RINGGOLD, Ga. — Jimmy Owens has hit a stride with the World of Outlaws CASE Construction Equipment Late Model Series in September.
Three weeks after earning his first Series triumph of 2022, the Newport, Tenn., driver backed it up with a wire-to-wire victory Friday night at the Stateline Showdown at Boyd’s Speedway.
Owens picked up where he left off earlier this month, sprinting away from Dale McDowell in turn two of the Fopening lap. However, while “The O-Show” pulled away, a new challenger emerged behind him — Max Blair.
Blair reeled Owens in as he caught lapped traffic, finally bringing himself within a car length before lap 20.
Blair chased Owens through traffic for more than 15 laps, but a caution for Tyler Millwood on lap 35 allowed Owens to have a clean track ahead of him.
From there, Owens drove away to score the $10,000 prize and becoming the third driver to grab back-to-back wins this season.
He praised his team for their performance over the past few months and stated how happy he was to put the winning formula together.
“We had a lot of good cars behind us chasing us all night long, and we were able to hold them off,” Owens said. “We’ve been good the last few months; we just haven’t had the chance to let it show,” Owens said. “It just so happens we get to let it show in front of our home crowd and stuff here in Tennessee.”
Blair, the Rookie of the race, crossed the line second — his eighth podium finish of 2022.
He said he thought he might’ve had another shot at Owens if not for the caution with six laps left.
“If that yellow don’t come out, I think we could’ve at least made it interesting,” Blair said. “I think I could maneuver pretty good in lap traffic. But I was afraid once he got in clean air, it was kind of game over, and that was about what it was.
“To run second to Jimmy Owens and to beat Dale McDowell at Boyd’s, I’ll take that all day long.”
McDowell finished third after battling with Blair for second on the final restart. Like Blair, the “Mac Daddy” said he would’ve preferred the race to stay green.
“It was pretty decent early, but I wasn’t as good as I needed to be,” McDowell said. “I had to search around there. We made a little bit of a change that kind of went maybe the wrong way.
“Late, I actually found me a line there where I could gain some speed, so I was kind of wanting to stay in lap traffic because I could move around. It’s a lot easier to run second and third than it is to lead.”
Tanner English crossed the line fourth, gaining points on Dennis Erb Jr. in the race for the championship.
“The car was pretty good, and I just hung in there,” English said. “I thought I was going to finish about fifth or sixth, but I kind of capitalized on that restart a little bit and thought we might’ve had third, but the cards didn’t play out like they needed to.”
English trails points leader Dennis Erb Jr. by 92 points with nine races remaining.
Chris Madden rounded out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (40 Laps): 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 2. 111V-Max Blair[5]; 3. 17M-Dale McDowell[2]; 4. 81E-Tanner English[4]; 5. 44-Chris Madden[9]; 6. 83-Jensen Ford[7]; 7. 40B-Kyle Bronson[11]; 8. 18X-Michael Page[13]; 9. 1-Josh Richards[3]; 10. 28-Dennis Erb Jr[17]; 11. F1-Payton Freeman[8]; 12. 23-Cory Hedgecock[16]; 13. 99B-Boom Briggs[12]; 14. 25-Shane Clanton[23]; 15. 11-Gordy Gundaker[15]; 16. 16-Sam Seawright[19]; 17. 19R-Ryan Gustin[6]; 18. B1-Brent Larson[24]; 19. 22-Will Roland[20]; 20. 31-Tyler Millwood[10]; 21. 93-Carson Ferguson[21]; 22. 116-Cameron Weaver[22]; 23. 42-Cla Knight[14]; 24. 109-Eli Beets[18]