BUFFALO TWP — Wire to wire wins in racing can be considered somewhat boring.

Not on this night.

Sarver's Carl Bowser (Sprints), Bear Lake's Chub Frank (Late Models) and Slippery Rock's Dave Murdick (Modifieds) led their respective feature races throughout Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.

But none of them snoozed his way to the checkered flag.

Bowser started on the pole in the Sprint feature and held off fellow front-row sitter Kevin Schaeffer all the way to the finish line. Bowser's most harrowing moment occurred as the race's lone caution flag came out.

Adam Miller's No. 24 car spun out on top of the groove between turns 3 and 4 on the 17th lap. Bowser was riding that high groove coming around turn 3.

“I saw him sitting there, but I had committed to that high line and there was no going back,” Bowser said. “I came pretty close to him ... missed him by maybe a foot or so.”

While Bowser didn't need that yellow flag, Schaeffer wasn't crazy about seeing it, either.

“His car was faster than mine, so the restart wasn't gonna help me,” the Kittanning driver said. “While we were going green, I felt I was gaining some ground.

“Carl did a good job. He didn't make any mistakes.”

Bowser had experimented with a new chassis the first three weeks of the season and had just an eighth-place finish to showfor it.

The track's defending points champion decided to bring back the car that brought him that title.

“We just haven't been able to figure the other one out yet,” Bowser said. “We'll bring it out again later in the summer and try again.

“As he was pushing me to the starting blocks, Dad (Terry Bowser) told me this was my race to lose. He was right.”

Frank picked up his 15th career Late Model win at Lernerville, but had to hold off hard-charging Alex Ferree of Saxonburg the whole way. Frank started in the front row while Ferree started fourth.

With Ferree threatening to take the lead off Turn 2 of the final lap, Frank deftly split his way through two lapped cars and picked up the victory.

“I like traffic. It's fun here,” Frank said. “On this track, you can race three, even four-wide. Down south, racing side-by-side with someone is the best you can hope for.

“I didn't know where Alex was on the track. I just knew I had to hold my line.”

Murdick held off New Brighton's Kevin Bolland to win the Modified feature. Bolland started 10th, but moved into second place by passing two cars on a 13th-lap restart.

Bolland actually passed Murdick on a 21st-lap restart, but then fifth-place car Dean Pearson spun on the front straightaway, forcing a repeat restart.

This time, Murdick took the middle groove away from Bolland and got the win.

“Once you show your cards, a good driver is gonna take it away if he gets the chance,” Bolland said.

“No one's better on restarts than Kevin,” Murdick said. “I figured he'd try that bonzai move, sliding down low, and he did.

“He took a similar lane away from me a couple of weeks ago. It's all part of racing.”

Murdick's win was his 24th at Lernerville. Butler's Steve Feder started third and stayed on Murdick's rear bumper until Feder's car broke after 12 laps.

“Steve has a new car and he's running much better this year,” Murdick said. “I'm not surprised he was doing that well.”

Chicora's Mike Miller, defending Sportsman Stock points champion, secured his first feature win of the season Friday. Corey McPherson passed him on a 12th-lap restart, but Miller regained the lead on Turn 2 of the 14th lap.

“This was a good race,” Miller said. “I feel like we're back on the right track. We were struggling there for a while.”

Notes: There were 83 cars in the pits. ... After winning heat races in each of the season's first three weeks at Lernerville, Evans Citys Brandon Spithaler bowed out of his heat Friday with mechanical problems. He came back to win the B-Main. ... Mike Turner of Herman won his heat race, then finished fourth in the Modified feature for his first top-5 of the year.