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MECHANICSBURG -- Lance Dewease added to his legacy at Williams Grove Speedway Sunday afternoon. Dewease's Opening Day sprint car win was the 117th of his Hall of Fame career at the track, but it was also a first win with car owner Rich Eichelberger. Dewease, 60, of Fayetteville, has an aggressive 80-race schedule -the most he's scheduled in many seasons. "The most important thing is getting the first win of the year," Dewease said. "I don't know how much longer I'm going to do this, so driving for Rich was an opportunity I had to take. It's great to get a win this early." They've been fast out of the box, but working thru some issues as well. "This is a brand new car and it's the first one built the way I wanted it built, the others were left over from before," Dewease said. "We've been pretty good, but had some brake issues the first few weeks." Dylan Norris led the opening lap as Freddie Rahmer raced into second and Dewease by Cole Knopp for third. Rahmer got too high entering turn one and spun bringing out the yellow. Norris controlled the restart as Justin Whittall took third from Knopp. Norris continued to lead with Dewease closing in. Norris slid out of the groove in turn three and Dewease drove by for the lead with eight laps completed.
"I wanted to save my tires and not start lapping cars," Dewease said. "I took it really easy. I could have ran faster, but I didn't want to risk it." Dewease began lapping slower cars just before the half-way point of the 25-lap feature. A yellow slowed the pace with 12 laps completed. Dewease controlled the restart over Norris and Whittall. Norris charged back to Dewease's bumper with five laps to go. Although he was right there, he couldn't make a move for the lead on the slick, day-time surface. Dewease made no mistakes and scored his third career Opening Day win at the Grove. Norris, Whittall, Danny Dietrich and Kody Hartlaub. Cameron Smith, Brent Shearer, Billy Dietrich, Anthony Macri and Doug Hammaker rounded out the top 10. Heat races for the 28 sprint cars went to Dewease, Whittall and Cameron Smith. Tyler Ross won the B-main.