Dale McDowell scorches the Lucas Oil field in Bulls Gap

The name of Thursday night’s race at the Volunteer Speedway was ‘The Scorcher’ and scorch the field is exactly what Dale McDowell did to take home the $10,000 first prize in this Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series sanctioned event. The Chickamauga, Georgia driver took advantage of some early misfortune suffered by others and went on to dominate the 50 lap feature.

Scott Bloomquist established himself as the early favorite by setting the fast time in qualifying with a lap of 12.242 seconds around the third-mile clay oval. Brad Neat and Earl Pearson, Jr. also earned pole starting positions for heat races by posting the second and third fastest laps in time-trials respectively.

Bloomquist secured the pole position for the feature by winning the night’s first heat race while McDowell and Eddie Carrier, Jr. also won preliminaries.

Significantly, current LOLMDS points leader Jimmy Owens was forced to start from the 19th position in the feature after scoring the win in the night’s only B-main.

When the feature began, it’s most significant moment occurred right away. After a lap 2 caution for a drive shaft left on the track off of Chris Madden’s car, a huge pileup occurred on the ensuing restart.

Bloomquist slowed dramatically with a flat tire as the field entered turn three on the high-banked track. With no where to go, several cars piled in. Among those involved were Carrier(who almost rolled over), Pearson, Neat and Steve Francis. All received damage and had to go to the rear except for Neat, who retired from the event.

McDowell inherited the lead after the accident and from that point on, the race was his for the taking. John Blankenship, Mike Marlar, Don O’Neal, Billy Ogle, Jr. and Vic Hill were lined up behind the leader in an effort to keep pace.

A lap 12 caution for a tangle involving Bloomquist, Carrier and Jason Welshan proved to be the most challenging moment for McDowell as he was very nearly swept up in the melee. Instead, however, he motored through and maintained the lead of the race.

Owens’ night did not improve in the feature. After posting a poor qualifying lap and failing to transfer out of his heat race, the three-time and defending LOLMDS champion dropped out of the race at the midway point with transmission issues.

The race ran caution free over the final 27 laps and McDowell held a relatively comfortable margin most of the way. Meanwhile, the battle was joined just behind the leader as Marlar fought Blankenship for the second spot and Bloomquist came roaring back from the tail of the field.

By the halfway point of the race, Bloomquist had already broken back into the top-5. However, his charge would stall somewhat from there as the front running cars proved more difficult to pass.

Ultimately, Marlar would succeed in wresting the runner-up spot away from Blankenship, but he was not able to gain on McDowell as the laps clicked away.

At the finish, it was Dale McDowell winning over Mike Marlar, John Blankenship, Scott Bloomquist, Jared Landers, Don O’Neal, Billy Ogle, Jr., Eric Jacobsen and Dennis Erb, Jr.