Jimmy Owens’ familiarity with Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tennessee paid off in a big way on Friday night.
The Newport, Tennessee driver dominated the Smoky Mountain Showdown for his first World of Outlaws CASE Late Model Series victory of 2022.
While Owens led the entire race, his triumph didn’t come easy, as he fought handling issues throughout the race and survived many restarts.
However, Owens said those restarts helped him as his car got tighter on long green flag runs.
“We kept getting tighter and tighter and tighter, and that right rear tire was just too soft,” Owens said. “We’d fire off and get deadly for the first three, four, five laps, and then it’d just start getting tighter and tighter.”
The handling of his car wasn’t the only challenge Owens faced, as Hudson O’Neal was a car length away from his spoiler with 10 laps to go.
Owens got loose coming in turn 4 when two lap cars were racing in front of him, allowing O’Neal driver to close on the back of his car.
However, that was as close as O’Neal would get. Something broke on his right rear wheel, spoiling his chances at the $10,000 prize and relegating him to a 15th place finish.
From there, it was smooth sailing for Owens despite his worries of someone passing him in the track’s bottom groove.
“The bottom looked so good down there, and I figured somebody was going to be coming before too long,” Owens said. “I think my guy was telling me the 22 (of Chris Ferguson) was running on the bottom, and I was just waiting on that to come in, and luckily things played out in our favor.
“I was able to hang on and had a good car all night.”
Chris Ferguson crossed the line second, with Max Blair in third, series points leader Dennis Erb, Jr. in fourth, and Ryan Gustin in fifth.
The series was next slated to compete on Saturday night at Georgia’s Lavonia Speedway, only to see rain wash out that event. A rescheduled date for the event will be announced in the near future.
Up next for the World of Outlaws CASE Late Model Series will be a trip to Boyd’s Speedway in Ringgold, Georgia on Septmeber 23-24. For more information, visit WorldofOutlaws.com.
WoO CASE Late Model Series
Smoky Mountain Speedway – Maryville, TN
Smoky Mountain Showdown – September 2, 2022
1. 20-Jimmy Owens
2. 22-Chris Ferguson
3. 111V-Max Blair
4. 28-Dennis Erb, Jr.
5. 19R-Ryan Gustin
6. 23-Cory Hedgecock
7. 81E-Tanner English
8. 1-Josh Richards
9. 99B-Boom Briggs
10. 76-Brandon Overton
11. F1-Payton Freeman
12. B1-Brent Larson
13. 995-Dwight Falcon
14. 28P-Taylor Pucket
15. 71-Hudson O’Neal
16. 25-Shane Clanton
17. 23B-John Blankenship
18. 116-Cameron Weaver
19. 16-Sam Seawright
20. 7-Ricky Weiss
21. 31-Skip Arp
22. 17M-Dale McDowell
