Grant Pearl faced a tough decision a little more than a month ago: learn to navigate lap traffic or potentially lose a chance at winning a race.
The Anniston, Alabama, native had been on the losing end of several races in which he was slowed by lap traffic, but Pearl’s recognition and focus on lap cars helped him seal his second win of the season Sunday in the NeSmith Crate Late Model feature at Magnolia Motor Speedway.
After Joey Hiett cut off race leader Jeremy Shaw on the back stretch, Pearl avoided both to take the lead. He later cleared remaining lap cars and survived three re-starts on the same lap to clinch the $1,500 winner’s purse.
“I’ve really started to pay attention to lap cars and tried to time them going down the straightaway,” Pearl said. “It doesn’t matter what the guy beside me is trying to do, I just knew if I could arrange it to where I could get by the lap cars the quickest, things would start to work out for me.”
Shaw jumped out to the early lead and built a two-second lead on Pearl, who exchanged second place with Evan Ellis twice while Shaw continued to build his lead.
“It took me a few laps to figure out what to do there,” Pearl said. “I was pretty good in (turn) one and I wasn’t really good in (turns) three and four all night, no matter what I did. You gotta hit your marks on a track like that. One little bobble and it’ll cost you a tenth (of a second).”
Shaw, arguably the most consistent NeSmith competitor at Magnolia this season, finished second for his sixth straight top-four finish at the track. He bemoaned his situation with lap traffic earlier in the race.
“Some of those guys don’t really pay attention to what they’re doing and kind of get to floating all over the race track,” Shaw said. “You don’t really know what to do. That’s how it works out some time.”
Shaw felt he would have had a chance to catch Pearl if the race had stayed green for 10 more laps after the caution on lap 24 of the 30-lap race. Shaw had three tries to time Pearl’s re-start after consecutive wrecks on lap 24.
“We chose a different tire and I really didn’t need the caution, which hurt us, as far as our tire choice,” Shaw said. “The third re-start, I kept trying to watch what (Pearl) was doing and I finally got it timed right on that last re-start. I was able to get a run in there, but he was a bit better coming off the bottom than we were on the top. My tires that I chose were better to run in the black, so I chose the outside.
“He runs good every time he comes over here, so you can’t be too disappointed.”
Scott Dedwylder, Hunter Carroll, and Jamie Pickard rounded out the top five.
Pearl said the conditions Sunday were typical Magnolia, a track he has raced at five times this year and won twice and finished in the top five four times. He said he’s hitting his peak ahead of Magnolia’s big money races, like the Cotton Pickin’ 100 and the Possum Town Grand Prix, the latter of which will pay $10,000 to the winner.
“This year, I’ve worked for a professional race team. That’s all we do,” Pearl said. “I work on cars and work for Randy Weaver, and he’s been out for a while after having a bad wreck a few months ago. He’s pretty much been out all year. I hate it for him, and we’ve all been thinking about it. The positive for me is I’ve raced more this year than I have in my life. I’m getting better.”
In other race action, Billy Franklin won the Super Late Model feature. Dingus Griffin, Howard Means, Mark Stokes, and Brett White rounded out the top five.
Rodney Wing won the Street Stocks feature. Spencer Hughes, Terry Taylor, Lee Ray, and TK King rounded out the top five.
Logan Lux won the Factory Stocks feature. John Johnson, Heath Beard, Brad Gable, and Tyler Castle rounded out the top five.
Points champions crowned
Although Shaw wasn’t able to secure his second feature win of the season, he captured his second career track points championship.
Shaw led Carroll by two points entering the race and had to finish ahead of Carroll to clinch the title. Carroll started 11th and finished fourth.
“We’ve had a really good year, running second and thirds nearly every week,” Shaw said. “We’ve won a couple and been in position to win a few others, so to do that against the kind of competition we face each time has been great.
“This has been one of the best years I’ve had in terms of consistency.”
Jamie Tollison edged Jason Brock for the Super Late Model track points championship, while Spencer Hughes took the Street Stock title over Lee Ray. John Beard edged Brad Gable for the Factory Stocks title.
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