BUFFALO TWP — A new car and a clear head did wonders for Carl Bowser.

The Sarver driver of the No. 10 Sprint car had pole position for the feature Friday night at Lernerville Speedway and never surrendered the lead.

In fact, he cruised through lapped traffic and won the race by a half-lap margin over runner up Brian Ellenberger of Butler.

“This was the first night out for this car,” Bowser said. “It felt great. It's batting 1.000 right now.”

Three weeks ago, Bowser was involved in a violent crash at Mercer Raceway, destroying his car. He suffered a concussion in the process.

He was not permitted to race for two weeks. Friday night marked his first racing action since the accident.

“Quite a way to come back,” he said, grinning. “I had no idea where the second-place car was. When you're in the lead like that, you just want to keep turning laps and getting faster.”

A malfunctioning scoreboard was shut off during the features, so Bowser could not keep track of Ellenberger or anybody else.

And Ellenberger could not keep track of him.

“I don't think I ever saw him,” Ellenberger said. “He had to be really good because he just took off.

“For a while there, I thought (Bowser) may have gone to the pits or something, and I had the lead. He just ran away with it.”

Ellenberger started 12th and had won the last two Sprint features at Lernerville.

“My car wasn't all that good tonight,” he said. “I wasn't doing anything coming off Turn 2 and everyone else was firing out of there. My performance on the straightaways kept me in this.”

Kittanning's Rod George spun with a lap to go, enabling Ellenberger to pass him for second.

Bowser's win was his fourth overall at Lernerville and his first checkered flag at any track this year.

In other features:

n Defending track champion Dave Hess Jr,. of Waterford, started the Late Model feature third, grabbed the lead on the second lap and won the race easily.

The victory came on the heels of a Sunday feature win in Erie and made up for a rough Firecracker 100 weekend.

“We got so frustrated with the car that we switched to this one after the B-Main last Saturday night,” Hess said. “This was a dry track tonight and I like it that way.

“As hot as it's been all week and with the sun out when we got here, I felt like the track would come to me and it did.”

Hess has three wins at the Sarver oval this season, 10 for his career.

Sarver's Ken Schaltenbrand finished second.

n Jeremiah Shingledecker of Polk started the Modified feature from the fifth spot and cemented his points lead with a victory. He took the lead from pole-sitter Brian Weaver of Binghamton, N.Y., on the 12th lap.

The race ran wire to wire with no cautions.

“With Dennis starting up front and racing straight through, I figured it was his race,” Shingledecker said. “This was a nice win for us.

“My crew had the car perfect. I couldn't do this without those guys. If I needed to change something on this car, I don't know what it would be.”

Shingledecker's win was his second at Lernerville this season and 12th of his career.

n Seven-time track champion Joe Kelley of Mount Pleasant — who won nine features here last year — grabbed his first checkered flag of 2011 in the Sportsman Stock division.

Kelley started 10th and took the lead from Jim Fosnaught on a 16th-lap restart.

“Jimmy was good tonight,” Kelley said. “If the race goes green all the way to the checkered, he probably would have won.

“We had some tough times early in the season. We have a motor in the car now that's pretty old, but it's pretty faithful.”

Bob Egley started 20th and wound up second in the feature. Kelley is Lernerville's all-time Sportsman Stock feature winner with 43.

Notes: There were 77 cars in the pits. ... Brian Swartzlander, the track's all-time Modified win leader, incurred motor problems during his heat race and did not run in the feature. ... Two Sprint drivers making their Lernerville debuts this season — Dennis Wagner of Pulaski and Adam Anderson of Meadville — flipped their cars in a heat race and during fast laps, respectively. Neither was injured ...Chicora's Mike Miller won his fifth heat race of the year, tying Shingledecker for the track lead in that department.