Daly races to 30-lap Late Model win at Speedway

On a night where there was speed to be found in multiple grooves around Bakersfield Speedway, it was the bottom that proved to be a winner for Clay Daly during the Late Model feature race on Saturday night.

Sticking to the low line almost exclusively, Daly won the 30-lap Late Model feature, passing Mike Corwin with 2 laps left to get the win on the third-mile Clay oval.

Daly led for 16 laps.

Kirby went around Daly on the outside to take the lead midway through the race and appeared to have a grip on the win when a caution came out with three laps left

But soon after the restart, Kirby bobbled in turn one and Daly dove inside and made it stick.

“I knew the only place it was going to happen was if I could steal the bottom away from getting into one,” Daly said of his winning pass.

Mike Johnson finished third. Robert Sanders was fourth and Andy Obertello took fifth.

“The last three weeks we set the thing up to go around the bottom,” Daly said. “It was good enough that if we had to go to the top we could have gone there too.”

Chad Johnson withstood a late challenge from Jimmy Irwin to win the 25-lap Hobby Stock A-main.

Chad Johnson led the final 19 laps as he won for the first time in 2012.

Irwin, the division’s points leader, made him work for it. Irwin got to Johnson’s back bumper with several laps remaining and did his best to rattle Johnson. But to no avail.

Irwin did finish second though. Tom Manzella was third, followed by Ryan Daves and Ralph Cooke.

Johnson took the lead on lap seven with a pass of early leader Jordan Hagar. Johnson got a big head of steam going down the backstretch and dove underneath Hager in turn three, edging slightly ahead before finally completing the pass in the exit of turn four.

Clay Wattenbarger continued his season-long hot streak by winning the Mini Stock A-main.

He passed Kyle Hood, who led 16 of the race’s 20 laps, with two to go when Hood got stuck behind a car at the tail end of the field. Wattenbarger, began the race in the 12th position, but quickly raced his way into contention. One there, he pressured Hood for several laps before seizing the chance to make his move and claim a fourth win this year.