Casey Roberts in his new Longhorn race car.
Casey Roberts may not have had the fastest car at Smoky Mountain Speedway on Saturday night, or even the second fastest. But at the end of the feature race, it was he who hoisted the Ole Smoky Moonshine trophy for his second career Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series victory.
In its first ever visit to SMS, the national touring series staged one of the most thrilling races of the season in front of what was called the largest crowd ever to witness a race at the historic Maryville, Tenn. facility.
For much of the evening, it appeared as if east Tennessee resident Scott Bloomquist would walk away the big winner from the track located in his home region. During qualifying, the Mooresburg resident bested a field of 27 drivers when he posted a near track record time of 14.920 seconds around the 4/10 mile oval. Winfield’s Mike Marlar and Eddie Carrier, Jr. also earned pole position starting spots for heat races with their time-trial runs.
The night’s three heat races were won by Bloomquist, Earl Pearson, Jr. and Eddie Carrier, Jr. while Tommy Kerr of Maryville won the lone B-main preliminary.
At the start of the 50-lap feature, Bloomquist bolted to the early lead from the pole position while disaster struck his front row counterpart on the third lap as Pearson slowed on the track due to a mechanical problem, bringing out the race’s first caution.
Once the green flag waved again, Bloomquist resumed his leadership of the race as Roberts moved around Carrier to assume the runner-up spot. The race would run all the way to lap 34 without another yellow flag with Bloomquist maintaining a sizeable lead, even in heavy race traffic.
The racing was intense throughout the night at Smoky Mountain.
However, it was on lap 34 when the race took a dramatic turn. Jason Papich lost control in turn one and hit the outside wall. When the car drifted back down the banking, it collected the machines driven by Steve Francis, Jimmy Owens, Eric Jacobsen and Skylar Marlar. All of those involved in that wreck, with the exception of Francis, would retire from the event.
As the cars sat motionless on the track waiting for the damaged racers to be untangled and removed, Bloomquist had a tire go flat on his No. 0 machine. When the cars began to roll again, he was forced to surrender the lead in order to change the offending tire.
Bloomquist charged past Don O’Neal on his way to a 3rd place finish after suffering a flat tire while leading.
At that point, Roberts inherited the lead with O’Neal and Jonathan Davenport trailing.
The race resumed once the cleanup was completed and an epic battle ensued as Roberts jumped out to a lead of 10-15 car lengths while O’Neal, Davenport and a hard charging Bloomquist fought for 2nd to the delight of the crowd. By moving so high on the track that his right rear quarter panel frequently sent up a shower of sparks when it grazed the wall, Davenport seized 2nd place from O’Neal on lap 43. Two laps later, Bloomquist would grab 3rd away from O’Neal.
Once cleared of the battle for the runner-up spot, Davenport set out to track down the leader of the race. The gap between the two Georgia drivers steadily shrank as the laps clicked away. And by the final circuit, Davenport had Roberts within his grasp and made a bold move to the low side in turns three and four. However, his efforts came up short as Roberts was able to hold on for the victory.
At the finish, it was Casey Roberts earning $10,000 as he beat out Jonathan Davenport, Scott Bloomquist, Don O’Neal, Dennis Erb, Jr., Tommy Kerr, Mike Marlar, Donald McIntosh, Ray Cook and Jason Hughes.
Roberts debuted a new Longhorn Chassis on Friday night in Gaffney, SC. It was that same car that won on Saturday evening.
Roberts celebrates with the Ole Smoky Moonshine girls in Victory Lane.
