BUFFALO TWP — Big money was too much for Rex King to pass up.

It takes King more than two hours to drive from his Bristolville, Ohio, home to Lernerville Speedway. It's a journey he makes infrequently during the summer.

Butwith more than $2,000 on the line in the Joe Pitkavish Memorial Modified race, King made the journey to Western Pennsylvania.

It was worth the trip.

King won a race that saw four lead changes. But King led at the two most important laps of the 30-lap feature: the 15th and the final lap.

Leading at the halfway points netted him $1,000. Winning the race earned him more than $1,000.

"Wow," King said. "That's good, huh."

It was very good for King, who deftly maneuvered around Lernerville veteran Brian Swartzlander on the 26th lap after falling behind the Leechburg native on the 22nd lap and held him off.

"I guess I learned a little bit from Brian when he went past me on the bottom," King said. "I watched his line a little while and when I got a chance to get up and around him, I went down to where he was."

King had a scary moment when his son, Russell, flipped and rolled his car several times on the third turn of lap 26.

The car came to a rest on its side. Russell King was unharmed.

"I always look to see if it's one of my boys," Rex King said. "These are pretty safe, these Modifieds. You always have a fear it is your son, but you have that gut instinct he's OK regardless.

"He's fine. He's running around here eating pizza, so he's OK."

Things did not end OK for Tom Winkle.

He led the race for the first 12 laps, then slipped back to fourth before he suffered mechanical problems on the back straightaway of lap 25 and had to exit the race.

King didn't have time to do much celebrating. He and his two sons who raced at Lernerville Friday night, Russell and Rex Jr., had to go to work at the concrete plant they own at 5 a.m. Saturday.

n The Kittanning Comet is a little faster than the Apollo Rocket.

At least on this Friday.

Rod George, nicknamed the Kittanning Comet, overcame engine trouble and Ed Lynch Jr., aka the Apollo Rocket, to earn his fourth Sprint car win of the season at Lernerville and his 18th at various stops this year.

It wasn't easy, though. There were times George wasn't sure if his Sprint car would hold out as puffs of smoke periodically emerged from his engine during the race.

"Fortunately, we were up front," George said. "We would have never been able to hold it if we didn't start up front."

Lynch started 10th, but slowly crept toward the top as the 25-lap race progressed. But George pulled away on the final three laps after the race's first and only caution forced a restart.

The win left an already muddled Sprint points race even more muddled.

KevinSchaffer came into the night with a one-point lead over Lynch. George was a mere 17 points off the lead and 16 from Lynch.

"This has been a killer year for us," George said. "Hopefully, we can keep it going."

n Rain threatened to end the Pure Stock race early, but Shawn Thorn of Murrysville edged Bob Lipinski of Pittsburgh.

The feature drought continued for Terry Young.

The Butler native won his heat race, but finished fifth in the feature race. Young has won five heat races this season, but no features.

n One driver who is not struggling to win feature races is Alex Ferree.

The Saxonburg native won for the eighth time this season in the Late Model division.

He trailed until lap 19 of the 25-lap feature, pulling ahead of Gary Lyle and keeping the lead for good.

"I thought I was going to let Gary get by me a couple of times," Ferree said. "I was thinking, 'Oh, man, you are not driving real smart here.'"

But Ferree held off Lyle, who ended up placing third behind Jared Miley, who passed Lyle on the final turn of the final lap.

Ferree has a huge lead over Lyle in the points standings and is showing no signs of letting up.

"It's just the way it has been all season," Ferree said. "EverythingI do seems to be the right decision, and I'm getting some breaks.

"That's eight. We'll go for nine next week."

Notes: There were 99 cars in the pits, including 23 Modifieds for the Joe Pitkavish Memorial. ... Of the 23 cars that started the Modified race, only 10 finished. ... On Tuesday, Lernerville will welcome the school bus races and youth night, featuring bicycle races.