Lowe Goes Flag-to-Flag at Martinsville in Statement Victory

Ridgeway, VA — James Lowe left no doubt at Martinsville Speedway, delivering a commanding wire-to-wire performance to win Round 2 of the Bootleg Racing League Late Model Invitational Series. The two-time defending champion led all 100 laps on the Virginia paperclip, turning a frustrating season opener into a definitive redemption drive during the January 24 broadcast on the Virtual Grip Network.

Martinsville’s starting grid, set by an invert of the top 13 finishers from the opener, placed Lowe on the pole after his 13th-place result the week prior. What initially felt like a cruel twist of fate became an opportunity, and Lowe made full use of clean air from the drop of the green flag. Sharing the front row with Jeffery Hardin, Low immediately established control, settling into a rhythm that proved untouchable under the league’s tire-conservation rules, which required drivers to finish on their starting rubber without fast repairs.

While Lowe checked out early, the battle behind him was anything but calm. Martinsville’s narrow corners and shifting pavement-to-concrete transitions made the preferred bottom lane fiercely contested. Early incidents stacked the field up, including a multi-car tangle involving Mark Hertzog, Chris Haizlip, and Chris Davis, while Steve Hilbert endured a rough night after repeated contact with the outside wall gradually sent him sliding down the order. Through it all, Lowe remained insulated from the chaos, clicking off consistent laps and maintaining a steady gap.

The primary threat emerged from rookie Chris Worrell, who rebounded from his heartbreaking near-win in the opener with another impressive charge. Worrell moved forward with patience, slipping past Ed Foster and eventually into second place by the middle portion of the race. For a time, it appeared he was saving his equipment for a late push, but a brush with the wall around lap 80 damaged his right front and took the edge off his car. From there, Worrell shifted into survival mode, focusing on holding position rather than chasing the leader.

That opened the door for Hardin, whose bright, unmistakable car steadily closed in during the final run. Hardin’s tire management paid dividends late, as he reeled in Worrell over the closing laps, but the clock ran out before he could complete the pass. Up front, Lowe never broke stride, calmly managing the gap and cruising to the checkered flag without ever being seriously challenged.

Behind the podium finishers, the race told several quieter stories. Ed Foster brought his car home fourth, followed by Brennan Myers in fifth. Davis rebounded from early trouble to post one of the strongest recovery drives of the night, while Adam Schoen and Rubin Altice stayed clean to secure solid top-ten results. Lowell Jewell overcame early adversity to finish inside the top ten as well, and defending champion Kurt Smith quietly climbed forward from a deep starting spot to limit the damage in the standings.

Despite leading every lap, Lowe did not leave Martinsville atop the points due to his difficult opener, keeping the championship picture tight as the series heads next to Five Flags Speedway. With Joe Segalla set to inherit the pole via the invert, Martinsville served as a reminder that while strategy and circumstances matter, outright control still wins races—and on this night, James Lowe had all of it.