BUFFALO TWP — Placing seventh in a World of Outlaws event isn't a bad showing.

But for Tim McCreadie, taking the checkered flag feels a whole lot better.

A night after his seventh-place finish, the Watertown, N.Y., resident bested the field in a 30-lap Late Model feature at Lernerville Speedway.

For his effort, McCreadie won $6,000 and is guaranteed a spot in Saturday's 100-lap Firecracker 100.

"It meant a lot for me to just win $6,000," McCreadie said when asked of his chances in Saturday's event. "Hopefully, we put on a good show. It was a nice crowd tonight."

Those fans saw McCreadie start fourth, but by the third lap, he had moved into second place behind Brady Smith of Solon Springs, Wis.

The latter held onto the lead until the 21st lap.

McCreadie took over at that point and never surrendered the lead, with Thursday's winner Josh Richards taking second and Smith coming in third.

All three drivers won their respective heat races.

McCreadie experimented with both the high and low road during the course of the feature.

"The cushion seemed to be good on turns three and four. But after about 10 laps, it seemed to get slower, so I went low," he said. "But it was tough to hustle in the corners. You have to maneuver the car right at that point or you can get into trouble."

It wasn't easy for Smith to take much consolation from finishing third after leading the race for 20 laps.

"It's certainly better than where we finished Thursday night (18th), but I'm not happy," said Smith. "I'm not sure if I had anything to offer Tim near the end tonight.

"Hopefully, we can take what we learned here and have something for these guys tomorrow."

Friday's performance also will give Smith a better starting position in his heat race as he attempts to qualify for the 100-lap event that pays $30,000 to the winner.

As for Richards, he came within a few car lengths of making it two straight wins at the Sarver oval.

He briefly dropped out of the top five early in Friday's race, but Richards stormed back, taking over third place on the 22nd lap and passing Smith for second on the 29th lap.

"By winning here (Thursday), it makes it nice," said Richards. "I don't have to worry about qualifying for the feature. I'm looking forward to it."

The other three heat winners all finished in the top half of the 26-car feature.

Billy Moyer placed fourth, Austin Hubbard was sixth and Doug Horton, a familiar face at Lernerville's Fab Four shows, finished 12th.

Horton, of Bruceton Mills, W.Va., won his heat race despite starting last.

Tim Fuller turned in the night's fastest lap at 15.823 seconds.

Cranberry Township's Lynn Geisler had the fastest lap of any local driver (16.14 seconds, 13th overall), but he didn't make the feature after placing ninth in his heat and 10th in a B-Main.

Saxonburg's Alex Ferree placed fifth in his heat race and just missed making the feature by coming in third in his B-Main.