The points leader wrecked. The race leader wrecked.
It was anything but a perfect night of World of Outlaws Late Model racing during the tour’s first of two Bristol Motor Speedway features for the weekend.
But if anything, it was bad fast, and the man to conquer the speed was Josh Richards.
The driver of the No. 14 Clint Bowyer car earned his 78th-career series victory, the best in the tour’s history despite racing primarily in the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series since he left the Rocket1 car.
He blew away the field on every restart where he started out front.
That’s not to say it wasn’t an eventful night, though.
Series points leader, well now formerly, Kyle Strickler started off the night by setting the track record in qualifying, however after weighing in light on the scales, was forced to start from the back of the field at the start of the feature.
While fighting to stay on the lead lap, Strickler had a tire go down and collected Jimmy Owens from the race lead in the process of stuffing the car into the fence.
That’s when Richards inherited the lead.
Halfway through the 40-lap main event, Outlaws power Cade Dillard saw a tire go down as well.
During his interview on DirtVision, Dillard said, “Our cars weren’t built to go this fast.”
Nonetheless, a plethora of them finished, with Chris Madden and Brandon Sheppard joining Richards on the podium.
Sheppard’s third-place finish means that the defending champion will inherit the points lead going into Saturday night’s Bristol Bash Finale. Hot laps are scheduled for 4:00 p.m. CT and the action, as always, can be seen live on DirtVision
World of Outlaws Late Models Results
Bristol Bash Night 1
1. Josh Richards
2. Chris Madden
3. Brandon Sheppard
4. Rick Eckert
5. Brandon Overton
6. Ryan Gustin
7. Darrell Lanigan
8. Kyle Bronson
9. Ricky Thornton Jr.
10. Devin Moran
11. Jonathan Davenport
12. Tyler Bruening
13. Dennis Erb Jr.
14. Scott Bloomquist
15. Ross Bailes
16. Ricky Weiss
17. Shane Clanton
18. Boom Briggs
19. Parker Martin
20. Jared Landers
21. Brent Larson
22. Cade Dillard
23. Jimmy Owens
24. Kyle Strickler
25. Ross Robinson
