Greg Skaggs’ early season dominance in the Outlaw Modified division came to an abrupt end, while Jeremy Payne captured the special MARS Late Model race with a wire-to-wire run before a season-best crowd of 4,200 Friday night at Outlaw Motor Speedway.

Leading the entire Modified race, Muskogee’s Chad Wheeler beat teammate Tate Cole by two-car lengths, ending Skaggs’ victory streak at three straight. After finishing fourth in his heat, Skaggs pulled into the infield and had to have his car towed to the pits. He started from the 12th position and got to eighth with five laps remaining, but couldn’t improve on that position.

Brian Williams of Fayetteville, Ark., was third as the race evolved into a three-car chase from the midway point.

Payne collected the $2,500 prize in the 35-lap Late Model race, easily beating Will Vaught of Crane, Mo., and teammate Terry Phillips of Springfield, Mo., to the checkered flag. Payne took the lead from the pole and never looked back in winning for the first time this season on the MARS dirt track racing circuit.

Phillips, the son of the late Larry Phillips who was a crowd-pleaser at Muskogee’s old Thunderbird Speedway, was a pre-race favorite along with Vaught. The only chance either had to catch Payne came on a lap 30 restart after a pair of spinouts on the backstretch.

That was the only time the race was stalled as the Late Models set a blistering pace around the three-eighths mile oval. By race’s end, the entire clay track was covered with tire rubber, creating a dry-slick condition the drivers call black ice, a preferred surface of many drivers.

And in the best race of the season, Lance Robins of Dyer, Ark., edged Chouteau’s Jeran Frailey to capture the 360 Modified feature.

Robins and Frailey battled side-by-side for the final seven laps of the 20-lap feature. The duo swapped the lead three times in the last five laps before Robins wrestled the top spot from Frailey on a move into the high groove on lap 16.

Robins went ahead coming out of the back straight into turns three and four. Frailey, using the same groove for most of the race, was forced down low by Robins’ move. He just didn’t have the bite running on the inside of the track.

Twice in the final two laps, Frailey moved along side of Robins. In the last lap, Robins’ car got into the soft stuff up high, temporarily losing traction, giving Frailey a brief shot at the checkered flag.

But Robins recovered just in time and beat Frailey to the flag stand by a quarter-panel.

In finishing second, Frailey actually did the better job on the track. He started in the 15th position while Robins was on the outside in the front row. Frailey got his first lead on lap 12.

Defending track champion David Whittle of Muskogee finished third. Brookin Stephens of Spiro was fourth.