BUFFALO TWP — Brian Swartzlander arrived at Lernerville Speedway with little room for error in the Modified points standings.

He left on the verge of his seventh track championship.

Swartzlander worked his way up from a ninth-place starting position, took the lead from Jeremiah Shingledecker with five laps to go and held on for his second consecutive Modified feature win and fourth of the season.

Meanwhile, Slippery Rock native Dave Murdick, who entered Friday 12 points behind Swartzlander for the points lead, suffered from reported radiator problems and finished in 13th place.

Unofficially, Swartzlander holds a 29-point advantage over defending track champion Shingledecker and has a 30-point cushion on Murdick heading into next week's final points race of the season.

A driver cannot earn more than 40 points in one night, leaving the Leechburg driver in prime position to claim the title.

“That's a big win for us,” said Swartzlander. “We wanted to come out here tonight and just stay where we were at and not lose any points.

“I don't know what happened to Davey, but I knew I was ahead of him and that was good,” he added. “Then we had a shot at winning it, so that was even better. The car was good. It was just a good night.”

It was also a good night for Eric Williams, who broke through for his first Sprint feature triumph of the season.

Williams, a Greenville native, snagged the lead on the sixth lap and maintained the advantage until Rod George overtook him on Lap 12.

However, it was a short-lived lead, as Williams burst ahead on the 14th lap on his way to the checkered flag.

“They made me work for it,” said Williams. “I thought Rod would go away and he wouldn't, so I just kept hitting that cushion to hopefully get the car going forward and it seemed to work.”

Williams admitted he might have received an assist from the drivers out of contention.

“I got lucky there with the lapped traffic at the end,” Williams explained. “I think (George) got squeezed behind some of them.”

Nothing has been able to slow down Jared Miley in the Late Models division. The South Park driver clinched the points title after last week's rainout, but that didn't stop him from picking up his sixth feature win of the season.

Garrett Krummert led the way for the first 13 laps of the race, but found some trouble in the cushion and was forced to head for the pits. Miley took over the top spot and never let go.

Heading on vacation next week, it was a fitting way for Miley to end a dominant season. In 13 features, he never finished outside of the top four.

“This was the last night here for points racing. Next weekend, I'll be on vacation, so it was a good way to end the season,” said Miley. “We'll be back for the (Steel City) Stampede in October.”

It's the first track championship for Miley, who entered the night with an insurmountable 84-point advantage on John Garvin Jr.

“It felt good to come back and be real consistent and win the championship,” said Miley. “We actually ended up second the last two years here after missing a few nights.

“It was just a good, consistent year,” he added. “You can't ask for much better.”

AJ Flick ended Friday's racing with a wire-to-wire victory in the 20-lap Sportsman feature. It marked his second feature win of the season.

“Honestly, I truly don't like starting up front,” said Flick. “I never know where to run, truthfully, because you gauge it off other cars and how fast they are, but it worked out.”

Notes: There was a total of 72 cars in the pits. ... Sportsman points leader Corey McPherson finished third, while his closest competitor Jim Fosnaught took fifth. McPherson unofficially owns a 27-point lead with one race remaining. ... The closest points race is in the Sprint division, where Kevin Schaeffer — who finished fifth Friday — has a 16-point edge on George.