CONCORD, N.C. — The first time was a charm.
Mike Marlar’s first race for Skyline Motorsports was a dominant performance and landed the late veteran late model driver in victory lane on night two of the World of Outlaws World Finals at The Dirt Track at Charlotte.
Marlar earned $15,000 for leading all 35 laps of the four-tenths-mile oval and earning his fourth World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series triumph of the season.
Marlar’s No. 157 machine was on rails, but he still had to hold off a last-lap charge from Brandon Overton, who tried the high side on the final lap, but fell back to third.
For Marlar, who was the 2018 series champion, it was a dazzling debut for a new team after 10 years with team owner Ronnie Delk.
“When I got behind the lapped cars, the track was really dirty and I was really loose,” Marlar said. “I backed away from them on purpose to not get passed. I am really happy for Greg and Tyler Bruening. They put us in this car and gave us anything we needed. It’s unbelievable. I’m just really happy for these guys.”
Overton started on the pole and finished third.
“It is something to build on,” Overton said. “We sat there trying to figure Mikey out. We weren’t bad, we should have stayed on the bottom, but I figured, ‘S—, I haven’t won a race in a while, so I went for it, we might finish second, we might finish third.”
Overton gave a nod to the fans for sticking out a cold night.
“Thanks to the fans,” he said. “You all are tough as hell, ain’t no way I’d be sitting out here.”
Chris Madden, who started sixth after the redraw, passed Overton on the final lap to finish second.
“The redraw sucks,” Madden said. “We work our butts off to get speed in our car and then we get penalized and have to redraw for some stupid reason. Only professionally sport I know you get penalized for being fast.”
Hudson O’Neal and Dale McDowell completed the top five.
The finish:
Mike Marlar, Chris Madden, Brandon Overton, Hudson O’Neal, Dale McDowell, Daulton Wilson, Kyle Bronson, Cade Dillard, Chase Junghans, Tim McCreadie, Ricky Thornton Jr., Zach Mitchell, Bobby Pierce, Ryan Gustin, Shane Clanton, Jonathan Davenport, Nick Hoffman, Mason Zeigler, Garrett Smith, Ethan Dotson, Brandon Sheppard, Ricky Weiss, Carson Ferguson, Benji Hicks, Brian Shirley, Donald McIntosh, Tanner English, Drake Troutman.