DEGRAFF, Ohio – Kyle Jones came from the seventh starting position to win the opening round of the Ohio 300 series Saturday night at Shady Bowl Speedway.
Jones quickly made his way from his seventh starting position to the lead, taking the top spot from Jimmy Lewis Jr. on lap 25 going into turn one. He led the rest of the way during the 75-lap feature.
“Starting seventh, we got to fourth pretty quick, then we just settled in and took our time,” said Jones. “Lewis slipped up there just that one time, and I had a really good drive coming off turn four and got up by his door in turn one, so he really didn’t have any choice when I got the lead. I was just try to be lights out on those restarts, just hit all my marks, I didn’t want to give up the lead on restarts,” finished Jones.
Veteran drivers Lewis and Don Mahaffey Jr. would tow the field to the start, with Lewis taking the early lead. Mahaffey would stay in second as Kenny George came up to third. A yellow flag would turn red at lap 21 for a track cleanup after multiple cars got together coming off turn four and fluid was dropped on the track.
When racing resumed Lewis once again squeezed into the lead as Jones swept past Mahaffey into second. Two laps later there was a new leader as Jones got under Lewis going into turn one and off turn two he completed the pass to take command.
Lewis would drop three more positions to fifth after slipping up out of the groove. Getting into slower traffic, Jones showed the way as Bud Perry moved by Mahaffey into second, just to see the second red flag wave when a car blew an engine, dropping fluid on the track again. Once the track was opened back up, Perry’s car would not fire and would be taken to the pit area for attention.
The final double file restart came with a handful of laps to go as Jones did what he had done the entire race, drive away from the field. Mahaffey stayed in second, Lewis rebounded for third. Rowdy Hinton and Billy Hutson rounded out the top-five.
“I had a few concerns under those red flag conditions,” said Jones. “But when you have a car as good as this one tonight, not many concerns. My biggest concern was my tires, if I may have ran over something or the tires cooling and just setting there under red a tire goes flat. That’s what happened to Bud’s car earlier in the race. It was a great run, I expect to run the other three Ohio 300 races and two other big late model shows they have here, the Blackford Memorial and the Shatto race.”