ELK CITY, Okla. — Making his case in the Oil Capital Racing Series championship chase, “Hot Rod” Johnny Kent stormed to victory lane in Friday night’s 30-lap feature event atop the three-eighths-mile Elk City Motorsports Park clay oval.
Kent took advantage of early leader Fred Mattox on a mid-race restart and rallied on to victory lane unabated aboard the WFO Motorsports Kent Construction No. 55 to secure the $1,500 winner’s share in the series debut atop Elk City clay.
After entering the night just 10 points behind Danny Wood in the championship points race, Kent left with a four-point advantage after his first series win of the year.
While Kent gridded the feature field outside the second row, pole starter Mattox outgunned fellow front row starter Jack Hall for the point at the drop of the green flag and paced the initial half of the race while weathering several cautions along the way for minor spins.
In his wake, Hall, Kent and Wood jockeyed back and forth for position before Kent finally secured second and set his sights on Mattox before a caution flew at the midway point when second heat race winner Kayden Cole spun to a stop in turn two.
Kent pounced on Mattox on the restart for the lead and after Hall spun from contention a lap later, “Hot Rod” rolled to victory lane over the non-stop final 14 circuits.
Eighth-starter Joe Bob Lee made serious inroads by cracking the top five after eight laps and wrestled second away from Mattox soon after the final restart but was unable to close enough on Kent to mount a challenge.
While Lee settled for runner-up honors, Zach Chappell rebounded from an early miscue that dropped him from his third starting position to as far back as tenth to claim the final podium position in third.
Mattox slipped to fourth over the final half of the race with ninth-starter Sheldon Barksdale rounding out the top five.
Lee and Cole topped heat race action.
Feature Results (30 Laps)
1. 55-Johnny Kent[4]; 2. 5-Joe Bob Lee[8]; 3. 50Z-Zach Chappell[3]; 4. 26M-Fred Mattox[1]; 5. 20S-Sheldon Barksdale[9]; 6. 55W-Danny Wood[5]; 7. 72C-Kayden Cole[6]; 8. 15-Brody Brown[12]; 9. 50-Cody Whitworth[15]; 10. 39-Joshua Tyre[11]; 11. 64-Harley Menacher[17]; 12. 29G-Gerald Smith[10]; 13. 54-Michael Gossman[14]; 14. 37-Jack Hall[2]; 15. 17E-Blake Edwards[7]; 16. 12M-Mitchell Barros[13]; 17. (DNS) 4G-Robert Sellers