RINGGOLD, Ga. - Earl Pearson, Jr. led all 50 laps on Friday night at Boyd’s Speedway in Ringgold, Georgia to win his first Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race since May of 2015.
The results will show Pearson led all 50 laps but the win never came easy as he had several challengers up front.
Current series point leader, Josh Richards, charged from the 14th starting position to finish second. Jimmy Owens ran in the top three the entire race to finish in the third position. Thirteenth starting Tim McCreadie finished fourth. Fifteenth place starter Darrell Lanigan completed the top five.
“I saw McIntosh early on, it looked like he could run anywhere on the track,” Pearson said. “Jimmy (Owens) was good tonight and Josh, (Richards), I know he came from deep in the pack. I was worried about him when he came to the leader board.
“I just kept my line from the middle to the top. They weren’t going to pass me with the line I was running, except maybe on the bottom.”
Richards made his first ever appearance at Boyd’s Speedway and charged to a second place finish.
“Earl and those guys did a great job tonight, congrats to them on the win,” he said. “I had never seen this track until I got here today. I had seen maybe 20 seconds of highlights. I felt like I struggled for the whole race, we must have missed about 14 wrecks out there to get a good finish.”
Owens had another solid finish – coming home in third place.
“I tried to keep my tires warm under those cautions and that was probably a bad idea,” he said. “McIntosh had a good car and I could see him spinning his tires and they were sealing over and Earl’s weren’t. Hats-off to Earl for a great job and to Josh for coming from the back.”
Scott Bloomquist, Dale McDowell, Donald McIntosh, Jonathan Davenport and Brandon Overton rounded out the top ten.
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
Boyd’s Speedway – Ringgold, GA
Race Results – March 31, 2017
| FINISH | START | CAR # | DRIVER NAME | HOMETOWN | EARNINGS |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | Earl Pearson, Jr. | Jacksonville, FL | $10,900 |
| 2 | 14 | 1R | Josh Richards | Shinnston, WV | $6,300 |
| 3 | 3 | 20 | Jimmy Owens | Newport, TN | $3,500 |
| 4 | 13 | 39 | Tim McCreadie | Watertown, NY | $4,300 |
| 5 | 15 | 14 | Darrell Lanigan | Union, KY | $2,950 |
| 6 | 6 | 0 | Scott Bloomquist | Mooresburg, TN | $2,800 |
| 7 | 9 | 17m | Dale McDowell | Chickamauga, GA | $1,500 |
| 8 | 2 | 7m | Donald McIntosh | Dawsonville, GA | $1,300 |
| 9 | 7 | 49 | Jonathan Davenport | Blairsville, GA | $2,000 |
| 10 | 12 | 116 | Brandon Overton | Evans, GA | $1,100 |
| 11 | 23 | 28E | Dennis Erb, Jr. | Carpentersville, IL | $1,775 |
| 12 | 19 | 15 | Steve Francis | Bowling Green, KY | $1,750 |
| 13 | 8 | 157 | Mike Marlar | Winfield, TN | $1,025 |
| 14 | 18 | 22 | Gregg Satterlee | Rochester Mills, PA | $1,700 |
| 15 | 20 | 54 | David Breazeale | Starkville, MS | $950 |
| 16 | 10 | 1J | Jason Hiett | Oxford, AL | $925 |
| 17 | 21 | 99B | Boom Briggs | Bear Lake, PA | $900 |
| 18 | 24 | 75 | Colton Flinner | Allison Park, PA | $1,575 |
| 19 | 22 | C8 | Timothy Culp | Prattsville, AR | $850 |
| 20 | 16 | 71 | Hudson O’Neal | Martinsville, IN | $825 |
| 21 | 5 | 18x | Michael Page | Villa Rica, GA | $800 |
| 22 | 11 | 99 | Derek Ellis | Chatsworth, GA | $800 |
| 23 | 4 | 5 | Don O’Neal | Martinsville, IN | $1,600 |
| 24 | 17 | 50 | Shanon Buckingham | Morristown, TN | $800 |
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