COLUMBUS, Miss. – After overcoming challenges from Tyler Erb and Shane Clanton, Jimmy Owens ultimately raced to a $15,000 triumph in Saturday’s 100-lap General Tire Clash at The Mag at Magnolia Motor Speedway.
“This place is so hard to lead at because the groove can change often. There in a 10 lap or so span the groove changed like four times, so I had to keep searching,” Owens said. “Late in the race my car wasn’t quite as good as it needed to be in the crumbs, but the cautions helped get us into clean track. I can’t say enough about this Ramirez Motorsports team and well everything is going right now. We can’t wait to get to the next events.”
Via his performances in preliminary night action, Owens earned the New Vision Graphics Pole Award for the $15,000-to-win finale, while Texas’ native Erb started alongside.
Owens jumped to the lead as the 100-lap finale went green at the three-eighths-mile oval. He set a blistering pace with Erb and Clanton in tow. Exiting turn four on lap 16 as the leaders diced through heavy traffic, Erb and Clanton split Owens to take over the first and second spots in the running order.
Erb led for two circuits before Clanton shot past for the lead on lap 18. Following a lap 22 caution, Owens mounted a charge past Clanton into the lead on the 23rd circuit. With Clanton, Erb, Bobby Pierce and Tim McCreadie in tow, the field raced through the halfway mark of the finale.
A trio of cautions bunched the running order during the second half of the finale, with the most significant coming on lap 82 as Owens navigated heavy traffic. The three-time series champion and current Lucas Oil Late Model Series point leader went on to pick up his second victory in as many nights.
Clanton was second, while Josh Richards came home in third after passing several cars on the lap 82 restart. Pierce and Erb completed the top-five finishers.
The finish:
Jimmy Owens, Shane Clanton, Josh Richards, Bobby Pierce, Tyler Erb, Kyle Bronson, Devin Moran, Jesse Stovall, Tanner English, Tim McCreadie, Michael Page, Frank Heckenast Jr., Timothy Culp, Shanon Buckingham, Hudson O’Neal, Ross Bailes, Tyler Bruening, Logan Martin, Johnny Scott, Neil Baggett, Drew Armstrong, Jonathan Davenport, Billy Moyer, Michael Arnold, Earl Pearson Jr., Spencer Hughes, Joseph Joiner, Billy Moyer Jr., Stormy Scott.