PELETIER, NC – Chris Burns opened up Sunday night’s WITN-TV Memorial Classic with a victory in the first of two Limited Late Model features while T.J. Barron closed out the night with his second Limited Late Model win at Bobby Watson’s Carteret County Speedway.
Burns started on the pole in the first twin race and led the first 33 laps. Ross “Boo Boo” Dalton, after starting sixth, drove past Burns on lap 34 to take the lead and looked like he had the win in hand in his first ever Carteret County Speedway start. However, Burns would battle back, taking the lead with five laps to go and holding on for the win – his second Late Model win of the 2019 season.
“Boo Boo is a tough competitor,” Burns said in victory lane. “For being his first time here, very stout. They keep on coming back and they’ll win some races here. We didn’t have the best car tonight, I don’t think. We had some sort of problem. A little bit of luck fell on our side tonight.”
While Dalton did lead laps late, he believed Burns’ car was just a little better at the end of the race.
“I knew he was probably going to be able to get back to me,” Dalton stated. “We were really free right there. I really couldn’t get back to the throttle the way I wanted to. He was a little worse than us up off of two. That was the only place I could capitalize. He was a lot better through three and four. First time out, never saw the place until Thursday, got it dialed in pretty close.”
T.J. Barron finished third while Tyler Horne and Rusty Daniels rounded out the top-five in the 14 car field.
The second race came down to a duel between Barron and Burns. Burns once again dominated much of the race, but Barron made the winning pass inside 20 laps to go and never looked back as he went on to pick up his second win in three races and his second career Carteret County Speedway victory.
“It’s what you always hope for,” Barron said. “We got that monkey off our back. We’ve got a good car, good crew. Me and Chris, we go way back racing almost 20 years together. That’s how racers race right there. We got into each other a little bit, banged some doors, but it was a good race.”
Burns said he had nothing for Barron in the final laps, despite hanging with him and looking like he could make his move.
“I think we were rolling the center a little better than him but, where we lacked, he gained,” Burns commented. “It was close racing. I wanted to race T.J. clean, I know he’d race me the same way. I can’t complain. I’m happy to be in second.”
Eric Winslow, who has had a rough season to date, picked up his first podium finish of the season.
“I think we had a pretty fair shot at the win tonight,” Winslow remarked. “The car was pretty good. This is the first week we haven’t had to rebuild the motor the night before. Just that in itself is pretty much a win. I’ve got to thank all the fans for coming out. We’ve got some really great fans. This little girl drew a picture for me a little while ago. We’ve got great fans and that’s why we come to Carteret. It’s four hours for us but these people are second to none.”
Boo Boo Dalton and Brandon Clements rounded out the top-five.
Results
Late Model Twin #1
- Chris Burns
- Boo Boo Dalton
- T.J. Barron
- Tyler Horne
- Rusty Daniels
- Eric Winslow
- Joshua Yeoman
- Ethan Johnson
- Jerry Miracle
- Bobby Morris
- Caleb Dyer
- Stacy Puryear
- Brandon Clements
- Quincy Adkins
Late Model Twin #2
- T.J. Barron
- Chris Burns
- Eric Winslow
- Boo Boo Dalton
- Brandon Clements
- Tyler Horne
- Stacy Puryear
- Rusty Daniels
- Joshua Yeoman
- Jerry Miracle
- Ethan Johnson
- Caleb Dyer
- Bobby Morris
