Josh Richards continued his impressive return to the sport after sitting out nearly a full season by winning the World of Outlaws main event at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala Sunday night. It was the 50th career World of Outlaws win for the driver now known as "The Rocket Man" and his first since nerve damage in his hands required a sabbatical in 2014. Richards win a little over a week ago at Screven, Georgia, came in a non-points paying event for the Outlaws.
Two three-time Outlaws champions, Richards and Darrell Lanigan battled for the lead in the opening laps of the 50-lap headliner before Richards took control . Brandon Overton and Shane Clanton shuffled Lanigan back to fourth, but when Overton caught an inside turn marker on lap six, damage to his nose piece sent him pitside.
Tim McCreadie then became the primary challenger passing Richards for the lead two laps past the mid-race mark, but when McCreadie tried to use the high line in turn four to lap Eric Wells, Richards used the opening to regain the lead on lap thirty-five. Lanigan drew a caution three laps later when he too clipped an inside marker and with clear track ahead of him now Richards cruised the final twelve laps to secure the victory. Shane Clanton's runner-up finish vaulted him into the series point lead headed over to Volusia, McCreadie finished in third while the point leader coming into the night Steve Casebolt came home fourth. Morgan Bagley finished in the fifth position and Billy Ogle Jr. rode the cushion all the way from 21st to sixth.
Six nights of racing now follows at Volusia County Speedway with the first three nights under UMP sanction and the final three counting toward the World of Outlaws season points standings.
Brad Sweet capped off a solid week by winning the Winged 410 Sprint Car finale of Speedweeks, the World of Outlaws show at Volusia County Speedway. Swapping the lead back and forth with Paul McMahan in the first ten laps, Sweet then established himself as the leader and, eventually the race winner cashing the $10,000 top prize. McMahan was second followed by Daryn Pittman, Jason Sides and Kerry Madsen. Iowa's Terry McCarl had his best showing of the week finishing in the ninth position.
With the win Sweet will take the World of Outlaws point lead to Las Vegas for a March 4th and 5th doubleheader.
After qualifying for the Daytona 500 during the afternoon, Austin Dillon made the short trip west to VCS and won the UMP Modified qualifying feature for Monday night's $5,000-to-win Gator Championship. Ken Schrader was the runner-up and Burlington, Iowa's Dugan Thye finished 21st.
In what must have been a thriller at New Smyrna Speedway Austin Hill led all 151 laps in the K&N East Series event to win the season opener. Open wheel star Rico Abreu's debut was not as successful as many hoped as he finished one lap down in seventeenth after starting sixth on the grid. He will get another shot at pounding the pavement on April 4th at Greenville.
I know that a lot of my racing friends hated the new qualifying format for the Daytona 500, but I have to say that it is the first time where I have EVER sat and watched the entire qualifying process for the event. Do you realize that if Martin Truex Jr. would have waited about two more seconds before taking off that the other eleven cars would not have made it back to the start-finish line in time to start a lap? Love it or hate it, it definitely made for some good television! And for you conspiracy theorists out there trying to draw lines from Earnhardt Jr. to Patrick to Jeff Gordon winning the pole position for his final Daytona 500, put your tin foil hat on and think about the logistics of pulling that off and keeping everyone involved, drivers, crews, officials from leaking "the master plan".
Don't forget that you can stay warm by watching the action from Volusia on a pay-per-view basis all week long at Dirt On Dirt!
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