BUFFALO TWP — Despite going from big lead to no lead, Dave Murdick wouldn't be denied Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.

The Slippery Rock driver of the No. 61 Modified led the feature by a wide margin for 15 laps before restarts three laps apart shrank his advantage.

Murdick lost the lead to hard-charging and hard-luck driver Del Rougeux Jr. on the 24th lap — only to regain it on the back straightaway of the next and final lap to grab the checkered flag.

"That's the way racing goes sometimes," Murdick said. "It can change with the flip of a switch."

Murdick had built such a big lead that when Don Brown's spin-out created a 16th-lap restart, there were four lapped cars between Murdick and the second-place driver, Dean Pearson of Harrisville.

Mike Turner spun out on Turn 2 three laps later, however, enabling Pearson, Jeremiah Shingledecker and Rougeux to start the 19th lap right behind Murdick. Rougeux got the quick push and vaulted into the lead.

Murdick and Rougeux swapped the advantage on laps 23, 24 and 25.

"I hit my entry line too low (off Turn 2) and that pivoted me out too wide," Rougeux said of the final lap. "That was the difference."

Murdick's win was his career-high fourth in one season at Lernerville. He has 19 feature wins at the Sarver oval, placing him ninth on the track's all-time Modified list.

"We (he and his crew) have gone back to school the past couple of years learning about our new equipment and it's paying off," Murdick said.

Murdick has won five of the eight features he's started with his new car this year.

Rougeux welcomed a second-place finish.

"We've had bad luck before, but never as much as this year," he said. "Everything imaginable has been happening to us, so I'll take this."

In other features:

n Ed Lynch Jr. of Apollo started in the first row and led the Sprint feature from start to finish. It was his fourth win this year and 105th of his career here.

Lynch held off Jack Sodeman Jr., Rod George and Butler's Brian Ellenberger for the win.

"Luck was on our side tonight," Lynch said. "We got good pill draws and the cautions came out at good times for us."

Sodeman said his car was a tenth of a second faster than Lynch's.

"That's not nearly enough to beat him when he's hitting restarts like that," Sodeman said. "Catching Ed Lynch is one thing. Passing him is something totally different."

Ellenberger, who was the pole-sitter, was given 18th as his official final spot — the last car on the lead lap — because he failed to his his car weighed after the race.

• Dave Hess Jr. of Waterford began the night with a 50-point lead in the Late Model standings and widened that gap by winning the feature.

The win marked his fourth of the season at Lernerville. He had consecutive DNF's since his last trip to victory lane here.

"We had a rough couple of weeks with tires, so this one feels pretty good," Hess said.

Doug Eck finished second. Hess passed him on the 22nd lap, denying Eck his first checkered flag at Lernerville since 2004.

• Third-generation driver A.J. Flick of Apollo started 16th in the Sportsman Stock feature and grabbed the lead on a 13th-lap restart. Flick, 17, was looking for his second consecutive win at Lernerville.

He was denied on Turn 4 of the final lap, however, when Bob Egley took the high groove and nipped the low-riding Flick by .029 of a second at the finish line.

Egley's win was his third of the season and first since May 28.

"I found the little bit of traction that was left out there," Egley said. "Everything just fell into place.

"A.J. is an outstanding driver. Everybody in our division is going to have to watch out for that boy."

Notes: There were 77 cars in the pits, including 26 Sprints. ... Sarver's Carl Bowser, who rolled his No. 10 Sprint car onto its side during his heat race, won the B-Main and was seventh in the feature. ... Lernerville hosts Kids Night Tuesday.