John Ownbey earned his first Chevy Performance Super Series win at I-75
The Chevrolet Performance Super Late Model Series made its first ever visit to I-75 Raceway to stage a $3,000-to-win event in front of a large crowd at the Sweetwater, Tenn. facility. John Ownbey would ultimately drive to a hard fought win against a solid field of competitors to claim his first series win.
It was Riley Hickman who showed strength early by putting his car on the pole with a qualifying lap of 13.066 seconds around the clay oval. With the top-10 from time-trials locked into the feature, Hickman was joined on the feature starting grid by Ownbey, Ryan King, Brad Coffey, Cory Hedgecock, Jake Knowles, Brandon Williams, Tim Busha, Barry Goodman and Rusty Ballenger.
Mario Gresham and Ross Martin won the two heat races used to set the remainder of the starting lineup for the main event.
Hickman immediately began to show the way at the start of the 50-lap feature with King, Ownbey and Hedgecock keeping pace just behind the early front runner.
A string of early cautions set the tone for the racing action throughout the first half of the feature as drivers aggressively fought for the bottom lane on each restart. That, in turn led to wholesale position changes during the first third of the race.
A lap 11 restart proved to be the pivotal moment of the race when Ownbey made a strong move to the inside of Hickman through turns 1 and 2. The contact resulted in Hickman being moved out of the preferred racing line and Ownbey seizing the lead. At the same time, Busha also moved by Hickman, knocking the former leader back to third.
At the same time, the fourth running Hedgecock and fifth running King were staging a battle of their own for position.
Following a lap 17 caution, series officials made the decision to forego double-file restarts due to the number of incidents of sheet metal banging after each time the green flag waved. During the long stretch of uninterrupted racing that followed, 14th starting Billy Ogle, Jr. began to use the previously uncharted waters of the high groove in an attempt to make up ground. And that attempt saw some success as the driver of the No. 66 machine moved as high as 7th at one point.
The final caution flag of the night flew on lap 41 for a spin by Jake Knowles. Ownbey broke away on that restart but King moved to the high line and was able to pick off some of his competitors and moved all the up to second after having dropped as low as sixth earlier in the race.
But it would be Ownbey who beat the pack to the checkered flag to collect the win.
Feature Finish: 1. John Ownbey, 2. Ryan King, 3. Riley Hickman, 4. Tim Busha, 5. Cory Hedgecock, 6. Brandon Williams, 7. Ronnie Johnson, 8. Matt Henderson, 9. Adam Martin, 10. Mario Gresham, 11. Tyler Crowder, 12. Brad Coffey, 13. Ross Martin, 14. Rusty Ballenger, 15. Jake Knowles, 16. Billy Ogle, Jr., 17. Jadon Frame, 18. David Brannon, 19. Barry Goodman, 20. Trevor Thompson, 21. Oliver Gentry, 22. Lavon Sparks, 23. Jeff Smith, 24. Pierce McCarter
