What won the race: Scoring his first Carolina Clash victory in flag-to-flag fashion, Austin Kirkpatrick of Ocala, Fla., outran one of the nation’s hottest drivers and the rest of the 22-car field at Cherokee Speedway for a $7,500 Hall of Fame 50 victory. Kirkpatrick drove a self-designed chassis to the checkers 1.917 seconds ahead of Brandon Overton, fresh off a World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series two-race sweep.

Quotable: “I had to make up for my lack of driving talent by making a pretty good race car,” Kirkpatrick said. “I mean, this thing is so frigging fast. I can’t even put into words how excited I am. Nobody saw the two years I spent toiling away in my garage building this car from a rack of metal of tubes. Every single bit of this car is a piece of me. Every bit of race car understanding that I’ve developed over my 27-year-old life is baked into this car, and for it to be so fast, is just the most satisfying feeling that you can ever imagine."

Key notes: Kirkpatrick became the tour's 79th winner. ... Four cautions slowed the race. ... Travis Stoner spun in turn four for a lap-16 caution. ... Another caution appeared on lap 34 when Anthony Sanders stopped in turn four. ... Lap 44 (Cla Knight) and lap 47 (Trent Ivey) cautions fell for flat tires. ... Brent Larson's car flamed up under the hood during hot laps; he rolled to the infield where safety personnel doused the fire without him getting out of the car.

Winner's sponsors: The winner’s AK Race Car is sponsored by Hitman Racing Suspension.

Points chase: Leaving Cherokee, Dennis Franklin (516 points) of Gaffney, S.C., leads Michael Brown (503) and David Yandle (464) in Carolina Clash points.

Current weather: Clear, 64°F

Car count: 22

Fast qualifier: Brandon Overton

Time: 15.037 seconds

Polesitter: Brandon Overton

Next series race: September 15, Laurens County Speedway (Laurens, SC) $4,000