PORTSMOUTH, Ohio — There’s no doubt that Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points leader Tim McCreadie hopes to be the driver standing in victory lane when the national tour crowns its champion during October’s Dirt Track World Championship at Portsmouth Raceway Park. But as McCreadie stood in that exact spot following a dominating victory in Saturday’s Pepsi River Days Rumble 50 at Portsmouth, he didn’t want to talk about his growing title chances just yet.
“I’d love to worry about that later man. Tonight’s awesome and we’re worried about tonight,” McCreadie told Lucas Oil Series announcer James Essex when he asked if McCreadie’s visit to Portsmouth’s victory lane following Saturday’s 50-lap feature was a preview of the tour’s $100,000-to-win season finale on Oct. 16. “This car was tight early and as this track slowly got racy, damn if we got way better. This thing was a joy to drive.”
Despite an attrition-filled race that was slowed 10 cautions, McCreadie did indeed appear to be on a joyride for much of the distance, especially during the second half of the 50-lapper as he ran virtually unchallenged on his way to topping runner-up Devin Moran of Dresden, Ohio, by 2.880 seconds to earn his second straight series victory and his fifth win on the tour this season.
But while McCreadie’s Paylor Motorsports Longhorn may have dominated the race’s second half, the first 25 laps didn’t go quite so easily for him. Starting form the third spot, McCreadie found the track’s high line early in the race and knew he had to get by the second-place Moran and leader Kyle Bronson before either of them ventured that high. He did it quickly indeed, using a three-wide pass on lap three to overtake both cars and grab the top spot in one bold move.
The low-running Moran battled back and applied heavy pressure to McCreadie through a string of mid-race restarts before McCreadie moved down to the track’s lower groove around the halfway point and began to pull away.
“They got to racing each other and I knew that my only shot was to slip by because if I had showed Devin the outside one time and he would’ve went up there, it probably would’ve been a different story,” McCreadie said of his lap-three move to take the lead. “Same thing with Bronson, if he would’ve known to go all the way up there, it probably would’ve been a different story.”
Moran, a former Lucas Oil Series regular who’s only competing on the tour part time this season in his Tye Twarog-owned Longhorn, agreed that the lap-three move was likely what decided the race.
“I was trying to get under Kyle on that bottom because I could just roll that bottom so good, but I saw an orange spoiler on the top up there outside Kyle and I was like, “Uh oh, we’re in trouble,’ “ said Moran, who earned his third podium finish in 15 Lucas Oil Series appearances this season. “He rolled by us right when I got by Kyle. I thought there was another chance I might get to him, but the way the track played out, he moved down just in time and was really good at the end. But to run second here in the Lucas show, usually we fade at the end, so it’s a positive.”
McCreadie may have dodged Essex’s title-related question the first time, but later in his victory lane interview he admitted what everyone who’s paid any attention to this year’s Lucas tour already knows: after going 14 seasons since winning the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series title during his first full season of Late Model competition in 2006 without a national touring championship , McCreadie has his mind set on topping this year’s Lucas Oil Series chase.
“I can run second (in points), but we’re usually congratulating the winner before we even get to here (at the end of the season),” said McCreadie, who has finished a distant second in the final Lucas Oil Series standings in three of the past four seasons. “So for us to do this and start winning again, man, I couldn’t have wrote it up any better. Hopefully we can carry this momentum the rest of the season. This would be for me personally an amazing thing to bookend my career with a championship when I didn’t even know what I was doing 25 years ago and if I can get lucky enough to hold another one, man I could retire happy.”
For the second straight race, McCreadie took a big step toward finally earning his first Lucas Oil title thanks both to his victory and a poor finish for his closest points rival, Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., who has now suffered flat tires while running among the top five in two straight events. Davenport, a three-time Lucas Oil Series champion, finished eighth in Saturday’s race after shredding a right-rear tire on lap 34.
Ricky Thornton Jr. of Chandler, Ariz., started 19th and recovered from a lap-13 pit stop to finish third. Sixth-starting Tyler Erb of New Waverly, Texas, twice slipped ahead of Moran for second on late restarts but ended up slipping back to fourth at the finish, while Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., recovered from a lap-14 flat tire to round out the top five.
After getting passed by both McCreadie and Moran on the same lap, Bronson ran third until slipping back to fourth on lap 14. He only ran there for one lap before getting caught in a tangle that ended his night.
Notes: McCreadie earned the 27th Lucas Oil Series victory of his career. … McCreadie earned his sixth payday of $15,000 or more this season. He has three victories that paid $15,000 and three runner-up finishes in crown jewel events that all paid $20,000. … The race lasted for just over one hour. It was slowed by 10 cautions and was red flagged during a lap-13 caution to allow the event’s medical crew to attend to a medical issue in the grandstands. … Josh Rice of Verona, Ky., had charged from 17th to 10th before coming to a stop against the back straightaway wall and causing a lap-14 caution. … Just 10 of the race’s 24 starters made it to the finish. All of them were on the lead lap. … Both R.J. Conley and Rod Conley ran among the top five before running into trouble and ending up 12th and ninth respectively in the final rundown.
