Jimmy Owens led from start to finish
The Schaeffer’s Oil Spring Nationals made its way to the Smoky Mountain Speedway on Saturday night to contest is sixth event of the 2021 season. Jimmy Owens put an end to his qualifying and heat race woes early in the night then went on to earn the victory in dominating fashion at the Maryville, TN facility. The Newport, TN driver took home $10,053 for his efforts.
Jimmy Owens was fastest in Group A qualifying with a lap of 15.493 seconds around the 4/10 mile clay oval to beat out Austin Kirkpatrick, Jason Croft, Jensen Ford, and Parker Martin.
Dale McDowell topped Group B time-trials with an effort of 15.605 seconds over Brandon Overton, Mike Marlar, Hudson O’Neal, and Chase King.
Jimmy Owens earned the pole for the feature by winning the first heat race ahead of Dusty Carver, David Payne, and Parker Martin while Austin Kirkpatrick defeated Randy Weaver, Jensen Ford, and Travis Fultz in the second preliminary.
Dale McDowell would start from the outside of the front row by virtue of his win in the third heat over Mike Marlar, Cory Hedgecock, and Tommy Kerr just before Brandon Overton was victorious in the fourth and final heat by besting Donald McIntosh, Hudson O’Neal, and Robby Moses.
Jason Croft and Dakotah Knuckles won the two B-main races used to set the remainder of the starting lineup.
Owens bolted to the front of the field at the start of the 53-lap feature with Overton, McDowell, Marlar and Kirkpatrick trailing. A caution flag was shown to the field at the conclusion of the first lap when Martin’s car came to a stop in turn two.
On the lap 1 restart, McIntosh moved to fifth while Owens darted away from his pursuers and began setting a torrid pace. By lap 6 the No. 20 car had put almost a full straightaway between it and the cars of Overton, McDowell, Marlar and McIntosh.
The pace of the race was slowed on lap 11 when a yellow flag waved for top-10 running Hedgecock. On that restart, Owens benefitted from the fact that Overton and McDowell ran side-by-side for a couple of laps as they battled for the runner-up spot in the order. Overton eventually emerged from that fight with the position as Owens drove away.
Further back, the fourth through eighth positions were hotly contested between Marlar, McIntosh, Weaver, O’Neal and Ford. Up front, however, Overton had began to draw closer to Owens before the gap stabilized at about ten car lengths.
Owens encountered slower traffic just before the halfway mark while maintaining his advantage over Overton. By this point in the race, the top-2 had set about the business of pulling far away as they sought to settle the issue among themselves.
By the 10-to-go mark, Overton closed in on the leader in traffic appeared poised for a challenge. At the same time, though, Owens was able to slice through the slower cars and keep distance between himself and his nearest challenger.
Overton closed in once more on the final lap but Owens was able to outrun his challenger to the checkered flag to collect the win.
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Feature Finish: 1. Jimmy Owens, 2. Brandon Overton, 3. Dale McDowell, 4. Mike Marlar, 5. Donald McIntosh, 6. Randy Weaver, 7. Hudson O’Neal, 8. Jensen Ford, 9. Robby Moses, 10. David Payne, 11. Austin Kirkpatrick, 12. Dakotah Knuckles, 13. Jason Croft, 14. Stacy Boles, 15. Garrett Smith, 16. Tommy Kerr, 17. Travis Fultz, 18. Dusty Carver, 19. Cory Hedgecock, 20. David Crabtree, 21. Craig Greer, 22. Parker Martin
