Jesse Lowe took the lead midway through the race and drove on to victory
The United Championship Racing Alliance rolled into the I-75 Raceway on Saturday night to contest the $2,000-to-win Larry Kyle Memorial at the track located near Sweetwater, TN. At the end of the night it was Crossville’s Jesse Lowe who would emerge from an intense mid-race battle to claim the top prize.
Lowe led the way in qualifying as he topped the 18 entrants with a lap of 12.659 seconds around the third-mile clay oval. That effort beat out Michael Courtney, Jimmy Elliott, Addison Cardwell, Jason Manley and Anthony White.
Elliott earned the pole position for the feature when he beat out Lowe, Manley and Ruben Mayfield in the first heat race of the night. Courtney would start the main event from outside the front row after he won the second preliminary of the night over Cardwell, White and Kenny Kizzar.
At the start of the 40-lap feature it was Elliott who took the early lead with Courtney, Lowe, Manley and White in his tire tracks. Lowe began working on Courtney early in the going in an attempt to grab the runner-up position while Cardwell slipped by White to move into the top-5 a bit further back.
Courtney moved around Elliott to take the lead just moments before a lap 8 yellow flag slowed the pace. Shortly after the restart from that caution period Lowe took second away from Elliott and immediately set his sights on the race leader. Further back, White regained fifth away from Cardwell.
Courtney encountered slower traffic on lap 13 which allowed Lowe to close in on his rear spoiler as those two cars separated themselves from the pack.
On lap 20, Lowe moved around Courtney to take the top spot. However, Courtney would retake the front position with a crossover move just one lap later. Lowe then took over for good on lap 22 as he again passed by Courtney.
After successive cautions on laps 24 and 25, Courtney fell back into the pack while Manley and Andy Ogle emerged as the newest contenders for the race win. But Lowe proved to be too strong as he led the remainder of the way while Manley and Ogle fought over the second spot.
Lowe eventually cruised under the checkered flag to take the win.
Feature Finish: 1. Jesse Lowe, 2. Jason Manley, 3. Andy Ogle, 4. Jimmy Elliott, 5. Michael Courtney, 6. Anthony White, 7. Ruben Mayfield, 8. Kenny Kizzar, 9. Kelvin White, 10. Chris Whitted, 11. Austin Langley, 12. Michael Evans, 13. Addison Cardwell, 14. Josh Henry, 15. Stephen Rogers, 16. Zach Shannon, 17. Ryan Winchester
