October 6, 2024 | By Lyndal Scranton

Chris Simpson earns MLRA Fall Nationals feature as Peyton Taylor bags Big Buck 50 triumph

WHEATLAND, Mo. — Chris Simpson's weekend of settling for second-best at the Lucas Oil MLRA Fall Nationals took a positive turn as the veteran Iowa driver found his way to victory lane Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.

Simpson wrested the lead away from his older brother and MLRA points leader Chris Simpson on lap 19. He held it the rest of the way and went on to claim his second series victory of the season and second career MLRA victory at Lucas Oil Speedway. It was worth $10,000 as the co-headliner with the 8th annual Super Stocks Big Buck 50 Presented by Whitetail Trophy Hunt.

The return of the Big Buck 50 after a four-year break saw a familiar winner. Peyton Taylor of Batesville, Ark., grabbed the $10,000 victory to go with his Big Buck victories in 2019 and 2020. He took command on lap 15 and led the rest of the way.

Taylor also earned a spot in the sold-out Whitetail Trophy Hunt next month in mid-Missouri, which pays $15,000 to win.

Chris Simpson capped a weekend of perseverance after finishing runner-up to Ryan Gustin two nights in a row. He said a poor qualifying performance left him displeased and with a lot of work to do, starting the final-nigh feature in eighth.

"We love coming here," Simpson said. "I just have to thank all my guys. It's a good way to end it. We've been working hard all year.

"I'm missing my daughter's homecoming tonight, but at least I'm bringing 10 grand home," Simpson added.

Chad Simpson led in the early going, with a 1.7-second margin by lap 10 over Dustin Hodges and eighth-starting Chris Simpson. Chad Simpson caught lapped traffic by lap 14 and Chris Simpson closed in on his back bumper with Scott third and Tony Jackson Jr. fourth.

The first and what would be the only lead change came on lap 19 as Chris Simpson, charging from eighth at the start, took over the top spot coming off turn four. Chris Simpson’s lead was 1.2 seconds over Scott when the race’s lone caution flew on lap 30 as Gustin - the feature winner the previous two nights - slowed on the front stretch while running 10th.

"I don't know what happened to Ryan," Chris Simpson said. "I figured if he finished, he's probably in the top three. It would have been fun to battle it out with him. We both were good all weekend, but to top it off with the $10,000, I'll take it."

With a clear track ahead, Chris Simpson took off after the restart to a one-second lead lead over Scott with Chad Simpson another two seconds behind the top duo. Scott rallied to within a half-second with seven to go, with Jackson moving into third. As the race closed under a long green-flag run, Simpson held on and beat Scott by one second.

“We feel like we have qualifying figured out, we're trying now what we need on these new cars when the race track dries out on a longer race," Scott said. "Congrats to Chris and them. Hopefully we can come do this agan and get into victory lane."

Jackson wound up third with Urbana’s Dillon McCowan fourth after starting 16th. Chad Simpson, after leading the first 18 laps, settled for fifth.

"We had a good car all weekend, I just can't qualify well here for whatever reason," Jackson said. "A good race track and a fun race track and we had a really good race car."

Jackson made some gains in the MLRA championship chase by finishing two spots ahead of Chad Simpson. Jackson now trails Simpson by 75, with Chris Simpson 65 behind his brother, as three series races remain.

Hodges set the fast qualifying time with a 14.479-second lap to lead Group A. That was near the track record of 14.443 set by Garrett Alberson on May 23, 2024 on Night 1 of the Lucas Oil Show-Me 100 weekend.

Taylor earns another Big Buck 50: A four-year break in between renditions of the Super Stocks Big Buck 50 Presented by Whitetail Trophy Hunt didn't alter who went to victory lane, but the route to get there was unique.

Peyton Taylor, who won the race in 2019 and 2020, had to use a provisional to get into the field. He drove from 25th and last to start all the way to the lead well before the halfway mark of the 50-lapper.

Taylor took command from Terry Schultz on lap 15 and, driving a car borrowed from Jared Neiswander after Taylor's car was plagued by motor issues on both preliminary nights, was never seriously threatened the rest of the way.

"To go back to back to back, it's pretty surreal," Taylor said. "Thank you all for bringing this back. This is a special event for a lot of us grassroots racers and I think everybody here had a fun time.

"Jared is one of my good buddies and he said, 'man, I ain't racing it, you're racing it.' Thanks to him, his dad, his family and all these great sponsors on this car."

Pole-starting Gary Clark led the first three laps before fellow front-row starter Schultz grabbed the top spot on lap four. Tosh moved into second on lap five as Schultz led by 1.6 seconds.

Schultz, winner of the inaugural Big Buck 50 in 2014, had a 1.65-second lead over Tosh when action was slowed by a caution on lap nine as Colton Bourland’s car caught fire under the rear end.

After the restart, Schultz rolled to a 2.3-second lead by lap 14, when another caution flew. But the big news at that point was Taylor’s charge from 25th to third. Taylor needed only one more lap to complete his last-to-first run, taking over the lead on lap 15 as Schultz slid all the way back to fourth.

As the race continued into its longest green-flag run, Taylor’s lead was 2.2 seconds by lap 40 with Tony Anglin running behind J.T. Carroll. As the laps dwindled, Taylor’s lead started to shrink until Carroll got hung up in lapped traffic.

That helped Taylor increase his margin to 4.7 seconds with two remaining. But the comfortable drive to the checkers became a bit more dramatic when a caution flew just before the white flag was ready to appear.

"I talked to God on about every caution, but we had a couple of good conversations on that last yellow," Taylor said. "I've got to give all the glory to God. We're all blessed beyond what we're worth and I can't give enough glory to Him."

It didn’t matter as Taylor had a flawless restart and went on to finish clear of Carroll by 1.7 seconds. Carroll was disqualified in post-race technical inspection, elevating Derek Brown to second. Anglin was third with Josh Jones fourth and Richie Tosh fifth.

Some of the specialty awards for the Big Buck 50 included:

Hard Luck Award - Dean Willie, an additional $200, courtesy of Beach Dirtworks.

Farthest Tow Award - Taylor Carver. Lockesburg, Ark., 395 miles, an additional $250, courtesy of Location Freight.

First Non-Transfer Award - Jeremy Russell, an additional $500, courtesy of Hickamo.


Big Buck 50 winners:

2024 - Peyton Taylor, Batesville, Ark.
2020 - Peyton Taylor, Batesville, Ark.
2019 - Peyton Taylor, Batesville, Ark.
2018 - Rained out
2017 - Tony Anglin, Walnut Ridge, Ark.
2016 - Tim Brown, Stoutland, Mo.
2015 - Jeremy Russell, Jonesboro, Ark.
2014 - Terry Schultz, Warrensburg, Mo.


LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (Oct. 5, 2024)
MLRA Fall Nationals/Super Stocks Big Buck 50 Presented by Whitetail Trophy Hunt

MLRA Late Models

A Feature - 1. 32-Chris Simpson[8]; 2. 2S-Stormy Scott[2]; 3. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[5]; 4. 8-Dillon McCowan[16]; 5. 25-Chad Simpson[3]; 6. 50C-Kayden Clatt[7]; 7. 36M-Logan Martin[13]; 8. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[6]; 9. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[14]; 10. 2T-Tyler Stevens[10]; 11. 22H-Dustin Hodges[1]; 12. 31C-Cole Henson[9]; 13. 78S-Steve Stultz[15]; 14. 15T-Tyler Kuykendall[18]; 15. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[21]; 16. 11-Jeff Herzog[19]; 17. 65-Jon Binning[22]; 18. (DNF) 1XMJ-Matt Johnson[20]; 19. (DNF) 9G-Joseph Gorby[17]; 20. (DNF) 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 21. (DNF) 29-Keith Hammett[11]; 22. (DNF) 93-Mason Oberkramer[12]; 23. (DNF) 1XM-Aaron Marrant[23]; 24. (DNF) 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[24]

Fast Shafts B Feature - 1. 9G-Joseph Gorby[3]; 2. 15T-Tyler Kuykendall[2]; 3. 11-Jeff Herzog[1]; 4. 1XMJ-Matt Johnson[12]; 5. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[4]; 6. 65-Jon Binning[6]; 7. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[8]; 8. 10M-Jacob Magee[10]; 9. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[5]; 10. (DNF) 1XM-Aaron Marrant[9]; 11. (DNF) 7M-Allan Middendorf[7]; 12. (DNS) 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain; 13. (DNS) 16-Rusty Griffaw; 14. (DNS) 1S-Shawn Knuckles

Flo Sports Heat 1 - 1. 22H-Dustin Hodges[1]; 2. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[2]; 3. 31C-Cole Henson[3]; 4. 36M-Logan Martin[6]; 5. 11-Jeff Herzog[5]; 6. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[8]; 7. 1XM-Aaron Marrant[7]; 8. 1S-Shawn Knuckles[4]

Simpson Racing Products Heat 2 - 1. 25-Chad Simpson[2]; 2. 50C-Kayden Clatt[1]; 3. 29-Keith Hammett[3]; 4. 78S-Steve Stultz[6]; 5. 9G-Joseph Gorby[4]; 6. (DNF) 7M-Allan Middendorf[8]; 7. (DNF) 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[5]; 8. (DNF) 16-Rusty Griffaw[7]

Earnhardt Technologies Heat 3 - 1. 2S-Stormy Scott[1]; 2. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[4]; 3. 2T-Tyler Stevens[3]; 4. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[6]; 5. 15T-Tyler Kuykendall[7]; 6. 65-Jon Binning[5]; 7. 10M-Jacob Magee[2]; 8. (DNS) 49W-Justin Wells

Lucas Oil Heat 4 - 1. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 2. 32-Chris Simpson[5]; 3. 93-Mason Oberkramer[2]; 4. 8-Dillon McCowan[4]; 5. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[6]; 6. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[7]; 7. (DNF) 1XMJ-Matt Johnson[3]

Group A My Race Pass Qualifying - 1. 22H-Dustin Hodges, 00:14.479[8]; 2. 50C-Kayden Clatt, 00:14.569[9]; 3. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr, 00:14.875[14]; 4. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:14.879[4]; 5. 31C-Cole Henson, 00:15.124[12]; 6. 29-Keith Hammett, 00:15.176[11]; 7. 1S-Shawn Knuckles, 00:15.228[13]; 8. 9G-Joseph Gorby, 00:15.251[15]; 9. 11-Jeff Herzog, 00:15.270[6]; 10. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain, 00:15.281[10]; 11. 36M-Logan Martin, 00:15.282[2]; 12. 78S-Steve Stultz, 00:15.288[16]; 13. 1XM-Aaron Marrant, 00:15.435[1]; 14. 16-Rusty Griffaw, 00:15.469[5]; 15. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt, 00:15.885[7]; 16. 7M-Allan Middendorf, 00:16.802[3]

Group B My Race Pass Qualifying - 1. 2S-Stormy Scott, 00:14.623[10]; 2. 19R-Ryan Gustin, 00:14.822[8]; 3. 10M-Jacob Magee, 00:14.996[3]; 4. 93-Mason Oberkramer, 00:15.045[6]; 5. 2T-Tyler Stevens, 00:15.064[5]; 6. 1XMJ-Matt Johnson, 00:15.072[1]; 7. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck, 00:15.074[12]; 8. 8-Dillon McCowan, 00:15.143[15]; 9. 65-Jon Binning, 00:15.163[7]; 10. 32-Chris Simpson, 00:15.190[2]; 11. 11T-Trevor Gundaker, 00:15.190[14]; 12. 15S-Clayton Stuckey, 00:15.224[11]; 13. 15T-Tyler Kuykendall, 00:15.235[13]; 14. 46-Earl Pearson Jr, 00:15.278[9]; 15. (DNS) 49W-Justin Wells, 00:20.000


Hickamo Super Stocks

A Feature - 1. 219P-Peyton Taylor[25]; 2. 11-Derek Brown[12]; 3. G1-Tony Anglin[8]; 4. 1J-Josh Jones[5]; 5. 11T-Richie Tosh[4]; 6. C5-CLAUDIE COOK[15]; 7. 4G-Gary Clark[1]; 8. B4-Terry Schultz[2]; 9. 216-Chris Junkersfeld[14]; 10. 44-James Nighswonger[23]; 11. 69-Brian Brown[7]; 12. 251-Brian Schutt[17]; 13. 164-Michael Muskrat[24]; 14. 30C-Clayton Campbell[11]; 15. 21-Darin Porter[16]; 16. (DNF) 21W-Ted Welschmeyer[10]; 17. (DNF) 12A-Scotty Allen[9]; 18. (DNF) 73-Daniel Deason[19]; 19. (DNF) 59R-Jacob Rexing[3]; 20. (DNF) 10K-Kyle Davis[22]; 21. (DNF) 88-Jason Winkle[21]; 22. (DNF) 40-Taylor Carver[6]; 23. (DNF) 4-Jared Hays[18]; 24. (DNF) 2-Colton Bourland[20]; 25. (DQ) 94C-JT Carroll[13]

B Feature 1 - 1. 251-Brian Schutt[1]; 2. 88-Jason Winkle[4]; 3. KEG1-Jeremy Russell[11]; 4. 94K-Kenny Carroll[6]; 5. 23N-Jase Nelson[9]; 6. 56-Mark Davis[5]; 7. 88R-Alex Reddmann[10]; 8. 18-Jon Hays[3]; 9. (DNF) CU2-Jeremy Creasey[7]; 10. (DNS) 1-Nick Gibson; 11. (DNS) 83-James Ellis; 12. (DNS) 116-Zack Smith

B Feature 2 - 1. 73-Daniel Deason[2]; 2. 44-James Nighswonger[6]; 3. 77-Jeff Douty[8]; 4. 18K-Kyle Cotter[9]; 5. 67-Devin Irvin[5]; 6. 43-Kevin Koontz[10]; 7. 219P-Peyton Taylor[7]; 8. (DNF) 2X-Whitney Nunally[3]; 9. (DNF) 27D-Derek Henson[1]; 10. (DNF) 12J-Justin Jarrett[11]; 11. (DNF) 99W-Edwin Wells[4]; 12. (DNF) 1T-Bradley Tucker[12]

B Feature 3 - 1. 4-Jared Hays[5]; 2. 10K-Kyle Davis[2]; 3. 66-Matthew Kay[4]; 4. 04-Blaine Ewing[6]; 5. 35-Johnny Coats[7]; 6. 26M-Donnie Miller[1]; 7. 27S-Will Smart[3]; 8. 94-Elmo Floyd[8]; 9. 10-Steve Beach[10]; 10. (DNF) 16-Logan Thompson[9]; 11. (DNF) 89-Josh Harris[13]; 12. (DNF) 28K-Chris Kircher[11]; 13. (DNF) 27B-Jerett Evans[12]

B Feature 4 - 1. 2-Colton Bourland[10]; 2. 164-Michael Muskrat[4]; 3. 15M-Michael Matthews[3]; 4. 53-Danny O'Neal[7]; 5. 12V-Nathan Vaughn[1]; 6. 70-Patrick West[11]; 7. (DNF) 68-Dean Wille[2]; 8. (DNF) X221-Jerry Brown[9]; 9. (DNF) 3-Dale Douty III[8]; 10. (DNF) 00-Cory Flamm[6]; 11. (DNF) 69C-Caleb Brown[5]; 12. (DNS) 219-Jared Neiswander; 13. (DNS) GO-Jimmy Ngo


Kubota High Limit Diamond Classic next: The final racing event of the season at Lucas Oil Speedway is set for Wednesday, Oct. 9 as the Kubota High Limit Racing Diamond Classic returns for a makeup of a June 29th rainout.

The rescheduled $25,000-to-win Diamond Classic brings the 410 Sprints back to the Midwest, one night after the series stops at I-70 Speedway in Odessa.

Pit gates open at 4 p.m. Wednesday with grandstands at 5, hot laps at 6:30 and racing to follow opening ceremonies. Fans with tickets from the June 29th rainout or wristbands from the pits that night can use those for admission.


Spectator Admission:

Adults (13 and up) - $40
Seniors (62 and up)/Military - $37
Youth (age 6 to 12) - $10
Kids (age 5 and under) - FREE
Family Pass - $90
Pit Pass - $45


For ticket or camping information on any Lucas Oil Speedway event, contact Admissions Director Nichole McMillan at (417) 295-6043 or via email at nmcmillan@lucasoilspeedway.com.

For information about Lucas Oil Speedway, including schedules, point standings and other news, please visit LucasOilSpeedway.com.