Another strong showing sets up Mike Marlar as favorite for Firecracker 100 at Lernerville

Mike Marlar certainly has staked his claim as the favorite for Saturday’s Firecracker 100.

The Winfield, Tenn., native scored his second consecutive Lucas Oil Dirt Late Model Series preliminary feature, on the second night of the 16th annual Firecracker 100 weekend Friday at Lernerville Speedway in Buffalo Township.

Marlar held off a hard-charging Tim McCreadie, who started ninth, to earn $6,000 and the pole for the first heat in Saturday’s finale.

Now he’ll look to become the second driver to sweep all three main events. Josh Richards is the only driver to complete the sweep, doing so in 2013.

“It’s definitely been a good week so far,” Marlar said. “The trip up here is paid for, and tomorrow is the big cherry on top. It’ll definitely be tough. We have a good 30-lap car, but it starts sliding around on me a little bit once the tires get worn. Tomorrow we’ll be on a little harder tire, so that will help our situation.”

Marlar started third and took the lead from pole sitter Ricky Thornton Jr. on Lap 14 and led the rest of the way. McCreadie got by for second on Lap 19 and closed on Marlar but had to settle for second.

“It was so slick that I was driving different most laps,” Marlar said. “I probably changed what I was doing six or seven times in 30 laps. I saw (McCreadie) flash under me down there in one and two. After about four or five laps my tires would get a little hot and give up some grip. He was preserving his tires a little better I feel like.”

Thornton finished third, Mark Whitener fourth and Hudson O’Neal fifth. Michael Norris placed ninth and was the highest local finisher for the second consecutive night.

Other local drivers who made the feature were Gregg Satterlee (12th), Jared Miley (14th), Alex Ferree (19th) and John Garvin Jr. (22nd).

There were three cautions in the main event.

McCreadie, the 2019 Firecracker 100 champ and defending Lucas Oil champion, has passed the most cars this weekend. He went from 23rd to eighth Thursday and passed seven cars in Friday’s feature.

“The track has been tough,” McCreadie said. “It’s been way different both nights, and that just shows that our team has done a great job adapting. To hit it both nights and be competitive is all you can ask for.”

Like Thursday, the 54 Lucas entries were split into two groups. Earl Pearson Jr. set fast time in group A at 15.659. Rick Eckert, the 2015 Firecracker 100 champion, was fastest in group B at 16.036.

Thornton Jr. went from third to first to win Heat 1. Marlar took Heat 2 from the pole. Norris led flag to flag to take Heat 3. O’Neal passed Eckert with two laps to go to take Heat 4. Whitener made an impressive charge from seventh, passing Ryan Montgomery for the lead with two laps remaining and went on to win Heat 5. Ashton Winger held off a valiant effort by Garvin, Jr. to win Heat 6.

Ross Robinson, Jimmy Owens and Miley won the three Lucas B-mains.

Defending Firecracker 100 champion Brandon Overton failed to qualify for the main event in one of the biggest surprises of the night. Overton finished third, one spot short of transferring, in the second B-main behind current Lernerville points leader Alex Ferree. Another surprise was three-time Firecracker 100 winner Scott Bloomquist failing to qualify. Bloomquist finished third in the third B-main.

Whitener, Norris, Mike Duritsky, David Pangrazio, Joe Martin and Charlie Sandercock won the six Rush crate late model heat races.

Whitener won the Rush dash and will start on the pole for Saturday’s $20,000-to-win Bill Emig Memorial.

There are nine drivers pulling double duty this weekend between Lucas and Rush.