Devin Steele made a daring three wide move on a restart to take the lead in a 60-lap feature for the Late Model Stock Cars and he never gave the lead up to pick up the win in the Autism Awareness 200 at Franklin County Speedway.

Wayne Roach, Jr. qualified on the pole with a fast lap of 14.03 seconds, which was three tenths of a second faster than a gaggle of cars timing in behind him including Kyle Dudley (14.39), Devin Steele (14.39), Wesley Thomason (14.40), Bobby Gillespie (14.48), Josh Leedy (14.48) and Jonathan Hall (14.49).

An invert of five cars put Gillespie on the pole for the main event with Thomason flanking him to his outside. Gillespie took the lead from the start of the race and set sail out front as the cars behind him were slipping around on a hot, slick race track. Dudley who started fourth was on the move and soon found his way to second position and looked to wrestle the lead away from Gillespie.

As the two raced hard for the top spot contact was made off of turn four and Gillespie’s left rear tire was cut, slowing his momentum as Roach ran into the back of him and it triggered a multi-car wreck. Dudley would be black flagged for the contact and put to the rear. Under the red flag as track officials worked to clean the track, Thomason who would be the new leader found himself overheating and was put to the rear for his team pushing his car off.

That would hand the lead to Jonathan Hall who got slight damage in the accident that caused the caution. Leedy would line up to his outside for the restart with Steele restarting in third. This would be Steele’s chance to take the lead as the field went green and he was able to get three wide with Hall and Leedy and take the top spot.

Dudley who was rebounding from his infraction made his way to second position but he was never able to make a charge on Steele despite a late race caution when Thomason stopped on the track and was penalized a lap for bringing out the caution. Steele would hold off Dudley in a short sprint to the finish with Dudley falling into the clutches of third place Joey Phillips. Phillips was unable to get by Dudley and settled for third.

Hall finished fourth with Ricky Gillespie recovering from a tough day and a late race spin to finish fifth of ten cars making the starting grid.

Late Model Finishing Order:
1 – Devin Steele #17
2 – Kyle Dudley #4
3 – Joey Phillips #12
4 – Jonathan Hall #25
5 – Ricky Gillespie #78
6 – Wesley Thomason #08
7 – Josh Leedy #3
8 – Wayne Roach, Jr. #30
9 – Bobby Gillespie #18
10 – Kevin Parker #10

Late Model Qualifying Times:
1 – Wayne Roach, Jr. 14.03
2 – Kyle Dudley 14.39
3 – Devin Steele 14.39
4 – Wesley Thomason 14.40
5 – Bobby Gillespie 14.48
6 – Josh Leedy 14.48
7 – Jonathan Hall 14.49
8 – Joey Phillips 14.58
9 – Ricky Gillespie 14.62
10 – Kevin Parker DNQ