Pearson Powers to Lucas Oil Victory Lane At East Bay

Earl Pearson, Jr. closed out the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series portion of the 37th Annual Winternationals at East Bay Raceway Park with a win Saturday night, which brought with it a $10,000 pay day. Photo by Mike Ruefer

Earl Pearson, Jr. of Jacksonville, FL rallied from a flat tire to win the $10,000 DART Winternationals finale for the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series on Saturday Night at East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa, FL.  Pearson pitted on lap 37 after suffering a right rear flat and restarted from the tail. He charged through the field taking the lead from Don O’Neal and lap 52 and led the remainder of the race.                             

Driving for NASCAR’s Bobby Labonte, Pearson took the Lucas Oil Products, MAV-TV sponsored Longhorn Chassis Chevrolet to victory lane for the first time since July of 2010 at Tri-City (IL) Speedway.

“It’s been a longtime, no doubt,” said the 4-time series champion. “This deal with Kevin Rumley just came together a few months ago and we have come out of the box running much better, I have to thank Steve Shaver, he was my crew chief this week, everybody at Lucas Oil for their support, it feels great to be back in victory lane.”

Pearson’s win was his third of his career at East Bay and his 25^th on the LOLMDS.  Scott Bloomquist wound up second followed by O’Neal, Jared Landers and Steve Francis.

“The track was real good tonight, I knew when we pitted that we still might have a chance to get back to the front, with all the cautions for flats, it really helped us, also when I got under Scott (Bloomquist) and Moyer, Jr. it probably was a key move that enabled us to get the win, we caught up to O’Neal pretty quick after I got by Landers and once we got out in front I knew I had the tires to last.”

Bloomquist, who was one of the few cars not having to pit got by O’Neal in the closing laps to take a podium finish in second.

“We ran the hardest tires we could, the track actually was pretty good, it was black from top to bottom, but when you start getting some of that sand grit mixed in after a while, that’s why the tires starting going away,” said Bloomquist.

O’Neal with his third place clinched the DART Winternationals week-long point’s fund which was worth $5,000.

“We are real proud to win the DART points fund, as far as the race was concerned we tried to conserve the tires the best we can, but I think both rear tires are gone and I was just hanging on there at the end and I knew those guys that pitted were going to be hard to handle,” O’neal said.

In preliminary action, Vic Coffey set the overall Time (Group B) amongst the 36 entrants, with a lap of 14.417 seconds. O’Neal set the fastest time in Group A with a time of 14.547 seconds. O’Neal, Austin Hubbard, Dennis Erb Jr., and won their respective Heat Races. Jared Landers and Bloomquist won their respective B-Mains.  Devin Moran was the PRC Strawberry Dash Winner.

After the main event, Doug Blashe won the $1,000-to-win Non-Qualifiers Race. Brad Malcuit, Nick Davis, James O’Hara and Bob Geiger rounded out the Top-5.

The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series will return to action on Saturday, March 24th, with the Brian Bowman Chrysler Dodge Jeep Indiana Icebreaker at Brownstown Speedway in Brownstown, IN. The event will pay $10,000-to-win, and will include RedBuck Time Trials, Heat Races, B-Mains, and the 50-Lap main event. For more information, visit www.brownstownspeedway.com.

For the latest breaking news on the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, visit  www.lucasdirt.com.

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series
East Bay Raceway Park – Tampa, FL
37th Annual DART Winternationals – Feb. 16, 2013