Photo Credit - Ryan Roberts Photography
It's been a year and half since Jimmy Owens has won a Lucas Oil race and 11 years since he has won at "The Clay at The Bay" but tonight Owens broke those streaks. Owens took the lead for good on lap 13 then held off challenges from Davenport and Garrett Alberson for the $10,000 win. Ricky Thornton Jr and Hudson O'Neal rounded out the top 5.
The night started off with Garrett Smith topping Group A qualifying and taking the overall fastest time with Hudson O'Neal topping Group B. Smith would win his heat race placing him on the pole for the 40 lap main event. Other heats went to Whitener , Alberson , Owens , Harris , and Davenport. B Main winners were Marlar , Tyler Erb , and Daulton Wilson. Since tonight was a points night they added provisionals and a total of 6 were added to the 24 drivers that raced their way into the feature.
At the drop of the green Smith led Owens , Whitener , Alberson , and Clay Harris. As Alberson moved into the runner up spot the yellow waved for fourth place runner Whitener as it appeared he knocked the LR bead off going through the holes in turn 2. on the restart the yellow would wave again for 10th place running RJ Conley as he made contact with the turn 2 wall.
Owens would take his first lead of the night on lap 4 and led for 2 laps before the youngster Smith would retake it from the veteran driver. The third yellow would wave for Boom Briggs spinning in turn 4. Top 5 has Smith leading Owens , Davenport , Alberson , and Harris. Last night's hard charger , Mike Marlar , was duplicating another run from B Main land to 8th.
On lap 13 Owens would wrestle the lead from Smith after a great side by side battle. Once Smith lost the lead he began to fade from there and ended his night with a 9th place finish.
Just past halfway Garrett Alberson , who has yet to win on the tour , began to flex his muscle and moved into second with Davenport following behind him as Owens started hitting the tail of the field.
With 5 to go the trio was all under a blanket as they were glued to the bottom of the track. Alberson seeing that lapped traffic was ahead starting to test a wider line but wasn't making ground on the Koehler Motorsports 20. With 3 to go Davenport went to the higher line and was making it work going around Alberson and quickly gaining on Owens. As they came off turn 4 coming to the line for 2 laps to go the 99 of Boom Briggs was slowing down bringing out the yellow.
On the green white checkered restart Owens blasted out to the lead and looked like he had it won but Davenport found grip and speed again using a higher line but fell .314 seconds short of the win. With Owens win Rocket Chassis is undefeated at the last edition of speedweeks at East Bay with three different winners in three races so far.
THURSDAY'S FEATURE RESULTS
JIMMY OWENS
Davenport
Alberson
Thornton Jr.
O'Neal
Sheppard
Marlar
Moran
Smith
McCreadie
Harris
Pearson Jr.
Shirley
Erb
Robinson
Wilson
Briggs
Troutman
Blair
Lawler
Herrington
English
Hughes
Bronson
Gardner
Nothdurft
Dotson
Conley
Whitener
Overton
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