What won the race: Racing largely unchallenged from start-to-finish, Chad Finley of St. Johns, Mich., captured Friday night’s 35-lap DIRTcar Late Model Throwdown at I-96 Speedway. The 33-year-old driver who splits his time between dirt and asphalt competition beat Chad Burda to the finish line by 0.451 of a second after a last-lap restart for the $6,000 top prize.

Quotable: “I’ve only run this car here, this is the second night I’ve run it and probably the fifth night I’ve even had the car out. I think we’ve won three of them,” Finley said. “I just wasn’t very good the last time I come here, so I went to work this week, talked to a lot of people and I’ve surrounded myself with a lot of great people now with this racecar.”

Key notes: Driving the Longhorn Chassis he debuted three weeks ago, Finley survived seven caution flags to register his second win at I-96 and third overall this season. He won on June 6 at I-96 and Aug. 2 at Merritt Speedway in Lake City, Mich., in his first start in the Longhorn. ... Finley lowered the track record in time trials. … Burda held second for the entire distance and briefly appeared primed to threaten Finley before a caution flag on lap 28. ... Greg Gokey reached third on lap 22 and finished there despite battling vision problems after running out of tearoffs. ... Early retirees included top Michigan contenders Brandon Thirlby (pulled off while third on lap 21) and Dona Marcoullier (sixth on lap 28 when he headed to the pits). … The first caution flag came on the opening for a Bry Johnson/Justin White tangle between turns three and four. Both cars were towed away during the lengthy cleanup. … Travis Stemler, a three-time winner at I-96 this season, slowed with mechanical trouble running fourth on a lap-four restart and stopped in turn three to draw a lap-five caution. He didn’t continue. … Other cautions were needed for Zach Calkins (lap four), Justin Pauley (lap 14), Nicholas Fenner (lap 15), Phil Ausra (lap 28) and debris on the track (lap 34). … Just nine of 24 starters finished the race, which ended at 11:40 p.m. … With the Late Model event running in support of an All-Star Circuit of Champions show won by Parker Price Miller, I-96 officials billed the night as the track’s biggest race of the season.

On the move: Jake Rendel of Adrian, Mich., started 21st and finished eighth.

Winner's sponsors: Finley’s Longhorn Chassis carries sponsorship from Auto Value and Bumper to Bumper Parts Stores, Northside Towing and Service, Allstar Performance, Bilstein Shocks, AfterBurner Performance, Eiseler Oil and Propane Co., XLT Engineering and Buckeye Concrete Coatings.

Points chase: I-96 after Friday: 1. Travis Stemler (331); 2. Chase Burda (329); 3. Chad Finley (306); 4. Brandon Thirlby (290); 5. Jordan Dahlke (282).

Current weather: Broken Clouds, 72°F

Car count: 28

Fast qualifier: Chad Finley

Time: 15.265 seconds

Polesitter: Chad Finley

Heat race winners: Travis Stemler, Dona Marcoullier, Logan Nickerson, Eric Spangler

Consolation race winners: Jake Rendel