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Sunday, June 7, 2009
Owens wins Dirt Late Model Dream
ROSSBURG — For awhile, Jimmy Owens’ sixth Dirt Late Model Dream feature start was looking more like a nightmare.
Dirt racing dominator Scott Bloomquist and NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Tony Stewart were both ahead of him and proving difficult to pass. And worse, Owens’ oil light kept coming on. Once or twice he thought about pulling into the pits.
But as his car stopped spitting oil, Owens turned out to be pretty slick himself. Owens, who started 19th in the 24-car field and made it on a provisional from Friday’s qualifying, stormed past both Bloomquist and Stewart with a single pass coming out of turn four on lap 72 and was never challenged again to win the $100,000 Dream.
It was Owens’ first Dream win and will go nicely with his 2007 World 100 title.
“You’ve two of the best in the country, you’ve got a whole field of the best drivers in the country, and to be able to pass Scott and Stewart here is really great,” Owens said.
Stewart started on the pole, but Don O’Neal led the first 10 laps. Stewart regained the lead on lap 11 and held on through lap 36 when Bloomquist got the pass. Stewart regained the lead once more on lap 62 and held it until Owens pulled off the stunning pass, beating both Bloomquist and Stewart to the line.
Halfway through the 100-lap race, Owens considered calling it a night.
“My shield was full of oil on lap 50. I couldn’t see where I was going,” Owens said. “When we had that caution I was out of tear offs and I started wiping and finally got my shield clean. I don’t know if the car ran out of oil or what, but it finally stopped blowing oil.”
The only caution of the race enabled Owens to get a good view of the field, and maybe even visualize that victory.
“The oil light kept coming on and I was afraid the motor was going to blow up any minute,” he said. “Finally I just said the heck with it. If it blows, it blows. I just started running the car and was fortunate enough Tony moved out of his groove a little bit and that kind of messed him and Scott both up for me to get around them.”
Bloomquist, a five-time Dream winner and the defending champ, finished second. Darrell Lanigan, Jimmy Mars and Brian Birkhofer rounded out the top five.
Here’s how they finished: 1. Jimmy Owens, 2. Scott Bloomquist, 3. Darrell Lanigan, 4. Jimmy Mars, 5. Brian Birkhofer, 6. Tony Stewart, 7. Matt Miller, 8. Rick Eckert, 9. Don O’Neal, 10. Earl Pearson Jr., 11. Chris Madden, 12. Steve Francis, 13. Ray Cook, 14. Billy Moyer, 15. Jeep VanWormer, 16. Jason Feger, 17. Jonathan Davenport, 18. Jared Landers, 19. Chub Frank, 20. Shannon Babb, 21. Duane Chamberlain, 22. Josh Richards, 23. Dale McDowell, 24. Randy Korte.
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