OKTAHA — Regardless of how big a lead a stock car driver has, a race is never over until the checkered flag falls — not in NASCAR and certainly not at Outlaw Motor Speedway.

Two races at OMS Friday night went right down to the flagstand. In two of the best feature races of the season — Pure Stock and 360 Modifieds — the winners were determined by just inches.

Chouteau’s Lee McLain nudged Boynton’s James Gillean at the finish to win the Pure Stock chase. Moments later, Spiro’s Martin Hemphill beat Booneville, Arkansas’s Jay Rierson in 360s.

Both winners claimed razor-thin victories as they crossed the start-finish line before 3,200 fans brought to their feet to witness two of the best races of the year.

Pure Stock

McLain passed Gillean — who had a failing engine — to win his first feature. In a battle between a Chevy and Ford, Gillean went into the final lap with a three-car length lead over McLain. As they got into turns three and four, the Chouteau racer — in a Mustang — took a low line and pulled even with Gillean 50-yards from the finish.

As they approached the flag stand, McLain edged ahead of Gillean, whose Chevy abruptly lost power. Less than a foot separated the two at the end. Gillean coasted to second.

“I finally got there, I finally got myself a feature win,” McLain said.

“My car got too hot and it melted out,” Gillean said. “It was running hot the last two laps, but I kept my foot in the gas. It was really in the red.”

Gillean had wrestled the lead from Muskogee’s Kyle Slader six laps from the finish with McLain fourth behind Muskogee’s Mike Bantaa. Slader had forged ahead of Gillean on lap 12.

Like Gillean, Slader experienced car problems in the closing lap. Muscling his car to a third place finish — he grappled with failed power steering with three laps remaining.

The two point leaders in the division, Matt Burnett of Muskogee, and Jason Ward of Tahlequah, did not finish the race. Burnett hit the wall after spinning out at the halfway point and Ward left with four three laps left when he lost his steering.