Jason Bartlett captured the third edition of the Tioga Downs Drivers’ Championship on Sunday, but it came right down to the final leg of the competition before a winner was determined

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Ron Pierce trailed Bartlett by a slim margin going into the final leg of the challenge, and on paper it looked as though the Hall-of-Famer has a horse custom made for the anchor leg – which was a five-eighths of a mile sprint.

Pierce and the front-stepping Snoopmattydog, however, got hung out around two turns and that sent the pacer plummeting to the back of the pack. Bartlett skimmed the pylons with Im In Luck to pick up a fifth-place finish, and that was good enough to bring his point total to 36 for the afternoon.

The victory earned Bartlett a $25,000 payday. Pierce finished the day with 33 points as the runner-up, and for his efforts he took home a cheque for $5,000. Andy Miller’s 21 points allowed him to round out the top three and it earned him a cheque for $4,000.

Bartlett, who was the U.S. representative at this year’s World Driving Championship, is on pace to join the 3,000-win club later this season. He has driven the winners of purses in excess of $16 million to date.