucas Oil @ WVMS: (1) Eddie Carrier Jr., (2) Josh Richards, (3) Don O'Neal, (4) Brian Birkhofer, (5) Jimmy Owens, (6) John Blankenship, (7) Scott Bloomquist, (8) Jared Landers, (9) Jared Hawkins, (10) Jonathan Davenport, (11) Earl Pearson Jr., (12) Austin Hubbard, (13) Bobby Pierce, (14) Dennis Erb Jr., (15) Gregg Satterlee, (16) Donnie Moran, (17) Jerry Lierly, (18) Billy Moyer Jr., (19) Jason McBride, (20) Wayne Hughes, (21) Steve Francis, (22) Steve Shaver, (23) Vic Coffey, (24) D.J. Myers, (25) Tim McCreadie. Fast qualifier (among 32 cars): Blankenship, 17.021 seconds. Heat race winners: Blankenship, O’Neal, Birkhofer, Carrier. Consolation winners: Bloomquist, Pierce. Provisional starters: Moyer, Lierly, Hubbard.
