Eric Holmes continued his pursuit of his first NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series Championship by winning the United Power/Touchtone Energy “150” at Colorado National Speedway Saturday night, closing the gap to eleven points of point leader Rip Michels.

The race combined the top drivers from both the Southwest and the Midwest Series for the second time this season with 36 drivers on hand to battle for 32 starting positions.

Eric qualified second fast with a lap of 16.196 on the 3/8-mile track. Tim Schendel from Sparta, Wis. had fast time of 16.177. Schendel drew a six-car invert putting David Mayhew on the pole and Rip Michels alongside him. Eric started in the 5th position next to Tim Schendel, who he raced hard with most of the night.

Eric drove his Taco Bell/Sunoco Race Fuel Chevrolet Monte Carlo to third place by lap nine. The lead cars of Steve Carlson, Tim Schendel and Eric Holmes started lapping cars by lap 32. By the time the race reached lap 50 the three drivers were negotiating traffic at every turn, with several lapped cars separating each of them. Eric was very impressive negotiating around the lapped cars and caught Schendel, who was leader until lap 64 when Eric got a great run out of turn two and took over the lead. Eric controlled the front of the field the remaining 86 laps, with Tim Schendel crossing the finish line second followed by Steve Carlson, Rip Michels and David Mayhew.

Eric was very excited and showed a lot of emotion after claiming the win. “This is an awesome place to race,” Eric said. “Tim drove a great race and it was a lot of fun out there tonight. My team prepared an excellent car and to win in Colorado in front of all these great fans is certainly a career highlight.”

The next and final points event on the NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series schedule will be held on Saturday September 23 at Altamont Motorsports Speedway, in Tracy, CA.