GRANITE CITY, Ill. — Jimmy Owens fought off challenges from Shannon Babb and Josh Richards to win the NAPA Know How 50 Presented by Schoenfeld Headers on Friday night at Tri-City Speedway.
Owens earned his first victory at the Kevin and Tammy Gundaker-promoted facility. It was Owens’ second Lucas Oil win of the season and the 62nd of his career for the three-time national champion.
Owens held the point for the first 11 laps of the race until Babb forged ahead for a lap. Owens and Babb went back-and-forth until just past the half-way mark of the race. Babb held the second spot until he suddenly slowed on the 32nd lap and retired from the race.
Richards picked up the challenge for the lead as he pulled even with Owens on several occasions, but never managed to take the top spot. Earl Pearson Jr. charged by Richards to take the runner-up position on the final lap.
Pearson and Richards joined Owens on the podium as Stormy Scott recorded his best career series finish by taking fourth ahead of 23rd starting Devin Moran, rounding out the top five.
“I want to thank all of my crew, my car owner Leon Ramirez and his family for giving me this opportunity to drive their car,” Owens said. “Thanks to the fans for coming I hope they enjoyed the show. This will give us a lot of momentum heading to Wheatland tomorrow night. We have been leading a lot this year and things have happened. We had a good car last night. We made a few tweaks for tonight and everything went our way.”
Pearson topped off a spirited run with his last lap pass of Richards.
“I got too tight around the bottom, so I went to the top. I could run right through the middle and the car wasn’t so tight,” Pearson said. “To come home second after starting 15th, we worked hard to get there. I really love this track; it’s been good to us in the past. It races so good.”
The finish:
Jimmy Owens, Earl Pearson Jr., Josh Richards, Stormy Scott, Devin Moran, Tim McCreadie, Michael Norris, Gordy Gundaker, Scott Bloomquist, Hudson O’Neal, Shanon Buckingham, Rick Eckert, Mike Marlar, Kyle Bronson, Tyler Erb, Jonathan Davenport, Billy Moyer Jr., Austin Rettig, Shannon Babb, Jeremy Conaway, Chris Simpson, Billy Moyer, Tony Jackson Jr., Daryn Klein, Michael Kloos.