BATESVILLE, Ark. — With a stunning last-lap pass for the win at Batesville Motor Speedway, Dale Howard raced around Ryan Timms for his second career SawBlade.com A-Feature triumph with the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series presented by the MAVTV Motorsports Network to kick off the Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Week presented by Smiley’s Racing Products.
Last winning in National Tour competition on June 3, 2000, at Houston Raceway Park, Howard’s return to victory lane took 21 years, one Month, and 20 days. That comes out to 791 National Tour events between wins.
Asked about the approach to the pass, Howard said, “I just rolled my wing to the trunk, made a run to the middle, and it stuck. Early when we were in lapped traffic, I moved up high and I felt the car hook up and I felt like if I got a chance to just roll the wing back and hit it hard up there, I’d maybe make it work. and it did, and there wasn’t any rubber, it just stuck.”
Taking the lead on lap two from Timms, the Mach1 Chassis No. 47 wasn’t able to keep the No. 5t at bay. Working into traffic with a comfortable lead, Timms would start to feel pressure before caution lights came on lap 14 for J.J. Hickle, who had a flat left front tire while battling for third. Able to make it out of the work area, Hickle ended up 17th.
Red on the restart for Colton Hardy in the first turn, the field returned to green with Timms taking advantage of the clean air.
Stalking traffic in the final three laps, that opened the door for Howard. Adjusting to the middle groove of the slick three-eighths-mile oval, Dale kept his momentum as Timms continued to work the bottom. Moving in on the back of the field as the pair raced to the white flag, a brief misstep on the slower car was all it took as Howard shot in to lead off the second turn.
Keeping Ryan at bay off the final turn, Howard made it to the checkered flag 0.389 seconds ahead of the DriveWFX.com No. 5t.
Making up several spots in the closing laps, Dylan Westbrook went from 11th to third over the 25-lap affair. Colby Thornhill captured his first career top five run with a fourth-place finish. Matt Covington moved up five spots to finish fifth.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 47-Dale Howard[3]; 2. 5T-Ryan Timms[1]; 3. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[11]; 4. 19-Colby Thornhill[6]; 5. 95-Matt Covington[10]; 6. 17B-Ryan Bickett[4]; 7. 14-Jordon Mallett[16]; 8. 52-Blake Hahn[5]; 9. 3-Howard Moore[12]; 10. 1X-Tim Crawley[21]; 11. 28-Scott Bogucki[7]; 12. 10-Terry Gray[14]; 13. 77X-Greg Hamilton[17]; 14. 5H-Michael Faccinto[9]; 15. 187-Landon Crawley[8]; 16. 67-Hayden Martin[18]; 17. 63-JJ Hickle[2]; 18. 1-Brenham Crouch[15]; 19. 3G-Paxton Gregory[24]; 20. 84-Brandon Hanks[20]; 21. 41-Colton Hardy[22]; 22. 1S-Joey Schmidt[13]; 23. 10P-Dylan Postier[19]; 24. 88-Travis Reber[23]