BUFFALO TWP - A victory lap after finishing second?

Gary Rankin didn't care. The veteran Sprint car driver from Renfrew took one after finishing runner-up to Ed Lynch Jr. in the feature Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.

"That's the same as a win as far as I'm concerned," Rankin said. "Finishing second behind Ed? I'll take it, especially with the kind of year we've been having."

The second-place finish was the highest of Rankin's racing career. He recently got the motor back in his No. 16 car and has fallen victim to a few flips this season.

Rankin, a Sprint car driver for 11 years, had such misfortune early in the year that his crew put the words "Driver Crash" on the side of his car.

While Lynch started on the outside pole and cruised to victory by nearly half a lap, Rankin battled hard to hold off Jody Keegan of Fremont, Ohio, for the second spot.

"There were a couple of times he was right beside me," Rankin said of Keegan. "I couldn't let him get by because if I did, I wasn't gonna get that spot back."

Rankin's daughter, 10-year-old Bobbi, wore her football shoulder pads in the stands while watching her father race. She is playing Midget football for Meridian this year and she picked up her shoulder pads earlier in the day.

"She's excited about playing football and really wanted to wear them … Maybe I'll have her wear them next week, too," Rankin said.

Lynch won his ninth Sprint feature of the season at Lernerville - his career-best year here - and his 73rd Sprint feature overall at the Sarver track.

The driver of the No. 2L had no problem with Rankin's victory lap.

"I'm happy for him," Lynch said. "He's felt a little down in the dumps of late. This run tonight should really pick him up."

Lynch has won 24 Lernerville Sprint features over the past three years - including eight last season - and will be competing at the Knoxville Nationals next weekend.

In other Lernerville action Friday:

Tom Winkle of Mars won the Syracuse Nationals qualifying race in the Modified feature, starting on the pole and holding off Dave Murdick for the victory.

The win was Winkle's second of the season here and fifth of his career.

"The car started pushing on me after the first yellow," Winkle said. "We had some new tires on there and that might have been causing the problem."

Murdick started fifth and was in third by a 10th-lap restart. He jumped up to second when he noticed a bearing had come off the rear of Mark Flick's No. 152 car. Flick was running second at the time.

Flick went to the pits and Murdick inherited the second-place spot.

"I'm grateful to Dave for noticing that," Flick said. "There were a lot of laps left and I could have really done some damage to the car. He saved me a lot of money."

Murdick chased Winkle through lap traffic during the final five laps, but couldn't catch him.

Bidding for his first Modified points title, Murdick entered the night with a 20-point lead on Jim Weller Jr., who finished fourth.

"I gained a little bit in the points race and I'm happy about that," he said.

John Flinner of Zelienople, bidding for his fourth consecutive Late Model points title, took a huge step in that direction by winning a crash-filled feature.

Three red lights came out within the first five laps. David Scott hit the wall and flipped his No. 3D during the first lap, while Dan Swartzlander rolled his car off the fourth turn of the fourth lap.

Lynn Geisler and Tom Kitchen - both contending for the lead at the time - hit the wall and tumbled during the fifth lap. None of the drivers were injured.

Flinner started 11th, took the lead on the seventh lap and held it from there.

"The attrition helped," Flinner admitted. "I can't say I avoided everything. I was just happy to get to the finish line with all of the parts still hanging on the car."

Flinner won his third feature of the year here and only his fourth overall this season. He has 33 career wins at Lernerville and began the night with a 29-point lead over Gary Lyle, who finished second.

"It has been a strange year," Flinner said. "We're running in cycles. One week we're good, the next we're bad. And when it's been bad, it's been very bad."

Rob Shook of Creighton won his third Pure Stock feature of the season, swapping the lead with Joe Kelley twice before securing it for good on the 11th lap.

Shook started 10th, but grabbed his first lead on the fourth lap.

"That was one heckuva race," he said. "On that last lap, I was just concentrating on hitting my marks because I knew Joe was right there."

Notes:

There were 110 cars in the pits. … Late Model driver Ron Davies, who finished no worse than second in his five previous Lernerville appearances this year, broke during his heat race and did not return. … There were two hard-chargers Friday: Ralph Spithaler of Evans City came from the B-Main to finish fifth in the Sprint feature. Keith Zimmerman of Titusville started 21st and finished third in the Late Model feature. … The World of Outlaws Late Model series comes to Lernerville next Friday.