Mike Marlar
Mike Marlar has become accustomed to coming from deep in the field to score wins and that continued on Thursday night in the North-South 100 Group B feature at Florence Speedway when he moved up from his 10th starting position to beat the field. The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series-sanctioned main event on Saturday night will pay $75,000 to the winner.
The Longhorn Chassis driver from Winfield, Tennessee earned $5,000 from the track located in Union, Kentucky in a race aired live by FloRacing.com.
A total of 61 cars were signed in for competition
Qualifying Results:
Group A Results- 1. Hudson O’Neal(15.464), 2. Kye Blight, 3. Spencer Hughes, 4. Earl Pearson Jr., 5. Tyler Bruening
Group B Results- 1. Mike Marlar(15.350), 2. Brandon Overton, 3. Ricky Thornton Jr., 4. Jonathan Davenport, 5. Daulton Wilson
Heat Race Results:
Heat 1 Finish- 1. Hudson O’Neal, 2. Spencer Hughes, 3. Tyler Bruening, 4. Logan Roberson, 5. Dale McDowell
Heat 2 Finish- 1. Earl Pearson Jr., 2. Jason Jameson, 3. Kye Blight, 4. Tim McCreadie, 5. Trevor Landrum
Heat 3 Finish- 1. Ricky Thornton Jr., 2. Kyle Bronson, 3. Mike Marlar, 4. Daulton Wilson, 5. Kent Robinson
Heat 4 Finish- 1. Brandon Overton, 2. Jonathan Davenport, 3. Kyle Stickler, 4. Stormy Scott, 5. Dustin Nobbe
B-main Results: 1. Josh Dietz, 2. Eddie Carrier Jr., 3. Ross Robinson, 4. Jim Couch
Feature Re-cap: When the 25-lap feature got underway it was O’Neal who shot to the lead ahead of Thornton, Overton, Pearson and Bronson. Hughes and Davenport passed by Bronson on lap 3 to assume the fifth and sixth positions.
O’Neal began to slip away from Thornton, Overton and Hughes by lap 10 as Marlar went on the move into fifth. Then, Marlar moved around Hughes for fourth. However, a lap 12 caution for a flat tire on leader O’Neal’s car slowed the pace and lifted Thornton to the lead.
Marlar got by Thornton for the lead just before a caution came out on lap 16 as both Jameson and Thornton had issues. Thornton had tagged the outside wall just before his trouble. Marlar then led Overton and Bronson but Thornton spun to bring out a yellow flag before a lap had been completed.
After the green flag waved, Marlar quickly began to pull away from Overton and Bronson with a hornet’s nest of activity further back. Again, however, a caution would be displayed to the field on lap 21 when Strickler spun.
Marlar went on to win the four-lap dash to the finish to claim the win.
Feature Results: 1, Mike Marlar, 2. Kyle Bronson, 3. Brandon Overton, 4. Jonathan Davenport, 5. Spencer Hughes, 6. Tyler Bruening, 7. Tim McCreadie, 8. Earl Pearson Jr., 9. Dale McDowell, 10. Hudson O’Neal, 11. Logan Roberson, 12. Trevor Landrum, 13. Daulton Wilson, 14. Kye Blight, 15. Eddie Carrier Jr., 16. Stormy Scott, 17. Ricky Thornton Jr., 18. Ross Robinson, 19. Kent Robinson, 20. Josh Dietz, 21. Kyle Strickler, 22. Dustin Nobbe, 23. Jim Couch, 24. Jason Jameson
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