Earl Pearson Jr. has won in many different series, but until this past week he had never visited the Ultimate Late Model Series Victory Lane. He changed that with seeming ease on Friday as he led 48 of the 50 laps to take the win at Dublin Motor Speedway in Dublin, NC.

When the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series canceled events at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, IL, and Macon Raceway in Macon, IL, because of extremely wet conditions, it gave Pearson a chance to race close to home on a track familiar to his car owners Carlton and Kemp Lamm.

The track was not nearly as well known to Pearson. He was making just his second start at Dublin. As it turned out, laps on the track might not have helped much. On a hot day, the track conditions deteriorated quickly and settled into a one-groove affair.

This was Pearson's second win of the season. On March 31, he snapped a 12-year winless streak in the Lucas Oil Late Model Series at Boyd's Speedway in Ringgold, GA.

Pearson's third-place starting position and an early caution allowed him to grab the advantage. After he passed a rapidly slowing pole-sitter GR Smith -- who experienced mechanical difficulties on lap two -- he protected the bottom lane and never gave up the lead.

While the box score suggested a dominant win, that was not the case.

The single lane was the primary reason Pearson won. His car slowed progressively through the race as Casey Roberts' Longhorn chassis improved.

Roberts jumped from seventh to second on the lap-two restart. He managed to close the distance at the end and finished within a half-second of the leader.

Surging into second on the lap-two restart allowed Roberts to get ahead of the major incident of the night. On a lap-10 restart, Zack Mitchell got loose in turn one near the head of the pack and collected more than half a dozen drivers, including eventual fifth-place finisher Russell Erwin.

Third-place Dennis Franklin finished more than 11 seconds back.

Chris Ferguson was the hard charger of the race. He advanced through the B-Main and started 19th before climbing to fourth.

Top 10 Finishers

1. Earl Pearson Jr.
2. Casey Roberts
3. Dennis Franklin
4. Chris Ferguson
5. Russell Erwin
6. Tyler Millwood
7. Willie Milliken
8. Jason Welshan
9. Austin Hubbard
10. Justin Williams
Full Results