CHATHAM, LA -- In a script tailor-made for TV, Late Model racer turned YouTube sensation Joseph Joiner of Milton, Fla., led the final 65 laps of Saturday’s Super Bee 100 at Super Bee Speedway to earn a career-high $50,001 victory in the unsanctioned Crate Late Model event.

Joiner, whose family’s YouTube channel Hunt the Front has helped shoot him to internet fame while also boosting his racing career, overtook polesitter and race-long leader Carson Ferguson of Lincolnton, N.C., on lap 35 of the marathon 100-lap race and turned back second-half challenges from Matt Henderson of Loudon, Tenn., and Cade Dillard of Robeline, La., on his way to edging out Dillard by 0.752 seconds. Eighth-starting B.J. Robinson of Bossier City, La., finished third, while both Henderson and Ferguson faded out of podium spots in the closing laps.

Starting outside the front row, Joiner followed Ferguson through the race’s early portions with both drivers running low around the paper-clipped quarter-mile track. Following a lap-21 restart, Joiner found the high line around turns three and four and used it to pass Ferguson just after the next restart 10 laps later.

Fifth-starting Henderson took second from Ferguson just after halfway and chased Joiner until Dillard took the spot on the race’s final restart with 81 laps complete. Dillard kept pace with Joiner through the race’s closing laps but couldn’t quite get close enough to make a bid for the lead.

“I knew once we found that groove if someone was gonna pass us they was gonna have to run through us because it was kind of getting latched up there just a little bit and kind of cleaning up,” Joiner said of his line around the bottom of turns one and two and around the top of three and four. “That was what I wanted to see for sure because I knew as long as I didn’t do anything stupid and I got the car turned and didn’t hit a tire down there in the infield, I figured it would be pretty tough for somebody to get around us at that point.

“I was just making sure I hit my marks and making sure every lap I did,” added Joiner, who adjusted his line to the middle of turns three and four in the closing laps after signals from crew chief Jesse Enterkin. “Jesse was back there on the back straightaway signaling me if I needed to move around and he made a good call for me to move down in three and four about last 10 or 15 laps. Oh man, I’m gonna have a hard time believing this.”

Joseph Joiner discusses his Super Bee 100 win at Super Bee Speedway.

Joiner survived a few close calls with lapped cars including one car slowing directly in front of him to cause a lap-37 caution and another spinning in front of him on lap 53, but his only significant contact during the race came while attempting to pass Ferguson after the lap-21 restart.

“I made a move on the 00 there earlier in the race and I really didn’t mean to hit him,” Joiner said of the incident. “I thought he was going high in one and two down there and I had already committed to run through the middle. We hit pretty hard. I’m glad it didn’t take him out. I was really worried about it. I hate that for him. He’s a really good dude and I didn’t mean to run into him by no means.”

Finding his groove late in the race, Dillard felt he had a car capable of offering a stiffer challenge Joiner, but said he was hampered by damage suffered while battling with Henderson for second.

“We had a good car. Congrats to Joiner. That’s a good group of hardworking guys so happy to see something rewarding like that for them,”  said Dillard, a regular on the World of Outlaws Morton Buildings Late Model Series until recent weeks who drove a Joel Couvillion-owned MB Customs car in returning to his home track. “I felt like we had a good car there at the end, but after bouncing off the wall a couple times racing with (Henderson) it’s a little out of wack.

“But the 10 ran a really good race. I would’ve had to caught him in a mistake to get by him. … He ran a good race. He hit his marks and never made a mistake to let us by there.”

The race lasted 90 minutes and was slowed by 13 cautions including a fuel stop at lap 51. None of the cautions were for serious accidents.