Chris Madden grabs Firecracker 100 victory at Lernerville

World of Outlaws points leader Chris Madden had a good car all weekend, and he knew it. Everyone who was at Lernerville Speedway knows it as well.

Madden, Gaffney, S.C., led all 100 laps of the Firecracker 100 to win his second feature of the weekend. Madden won Thursday night, finished third Friday and dominated Saturday's feature from the pole for his fourth victory of the season.

“It was just that we had a good car,” Madden said. “We had a good car all weekend. I gambled a little bit — no, I picked the tire that I thought would be the right tire tonight, and it was.”

Mike Marlar, Winfield, Tenn., was second. Tyler Erb, New Waverly, Texas, was third, Devin Moran, Dresdon, Ohio was fourth and Dale McDowell, Chickamauga, Ga., rounded out the top five. Michael Norris of Sarver, Friday's winner, finished 10th and was the top local finisher. He had a terrific weekend with a sixth-place finish Thursday.

“I just could not catch a break,” Marlar said. “I would lose positions on the restarts, and it would take me a few laps to get them back. I picked a harder tire than some of the others, and that was why that happened. Still, I'm on the podium, and the car wasn't hurt so it was a good weekend.”

Marlar finished third Thursday and fifth Friday. There was not much drama up front with Madden, but at times there was chaos. The race was plagued by seven cautions, and each one seemed to take an extra bit of time to clear because of wet conditions just off the racing surface. The feature took 53 minutes to complete from green to checkered flags.

The format Saturday was a little different than the previous two nights. There was no qualifying — rather, the field just broke into four heats with the top four in each transferring into the feature. After Friday's incredible pace, things slowed down considerably Saturday. During the afternoon, there were three spells of rain for a combined 40 minutes. Some of the rain was hard, but the track was in good condition.

But just before the heats started, more track prep had to be completed. Heat races were set to begin at 7:30 p.m., but the extra work pushed that back to just before 8.

The first heat went well with Madden and Marlar dominating the field. In the second heat, things went off the rails a bit. Norris, leading three laps in, started to spin in Turn 2, and that caused the field to check. Then there was a mashup with Dan Angellicchio, Tommy Beck, and Bump Hedman, and Angellicchio ended up on his roof.

The third heat saw more of the same. With three laps down, Jason Covert spun in Turn 3, which then caused a reaction behind from Gary Lyle and Joey Moriarty. Lyle went off the track at a high rate and hit the barrier at the bottom of the turn. After that, things settled down, and the race was completed without incident.

The fourth heat saw Jared Miley spin on the front straight on Lap 2, and then he took his car right into the pit.

Heat winners included Madden, Darrell Lanigan, Brandon Sheppard and Moran. Alex Ferree transferred to the feature from the first heat with a fourth-place finish. Colton Flinner overcame his heat-race troubles to run the first of two B-Mains and finished third for the final transfer spot. Shane Clanton, the 2010 Firecracker winner, took the checkered flag in the first B-Main, followed by Chase Junghans.

Miley started last, in the second B-Main and worked his way through to claim the checkered flag, followed by Charles Powell and Covert, to claim spots in the feature. The Uncle Sam 20, for those who did not transfer to the feature, was run before the Firecracker. After a bit of a fitful start, things proceeded nicely. Michael Maresca dominated the race and crossed the finish line with a solid 5.762-second cushion on Joe Petyak.

Thomas Zuck is a freelance writer.