OKTAHA — The high groove was the place to race Friday night at Outlaw Motor Speedway with each of the five winners chosing that line in capturing feature victories.

United teammates Matt Burnett in Factory Stock and Dale Richardson in Grand National joined Muskogee’s Dalton Clay, 360 Modified, rookie Tyler Chambers, Pure Stock, and Jarrod Havens, Modified, in using the top line for feature wins.

Echoing the thoughts of the other winners, Clay said the top “was rough” because it “didn’t have a bottom” because of mid-week rain.

“When there is rain like we had, the track gets soft and rough and the top is where to run,” said Clay, who used to work at OMS on the track. “I know a lot about this track, I’ve been there and done that working on it.”

Burnett, who hails from Muskogee, put his Factory Stock car on top and road the cushion to his seventh win of the season and second in a row. He led from early in the race and was never really threatened in beating Chouteau’s Lee McLain, who favored the bottom of the track.

It was also the second week in a row Burnett has beaten McLain.

“There was no bottom groove,” Burnett said. “Lee ran there, but there just wasn’t any traction. The surface was really bumpy.”

The real race in the 20-lap chase was for third with Muskogee’s Kyle Davis out-battling Salina’s Wes Swafford to the flag. And, like Burnett, it was a high line that carried Davis to his best finish in his rookie season of racing.

Unlike like his teammate, Richardson’s win in the Grand National was not easy. In addition to having to negotiate a rough track, the Muskogee driver had to contend with a smoke screen courtesy of a competitor’s blown engine, traffic on the final lap and, most of all, Haskell’s Jay Arnold in relentless pursuit.

The smoke and traffic all came in to play at the end of the straight-away on the home stretch. Going into turn one, Hackett’s Jake Davis was running the same line as the two leaders. At the last second, Richardson steered low leaving Arnold in the high groove with Davis. Arnold could not make the adjustment Richardson did and had to brake to avoid contact with Hackett.

That was just enough for Richardson to record his eighth win of the year.

“With all the smoke, I had trouble seeing,” Richardson said. “Suddenly, I saw an opening and took it. I don’t think Jay had time to made the move.

“Davis had been running in that line for two laps and he got the move-over-flag, but didn’t see it or ignored it. I had thoughts of pushing him out of the way, but I probably would have been disqualified if I had done so.”

Clay won his third feature of the season in the 360 Modified race that was flagged five times for mishaps. None of the problems to the other drivers affected Clay. In fact, the second time the race was delayed actually benefitted the recent Hilldale High graduate. He pulled even with Henryetta’s Shannon Scott one lap after a restart on lap six and, after rubbing paint with Scott in front of the grandstands, Clay rocketed to the lead and never trailed the rest of the way.

Clay credits a simple gear change with his success.

“After my heat, we were not satisfied with the traction we had so we changed gears,” Clay said. “That made all the difference in the world.”

Clay was briefly challenged by Jeran Frailey at the halfway point, but the Chouteau didn’t have the horsepower to compete. Frailey finished second with Inola’s Justin Shoemaker third.

Modified

In the Modifieds, Havens set a blistering pace and led flag-to-flag in gaining his second win of the year. He had a five-second lead over Okay’s Andy Morris – who rode in the second spot for the entire race.

“Like I said a couple of weeks ago (after his first win), we’ve struggled this year,” Havens said. “I think things have changed for us. The car has really been good.”

That was an understatement. Starting on the front row, he grabbed the early lead and from there it was “Katy bar the door” for the rest of the field. By the midway point (10 laps) he was passing slower traffic.

Pure Stock

Chambers was one happy camper after winning his second feature of the season. The 15-year-old from Welling out-drove Hulbert’s Chris Jenkins to the finish.

In a green-white-checkered finish, the two went door-to-door down the backstretch, with Jenkins moving ever so slightly ahead going into turn three. But Jenkins, bidding for his eighth win, went too hard into the turn and had to back off, giving Chambers the opening he needed.

As he did on the restart on lap 14, Chambers shook his fist in the air as he crossed the finish line. The restart was necessitated when Broken Arrow’s Richard Foster lost control in turn four, spinning around and coming to a stop on the track. He was running second to Chambers at the time.

After the race, Chambers’ car passed through technical inspecion with ease, but second place Jenkins and third place Chris Daniels were disqualified. That moved Park Hill’s Gary Goodwin and Broken Arrow’s Vikki Martinez to second and third.