UNION, Ky. (July 10) — Earl Pearson Jr. had already gone 17 months without a victory. Waiting a few extra minutes to have his slump-busting triumph ratified Friday night at Florence Speedway was no big deal.

After Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series officials reviewed video footage and checked the location of the transponders on the cars driven by Pearson and Josh Rice — the two drivers involved in a thrilling photo finish — the veteran from Jacksonville, Fla., was finally declared the winner of the 50-lap feature that opened the General Tire Summer Sizzler Nationals presented by E3 Spark Plugs.

Pearson’s official margin of victory over Verona, Ky.’s Rice? A mere 0.002 of a second.

Pearson, 48, spent virtually the entire second half of the race chasing the 21-year-old Rice, who assumed command after early pacesetters Jonathan Davenport of Blairsville, Ga., and Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., saw their bids end in separate lap-27 incidents. The four-time Lucas Oil Series champion caught Rice in traffic with less than five laps remaining, surged ahead with a slider through turns three and four heading to the white flag and then survived Rice’s last-ditch bid to the inside off turn four the following circuit to win by inches.

Zack Dohm of Cross Lanes, W.Va., finished third, just a car length behind the side-by-side leaders. Kyle Bronson of Brandon, Fla., placed fourth with his car missing most of its right-rear quarter-panel and deck two-time and defending Florence champion Trevor Landrum of Florence, Ky., was fifth after charging forward from the 22nd starting spot in an A-main which had its only two caution flags fly on lap 27.

Just as notable as Pearson’s scant winning margin — the closest finish in Lucas Oil Series history — was the ending of his long winless streak on the national tour. His last triumph came on Feb. 2, 2019, at Golden Isles Speedway near Brunswick, Ga., and his 2020 season in the Black Diamond house car had been a nightmare before Friday’s $12,000 score with just one top-five and three top-10 finishes on his ledger in 21 series starts.

“All the guys back home watching on TV and all my family and friends, my son Trey, I’m sure they’re jumping up and down because we ain’t had a lot to cheer for this year or even late last year,” Pearson said in victory lane. “We’ll take it here tonight and hopefully we can keep it going tomorrow (in another $12,000-to-win show at Florence).”

Pearson started the race from the outside pole, but he slipped back to fifth place by lap 17 as Davenport and Owens grabbed the spotlight at the front of the field. The polesitting Davenport led the first 18 laps before Owens, seeking to win his second straight Lucas Oil race and for the sixth time in his last seven starts, assumed command.

Davenport fought back, however, and was pressuring Owens for the lead on lap 27 when disaster struck. With Rice, who started ninth, joining the lead duo shortly after reaching third place on lap 22, the three-car tussle became too close as contact between Rice and Davenport at the end of the homestretch turned the reigning Lucas Oil Series champion nose-first into the outside wall.

While Davenport’s machine was towed off the track during the ensuing caution period, Rice continued on despite sustaining right-front fender damage to his Rick Jones-owned XR1 Rocket. Davenport was able to return and finish the race at reduced speed following a pit stop to straighten his machine’s crunched right-front nosepiece — a return helped by extra time his crew received thanks to the lap-27 restart demise of Owens, who had a mechanical malfunction send him across the track and hard not the turn-one wall.

Rice proceeded to distance himself from the pack when the race resumed, stretching his edge to nearly 3 seconds at one point. But over the last 10 circuits Pearson steadily drew closer as Rice struggled with handling problems.

“He just went around the cushion, which, I mean, when you’re out there in the lead you just don’t know where to go,” Pearson said of Rice. “But we found a line right through the middle of the racetrack.”

Rice feared that his rivals would soon be breathing down his car’s rearend.

“I just got to where I couldn’t hardly turn,” Rice said, “and I tried backing off of it because I kept getting over the cushion down here.”

Pearson made his winning move rounding turns three and four heading to the white flag, vaulting ahead of Rice. But Rice, who calls Florence his home track, managed to summon one final burst to pull even with Pearson off turn four with the checkered flag waving. The two cars crossed the finish line so close that Lucas Oil Series officials took several minutes to determine that the transponder scoring showing Pearson barely ahead was correct.

Rice, whose best previous finish in Lucas Oil Series competition was an 11th at Florence in 2015, wasn’t really certain of the outcome.

“Man, I know they’re going by transponder … I hope we get a good picture of it,” Rice said. “I know it was really close, it was a heck of a race.

“They’re saying on the live video that we had it, but it is what it is. We’ll go on to tomorrow. We’ve got a heck of a car and I think we can get it done again tomorrow when we get a new fender on it. I think if we keep that deal (with Davenport) from happening down the fronstretch and we have the right-front fender on it, I don’t think they’re there (challenging him) at the end.”

Pearson credited the talented young Rice with putting up a gallant fight.

“He done a helluva job,” said Pearson, whose previous best Lucas Oil finish this season was fifth, on June 13 at Smoky Mountain Speedway in Maryville, Tenn. “He’s hell on wheels around here, there ain’t no doubt. He’s a good kid and I love racing with him. He drives everybody clean, so I respect him a 100 percent and I know he’s got a lot of fans up there.”

Snapping out of his frustrating slump was Pearson’s primary thought following the race, however.

“I don’t know what happened with Davenport and Jimmy,” said Pearson, whose last victory at Florence was a Lucas Oil Series event on June 5, 2010. “But anyway, when it’s your turn, it’s your turn.”

Dohm, meanwhile, used the inside lane throughout the race to move forward from his 11th starting spot and finish third in the Longhorn Race Car he debuted last month.

“I figured there would be a big berm on it, and we just committed to running the bottom,” Dohm said. “That’s what we do. I’ve got a new Longhorn car and we still run the bottom. We just tightened up as much as we knew how and tried to make it steer pretty good. I think we hit it pretty good, but just … that berm up there, if they hit it right, we weren’t gonna keep up with ‘em.

“If we could’ve caught lapped traffic maybe a few laps sooner I might have had something for ‘em … but congrats to Earl. That’s awesome to see him back in victory lane.”