BULLS GAP, Tenn. – The National Weather Service predicted hot temperatures in the 90s Saturday around East Tennessee, and the action was also heated on the legendary high banks at Volunteer Speedway as yet another big crowd packed the grandstands for the American Crate All-Star Series presented by PPM Food City 40.

Ross White, the 2017 Crate Late Model track champion at Volunteer Speedway,” powered around early race leader Andy Ogle on lap 12 and once out front never looked back en route to capturing the $2,000 Food City 40 victory.

Chris Coffey led flag-to-flag in winning the Sportsman Late Model feature, while Kaleb Trent captured his first-ever Modified Street victory.

John Stevens sped to yet another Classic victory, while Austin Atkins grabbed the Street Stock win and John Byers took the Mini Stock victory.

Andy Ogle was fastest in American Crate All-Star Series qualifying at 13.883 seconds to narrowly edge out Ross White’s quick lap of 13.889.

The Quick 6 Dash determined starting positions for the first three rows. Ogle recorded the win over White, Tim Byrd, Heath Alvey, Rusty Ballenger and Zach Sise. Trevor Sise and Eli Beets each picked up heat race wins.

Ogle and White raced side-by-side down the front straightaway into the first turn on the opening lap, with Ogle powering into the lead as they sped off turn two down the backstretch, followed by Byrd, Alvey and Trevor Sise. The action that followed involving Rusty Ballenger, Zach Sise, Beets, Clay Coghlan, Tyler Arrington, Adam Ahl, Blake Craft and Aaron Guinn was well worth the price of admission as they battled two- and three-wide in the high-banked turns.

Ogle was being pressured for the lead by White, while Byrd was sticking his nose underneath White in the corners looking for an opening. White got alongside Ogle on lap 12 before taking the lead, leaving Ogle to try hold off advances from three-time Crate Late Model track champion Byrd.

Once out front White quickly began putting some distance between his car and closest challengers Ogle and Byrd. While positions back through the top 10 in the running order changed as the laps clicked off, White was in command out front as he cruised to his first American Crate All-Star Series victory over Ogle, Byrd, Ballenger and Trevor Sise.

Completing the top 10 finishers were Ahl, Craft, Arrington, Guinn and Alvey.

Jesse Helton was fastest in Sportsman Late Model qualifying at 14.118 seconds to earn the pole position for the 25-lap feature. Helton and Chris Coffey led the 19-car field to green from the front row and battled on the opening lap before Coffey grabbed the lead over Helton and Adam Mitchell.

Helton, a two-time winner this season was glued to Coffey’s rear bumper through the first half of the race before Coffey began to gradually pull away. Coffey hit his marks lap-after-lap and never gave Helton an opportunity to close back in as he captured his second victory in 2019 over Helton, Mitchell, Vic Chandler and Joshua Sneed.

When a driver first straps on the helmet and tightens the belts, the dream is to someday park in victory lane and celebrate. They say that dreams do come true when you aim for the shooting star, and Kaleb Trent was indeed shinning brightly as he drove to an impressive flag-to-flag win in the 20-lap Modified Street feature for his first-ever victory. Trent was chased to the checkered flag by defending division champion Gary Blanken, David Clark, Dustin Ratliff and Kurt Owens.

John Stevens definitely has the bull’s-eye across his back in the Classic division, but yet none of his fellow competitors have been able to hit the target and shoot him down. Stevens rolled to his division-leading eighth feature win over Charles Bates, Richie Overholser, Chuck Kilian and Chad Manning.

Austin Atkins outran Tony Trent, Jason Rollins, Marvin Green Jr. and Dan Smith to capture his fourth Street Stock win on the season.

John Byers grabbed the lead at start of the 20-lap Mini Stock feature and sped to his second straight win over Chad Manning, Mitchell Fox, Greg Everhart and Richard Allen.

HARRIS, N.C. – Steve Surniak posted his third straight TriboDyn Lubricants Carolina Sprint Tour feature triumph on Saturday at Harris Speedway.

It marked the first time the series has returned to a track this season. Surniak, who is the defending series champion, also became the first three-time winner of the season for the series as he has captured a victory during each of the last three weekends.

Chaz Woodward recorded a runner-up result with points leader Jake Karklin rounding out the podium to extend his lead in the championship standings. Daniel Oliver earned a fourth-place finish and Sean Vardell scored a fifth-place result.

The next race for the series is Aug. 24 at Sumter Speedway in Sumter, S.C.

The finish:

Steve Surniak, Chaz Woodward, Jake Karklin, Daniel Oliver, Sean Vardell, John Karklin, Shawn Mott, Ben McCall, Brandon McLain, Mike Sellers, Frank Peters, Nate Emig, Bobby Courtwright, Sonny Stroud.

ROCK SPRINGS, Wyo. – Becoming the 34th driver to lay claim to victory with the Brodix ASCS Frontier Region, Chauncey Filler finally took home the winner’s check at Sweetwater Speedway on Saturday night.

Racing to the green from the front row, Filler chased third starting, Jeremy McCune, the opening four revolutions before McCune’s night was cut short. Unable to avoid the spinning No. 56 of Butch Capshaw who spun in front of the No. 0j, Jeremy was tagged by the No. 88 of Travis Reber, who likewise had nowhere to go. Travis was able to continue.

Taking command of the field, Filler had smoothing sailing until the final lap.

Under siege from the Pirate Motorsports No. 77 of Damon McCune, the run from 11th put the Montana shoe all over Filler for the lead in turns one and two. A drag race off the second turn, the pair split rank into the final two turns with McCune taking the hub. Blocked by a slower car, the move left the top wide open with Filler racing to the line .368 seconds ahead of McCune.

Posting his best finish of the season, Shad Petersen placed third with Robert DeHaan and Willie Hernandez Jr. completing the top five.

The finish:

1. 74-Chauncey Filler, [2]; 2. 77-Damon McCune, [11]; 3. 2-Shad Petersen, [1]; 4. 33-Robert DeHaan, [4]; 5. 1M-Willie Hernandez Jr, [5]; 6. 86-Zac Taylor, [6]; 7. 8-Randy Dolberg, [10]; 8. 11-Mindy McCune, [14]; 9. 2X-Mike Manwill, [7]; 10. 88-Travis Reber, [8]; 11. 65-T.J. Thorne, [9]; 12. 5C-Channing Filler, [13]; 13. 00B-Michael Bingham, [12]; 14. 0J-Jeremy McCune, [3]; 15. 56-Butch Capshaw, [15]

BECHTELSVILLE, Pa. – Duane Howard collected a hefty $10,000 payday when he took the checkered in his third Forrest Rogers Memorial 50-lap modified feature victory on Saturday night at Grandview Speedway.

It was close for the five-time champion when Jeff Strunk regrouped the field when he slowed in turn four with a flat right rear tire bringing out the caution with five laps remaining in the 49th annual Rogers Memorial.

Despite a single file restart, runner-up Frank Cozze, who has been struggling this season, was all over Howard giving him a run for the big bucks. At one point Cozze nudged ahead coming off of the fourth turn, but when the lap counted it was Howard in front as the side-by-side action created some paint swapping.

Howard was determined to keep the Norm’s Save Station Bicknell No. 357 mount prepared by the hard working crew ahead in front and he went on to chalk up his fourth win of the season at the third-mile banked clay oval.

Howard was honored to win the 49th running of the special event named in honor of track founder Forrest Rogers as he has high praise for the entire Rogers family.

In the Modified feature polesitter and rookie driver Richie Hitzler took the early lead and set the pace for 11 laps until Ryan Lilick powered into first leaving Howard, coming from the 16th starting grid; Steve Swinehart, Hitzler, who fell back, and Kenny Gilmore jockey for the remaining top five positions.

The lead was swapped for the third time when Howard put the Carroll Hine powered mount into the lead on the 15th circuit.

It didn’t take Howard long to distance himself from his fellow competitors and with 23 laps in the books, he was upon the lap traffic and had to use heads up driving skills to pass them as he realized they were racing for positions also.

Meanwhile as Howard continued his torrid pace the action behind him was hot and heavy between Lilick, K. Gilmore, Cozze and Brett Kressley. Attempting to get into the mix were Kevin Hirthler and Craig Von Dohren, who had to qualify through one of the two consolation races and start 25th.

Gilmore overtook second on the 37th lap and set sail after Howard who had a huge lead built up with Cozze, Kressley and Von Dohren in tow.

Former Rogers Memorial winner Strunk brought out the caution late in the race with a flat tire and after a quick pit stop rejoined the action and was able to muster up a 12th place finish. The single file restart lined up – Howard, Cozze, Gilmore, Von Dohren and Kressley. When action went green again Cozze gave Howard no margin to err as he was right on his bumper.

The pair raced door handle-to door handle and it appeared Cozze would put the Tom Umbenhauer-owned car in the lead as he edged ahead slightly, but Howard denied him that chance as he dove underneath out of four to keep the lead when the lap counted. Howard stayed in control and pulled into the winner’s circle to claim the win.

Chasing him across the line were Cozze, for his season best finish; Von Dohren, coming on strong in the end; Gilmore, who also posted his best run and Kressley. Rounding out the top ten were Hirthler, Jared Umbenhauer, Lilick, Doug Manmiller, another one that had to get into the race through the consi, and Steve Swinehart.

Steve Young won his first feature of the year which was his second career TP Truck Equipment NASCAR 25-lap Sportsman feature leading the event from start to finish.

MORRISON, Colo. – Scott Oksas started his Pro Mod career 10 years ago with the hopes of putting together a competitive program.

A decade later, he now has a win for the ages.

The Los Angeles-area native benefitted from some first-round luck against Stevie Jackson and then rode a string of three straight incredible runs in his turbocharged RJ Race Cars Ford Shelby Mustang.

That included a event-winning blast of 5.882-seconds at 247.38 mph in the final round against Doug Winters to claim victory at the third annual Drag Illustrated World Series of Pro Mod presented by J&A Service, Elite Motorsports, Big O Tires and benefiting One Cure Saturday at Bandimere Speedway.

With that comes a $100,000 check, a WSOPM championship belt and, by far, the biggest moment of Oksas’ Pro Mod career.

“It’s just pure excitement,” Oksas said. “This is just giant. I’ve busted my ass for 10 years doing this Pro Mod stuff, I’ve worked so hard and I can’t believe I’m standing here, I really can’t. To win this, it’s always been a passion of mine to win something like this. I can’t even describe it. It’s just overwhelming, it’s crazy.”

Oksas and his team were full of excitement in the winner’s circle on Thunder Mountain, celebrating a moment he never expected when he made his WSOPM debut a year ago.

Since then, Jeff Pierce came on board as the tuner and the progress with the Mustang, which was delivered just weeks before the race last year, has been remarkable. Oksas ran between 5.86-5.88 over the final three rounds, outrunning Winters and his blown ’69 Chevelle in the winner-take-all round.

Oksas and Winters posted identical .053 reaction times, but it didn’t take long for the Mustang to pull away. Once Oksas saw the win light, the celebration was on as the veteran excitedly yelled, “I just won $100,000” several times in the car before it stopped.

“I knew I was going to be ready. We had been pulling in and lighting the beam first all night and we had a gameplan with everybody,” Oksas said. “Jeff said just keep doing our thing and we just did our thing.

“I don’t panic anymore and the run was dead straight. I saw him next to me and at the 330 I just started to pull away. I knew he wasn’t catching this turbo car.”

Oksas figured it might have been his night after slipping past Jackson, the NHRA Pro Mod points leader, in the first round after Jackson went red by .020. That threw away a 5.932 – the quickest run ever by a blower car in Denver – and handed the victory to Oksas, who went 6.071.

“That guy is a world-class racer and that was the most scared I’ve ever been in my car,” Oksas said. “But after that it was just sweetness. He red-lit and I knew after that we were going to do our thing and win this thing.

“That was my lucky pass of the day and I needed that. Then, Jeff took over and he literally didn’t touch it from that pass in. It was crazy. He said, ‘We’ve got a hot rod. Go send it.’ I told him no problem.”

From there, it was game on and Oksas and his Mustang delivered one massive blow after another. He went a blistering 5.863 at 247.57 to beat Rick Snavely in the second round, topping Rick Hord in the semifinals with a 5.872 at 247.79.

That set up the meeting with Winters, who went 6.012 at 231.56 to beat Terry Haddock in the opening round. Winters had byes in the next two rounds after defending champ Carl Stevens Jr. broke and couldn’t make the second round call, but nobody could match Oksas’ pace.

“We said, ‘Let them come beat us,’” Oksas said. “You can’t ask for anything better than how we ran. It’s just a tribute to Jeff and this entire team.”

After a great -- and inspirational -- season on the ice, there was one save that Robin Lehner couldn't make.

Lehner on Saturday tweeted that he received his Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy, which is awarded to the NHL player who "best exemplifies the qualities of perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey."

One problem ... the inscription on the trophy said "Robin Lehner, New York Rangers." Lehner played for the New York Islanders last season.

You had one job...? pic.twitter.com/fmzYQWKuFf

— Robin Lehner (@RobinLehner) August 10, 2019

Lehner was presented the trophy on June 19 at the NHL Awards show in Las Vegas. He has since signed a one-year, $5 million deal with the Chicago Blackhawks.

In September, Lehner publicly revealed his battle with bipolar disorder and substance abuse in a first-person essay for The Athletic. He detailed an in-game panic attack and a night of drinking while with the Buffalo Sabres in March 2018 and how it led him to seek treatment.

He went to rehab where he says he was treated for addictions to alcohol and drugs and diagnosed as bipolar and ADHD with PTSD and trauma as well as having manic phases.

He then signed with the Islanders and had a breakout season -- going 25-13-5 with a 2.13 GAA, .930 save percentage and 6 shutouts. He finished third in voting for the Vezina Trophy, given to the NHL's top goaltender.

ESPN's Emily Kaplan contributed to this report.