COLUMBUS, Miss. — Mike Marlar charged from fifth starting spot to win Saturday night’s GEICO Clash at the Mag presented by Big River Steel at Magnolia Motor Speedway.
With the $15,000 victory, Marlar becomes the ninth different winner of the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series tour this season. The 41-year-old Tennessee veteran also became the first three-time winner of the annual Clash at the Mag.
Tim McCreadie led the first three laps of the 100-lap main event until Marlar passed him for the top spot. Marlar then held McCreadie at bay for the remainder of the caution-free event to score the win. McCreadie crossed the line in second, marking his third-straight runner-up finish.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series point leader Jonathan Davenport finished in third, followed by Josh Richards and Earl Pearson Jr.
In Marlar’s 10th- career LOLMDS victory, he and his crew were excited in victory lane.
“Typically, you run the bottom here, but lately you could float to the middle which is different than in past years,” Marlar said. “I had run the bottom for so long and I thought to myself if I am going to get passed it is going to be on the right side of me. I got out of line and passed some lapped cars. It was pretty close down in turn one passing some lapped cars. I had a few close calls.”
McCreadie completed a successful weekend as well.
“Congrats to Mikey! He was better than us tonight. All-in-all for Sweeteners Plus and Bilstein, we continue to make strides with this whole program,” McCreadie said. “It’s been thrown together really quickly, and we are trying our hardest and we are gaining fast. We probably needed a caution to mix things up a little bit. We need more maneuverability and we will really have something.”
Davenport will maintain the series point lead heading into an off weekend for the series.
“We didn’t really know what the track was going to do tonight,” he said. “When we decided to go the car was on point. I know there were guys coming up on the outside of me. We ran the leaders down and got into lapped traffic. We got together with a car down there in turn four and I guess he didn’t see me. It towed it in pretty good and we were just hanging on from there. It was one of those what if races for sure.”
The finish:
Mike Marlar, Tim McCreadie, Jonathan Davenport, Josh Richards, Earl Pearson Jr., Tyler Erb, Dane Dacus, Devin Moran, Bobby Pierce, Don O’Neal, Stormy Scott, Kyle Bronson, Neil Baggett, Jimmy Owens, Billy Moyer, Shanon Buckingham, Hudson O’Neal, Timothy Culp, Billy Moyer Jr., Eric Cooley, Chad Thrash, Michael Arnold, Brian Rickman, Scott Dedwylder.