PORT ROYAL, Pa. — Tim McCreadie led wire-to-wire on Thursday night at Port Royal Speedway to score his fifth Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory of the season on the first of three nights of racing at the half-mile dirt track.
Kyle Strickler equaled his best career LOLMDS finish by placing second, ahead of point leader Jimmy Owens and Chris Ferguson. Open-wheel standout Kyle Larson came home fifth in his dirt late model debut.
While McCreadie went unchallenged, the race for second on back was hotly contested as Strickler moved into second on lap 18 but was too far behind McCreadie to make a late-race challenge.
Larson held the third spot until the final corner when Owens got underneath of him. Larson got into the frontstretch wall and that enabled Owens and Ferguson to get by him at the finish.
“This is a new car,” McCreadie explained. “I think we have three wins, a second and a third with it. This is as close to home as I get. You could tell these fans are excited. I am happy. I hope I didn’t make it too bad to watch, but it was fun. It’s hard to lead here. I just figured I would live on the cushion and if I got beat, that was the way it was going to be.”
Strickler finished second to equal his runner-up finish in the Show-Me 100 last month.
“We were on a little tire strategy tonight,” he said. “We have struggled the last couple of weeks. This was a bare frame on Monday at Longhorn and we worked our tails off to get here and it paid off. We were definitely a lot better tonight than we have been recently.”
Owens was thankful for another podium finish.
“We had a second-place car tonight. We didn’t have anything for McCreadie,” Owens said. “I chose the inside on the last restart and I thought I could get a run on him [McCreadie] and maybe pull a slider or something on him gong into one. The high-side was the place to be and then we made that last lap run to get third.”
The finish:
Tim McCreadie, Kyle Strickler, Jimmy Owens, Chris Ferguson, Kyle Larson, Hudson O’Neal, Mason Zeigler, Brandon Sheppard, Shane Clanton, Josh Richards, Michael Norris, Bobby Pierce, Tanner English, Jonathan Davenport, Jason Covert, Devin Moran, Billy Moyer Jr., Andy Haus, Tyler Erb, Earl Pearson Jr., Kyle Bronson, Trent Ivey, Stormy Scott, Tyler Bruening, Rick Eckert.