MCKEAN EDGES LOPEZ FOR MAIN EVENT WIN

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – Jerry McKean and Jerry Rice were main event winners for the Budweiser Grand Nationals and Intermountain Pro Trucks series, while Billi Miles, Alecia Dalton and Jimmy Gross also made trips to Victory Lane last Saturday night at Magic Valley Speedway.

McKean and Louis Lopez battled side-by-side in the Grand Nationals division main event race for 15 laps after a caution at lap10 erased Lopez’ substantial lead in the event. With McKean on the outside lane and Lopez just inches away on the inside, the pair put on a racing skills clinic as they narrowly swapped the lead for the remainder of the race. However, it was McKean who led the most important lap - the final one - crossing the finish line ahead of Lopez by just over a tenth of a second.

“I love it on the outside,” McKean said of taking the high route around the track. “But you could tell when I messed up – because Louis would pull up beside me when I rode the brakes too long – but Louis is such a clean driver, I have no problem racing along side him like that.”

The main event win was McKean’s second of the season.

Jerry Rice also scored his second victory on the year, as the driver of the No. 4 Intermountain Pro Trucks series saw an early opportunity to get out in front and then managed to quickly pull away from the rest of the field throughout the caution-free race.

Kevan Larson, who was in a back-up truck after the No. 88 developed transmission problems, finished second in the main event and Alan Larson, who amazingly made into the event at all after sliding down the front-stretch wall on the truck’s side during a qualifying race, finished seventh.

Rice attributed his win to not only his crew, but to an unfortunate start on the evening.

“My key to victory was my poor qualifying performance,” he said from the winner’s circle.

The trucks must qualify in on time, and then the field is inverted so the faster qualifiers will start toward the back. However, the faster the driver’s qualifying time, the more points they are awarded for the night. Rice had the seventh-fastest time out of a field of 11 trucks.

“There was a new tire rule tonight, they said you had to race on the tires you qualified on – and it kind of messed up our qualifying,” Rice explained. “We’re really trying to work on our qualifying - that’s where all the points are – but the win is always nice - and it pays more money, too.”

Johnny Pierre, who was also involved in the Larson incident, came in forth while Nick Lynch of Burley placed fifth in the next to last event of season for the division at MVS.

NAPA Pony Stocks driver Billi Miles won by a nose over Kevin Grubbs to capture her second main event victory in a row. Grubbs had held the lead the entire event, but Miles, who made her way through the pack from eighth starting position, had her number in the top spot on the scoreboard at the end of the race, timing in ahead of Grubbs by 0.057 seconds.

Alecia Dalton was another driver to check out with their second main event win this season, capturing the Quale’s Electronics Queen Bee race after taking the lead at lap 3. Misty Greco is getting closer to her real goal this season by finishing second, but had to scuffle to do so – taking the position from Amanda Adema with only two laps remaining in the race.

Legends Cars driver Jimmy Gross of Fruitland made the trip to the winner’s circle for the first time in his second visit to MVS, holding off Bill Osoro, who had been communicating his presence to Gross several times in turns one and two by way of his front bumper.

A good size field of 11 cars participated in the main event race, in what was to be their final trip to MVS this season.