ROME, Ga. - Scott Bloomquist raced to his 15th Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win of the 2016 season on Sunday night at Georgia’s Rome International Speedway.
Bloomquist led every lap, but had to fight off a late-race challenge from Don O’Neal to pick up the win in the Lucas Oil Rome Showdown.
Trailing Bloomquist and O’Neal to the checkers were Brandon Overton, Chris Madden, and Jonathan Davenport.
“The car was awesome tonight,” Bloomquist said. “It (the car) was as smooth as could be and our Andy Durham engine ran great. When we got into traffic we had a few issues. The car wouldn’t get off the corners like I wanted it to. I never saw O’Neal at the end. I just tried to stay focused the best I could.”
Bloomquist was challenged early on by Ray Cook and then by Chris Madden. Madden was closing on Bloomquist in heavy lapped traffic. After a caution on lap 27, O’Neal snuck under Madden to take the second position away from him. O’Neal started to close the gap on Bloomquist until lap 38 when the third and final caution of the race came out.
Following the restart, O’Neal stayed with Bloomquist. With ten laps to go, he finally took a shot at the leader coming out of turn two. He pulled even, but Bloomquist seized the opportunity to thwart any thoughts that O’Neal had of taking over the lead. Bloomquist charged hard into turn three and recaptured the top spot.
“We had a good car tonight,” said O’Neal. “The crew had this car up front all night. I wanted to win so bad for them and Clint Bowyer Racing. We gave it our best shot, but came up a little short. I thought I could take him once coming off of turn two, but I couldn’t quite clear him.”
Overton made a late race charge to finish in third.
“My car really started to go late in the race. I want to thank Billy Moyer and everybody associated with him in building this car. To run third with these guys says a lot about how far our program has come the last few years.”
Cook, Tim McCreadie, Derek Ellis, Darrell Lanigan, and Jimmy Owens rounded out the top ten.
For more information on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, visit LucasDirt.com.
In other action, Chris Fennell scored the win in the Steel Head Late Model feature, with Tod Hernandez in second, Ryan Crane in third, Casey Turman in fourth and Jason Smith in fifth.
Donny Thurman was the winner in the Super Bomber feature. Travis Smith finished in second, followed by Chris Ledbetter in third, Jesse O’Shields in fourth and Madison Vogler in fifth.
Dalton Polston picked up the victory in the Economy Bomber feature. Corey Wright, Dan Meadows, Von Casey and Seth Lacey rounded out the top five.
In the Street Stingers feature, Cody Sisson was the winner, followed by Casey Creighton in second, Melissa Dempsey in third, Brian Dempsey in fourth and Anthony Summerville in fifth.
For more information on Rome Speedway, visit DixieSpeedway.com.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Rome Speedway – Rome, GA
Lucas Oil Rome Showdown – Oct. 2, 2016
1. 0 – Scott Bloomquist
2. 5 – Don O’Neal
3. 76 – Brandon Overton
4. 44 – Chris Madden
5. 116 – Jonathan Davenport
6. 53 – Ray Cook
7. 39 – Tim McCreadie
8. 99 – Derek Ellis
9. 15 – Darrell Lanigan
10. 20 – Jimmy Owens
11. 28 – Dennis Erb, Jr.
12. 17m – Dale McDowell
13. 9 – Jason Croft
14. 11 – Austin Kirkpatrick
15. 7 – Donald McIntosh
16. B5 – Brandon Sheppard
17. 1 – Earl Pearson, Jr.
18. 8 – David Payne
19. 15 – Steve Francis
20. 44 – Clint Smith
21. 16 – Austin Horton
22. 101 – Casey Roberts
23. 3 – Luther Jenkins
24. 81 – Aaron Ridley
Steel Head Late Models
1. c87 – Chris Fennell
2. T6 – Tod Hernandez
3. 10 – Ryan Crane
4. 21 – Casey Turman
5. 84 – Jason Smith
6. 21 – Mario Gresham
7. D2 – David Duplissey
8. 6 – Roger Dickson
9. 4 – Shane Smith
10. 18 – Mike Bruner
11. 9 – Rob Johnson
12. 19 – Landon Bagby
13. 0 – Aubrey Merritt
14. 71 – Tom Watson
15. 83 – Kyle Cochran
16. 14 – George Wilson
17. 99 – Ronnie Poole
18. 10 – Nicky Prosser
19. 85 – Scott Hall
20. 9 – Lonnie Prosser
21. 83 – Michael Williams
22. 07 – Buster Goss
23. 12 – Drew Deaver
24. 5 – Ricky Waters
25. 85 – Logan Stinchcomb
26. 81 – Corey Hillman
27. 35 – Matt Helbing
Super Bombers
1. 57 – Donny Thurman
2. 23 – Travis Smith
3. 72 – Chris Ledbetter
4. 8x – Jesse O’Shields
5. 28 – Madison Vogler
6. 7 – Mike Upton
7. 57Jr – Josh Pilcher
8. 01 – Luke Pilson
9. 99x – Matt Thompson
10. 9 – Tate McCollum
11. 66 – Jerry Knowles
12. 17 – Petey Cochran
13. 14 – Drew Larson
Economy Bombers
1. 00 – Dalton Polston
2. 99 – Corey Wright
3. 07 – Dan Meadows
4. 89 – Von Casey
5. 7 – Seth Lacey
6. 1A – Ryan Ray
7. 4m – Andrew Moody
8. 00 – Willie Polston
9. 39 – Rodger Pilcher
10. 15 – Jeremy Williams
11. 89x – Harvey Cunningham
12. 12 – Robbie Stewart
Street Stingers
1. 17 – Cody Sisson
2. 85 – Casey Creighton
3. m23 – Melissa Dempsey
4. J21 – Brian Dempsey
5. 99 – Anthony Summerville
6. 12 – Mickey Dempsey III
7. 35 – Chris Camp
8. 13 – Mike Blevins
9. 201 – Kenny Clark
10. 99 – John Summerville
11. B13 – Jacob Slaughter
12. B3 – Byron Sisson
13. 5 – Michael Follmer
14. 14 – Chris Langford
15. J21 – Jeffrey Woodall
