SHAWANO, Wis. (Aug. 2) — Rick Eckert didn’t reach turn one first at the initial green flag of Wednesday night’s 50-lap Sun Drop Shootout despite starting from the pole position.

The 51-year-old from York, Pa., was in the lead when the first lap was scored, though, and he paced every circuit thereafter, giving him a flag-to-flag victory worth $10,000 in the eighth annual World of Outlaws Craftsman Late Model Series event at Shawano Speedway.

Eckert couldn’t beat fellow front-row starter Don O’Neal of Martinsville, Ind., to the end of the homestretch when the race began, but O’Neal’s slip up the track in turns three and four moments later allowed Eckert to shoot underneath and assume command for good. The 2011 WoO champion went on to beat Chris Madden of Gray Court, S.C., to the finish line by 0.625 of a second for his first triumph on the national tour since the season opener on Feb. 17 at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga.

O’Neal settled for a third-place finish after losing the runner-up spot to Madden on lap 34. Fifth-starter Shane Clanton of Zebulon, Ga., who won Shawano’s WoO A-main the previous two years, finished fourth and eighth-starter Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., after cracking the top five with a lap-34 pass of Oxford, Iowa’s Chris Simpson.

Eckert wasn’t surprised that O’Neal won the drag race to turn one at the race’s start. He was a bit surprised, however, to see O’Neal leave a gaping hole open at the other end of the track.

“You want to lead (into the first corner at the start), but it’s hard to beat a guy in these cars who starts outside pole,” said Eckert, who drove Paul Crowl’s Longhorn Race Car. “The outside pole, that guy can arc in with more speed than you can. Unless the bottom has a mud ring around it, it’s hard to keep up in that bottom in that first corner.

“(O’Neal) got that run and beat me off the (second) corner,” he continued. “Then we run in there (to turn three) and I seen his wheels turn real hard left, like he got in a push, so I went across the bottom and slid up in front of him. I figured he’d get her turned and might have a shot to come back and cross me over (on the frontstretch), but I guess I had enough of a run that he couldn’t do that.”

O’Neal, 53, succinctly summed up how he ceded the top spot to Eckert so soon after seizing it.

“I shoved real bad getting in there (to turn three),” said O’Neal, whose Clint Bowyer Racing Club 29 machine nearly caught the outside wall when he drifted up the track.

Once in front Eckert was never seriously challenged. He maintained firm control of a feature that was slowed by just two caution flags, on lap 27 for the slowing car driven by Frank Heckenast Jr. of Frankfort, Ill., and lap 30 for debris on the track.

Eckert saw his edge of over 2 seconds shrink to less than a second in the final laps as Madden, who started third in his Longhorn car but fell back as far as sixth during the race’s first half, made a last-ditch bid. Madden, 42, ran out of time, however.

“I was really, really good,” Madden said after claiming the $5,000 second-place prize in his first-ever start at the sprawling half-mile oval outside Green Bay. “I just needed a few more laps — maybe one.

“I just got better and better and better. That’s just typical of my racing style. I don’t know why, but we’re usually fast at the end, when it pays.

“We can’t complain,” he added. “I was running fifth or sixth at one time, so to be able to get through the dirty air here at this big ol’ place, get to second and run the leader down, it’s pretty awesome.”

Eckert felt a sense of relief after finally logging his second WoO victory of the season 28 races after his first.

“It feels like it was last year,” Eckert said of his Screven triumph nearly six months ago. “It’s about time. We’ve been working hard, me and (crewmen) Bob (Miller), and Paul (Crowl) has got us a little help — help that’s a little smarter than us — from a guy who’s helping us with a little setup stuff.”

The checkered flag was Eckert’s first-ever at Shawano, a track where he’s come close to glory in the past. He had entered all seven previous WoO events at the track, finishing second twice (2011 and ’14), fourth in ’13 and fifth in ’12 and ’16.

"I’ve always been fond of this place and ran fairly decent,” said Eckert, whose worst finish at Shawano was 11th, in 2010. “It’s good to get a win here.”

O’Neal’s hopes for victory were ultimately hampered by handling trouble that became more pronounced as the race wore on.

“We had trouble steering in the whole feature, and after that caution (on lap 27) it was really bad,” O’Neal said. “We gotta work on something where we get a little better steering. I don’t know what tire got hot and made it start shoving real bad, but it was over with then. I was just trying to hang on.

“A podium finish again tonight ain’t bad, but I wish we would’ve had more.”

Notes: Eckert related after the race that his victory would provide a welcome pick-me-up to his wife Kristal, who didn’t make the trip. “My wife had a really bad day today,” said Eckert, who registered his 37th career WoO win. “She crashed her car and called me all upset, so hopefully this will make everything better.” Eckert paused, and then added, “I told her I crash cars all the time.” … Seventh-starter Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., a three-time WoO winner at Shawano, reached fifth place on lap two but ultimately settled for a sixth-place finish. … WoO points leader Brandon Sheppard of New Berlin, Ill., saw his three-race WoO win streak come to an end. After encountering trouble in his heat race (a flat right-rear tire forced him to pit), he battled forward from the 14th starting to finish eighth. … Chub Frank of Bear Lake, Pa., retired after only eight laps due to a distributor malfunction. … Earl Pearson Jr. of Jacksonville, Fla., was running sixth on lap 18 when he pulled off because he noticed that the engine in his Larry Moring-owned car laid down. … Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas, advanced from the 20th starting spot to finish 12th on a night that saw him pull out his second car after his primary mount was sidelined by engine trouble during time trials. … Eric Wells of Hazard, Ky., didn’t start his heat or the B-main while making repairs to a broken right-rear brake caliper mount that jerked the bolts out of his car’s rear axle tube. He used a provisional to start the A-main and finished 14th.