John Ownbey won his second consecutive NeSmith feature
John Ownbey came into this weekend with no NeSmith Dirt Late Model Series wins to his credit in 2015. He came out of the weekend as that series winningest driver for the season.
After scoring his first NeSmith victory of the season on Friday night at Tri-County Race Track in Brasstown, NC, Ownbey followed that effort up with a dominating performance at 411 Motor Speedway in Seymour, Tenn. on Saturday evening. The driver of the No. 44 Longhorn Chassis pocketed a $4,000 check for capturing the checkered flag in the 4th Annual J.T. Kerr Memorial race.
Ownbey was strong right out of the box in qualifying as he posted the overall fast time of 14.160 seconds around the 3/8 mile clay oval to beat out a field of 31 cars. Matt Henderson, Chase Edge, Nick Lyons, Ryan King and Rusty Ballenger joined Ownbey as being locked into the feature via time-trials.
Justin Summers won the first B-Main of the night, but the story of that race was with Adam Beeler. As he attempted to recover from and earlier spin, Beeler got tangled up with other cars near the rear of the pack and spun at the exit of turn four. At that moment, Bradley Lewelling hit Beeler in the side and caused the CVR house car to roll completely over and land back on its wheels.
Beeler was uninjured in the mishap but the car was finished for the night.
Cory Hedgecock won the second B-main of the night, but again, the story of the race was a rollover crash. On the initial start, multiple cars tangled in turn one. Greg Martin found himself tumbling through turn two and ultimately landing on his wheels.
Martin was uninjured and even drove the car back to his hauler.
Henderson proved to be the fastest at the start of the 40-lap main event as he bolted to the early lead with Ownbey right behind him in a situation that looked very similar to the previous night at Tri-County. Lyons, Edge, King and Ballenger joined the pursuit of the early leader during the opening laps with some furious action taking place throughout the field.
On lap 10, Ownbey made his move and swept by Henderson then set sail away from the field. At the same time, Lyons and Edge raced side-by-side for the 3rd position while King and Ballenger waged a similar battle for 5th.
A lap 16 caution for the slowing car of Ballenger set off a sequence of events that would prove to be significant in determining the final outcome of the feature.
On the ensuing restart from the Ballenger caution, a cluster of two and three wide racing took place among those just behind the leading cars. In that action, Hedgecock found himself shuffled into the infield and bouncing off a tractor tire used to mark the inner boundary of the speedway. The driver of the No. 23 opted to retire for the night after that incident, but not before he let his displeasure be known to Edge as he drove off track.
On the next restart, King and Lyons raced each other hard into the third turn and both spun as a result. That, in turn, caused the entire track to be blocked and virtually every car from third on back was involved in the melee. While most cars continued, some were damaged to the point that they could no longer be competitive.
After the race reached the halfway mark, drivers seemed to settle into a rhythm, which ended the string of yellow flags. From that point, it was all Ownbey as the Cleveland, Tenn. pilot built a commanding lead over the field and picked his way through traffic without incident before going on to take the checkered flag.
Feature Finish: 1. John Ownbey, 2. Matt Henderson, 3. Anthony White, 4. Todd Morrow, 5. Justin Summers, 6. Ronnie Johnson, 7. Mario Gresham, 8. Ryan King, 9. Josh Henry, 10. Ryan Crane, 11. Chase Edge, 12. Nick Lyons, 13. Marcus Minga, 14. Gary Crittenden, 15. Will Roland, 16. Jimmy Elliott, 17. Forrest Trent, 18. Cory Hedgecock, 19. Michael Richardson, 20. Rusty Ballenger, 21. Josh Fields, 22. Cody Martin, 23. Eric Register, 24. Eric Craters
