OKTAHA — Terry Phillips drove a “loose” race car to victory lane to capture the Modified championship in the Third annual Fall Brawl at Outlaw Motor Speedway here Saturday night.
Phillips, from Springfield, Mo., led from start-to-finish to capture the $5,000 first place prize money. Not even two caution flags and a red flag for debris on the track could stop him.
He led Justin Hughes of Watts over the finish line with Johnny Bone of Pea Ridge, Ark., finishing third.
“I misread the track and had the wrong setup tonight,” Phillips said. “My car was loose, but I was able to hold off some good drivers for the win. Justin kept the pressure on me, there was no breathing room.
“This track, as good as it is, has had a lot of laps on it the last two nights, not to mention the wet weather we’ve had this week. I just didn’t read it right, and I don’t think anyone else did either.”
Phillips captured the pole by winning the qualifying feature Friday night by inches over Hughes. He made the pass for the win just before the flag stand.
Grand Nationals
Dale Richardson, moving to first when pole-setter Colton Dunlap pulled out of the race after just one lap, won the feature. Richardson starting along side of his Muskogee buddy on the front row, trailed the Muskogee teenager by a car when Dunlap pulled into the infield.
A broken distributor put Dunlap, who won the qualifying event Friday, out of the race.
After taking the lead, Richardson easily pulled away from the field. The race was for second place between Haskell’s Jay Arnold and Kansas’ Billy Kelley, with Arnold finishing second.
The race was cut from 20 to 15 laps because only 11 cars made the feature lineup. There were five no-shows.
Pure Stock
Matt Burnett, denied re-entry to the track in Friday’s qualifying race, came back to win the feature Saturday night. Burnett went to the pits after a minor car problem instead of going to the hot-pit area. Track rules prohibit a car from rejoining a race if they go to the pits.
Burnett of Muskogee passed defending champion Russell McLain of Chouteau and led the rest of the way. He had a nice, 11-car lead at finish, beating Tahlequah’s Jason Ward and Fort Gibson’s Dalton Ragsdale. McLain finished fourth.
McLain and 2009 track champion Kyle Slader took turns leading the race before Burnett took over on lap seven, passing Slader on the low side out of turn four. A caution one-lap later hurt Slader, as McLain passed him on the backstretch on the restart to slip back into the challenging position. He maintained that until a restart for debris on the track with six laps to go let the field catch-up with the two leaders.
Ward and Fort Gibson’s Dalton Ragsdale got past McLain and held him off in the final two laps.
360 Modified
Attrition took its toll among the leaders, opening the door for Jeran Frailey to capture the feature and $1,000.
There were four different leaders of the 20-lap race and besides Frailey, only Porter’s Carl Conley finished. Early race leaders Shannon Reheard of Muskogee and Braggs’ Patrick Goodnight left the race because of mechanical problems.
