After a Late Start, Kanke Gets to the Finish Line a Bit Early

The Foods4Less 150-lap NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour race started 44 minutes late, and the real race didn’t begin until 100 laps were complete at Irwindale Speedway Saturday night.

M.K. Kanke, a graduate of Granada Hills High, surpassed $300,000 in career earnings, and earned every penny of his first-place purse after dueling with pole-sitter Craig Raudman of Bakersfield during the final 50 laps.

It was the second consecutive victory for Kanke, who leads the points after three races.

He finished second in the opener at Phoenix.

Raudman and Kanke spent the first two-thirds of the race running away from of the field before they began racing each other, thrilling the crowd of 5,320.

Kanke, who started third, knew before the start that his car would handle well late in the race with old tires after finishing second to Greg Pursley of Newhall in the four-lap trophy dash while competing on a set of used tires.

“We ran some late runs and got the thing hooked up late,” Kanke said.

“It was a very interesting track [Saturday night], I think the surface changed two or three times.”

Kanke made his first move on Raudman in the backstretch on lap 101 and made that pass stick coming out of turn four.

But Raudman reclaimed the lead in turn two on lap 102.

The pair swapped the lead five times, with Kanke taking the lead for good as the cars passed the finish line on lap 108.

Kanke then knifed his way through traffic, using lapped cars to block Raudman.

Raudman closed the gap on Kanke, and tapped the rear of Kanke’s car twice.

Kanke was able to control the car and maintain his lead.

“I just had a good run going and didn’t want to give it up,” Raudman said.

Kanke said the incident was not a big deal, although it did upset him at the time.

“We went door-to-door quite a few times,” Raudman said. “The last 15 to 18 laps it was all I could do, I kept sliding through the corners like it was a dirt track.”

Said Kanke: “Craig’s car was every bit as good as ours. I think either one of us could have won it.”

The start was delayed after the 50-lap late model race ran late, despite being cut to 30 laps.

Todd Burns of Riverside won the race, which took 55 minutes due to four caution flags.

The first yellow was thrown after a multi-car pileup on the first lap.

The Southwest Tour race took 50 minutes.

Brian Kelly of Agoura was second to Burns.