Philip Morris continued a dominant season Thursday night at Dominion Raceway in Thornburg, Virginia — dominating the second half of the 150 lap feature on his way to claim the $10,000 check.
Morris qualified second to pole sitter Matt Bowling but after a pre race pill draw, he was relegated to start in the fifth starting spot. The redraw gave the pole to track regular Tyler Hughes and the outside pole to Lee Pulliam who was making his debut at Dominion. Hughes who is battling for the local track championship with Jeff Oakley and Doug Barnes led the first forty two laps before a caution flew for a spin in turn two by Colin Garrett.
Morris had worked his way up to second by this point. On the “cone” restart Hughes went to the inside and got a great start when the green flag flew. Morris had to deal with a challenge from Peyton Sellers for several laps before finally closing the door on him and returning his attention to Hughes for the top spot.
Caution flew for the second time at the halfway mark for 2016 Dominion Raceway Late Model Champion Nick Smith when his car spun in turn one from contact with Brenden Queen. Smith was able to drive the car back to the attention of his crew but was done for the night. Hughes got another great restart but was quickly caught by Morris and Sellers who made it a three wide battle with Morris coming out the leader. Hughes got to the inside of Morris again briefly before getting loose in turn one. With fifty nine laps to go the top three in Dominion points standings and Michael Hardin were all caught up in a wreck. Hughes, Barnes, and Oakley all drove away with damage while Hardin had to be towed in and was done for the night.
On the restart, Bowling chose the inside putting Morris on the outside. Morris retained the lead and Sergio Pena made a hard charge up to third place. Caution flew once again 125 laps into the feature for Chris Johnson when his motor grenaded. Johnson got put a lap down early in the race but thanks to a lucky dog and good strategy he had worked his way back up to sixth place.
The green flew with 22 laps left and the top five was Morris, Bowling, Pena, Queen, and Sellers. Morris looked to have the check signed with 15 to go but Oakley and Stacy Puryear got tangled up on the backstretch, with Oakley’s car briefly going on top of Puryear’s car. The red flag was displayed for approximately three minutes while track staff picked up the debris from Puryear’s machine.
Pena decided to try Morris on the inside during this restart and Morris quickly shut the door and kept the top spot. Morris drove away by 10 car lengths while second through 12th fought side by side for every position. Pena, Barnes, Hughes and Sellers all battled for second with two to go as Morris waved goodbye in his rearview mirror.
When the checkered flag flew it was Morris taking the trophy and the money for his third win in three starts this season while Pena came out of the dogfight second, Hughes third with Queen and Barnes unofficially rounding out the top five.
Unofficial Results:
1 – #01 Philip Morris
2 – #01 Sergio Pena
3 – #8 Tyler Hughes
4 – #03 Brenden Queen
5 – #88 Doug Barnes, Jr.
6 – #26 Peyton Sellers
7 – #82 Cameron Burke
8 – #4 Timmy Phipps
9 – #17 Stacy Puryear
10 – #24 Colin Garrett
11 – #16 Dustin Storm
12 – #18 Chandler Sherman
13 – #11 Jeff Oakley
14 – #83 Matt Bowling
15 – #57 Eddie Johnson
16 – #24 Chris Johnson
17 – #07 Richard Storm
18 – #5 Lee Pulliam
19 – #7 Michael Hardin
20 – #82 Mike Ganoe
21 – #12 Nick Smith
22 – #77 Logan Jones
23 – #55 Billy Morris
