The World of Outlaws Late Model Series rolled into The Dirt Track @ Lowes’s Motor Speedway last night and put on a show that will be hard for the WoO Sprints to beat. Among those doing the rolling were NASCAR stars Ryan Newman and Ken Schrader. Schrader finished 3rd in his heat race before coming in 13th in the Feature. The real roller of the night was Schrader’s fellow NASCAR driver Ryan Newman. Newman ran 9th in his heat race which put him in the first of the last chance races. That didn’t work out to well for Ryan as he was caught up in an accident that saw his car do a few barrel rolls before coming to a stop.
Josh Richards finished the World of Outlaws Late Model Series season by winning his heat race, and then finishing 6th in the feature. Here’s the full story of the evening by Scott Cooper
CONCORD, N.C. – Gaffney, S.C., resident Chris “Smokey” Madden held on to the lead of the Armour Foods Vienna Sausage Showdown presented by Ferris Commercial Mowers to beat the “Moweaqua Missile” Shannon Babb by 0.077 seconds to win the 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series race at The Dirt Track at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Madden started the feature from sixth place and took over the lead position on lap five. He was uncontested for most of the race, until Babb closed in to contend for the top spot with five laps to go. The two battled neck and neck in the closing laps, with Madden edging Babb by just a few feet as they took the checkered flag.
“I knew (Shannon Babb) was going to be tough,” Madden said. “He was really good on the top. I was hoping we weren’t going to have all of those restarts whenever he got to the top five, but we were able to hold him off. ‘”I could race with Shannon any time of the week. He’s a great hard racer.”
Madden’s win in the Armour Foods Vienna Sausage Showdown was his fourth at The Dirt Track. He is now tied with Scott Bloomquist for the most Super Late Model Wins at the four-tenths-mile clay oval.
The feature was slowed by six caution periods, including one for World of Outlaws Late Model Series points leader Darrell Lanigan, who stopped on the track due to mechanical problems on lap 34. The “Kentucky Colonel” Steve Francis, second in the point standings, also suffered mechanical issues that sent him to the pit area on lap 28.
Dale McDowell, “Voodoo Child” Scott Bloomquist and Shane Clanton rounded out the top-five finishers.
With 81 cars entered, the field for the feature was set by six heat races and three last-chance qualifiers. The biggest accident of the evening occurred during the first last-chance qualifier when the field bunched up in turn two, sending reigning Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman into a barrel roll down the backstretch.
The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway will end its 2008 season with the VAULT World Finals today through Saturday. The three-day show will feature twin $10,000-to-win features for the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and World of Outlaws Late Model Series on Friday and Saturday nights.
