CALLAWAY, VA :: Jake Keaton and Johnny Cash scored victories in twin Late Model features in Saturday night’s Fall Brawl at Franklin County Speedway. Keaton’s win came in his first ever start at the 3/8 mile bullring while Cash’s victory was one that was a long time coming.
Keaton timed in with the fastest lap in qualifying with a 14.09 second lap. An inversion put Daryn Cockram on the pole. Keaton worked his way up to second on the first lap and spent much of the race trailing Cockram, patiently waiting to make his move. As the laps winded down, Cash worked his way up to the race between Keaton and Cockram and used a little bit of chrome horn on Keaton. Keaton held on and mounted a charge on Cockram to take the lead in the closing laps.
Moments after Cockram relinquished the top spot, he would be involved in an accident with Kyle Dudley. Cash was also relegated out of the top three in that incident. That set up a green-white-checkered finish which gave Wesley Thomason, who was promoted to second after the incident, a shot to take the lead and win the race. Thomason rocketed to the lead on the restart and led up until the final turn. That was when Keaton got around Thomason and beat him to the line in a photofinish.
“It’s pretty awesome,” Keaton said in Victory Lane after the race. “We had a great car. We came here our first time and didn’t know how we were going to do. I was actually really surprised by how well we did. I’m really happy with it. It was a fun race. Everybody drove clean. It was a good time. It’s a lot of fun here.”
Thomason went on to finish second which ties his best effort of the 2013 season.
“I don’t know where to start,” Thomason said about his runner-up finish. “We were just riding it out this first race. We’ve got to save our stuff for the second race because everybody’s tires will be worn out. We came around, saw a wreck and I realized we had a shot. I tried to give it all I had but it’s hard on the outside. You’ve got great guys like Keaton who want to run you hard and clean unlike some of the people we’ve raced out here.”
Rusty Gaspard finished in third while Cash, Cockram and Dudley rounded out the field.
The top five cars were inverted for the second race while Keaton had to start in the sixth position by virtue of his win in the first race. The invert put Cockram on the pole but Cockram’s time in the top spot would be short lived. On the first lap of the race, Cockram relinquished the top spot to Cash who would go on the lead wire-to-wire to score an emotional victory.
“I’ve been waiting since 1999 when I started running down here (for this victory lane interview/celebration),” Cash remarked. “You cannot beat the time that I’ve got. We work hard. We crashed the car Friday in practice. I backed it in to the wall. This team worked hard, got it right and did a lot of changing. I’ve just got to thank everybody. And tomorrow is my mother’s birthday so this one goes to her. We knew this win would happen soon. It was going great. It’s just circumstance. You’ve got to jump and take every inch that you can. I don’t know what happened to Cockram but I’ll take it. His daughter (Brittany) is one heck of a driver in the Mini Stock class. You’ve just got to get it when you can.”
Cash held off a late charge from Keaton and Dudley to score the win. The top three drivers finished nose-to-tail at the line after running bumper-to-bumper for the final ten laps. Keaton was satisfied with his results on the night.
“A win and a second, that’s not too bad,” Keaton explained. “We’re pretty happy with that. I think we may have used up the car just a little bit in that first race. We had a really good time out here tonight. It was a lot of fun.”
Dudley finished third and maintains the points lead in the track championship standings. Gaspard finished fourth while Thomason and Daryn Cockram rounded out the field.
Cash’s win in the Late Model division was not his only win on the night either. He also won the Mini Stock feature over Brittany Cockram. It was Cash’s third win of the season in that division. Keaton’s win was his third of the season. He has also scored wins this season at Ona Speedway in West Virginia and at Lonesome Pine Raceway.
Franklin County Speedway’s next race will be on Saturday, October 12th.
