Southern Ohio Speedway
Southern 100 winner Carrier pockets $12,000
WHEELERSBURG, Ohio (June 15) — Eddie Carrier Jr. of Salt Rock, W.Va., used an outside pass to regain the lead from Steve Francis on Friday at Southern Ohio Speedway and capture the 17th Southern 100.
Carrier earned $10,000 for the unsanctioned victory and an additional $2,000 for winning one of two 25-lap qualifying features at the 4/10-mile oval. | Video
Carrier started outside the front row and led most of the way, but Francis — in a yellow No. 2 instead of his regular Barry Wright house car ride — slipped by to take command with an inside move. Carrier briefly slipped back to third on a restart behind Greggie Oliver, nearly finding disaster after slight contact with Jackie Boggs on the backstretch.
But Carrier quickly regained the sport from Oliver, the polesitter and other qualifying feature winner, and tracked down Francis.
“I finally came out on top in one of these battles for the lead,” Carrier said. "Stevie got by me, and I saw the line he was running. He was even running low down the straightaways, so I figured he might’ve had a softer tire on the left rear.
“I was trying to run down there, but I was kind of running in his dirty stuff, and I moved to the top and it kind of freed my car up. It was like binding it up when I was trying to run the bottom and it was making me loose. I got up and started running the top and it kind of freed my car up.
"I was so much faster than him off the corners, I think, is where I was gaining my speed, and when you run the top you can kind of run it in (to the corners) a little bit harder, too. I finally pulled one out here.”
Francis settled for a second-place finish at a track near his Ashland, Ky., home while Oliver, of Jackson, Ohio, was third. Boggs, of Grayson, Ky., and Zack Dohm of Cross Lanes, W.Va., rounded out the top five finishers in a race that lasted until the wee hours.
Among early cautions were Rod Conley’s lap-three flat tire and when Jared Hawkins slipped off backstretch early, then later got into the frontstretch wall.
Southern 100: (1) Eddie Carrier Jr., (2) Steve Francis, (3) Greggie Oliver, (4) Jackie Boggs, (5) Zack Dohm, (6) R.J. Conley, (7) Donnie Moran, (8) Billy Gullion, (9) Devin Moran, (10) Devin Moran, (11) Nick Bocook, (12) Shannon Thornsberry, (13) Eddie Johnson, (14) Mark Morrison, (15) Brett Kennard, (16) Delmas Conley, (17) Jacob Hawkins, (18) Jared Hawkins, (19) Kenneth Howell, (20) Lee Logan, (21) Rod Conley. Fast qualifier (among 32 cars): R.J. Conley. Qualifying feature winners: Oliver, Carrier.
