Crawley wins USCS Ellis Palasini Classic finale at Greenville

GREENVILLE, MS - One night after he was outrun at one of his best race tracks, Tim Crawley put himself back on top. Crawley, from Benton, AR, blasted away from the pole position and held off a late-race charge from Michael Miller to win his second straight Ellis Palasini Black Widow Classic at Greenville Speedway in Greenville, MS.<br /> <br /> The win marked Crawley's 71st career USCS feaure win and sixth series win of 2014. Crawley has now won six of the last seven USCS features he has entered and six of the last 10 USCS races overall.<br /> <br /> "We had the rain on Friday night and the track was pretty heavy then, but tonight it was way more like it normally is for us," Crawley said. "There at the end I could hear (Miller) up top there and I'd have moved up in about one more lap. Sometimes when you're riding out front there you can't tell what's going on behind you, but I had already seen Miller up high on that first run and I figured it was him. One more lap we'd have made a race out of it, but we hung on for this one tonight."<br /> <br /> Miller made a valiant charge on the extreme high line of the race track to close within two seconds of Crawley in the final 12 laps, but ran out of time to make a challenge for the win and had to settle for second.<br /> <br /> "Man, I tell you what, Wesley and the staff here at Greenville did a fine job tonight, complete 180 from how this track was Friday night. This is the Greenville that I'm accustomed to," Miller said following the race. "To run (second) behind Crawley, it's amazing, he's a super driver. It's just an honor to get to see the 88 and not be getting lapped. I'm ecstatic tonight."<br /> <br /> The race was slowed by caution only once, when Jerod Roller and sprint car rookie Brett McMillen spun in turn 2 on lap 8 of the main event. Behind Crawley and Miller, Morgan Turpen rounded out the podium in third. Friday night's Greenville winner Anthony Nicholson finished fourth and Terry Gray rounded out the top five.<br /> <br /> Roller, Ronny Howard, Klint Angellette, Shane Morgan and Jeff Willingham rounded out the top ten.<br /> <br /> Turpen kicked off the evening's racing action by winning the Hoosier Tire Speed Dash, and Crawley scored the win in the first heat. Nicholson rolled to the victory in the second heat.<br /> <br /> Crawley was the provisional pole-sitter after scoring the most passing points in heat race action, and after a zero came up in the inversion draw, Crawley received the K&N Filters Pole Award.<br /> <br /> The United Sprint Car Series continues their 2014 schedule on Friday night, August 8 with the rescheduled Sprint Car Mania VI event at Boyd's Speedway in Ringgold, GA. For more info, visit <a href="http://www.uscsracing.com" target="_blank">uscsracing.com</a>.<br /> <br /> <strong>USCS Sprint Car Series</strong><br /> <strong> Greenville Speedway