CROOKSVILLE, Ohio (Sept. 30) — Tyler Carpenter of Parkersburg, W.Va., was not at a loss for words after winning Saturday night’s 50-lap Jim Dunn Memorial at Midway Speedway.

A career-high $12,000 payday triggered a flurry of bubbling, colorful sentences from the steadily-rising 26-year-old driver, who swept around the outside of Salt Rock, W.Va.’s Eddie Carrier Jr. to grab the lead on lap 19 and then beat Zack Dohm of Cross Lanes, W.Va., and Carrier to the finish line.

Carpenter’s most heartfelt statements shined light on the tireless efforts he and his father, Freddie, who led laps 1-4 of the feature before retiring while running third on lap 17, put into operating Kryptonite Race Cars and their race teams.

“I’ll tell you what, I couldn’t do it without my dad,” said Carpenter, who pushed his 2017 feature-win total to 25 with the second Jim Dunn Memorial triumph of his career. “Me and him run Kryptonite Race Cars … we beat ourselves to guts. I know everybody out here probably thinks we’re millionaires or a bunch of drug heads, but I’ll tell you what, they’re all wrong. We’re hard-working, dedicated people who love this sport.

“Nobody can give us credit for what we have done. We’ve come from beyond a shoestring budget. I mean, we should’ve been on welfare, if that tells ‘ya anything. We work day and night, struggle. We skipped out on bills, and to be able to come here, build our own car, that makes us feel good — with or without everybody else giving us a little credit.”

The younger Carpenter started seventh and spent the early stages thinking that it might actually be his father’s night.

“I didn’t even think I was gonna win it,” Tyler said. “I’ll tell ‘ya, I wanted to win this race — me or my dad — and I thought he was a gonna be the golden ticket sitting outside (front) row (for the start). He’d been on fire anyhow.”

Freddie didn’t even make it to the halfway mark, however. He jumped out to the lead at the initial green flag, but he lost the top spot to Carrier on lap five and had fallen to third on lap 17 when he came together with the lapped Ryan Markham of Ashland, Ohio, between turns one and two, bounced hard on the track several times and slowed with rearend trouble to bring out the race’s first caution flag.

Tyler inherited third place from his father and then went to work on the restart. He tossed his car to the outside of the bullring and promptly shot past Dohm and Carrier to gain control on the feature on lap 19.

“When I started the race I picked one off and felt pretty good, and then them guys started giving the top away and I seen my dad running it,” Carpenter said. “I ain’t sure what happened to his car, but I started running in real hard and real straight and that baby was sticking in there with me and before you knew it I took the lead.”

Carrier drew within striking distance of Carpenter just before Jared Miley of South Park, Pa., slowed on lap 32 while running fourth to trigger the second and final caution flag of the race. Carpenter proceeded to gradually open breathing room after the restart and beat Dohm to the checkered flag by several car lengths.

The closing stretch was a bit nerve-racking for Carpenter, but he maintained his composure sufficiently to hold on.

“I seen Carrier stab his nose down there but I was just trying to stay calm,” Carpenter said of Carrier’s brief mid-race challenge. “It’s hard to do when this track gives you a good, thick film. It can be rolling dust, but I’ll tell you what, I bet I went through 20 tearoffs out here. I was a little flustered, but if (Carrier) got up too much further beside, I’d have gotten him back.

“I didn’t want to do nothing more than I had to, and I come off with a win.”

Carpenter ended his victory-lane interview with one final burst of unbridled emotion.

“I don’t know how well the speech is going, but I don’t even care,” Carpenter said. “I won this baby, and I can’t wait to get back to the pits and let the reality hit me and be like, ‘By God, I did ‘er!’”

Dohm, meanwhile, secured second place from Carrier on lap 38 after a half-dozen hotly-contested, side-by-side circuits.

“To come out here with a second-place finish, we’re happy,” said Dohm, who drove his family-owned Swartz car. “I don’t know that I was much better than Eddie. I think the way that (lap-32) restart went and the way the air was in the first few corners, that’s what allowed me to get second place.”

Dohm didn’t have enough speed to deal with Carpenter, who seemed to know he was in control.

“Tyler’s tough,” Dohm commented. “He’s pretty underrated. When it comes to this slick stuff right here, he’s about as good as anybody.

“I didn’t see him early and I was worried about Eddie. We got that (lap-32) restart and Ty pulled up beside and gave me one of these (showing a ‘hang loose’ sign with his hand), and there he went (away from the pack). That’s pretty funny.”

The veteran Carrier was hampered by ill-timed caution flags, but he acknowledged that Carpenter was difficult to deal with.

“I didn’t feel like we needed the caution there (on lap 17) when I got in the lead,” said Carrier, who drove a Longhorn car fielded by Jake Keaton Racing. “Then when Tyler got in the lead I didn’t feel like we needed that one caution when we started getting into some lapped traffic because I actually started catching him a little bit and I got to his bumper.

“I didn’t feel like I fired off as good on the restarts as I needed to,” he added. “Last week I was farther than this behind (winner Freddie Carpenter in the Gibby’s King Championship at Ohio Valley Raceway in Lubeck, W.Va.), so I’ll keep working and maybe we can get this thing back in victory lane.”

Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, advanced from the 13th starting spot to finish fourth in Tye Twarog’s XR1 Rocket, his late bid stalling after he caught Carrier. R.J. Conley of Wheelersburg, Ohio, completed the top five in his family-owned XR1 Rocket.

Notes: Tyler Carpenter acknowledged that he had a run-in with veteran R.J. Conley during his drive to a runner-up finish in his heat. “Me and R.J. had a good, hard battle going on,” Carpenter said. “I like that guy, but we’re pretty well rivals. We bump heads every time. He wants to win and I want to win. We got banged up a little bit in the heat and our crews had words together — hey, I’m sorry, I don’t hate nobody.” … Michael Lake of Uniontown, Pa., earned $500 for a non-qualifiers' race victory. … Ten drivers completed all 50 laps of the feature. … The event honored the late Jim Dunn, the inaugural Dirt Track World Championship winner from Roseville, Ohio. … The race began in 1983 and has been run at four different tracks: St. Clairsville Speedway, Muskingum County Speedway, Midway Speedway and Ohio Valley Speedway. It returned after a two-year absence to Midway, which has hosted the Memorial 25 times. ... The event was twice postponed by rain this year, on June 18 and Aug 6.