Mike Darne led wire-to-wire to score the victory in Sunday’s Late Model Stock Car opener at Caraway Speedway, snapping a winless drought that dates back to August 2015.
Darne started on the pole and led all 75 laps en route to victory, holding back Travis Swaim to score the victory – his first of the season. Entering Sunday’s race, Darne had not win a race since August 2015 when he scored a victory at Southen National Motorsports Park.
“Being able to control your own race is big,” Darne said. “The car was phenomenal. It was good all day. It was good when we tested the other day. It was good in the race. I knew those guys were creeping up on me and if this had been a 100 or 150 lapper, it might have been different but I had enough to get 75 laps.”
Travis Swaim picked up a second place finish, but questioned a late race restart.
“I was going to try to go early and hope I didn’t get called and he went about three car-lengths early,” Swaim said. “Don’t get me wrong, Mike Darne’s a great driver, my hat’s off to him, he had a good car. I just wish they took a look at that last restart.”
Darne responded to the questions over the restart by saying he went at the first restart line.
“They said the deal, you can go when you hit the first white line and I did,” Darne remarked.
RD Smith finished in third while Lee Pulliam and Tommy Lemons, Jr. rounded out the top-five.
Unofficial Results
- Mike Darne
- Travis Swaim
- RD Smith
- Lee Pulliam
- Tommy Lemons, Jr.
- Jared Fryar
- Zach Clifton
- Dennis Holdren
- Justin Hicks
- Dylan Ward
- Mike Ganoe
- Thad Moffitt
- Dean Ward
- Justin Carroll
Race22.com’s Corey Latham contributed to this report.
