By Scott White/Special to The Star
The Meridian Star
MERIDIAN —
Larry Harrod, of Plains, Ga., driving the Harrod Logging Scorpion, won the NOS Energy Drink 75 for the NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Model Series National Tour on Saturday night at Whynot Motorsports Park.
Harrod jumped out to a big early lead until lapped traffic allowed Mike Boland, of Cuba, Ala., Larry Murphy, of Meridian, and last year’s NeSmith Chevrolet DLMS Champion Eric Cooly, of Fulton, to catch him. The four battled it out for the lead in heavy traffic. Murphy grabbed the lead for only a lap to see Harrod take it back and lead the rest of the way.
“When we were in lapped traffic, I knew everyone was coming and I gave up the lead for a lap before I could find my line to get the lead back,” Harrod said. “The last time we were here in June we learned a lot that we put to use this weekend, and it worked. The first part of the race, my car worked so well I never lifted off the throttle.”
Harrod ran up on lapped traffic again in the closing laps of the race, but it was not enough time for Boland to close in to make a challenge. Boland had to settle for second in the Strength Center Trak-Star, and Murphy took the third spot in the Bo Haarala Autoplex GRT. Cooley finished fourth in the 78 Towing and Recovery/Bryson Motorsports Victory Circle, and after starting 14th and running as high as second, Cooley was also the GM Performance Parts Hard Charger of the Race. “Chargin’ Charlie” Henderson, of Cottondale, Ala., was fifth in the Century Dedicated, Inc., Mastersbilt.
Fast Qualifier for the event was Cliff Williams, of Star, with a 13.364 over a stellar field of 38 Late Models.
In local action this weekend, Randy King, of Meridian, won the Open Wheel Modified feature driving the LSI Landsharks/ Pee Wee's Performance Exhaust/ Etheridge Race Parts/ A-1 Glass/ Burgess Outdoor Power/ Custom Creations/ Dirt Works.
Artis Bunyard of Toomsuba won the Street Stock feature driving the Queen City Truck Stop/ York Drugs/ Shon's Painting/ Kewanee One Stop/ STR race cars/ Pontiac Firebird.
Mindi Sisson won the special Powder Puff race.
In Friday night’s actionTim Dees driving the Pee Wee's Performance Exhaust/ Custom Creations/ Chevy Camaro won the Pure Stock feature, Al Folks won the Mini Stock feature and Brandon Leftwich won the Stinger feature.
Coming up this Saturday night will be a special event for the Pure Stock division. Plus the weekly NeSmith Chevrolet Dirt Late Models, Open Wheel Modified, Street Stock, Mini Stock and Stingers. For more information go to www.whynotmotorsportspark.com.
