The box score shows Earl Pearson Jr. led all 50 laps of Friday night's Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series in Ringgold, Georgia, but it was far from easy.

Pearson's position at the front was largely attributable to the fact that several top contenders were forced to start deep in the pack at Boyd's Speedway.

That was not lost on the race winner.

"I saw (Donald) McIntosh early on; it looked like he could run anywhere on the track," Pearson said. "Jimmy (Owens) was good tonight, and Josh (Richards), I know he came from deep in the pack. I was worried about him when he came to the leaderboard."

Owens ran in the top three all night, but second-place finisher Richards charged from 14th. Tim McCreadie finished fourth after starting 13th, and Darrell Lanigan finished fifth after beginning in 15th. 

With most of his toughest competition starting further back in the pack, Pearson was able to take care of his equipment.

"I tried to keep my tires warm under those cautions and that was probably a bad idea," Owens said after the race. "McIntosh had a good car and I could see him spinning his tires and they were sealing over and Earl's weren't."

This was Pearson's first win since May 2015 and the 31st of his career.  

Richards made his first-ever appearance at Boyd's Speedway, which may explain why he started badly. It did not take long to learn the track, and he sliced through the field to second.

"I had never seen this track until I got here today," Richards said. "I had seen maybe 20 seconds of highlights. I felt like I struggled for the whole race; we must have missed about 14 wrecks out there to get a good finish."

Results