Published August 15, 2009 11:50 pm -
Skaggs, Richardson pull out victories
Special to the Phoenix
Turn two was the favorite passing point for feature winners in the Outlaw Modified and 360 Modified divisions at Outlaw Motor Speedway here Friday night.
Greg Skaggs of Bixby and Dale Richardson of Muskogee went from third-to-first out of the turn to win their respective features — Skaggs in the Outlaw Modified and Richardson, in the 360.
It was Skaggs’ seventh win — second in as row. He is the defending track champion. Richardson has won four features.
Patiently waiting until he could get into the high groove, Richardson zipped into the lead with four laps to go. In third, Richardson trailed Spiro’s Martin Hemphill and Ozark, Ark., driver Clay Julian.
Going into turn one on lap 16, he made a tremendous move to pass the two leaders, first Julian and them Hemphill. From there it was pedal-to-the-medal to the finish line.
Hemphill and Julian were dominating the favored high groove, keeping Richardson at bay. But he finally got his nose in front of Julian just past the start-finish line and he got around Hemphill, going high to low out of turn two and passing him just entering the backstretch..
From there, Richardson took over the high ground to take control.
Julian passed Hemphill with one lap to go and held him off on the dash to the finish to claim second. Jay Rierson of Booneville, Ark., was fourth and last week’s feature, Shannon Reheard of Muskogee was fifth.
Richardson is the only driver at the track to drive in two divisions. He leads the Grand Nationals in points. He was second in that feature.
Outlaw Modified
Like Richardson, Skaggs also made his move with four laps remaining, but he was fourth behind Fort Gibson’s Justin Fulton, Beggs’ Joe Wright, and Chelsea’s Joe Duvall. He and Duvall got around Wright in the backstretch on lap 17.
And, like Richardson, he got ahead of first Duvall and then Fulton out of two to forge ahead. The two made a run on Skaggs out of four going into the white flag lap, but they’d didn’t have the traction he had in the run to the flagstand.
Skaggs drove a perfect high groove on the his final lap to win by two cars over Fulton, with Duvall third.
Fulton was after his first feature win while Duvall was chasing his second.