VANDERHAM TOPS OFF CHAMPIONSHIP WITH WIN AT MVS

TWIN FALLS, Idaho — Intermountain Pro Trucks driver Kenny Vanderham wrapped up the season in a big way, topping off his second championship with a main event win Saturday night at Magic Valley Speedway.

Early in the 75-lap main event race Lou Andersen, who was participating in the series after an absence in several of the previous events, looked to have the dominate truck of the night. Vanderham, knowing he had the championship in bag, seemed to be comfortable with his mid-pack location. As the race moved along however, it was evident Vanderham had been just patiently waiting to make his moves and drove into the third position by lap 40.

One lap later the yellow lights were displayed when the trucks of Kent Jensen and Beau Newhouse collided on the backstretch. A lap after the restart Vanderham moved into second and had just taken the lead when another caution came out at lap 47. Vanderham had no troubles pulling away from the field until Stevie Fisher, driving the No. 8 truck worked his way in behind him.

An additional restart 12 laps later had Fisher giving Vanderham his toughest challenge of the night, but he was able to shake Fisher off in the final laps to take the win.

"We thought about kind-of hanging back and not pushing it too hard tonight," Vanderham said. "But really I wanted to win. Our strategy tonight was just to lay back and be patient. We knew we had a truck we could probably win with, so we thought we would just sit back and let about half the race get over with – make a pass now and then when we needed to - and work our way up there."

Ty Sharp captured rookie of the year honor in the series along with a fourth place finish on the night.

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Not much daylight could be seen between the cars of Jerry McKean and Jonathon Gomez as they rounded the track door-to-door for the final laps of the main event race. At the finish line however it was Gomez who was able to edge out the win, but by a stingy .036 seconds.

McKean had taken hold of the lead at lap four from Willie Dalton but Gomez and Kris McKean both were eager to challenge him for the position. A caution at lap 12 cued the Jerry McKean – Gomez side-by-side duel, while Kris McKean waited for an opportunity to open up in front of him. Neither Jerry McKean in the lower groove nor Gomez had any intention of letting up as the battle continued to the checkered flag, but it was Gomez once again who was able to pull into Victory Lane.