On Tuesday night, the Sportsman Street Stock Series rolled into the Irwindale Speedway to take on the Inner configuration for the first time with a 100-lap feature event.
Casey Kelley grabbed the pole in qualifying for the event and led the field to the green flag for the feature. He quickly jumped out into the lead and pulled out to a 1-second lead until the first and only caution of the race came out on lap 35. But that caution was the only thing that slowed Kelley down as the field restarted and ran the final 59 laps under green, which allowed Kelley to set sail out front. Kelley went on to lead all 100 laps, en route to his 4th victory of the season.
After starting outside the top five, Tim Bills posted a late charge at the leader as he closed within a couple tenths of Kelley, but would end up settling for a strong 2nd place finish. Kevin J Myers ran inside the top three for most of his race and would take home the final podium spot with a 3rd place finish. Austin Yarbrough also ran inside the top three for about half the race and would end up finishing in the 4th spot. Dale Owen rounded out the top five in 5th, after completing a three-wide pass in the final two laps of the race.
Just outside the top five, Matt Rolfe finished in the 6th spot after being on the outside of that three-wide battle in the closing laps. Russell Berry started just outside the top ten but worked hi way up into a solid 7th place finish late in the race. Ian Layne had a quiet night, hanging around the 10th spot and would take home an 8th place finish. Joe Schaffer was the third car in the late three-wide battle, but would end up on the wrong side of things as he got turned around on the final lap, but was able to hang on for a 9th place finish. Closing out the top ten, was JayJay Day in 10th who made his first league start since last December.
With the victory, and with drop weeks now being factored into the points standings, Casey Kelley launches to the top of the points standings, and now leads by 30 points over 2nd place.