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.

The win was worth an extra $200 for McLain, compliments of Muskogee’s James Hodge Ford. It was "Clash of the Car Dealer’s Night." If Gillean had won, he would have picked up $200 from Lake Country Chevrolet.



360 Modified

Hemphill and Rierson had a spirited battle for the lead for the final five laps. The Arkansas driver took the lead on the backstretch on lap 17 with a run out of turn two. They had crossed the finish line in a virtual dead heat one lap earlier..

On lap 19, Hemphill used a high-low move to recapture the lead — by a quarter-panel — on the front stretch. The two stayed hooked up in the final lap with this time, Rierson looking to duplicate Hemphill’s earlier move. But the Spiro dandy held his ground and just beat Rierson.



Outlaw Modified

Going from last to second in just seven laps and to first three laps later, Greg Skaggs ran off with his ninth feature win of the year. The Bixby driver — the defending track champion — had an eight second lead over Dan Morris of Fort Gibson at the flag.

Morris, from his outside pole position, had led the race from the start. He edged Chelsea’s Joe Duvall for second. Fausten Wilhite of Tahlequah was fourth.

Skaggs liked the track conditions in winning his second straight feature.

"I thought the track was fast last week, but tonight, it was even better," Skaggs said. "All I had to do was keep the hammer down. I really had a good bite.

"All I had to do was to steer the car and miss a couple of holes on the track. There were big holes on both ends of the track, and once I figured out how to straddle them, I didn’t have any problems."



Grand Nationals

Kevin Flock won his second feature in a row — this time without any help.

The Muskogee driver captured his eight feature nod of the year after having last week’s main event handed to him via way of a disqualification. Going from ninth to first in one lap, he led from start to finish in the wreck-marred feature.

Flock had to survive a late-race challenge from Muskogee’s Colton Dunlap in the run to the flag. The race was red-flagged with three laps remaining when a car stalled along the wall in front of the grandstands.

On the restart, Dunlap briefly challenged for the on the back straight, but Flock was equal to the challenge and held off the Muskogee High School junior. There was less than two seconds between the two at the finish.

The Muskogee father-son duo of Randy Moses Sr., and Randy Moses, II, were third and fourth respectively.

Of the 19 cars that started the race, only six finished. A wreck in turn three took out four cars.



Mini-Stock

Dustin Schmidt, Garfield, held off Leroy Burger, Prague, to win the feature. Austin McSperitt, Sperry, was third with Wesley Bourne, fourth.