It took Rick Eckert more than half of the race to get his car to work, but when it did he charged through the field to win the inaugural Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series race at Port Royal Speedway in Port Royal, PA, on Sunday.

Eckert took the lead from Gregg Satterlee on lap 39 on the half-mile track, weathered a caution with four to go, and earned his first series victory since July 16, 2005, at Virginia Motor Speedway in Jamaica, VA. This was the fourth win of Eckert's career.

It took more than half of the race for Eckert to figure out what the car wanted, but he settled into a rhythm on lap 30. At that point of the race, he had fallen to seventh after starting fifth because of contact with Mason Zeigler.

With that mistake on the lap-20 restart, Eckert thought his race was over.

The car came to life on the next caution, and Eckert started picking off cars. He did this by concentrating on the end of the track that worked best for him. By the end of the race, he still had not figured out how to make turn three work but mastered one and two. Running well on that end of the track proved to be critical since most of his gains came following caution flags.

"The front-runners started fading a bit, and that's when I started gaining on them," Eckert said. "We had a good restart there and that made all the difference. [Satterlee] got out in front and I thought it was going to be a long night for the rest of us, but those caution flags kept it close."

Eckert jumped to fourth immediately following a lap-30 caution. Two laps later, he was around Brandon Sheppard for third behind Satterlee and Tim McCreadie.

Another restart on lap 36 saw McCreadie falter.



That locked Eckert and Satterlee into a tense side-by-side battle until Eckert grabbed the lead for good on lap 39.

The York, PA, driver Eckert and Satterlee, who hails from Rochester Mills, PA, crossed under the checkered flag first and second, respectively.

"It was an awesome race track tonight. You could run low, middle, or high," Eckert said. "This facility has turned out to be one of the best in the nation. It's one of the best-kept secrets out there. I couldn't get going early on, and I dropped back a few spots. But I finally found a line that worked well, and we were able to get back to the front."

Ziegler of Chalk Hill, PA, also overcame the lap-20 incident to finish third and give home-state drivers a sweep of the podium.

Josh Richards and McCreadie rounded out the top five.

Overcoming car troubles was the theme of the race.

Earl Pearson Jr. had to take a provisional to start 23rd in the A-Main after making contact with Chad Hollenbeck in his heat. He was working his way through the field until a flat tire in the race sent him to the back once more. He mounted another charge through the race to finish ninth.

Points leader Scott Bloomquist was running 10th on lap 36 when he blew a right rear tire. He climbed back to 11th in the final 14 circuits.

Steve Francis was not quite as fortunate. He was in a transfer position in his heat when blew a tire two laps from the end. Forced to come through the B-Main, he was challenging for a top 10 position with four laps remaining in the A before blowing another tire.

Top 10 Finishers

1. Rick Eckert
2. Gregg Satterlee
3. Mason Zeigler
4. Josh Richards
5. Tim McCreadie
6. Don O'Neal
7. Dennis Erb, Jr.
8. Jimmy Owens
9. Earl Pearson, Jr.
10. Darrell Lanigan
Full Results