By John Rittenoure

DODGE CITY, Kans. (July 19, 2008) – Seventeen year old Koby Barksdale put on a driving clinic Saturday at Dodge City Raceway Park coming from seventh row outside to win the O'Reilly NCRA Sprint Series feature presented by ICM/Ethanol.
Barksdale, who is currently leading the race for Rookie of the Year honors, moved to the cushion midway through the 30-lap event and rocketed into the top five with ten laps remaining. With five laps remaining Barksdale quickly reeled in leader Gavin Punch and flew by on the outside and raced to his first career NCRA victory.

Barksdale had to outrun some heavy hitters such as past champions C.J. Johnson and Mike Peters on his way to the front.
"I like running up there," said Barksdale of his high line run to the front. "I saw some of the guys bouncing around on the bottom. I was confident on what I was doing."
When the green flag dropped on the 30-lapper points leader Peters charged around Cody Forshee into the early lead and immediately started stretching it out with Punch giving chase. When lapped traffic slowed Peters midway through the race Punch quickly caught up and dived under Peters in turn one for the lead. Punch pulled away and looked like he might pick up his first victory as Luke Cranston passed Peters for second.
With the laps winding down Barksdale suddenly appeared in fifth position and was passing everyone like they were standing still. The young rookie moved into second then made easy work of Punch for the win. Johnson got around Punch on the final lap to finish second. Peters finished fourth and J.D. Johnson rounded out the top five.

O'Reilly Finish Line 

HEAT 1 - 1, Cody Forshee. 2, Luke Cranston. 3, C.J. Johnson. 4, Mike chadd. 5, Don Droud, Jr. 6, Rick England. 7, Jon Freeman. 8, Roger Sundquist. 9, Mark Walinder.

HEAT 2 - 1, Mike Peters. 2, Kerry McAlister. 3, Derek Drown. 4, Scott Cochran. 5, Koby Barksdale. 6, David Wheeler. 7, J.D. Johnson. 8, Tyler Knight. 9, Steve Richardson.

HEAT 3 - 1, Gavin Punch. 2, A.J. Selenke. 3, Marc Robe. 4, Joe McCarthy. 5, Corey Moore. 6, Richie Dewell. 7, Alan Herbert. 8, Brian Herbert.

B FEATURE - 1, Don Droud, Jr. 2, Koby Barksdale. 3, David Wheeler. 4, J.D. Johnson. 5, Jon Freeman. 6, Brian Herbert. 7, Rick England. 8, Steve Richardson. 9, Tyler Knight. 10, Richie Dewell. 11, Roger Sundquist. 12, Corey Moore. 13, Mark Walinder. 14, Alan Herbert.

A FEATURE - 1, Koby Barksdale. 2, C.J. Johnson. 3, Gavin Punch. 4, Mike Peters. 5, J.D. Johnson. 6, Kerry McAlister. 7, Derek Drown. 8, Jon Freeman. 9, Brian Herbert. 10, Cody Forshee. 11, Scott Cochran. 12, David Wheeler. 13, Steven Richardson. 14, Rick England. 15, Luke Cranston. 16, Joe McCarthy. 17, Don Droud, Jr. 18, Mike Chadd. 19, Marc Robe. 20, A.J. Selenke.