From Port Royal Speedway
Port Royal, PA — (June 30, 2016) — Lance Dewease drove the Don Kreitz No. 69K sprint car to the $7,000 PA Speedweek victory at Port Royal Speedway on Thursday night, turning back Stevie Smith and Lucas Wolfe for the 98th win of his career at the oval.
In the 18-lap econo late model feature, Port Royal’s Devin Hart scored his second win of the season in the division, taking the lead late in the race.
Dewease started seventh in the 30-lap speedweek feature with Stevie Smith and James McFadden sharing the front row and when action began Dewease stuffed his racer up the inside and into fourth on the first lap, behind Greg Hodnett, McFadden and Smith.
McFadden and Hodnett were locked in a battle for second on the third lap when Hodnett tried to make a move on McFadden for the spot as the pair exited the fourth turn.
As Hodnett came up across the track he found McFadden to his outside and the pair made contact with McFadden biting the outside wall while Hodnett turned sideways and hopped up over the inside barrier, ending up with his nose pointed toward the sky, hanging on the barrier.
Dewease blasted the outside in the first and second turns on the restart to keep pace with Smith and then dropped down to the inside as the pair raced onto the backchute before blasting across the inside in the third corner to come up with the lead.
Smith was trying to keep pace with Dewease on the fifth circuit when the red flag unfurled for a third turn crash that saw Logan Wagner flipping after contact with Blane Heimbach as the pair vied for 15th.
Dewease was still leading over Smith and now Lucas Wolfe on the eighth tour when the pace was again slowed, this time for a spun Tyler Bear.
The next 14 laps clicked off non-stop with Dewease reaching the halfway point while holding a 1.835 second lead over Smith who was hounding to regain control.
Trey Starks, who was racing ninth in the field, stopped with eight laps to go, again slowing the race pace.
Wolfe darted under Smith for second when green replaced the yellow but saw Smith reclaim the spot with six laps to go.
A final caution flag with five laps to go for Bryan Clauson again bunched the field.
For Clauson, the yellow marked the end of an impressive run in the feature after he blew a tire and hit the outside fence while racing sixth.
Dewease pulled away over the final five laps to pick up his third win of the 2016 speedweek series and sixth of the season overall in just 11 starts to date.
His margin of victory was 1.950 seconds.
Wolfe finished third followed by Danny Dietrich and Brent Marks.
Sixth through 10th went to Dave Blaney, Doug Esh, Aaron Ott, Brock Zearfoss and Alan Krimes.
Heats for the 33-car field went to Clauson, Dewease, Dietrich and Steve Buckwalter with the consolation going to Tim Shaffer,
Wolfe set fast time in qualifications with a lap of 15.529 seconds.
Chase Bowsman nearly won the 18-lap econo late model main, leading all but the final quarter of a lap.
Bowsman held off Shaun Miller for the first 14 laps before Miller surrendered to pressure from Devin Hart.
Hart caught Bowsman on the final lap and got underneath him as the pair raced down the backchute into the third corner, heading to the checkers.
Bowsman threw his car into the turn trying to hold on for the win but instead lost control and the win went to Hart.
Tim Krape rode home second followed by Miller, Todd Snook and Tim Fedder.
Heats went to Miller and Krape.
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