Brent Marks

Brent Marks will carry momentum into next week's Knoxville Nationals after nailing down his third win in nine days Saturday night at Port Royal Speedway. (Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com)

PORT ROYAL: No matter how much Brent Marks struggled this year, he stuck to the game plan he put in place before the season started.

Marks wanted to travel.

He tackled Charlotte and Ohio, running against star-studded World of Outlaws fields. Even after he couldn't buy a win in central Pennsylvania, he continued to load up the hauler and face the best in the business.

Those miles are paying off. The struggles are behind him, and Marks is the hottest driver on Pennsylvania turf.

Marks got to the front first and drove away to his third victory in nine days, capturing the 35-lap Living Legends Dream Race at Port Royal Speedway. His fourth win overall this season was worth a nice $10,620 payday.

"That's awesome. The only thing I want is that big check, you can keep the money," Marks said with a chuckle. "This is the biggest win of my entire career.

"It's taking all I have to not be bawling my eyes out up here. I've worked so hard to get to this point in my life, and I can't thank my dad, my sponsors and everyone that has helped me live my dream enough."

The race took a twist before the green flag was even thrown. Blane Heimbach was scheduled to start on the outside pole but couldn't get his car started and went to the pit area.

That moved Dave Blaney beside Nate Snyder on the front row. But it didn't stop Marks' assault on the front of the field.

Snyder grabbed the lead at the start over Blaney and Marks. The Myerstown ace moved into second with a daring low move through Turn 1 on lap 2.

Marks tracked down Snyder by lap 5. He flew around the top in Turn 1 and took the top spot coming out of Turn 2.

"He was tough to get by," Marks said of Snyder. "He was strong. I thought it was going to be tough the whole race.

"I was lucky enough to make a big move. I had just enough speed to get by and take the air off his wing so he couldn't duck under and slide up in front of me."

Marks set a blistering pace and entered lapped traffic on lap 9. Blaney took second from Snyder in Turn 2 three laps later, and Greg Hodnett followed at the other end of the speedway to grab the third position.

The top three sliced through lapped traffic. Hodnett was on the move, sliding through Turns 3 and 4 to take second from Blaney on lap 20.

Marks, however, was too good.

Hodnett moved around the speedway to try and cut into the leader's advantage. Marks was on rails, ducking low long enough to get by lapped traffic before returning to the cushion.

"Traveling helped me a lot," Marks said. "I'm a whole different person. I learned so many different things that I was able to bring back here.

"Even tonight, I was able to calm down. I didn't know if the track rubbered up, but I was so good up top that I wasn't moving down until I saw someone's nose."

Didn't happen.

Marks had built a straightaway lead by lap 25. No matter what Hodnett did, he couldn't chase down the leader over the last 10 laps and settled for second.

Blaney was in a race of his own for third. He was followed by sixth-place starter Lucas Wolfe and seventh-place starter Rick Lafferty.

"Normally, these races are won by whoever gets to the front first," Hodnett said. "This was the best we could do, and we will hopefully come back next time and do better.

"The guys did a good job, and we came from fifth to second. I tried to blow across [the corner], run the bottom, but either way, we didn't have enough drive to catch him."

Todd Snook captured the first of two 15-lap Econo Late Model features. Andrew Yoder won the second main event.

WILLIAMS GROVE: Scott Geesey earned his fourth victory of the season in the 20-lap Super Sportsman feature.

Geesey took the lead from rookie Tony Jackson with two laps to go and scored the win. Jackson held on for second, with Steve Fannasy, Frankie Herr and Chad Criswell completing the top five.

Sam Gallagher captured the 20-lap 358 Late Model feature. Alan Sagi, Ron Kline, Cam Zeigler and Dan Zechman completed the top five. Greg Diehl won the Street Stock main.

LINCOLN: Chase Dietz passed Isaac Sneering on the last lap to claim the 25-lap 358 Sprint Championship feature.

He earned $1,500 for the win.

Sneeringer, Chandler Leiby, Doug Hammaker and Jeff Rohrbaugh completed the top five in the main event.

SELINSGROVE: Mark Smith earned another win at the Snyder County oval in the 25-lap 358 Sprint Car feature.

TJ Stutts, Derek Locke, Cody Keller and Davie Franek completed the top five. NASCAR driver Tony Stewart was sixth.