BROWNSTOWN, Ind. — Mike Marlar scored a popular win on Saturday night as the Winfield, Tennessee, native picked up his first Jackson 100 presented by Summit Racing Equipment.
He became the 33rd different driver to win Brownstown Speedway’s most prestigious event.
Marlar collected $50,000 for the win in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series event, which was the richest in the track’s 72-year history.
Marlar led 58 of the 100 laps, taking the lead for good from Bobby Pierce on lap 48. He led the rest of the way in a race that saw only one caution flag.
Ricky Thornton Jr. moved into second around Pierce on lap 53 as he trailed Marlar to the finish line. Pierce, who led for 42 laps, rounded out the Big River Steel podium in third. Tim McCreadie finished in fourth, and Jonathan Davenport rounded out the top five.
Marlar’s 23rd career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win was hard-earned as he led on two different occasions during the race. He was out in front for the first five laps until Pierce, who started fourth, took over the point.
Pierce then started to pull away from Marlar, but Marlar began to track down the driver who was looking for his 35th win of the season. Marlar was able to catch up to Pierce, passing him with 48 laps scored.
“It’s been a trying season for sure. I love my guys; they’re my family,” Marlar said. “It’s been rough. I mean, usually, I don’t get that emotional, but man, we’ve been through it. I knew the track would clean up pretty fast; I thought I was in trouble when it cleaned up there. I had some good runs but didn’t want to be in that traffic. I finally got the open track, and he [Pierce] was struggling a little bit, so I got by him there, and you know he’s tough to beat. It’s fun racing with those guys. I am getting to be the old guy in the crowd, and you know them young kids can still make me better all the time.”
Thornton leaves Brownstown as the Midwest Sheet Metal point leader heading into the season finale at Eldora next weekend – holding a 50-point lead in the race for the $200,000 championship.
“It was a really good weekend for us,” Thornton said. “Obviously, we wanted to win tonight; congrats to Mikey. He’s been really good this weekend, too. Hopefully, we can carry this momentum into Eldora next week. I felt like we’ve got a little more balance that we’ve been looking for. So, hopefully, we can keep the speed going. The only thing is I should have got up on the wheel and qualified a little better. But other than that, I think we ran the best race that we could have run there. There were a couple of times I could have run Mikey over for the lead, but I knew he wouldn’t race me that way.”
Pierce, who entered the weekend as the country’s top-ranked driver, came home in third.
“We have got to get better on the long runs here. We love it, Brownstown is a great facility and racetrack right here in Indiana. We were just loose, and there was not a whole lot we could do. We fell back to third and we were hanging on.”
The finish:
Mike Marlar, Ricky Thornton Jr., Bobby Pierce, Tim McCreadie, Jonathan Davenport, Devin Moran, Garrett Alberson, Drake Troutman, Max Blair, Devin Gilpin, Jimmy Owens, Hudson O’Neal, Dennis Erb Jr., Nick Hoffman, Tanner English, Dave Hess Jr., Adam Stricker, Daulton Wilson, Clay Harris, Tristan Chamberlain, Matt Boknecht, Brandon Sheppard, Carson Ferguson, Boom Briggs, Ross Robinson, Brenden Smith, Cory Lawler.