Pounds wins from the back

BY MIKE GRIFFITH Californian staff writer mgriffith@bakersfield.com

The chances of Brad Pounds winning didn’t look good two laps into the IMCA Modified feature on Saturday night at Bakersfield Speedway.

That’s because at that point Pounds was in the pits with a mechanical problem during a brief caution.

But a quick fix got Pounds back on track before the race restarted after the show in front of a packed house began.

Pounds threaded his way through traffic in perhaps his best drive of the year as he came from the rear of the 20-car field to win the 25-lap feature on the third-mile clay oval.

“We tore a lot of stuff up in the heat race and everybody worked their butts off to get it back together,” Pounds said. “The car was awesome tonight.”

Pounds was closing on leader Jay Marks with five lap to go when a caution flew, leaving Marks a sitting duck.

“I didn’t have a car to win tonight,” said Marks, who was comfortably faster than every other driver with the exception of Pounds. “Brad had me covered and once he got under me he was gone.”

The runner-up finish for Marks equalled his best this season.

Pounds took the lead with four laps to go and pulled several car lengths ahead of of Marks for his sixth win of the season and 104th career IMCA Modified victory.

Jeff Streeter finished third, followed by Scott Gatson and Bryan Clark.

A 20-minute fireworks show followed the IMCA Modified feature.

The Sport Mod and Hobby Stock features were not completed at press time.

Brian Childress led for just three-quarters of a lap, but it was the one that counted as he raced to his second American Stock feature win of the year.

Childress drove low in Turn one on the final lap and came out of Turn two with a bumper lead over Dakota Brown. Childress kept the low line heading into Turn three, pushed up the track a bit in turn four to pinch off Brown and powered to the win.

“Oh man, this is awesome,” said Childress, who moved into the points lead. “We struggled all morning. We didn’t get a rearend in the car until 10 o’clock.”

Childress started eighth and worked his way into second with seven laps remaining. He said he noticed Brown was going a bit high into Turn one with three laps to go and was able to take advantage on the final circuit.

Brown, who took the lead on the fifth lap of the 20-lap race, finished second with Tyler Irwin third. Chris Settlemier was fourth and Mark Irwin fifth.