RALEIGH, NC – Clay Jones scored the victory at Wake County Speedway on Friday night in one of the most spectacular races of the season.

Jones was dominant in the race, surviving several early race restarts but a caution with nine laps to go changed the complexion of the event. Alex Fleming got along side on a lap 51 restart but Jones cleared him coming out of two. Fleming got a run in turns three and four and got into the back of Jones, sending the race leader around and drawing a caution – and a penalty.

When timing and scoring sorted out the running order, Jones ended up inheriting the lead and Fleming took second as a virtue of all the cars still running in the race being Charger cars – while Jones and Fleming were in Late Models. Jones shot out of a cannon on the restart and went on to score his second win of the 2015 season.

“You’ll have to ask him [if the contact was deliberate],” Jones said. “I think he knows we definitely had the dominant car. It was fast as soon as we got here. These guys worked their tails off all week. Like I said a while ago, this makes me look good. I can’t thank them enough. It was good racing. This car was a rocket ship.”

Jones was confident that he had the best car all race but also anticipated a late race caution.

“We were just sitting there riding, then I saw the caution come out and saw who it was and everything and thought it was a little fishy but we had a great car,” Jones remarked. “I can’t thank these guys enough. Hopefully we’ll come out here in two weeks and try it again … Everybody knows me knows I don’t drive like that. It would have been nice to go around [Fleming] and not touch him or anything. We ran hard those last 10 laps and it showed. The car was hooked up.”

The victory is a confidence booster for Jones who has struggled recently in the Championship Auto Racing Series (CARS) Super Late Model Tour. The victory is Jones’ second win of the season in a Late Model at Wake County Speedway.

“This is a big confidence booster,” Jones explained. “No matter where you go or what you’re doing, if you win, it makes you feel better and makes your whole team feel better. Hopefully we can carry this momentum into Concord next weekend with the CARS Tour.”

Fleming finished in second after having to restart at the rear of the field early in the race when making a pit stop – behind the Charger cars that ended up being separated from the Late Models on the final restart.

“It kind of boiled down to something that happened last week and on the restarts this week,” Fleming said. “Every time I get behind him and get a run on him, he tends to run halfway down the track and then park it in the corner. It’s all fine and good but if you park it in the corner, you need to be prepared for a bump. He ran in the corner on the edge. I bumped him a little bit, not even hard and he looped it.”

Fleming was miffed with the calls made by race officials late in the race which were inconsistent with other decisions made throughout the duration of the race and the season.

“I don’t agree with the track’s call going single file on the restart,” Fleming remarked. “That’s not the rules. We still had eight laps to car. They didn’t clear the Charger cars out of the Late Model class at the beginning of the race so I had to start last, come back up and use all the tires up. They put me behind Clay after he spun out. I came out of the caution in front of him. Within five laps to go, it would have been a different story but we had all the time in the world. The track makes up the rules as they go. It’s not the first time and won’t be the last time.”

Zachary Marks, who entered the race second in points, 30 points behind Fleming, was unable to start the race due to electrical issues. Marks conceded the championship in a postrace interview – saying he would run the opener at Carteret County Speedway on Labor Day Weekend and run the finale at Wake County Speedway.

“We believe the alternator took up the battery and wouldn’t power the MSD box,” Marks said. “After tonight, I believe we’ll run Carteret and maybe the last race here because this takes us out of the chase for the championship.”

Jones said, after the race, that he hopes to see more cars come to Wake County Speedway.

“Hopefully we get some cars here at Wake County,” Jones commented. “It’s a great place with awesome fans. I don’t know why people won’t come. It’s awesome racing. I don’t know. I’ve got a lot of buddies who were running in the other races. It was good hard racing. It was fun. It makes you want to be right in the middle of it. It’s a great facility and hopefully we can get the word out and get some cars here.”

Darrell Haynie scored the victory in one of the most exciting U-CAR races run anywhere all season long. Hayne survived three bump-and-run attempts from Michael Cooper and held him off for the win. The thriller came in the second of two U-CAR races which were swept by Haynie who won the first race over Kristin Galt.

Will Bristle edged Dillon Spain to score the victory in the Legends race, Don Frantz won a thrilling Mini-Stock race over Brad McKalowski and Justin Fussell in a photofinish for second and Blaise Brinkley dominated to win the Bandolero race driving the car Kailey Murray usually runs at Southern National Motorsports Park.