GIBSONTON, Fla. — Ryan Gustin thought he threw his well-managed race away in one slip-up off the preferred bottom groove with 19 laps remaining in Wednesday’s feature at East Bay Raceway Park.

“I was like, s---, man, I just gave this thing away,” said Gustin, who from the onset had the bottom secured until the aforementioned mistake. “But I kind of got up on the wheel there, was able to get to the middle and roll back by (Kyle Bronson). I knew it was time to get back down there and make it happen.”

Indeed, the Marshalltown, Iowa, driver who’s keen on establishing himself as a nightly contender among touring fields this year rose to the occasion when he needed it most.

Powering back around Bronson on lap 23 to save his race, Gustin never panicked as he kept his nearest challengers behind him the rest of the way for his first-ever Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series win in the third round of the Wieland Winternationals. Gustin’s $7,000 victory also made him the seventh different winner in nine Lucas Oil Series races this season.

“It’s awesome, man. Once Kyle got underneath me, I was like, 'Man, I just messed this up here,' ” Gustin said. “Luckily I had a good enough car so I could roll through that black and got back by him. Got to the lapped cars and I felt like it started to clean up, then those lapped cars down there dirtied it back up, so I had to get back to the bottom.

"I wanted to win this so bad. They’ve been working their asses off. … the only reason we’re here is because of them.”

VIDEO: Watch highlights from Wednesday's Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at East Bay. 

The ever-changing East Bay Raceway Park raced much like Tuesday’s 30-lap feature, where the bottom was dominant with the upper grooves being serviceable. Gustin demonstrated just that in leading 39 of the 40 laps, and showed just how strong his Taylor Center-prepared machine operated amidst that lap-21 scare.

After snatching the bottom from the pole-starting Gustin, Bronson appeared ready to shake free from the race-long leader as he nosed ahead to lead lap 22. But Gustin dug in around Bronson’s outside and generated the head of steam to comfortably reclaim the top spot the following circuit.

“Our car is really, really good when we can roll that black, just like that B-main the other night where everyone is circling around the bottom,” Gustin said. “We’re just able to move out and run through there better it feels like. That’s all to our crew chief (Taylor Center). He has this thing on rails, and I’m the lucky one that gets to drive it.”

RESULTS: Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series Wednesday at East Bay

Gustin’s win, which came by 1.330 seconds over Monday’s winner Tyler Erb, was never in question once he regained control. A green-white-checkered restart following a caution period for Tyler Bruening did give Erb one final shot. Even then, the New Waverley, Texas, driver didn’t have anything in his back pocket for Gustin.

“No, not much. He was pretty good,” Erb said. “He got me on the start, and I just stayed out there in the top of three and four trying to make something happen. I mean, it was fun. We qualified good, and everybody’s working hard. Just needed to be a little better to beat Ryan there. Maybe if we stayed in traffic I might have had a better chance, but I don’t know. It was awesome. Another good run for us, and we’re ready for tomorrow.”

After a rear-end failure foiled Bronson’s top-five run Tuesday night, the Brandon, Fla., had something to show for on Wednesday in his third-place finish.

“I feel like our car here has been really good here,” Bronson said. “The first day we kind of missed it in the feature setup. I felt like last night we had a winning car. Today, we passed for the lead and it kind of rubbered up there. As I said, our guys have been working our tails off.”

Brandon Sheppard, meanwhile, made the most out of his fourth-place run. The New Berlin, Ill., driver that started ninth was one of a few drivers who tried the top for a good portion of Wednesday’s feature. It worked well enough to dispatch Brandon Overton and Jonathan Davenport to finish a spot off the podium, but it didn’t come without some bumps in the road.

“It was rough up there (around the top) and we’re definitely going to have to do some extra maintenance tomorrow for sure because I was bouncing around,” Sheppard said. “Might have a tooth knocked loose; not sure.”

Sheppard felt the lap-15 caution for Ross Bailes stunted the point in the race where he had the most momentum around the top. But the caution also prevented him from losing ground to fourth-running Overton and fifth-running Davenport as he saved his car from nearly plugging the wall exiting turn four.

“Yeah, I definitely hated to see that. All in all, it was a good night,” Sheppard said. “Started the night and should have won the heat race. Kyle (Bronson) got me on the start there and beat me there in the heat, and that started us ninth. In order to be up front on this podium, you have to win that heat race and start up front there. It definitely makes life a lot easier on a guy.

“It’s really hard to pass; really tricky to pass anybody here. So, luckily, we had a little bit of a top in one and two to make a few moves on. Then it started to streak up and I had to get in line. We were able to get one more on that last restart just basically out of luck, making that corner one last time.

“No, it was a good night and we’ll take it,” Sheppard added. “We’re working really hard on these things, trying trying to get them rolling at East Bay. I think we’re close. I think we’ll get one by the end of the week.”

As for Davenport, last year’s top-ranked driver returned to action after electing to sit out the first two non-points races of the week. He was never in reach of a would-be fifth win of the season, and that doesn’t seem to bother him because of what awaits Thursday.

“Now, points start tomorrow (and that’s) where it get serious,” Davenport said. “Top-five, there’s a lot of good cars in the pit area that didn’t get to come out here and fun with us. We learned a lot. It’s crazy what you can dream up sitting at the house with what we tried on this thing tonight. It was good up until the feature. We wanted to stick with it and go to the feature to see how it was. It wasn’t great, but it was good enough to get us to a top-five.”