ELLISVILLE, Fla. (Oct. 23) — Jimmy Owens’s weekend at All-Tech Raceway’s Powell Family Memorial may have gotten off to a slow start during Thursday’s practice session, but by the time Saturday’s feature finished, the veteran racer from Newport, Tenn., was more than up to speed in his Michael Lloyd-owned Crate Late Model.

Owens, the four-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champion making a rare Crate Late Model appearance, rocketed forward from his fourth starting spot to take the lead on lap two of Saturday’s 67-lap feature and led the remaining distance to score a $26,000 victory on the Crate Racin’ USA tour.

Owens dominated the majority of the event until a series of late restarts allowed runner-up Carson Ferguson of Concord, N.C., to remain within striking distance through the race’s closing laps. Owens took the checkers 0.686 seconds ahead of Ferguson with 18th-starting Kyle Bronson of Brandon, Fla., taking third. Jason Welshan of Maryville, Tenn., advanced from 13th to finish fourth with 16th-starting Shan Smith of Date City, Fla., rounding out the top five.

The impressive performance by Owens was a major improvement from where he started the weekend as he took some time to adjust from the high-powered engine of his Ramirez Motorsports Super Late Model to the under-powered 604 GM crate engine.

“Practice night down here helped a tremendous amount,” said Owens, who prior to the weekend had only ran at All-Tech in a pair of Lucas Oil Series events. “We lacked a couple of tenths, and I was spinning my tires off the corners and didn’t know if it was normal or what because there’s just a big, big difference (between Crate Late Models and Super Late Models). You don’t really know how to adjust because when the car’s tight, you don’t know how much it’s slowing you down. When it’s loose, you don’t know if it should be loose. Not knowing what to expect is crazy, but we made some adjustments it helped a bunch.”

While Owens may have dominated Saturday’s feature, he noted that his path to victory in a 73-car field that included many of the top racers in the Crate Late Model division was far from easy.

“There’s a tremendous amount of competition in every division in this sport, period,” Owens said. “This ain’t no cake walk when you come down here and run with these guys. I’m just as happy to win this race as the World 100 because there’s some stout cars here.”

Ferguson, who last season missed the feature lineup at the Powell Memorial while making his first appearance in Longhorn Chassis, was happy with his second-place finish in Saturday’s race as it continued a stellar season for the Crate Late Model ace.

“We came last year in our first race in this Longhorn and just had bad luck and nothing go our way,” said Ferguson, who entered All-Tech’s event fresh off a $5,500 victory in Crate action at Friendship Motor Speedway in Elkin, N.C. “We ended up missing the whole race. This year, I feel like I improved driving-wise and this new Longhorn by Wesley Paige was on a rail and made my job a lot easier.”

Racing as a teammate to Owens in a second car owned by Lloyd, Bronson felt he would’ve had a better shot if he had performed better in Friday’s prelims and earned a better starting position for Saturday’s feature.

“These guys are too good to spot them all those positions,” said Bronson, who like Owens is a regular on the Lucas Oil Series. “I just wish we could’ve started up closer to the front. We had a really good car there. We was a little tight when it rubbered up there, but overall we raced half the race before it rubbered and passed a lot of cars. We just came up two spots short.”

Notes: Owens’s 11th overall victory of the season is his highest-paying win since his $40,000 payday in the 2020 Topless 100 at Batesville (Ark.) Motor Speedway. It’s also his third victory of at least $20,000 this season. … Mark Whitener of Middleburg, Fla., advanced from ninth to second before running into trouble and pitting under a mid-race caution. He ended up 19th. … Owens was the only one of six heat race winners from Friday night to finish among the top five Saturday. … Sixth-starting Joseph Joiner of Milton, Fla., ran among the top five for most of the distance before slowing from fourth with 20 laps remaining. … Polesitter Derike Bennett of Jacksonville, Fla., quickly faded and ended up 27th after pulling off early. … Second-starting Cameron Weaver of Crossville, Tenn., led the race’s opening lap before fading to sixth at the finish. … Fifth-starting Wil Herrington of Hawkinsville, Ga., climbed as high as second before fading to seventh.