October 11, 2025 | By Lyndal Scranton

Hilsabeck breaks through at Lucas Oil Speedway with Late Model Fall Nationals triumph

WHEATLAND, Mo.—It was all Daniel Hilsabeck on Friday night at Lucas Oil Speedway as the Earlham, Iowa, driver led all 30 laps to beat Chris Simpson and capture the Night One win at the Late Model Fall Nationals.

Hilsabeck, 35, earned $5,000 for the victory, which not only his first of the season but first Open Late Model win of his career as 34 Late Models checked into the pits. The division will have at it again on Saturday night with another full program, this time with $10,000 going to the feature winner - but Hilsabeck will not be on hand to swing for a sweep.

"I've got a wedding to go to and we're leaving tonight, so we won't be able to repeat," Hilsabeck said in victory lane, before laughing that at least he will have an undefeated weekend to savor.

Also on Friday night, the Hickamo Super Stocks Big Buck 50 Presented by Whitetail Trophy Hunt saw Terry Schultz of Sedalia pick up the dash victory for the eight heat-race winners, assuring him of the pole for the final-night feature. A total of 85 Super Stocks entered the action that began with Thursday-night qualifying. B Mains and the 50-lap, $10,000-to-win feature is set for Saturday night.

Hilsabeck was fast all night. He set the fast qualifying lap at 15.913 seconds out of Group A with Simpson topping Group B at 16.032. Both won their heat races to earn front-row starting positions for the feature.

The field ran just one lap, with Hilsabeck leading Simpson, before a caution for debris slowed the action. Dillon McCowan slid into second on the restart, but another caution for a spinning Raymond Merrill flew after just one lap under green.

The disjointed first portion of the race continued with a third caution after a third completed lap as a couple of cars spun on the backstretch.

Once the race settled into a green-flag rhythm, Hilsabeck pulled away to a 2.6-second lead over McCowan by lap 10 with Simpson another second back in third. Eighth-starting Tyler Kuykendall moved to third by lap 11, dropping Simpson one position.

Hilsabeck encountered lapped traffic by lap 14 and McCowan responded by cutting the deficit to just under two seconds. But Hilsabeck soon was drawing off again, putting the suddenly second-running Kuykendall three seconds behind by lap 20.

Simpson, of Oxford, Iowa, made his move to leap from fourth to second by lap 23, but was still 3.7 seconds behind the leader. Hilsabeck’s gap was 2.8 seconds when caution flew on lap 27 after Gordy Gundaker slowed on the backstretch. That set up a three-lap shootout between Hilsabeck, Simpson, Kuykendall and McCowan.

"I hated to see that caution with three to go," Hilsabeck said. "I felt like I was a sitting duck. I didn't feel like I was all that great at the end, but this is awesome. This is my first Super Late Model win. We've been getting our butt kicked this year with the Lucas Series and it just feels great."

Hilsabeck handled the restart and held on to beat Simpson by a .477-second margin. McCowan was third with 13th-starting Caden McWhorter rallying to fourth and Kuykendall settling for fifth.

"The long green-flag run, we started coming pretty good," Simpson said. "For some reason it took too long to get going and before I knew it, I was in fourth and raced back up to second. We had a chance at the end, but Daniel was good. He could restart really good and get out in front of us to where it was comfortable for him.

"Congrats to those guys. We'll go back and work on it and see if we can finish one position better tomorrow."

Schultz, of Warrensburg, followed his fast-time on Thursday night by winning his heat race and the first dash. He passed Kris Lloyd on lap four of the eight-lapper to take the win and nail down the inside front-row starting spot in Saturday night's main event.

Lloyd wound up second with Richie Tosh and Aaron Poe following to finish out what will be the top four spots to start the Big Buck 50.

Past winners of the Big Buck 50 are Peyton Taylor (2024, 2020 and 2019), Tony Anglin (2017), Tim Brown (2016), Jeremy Russell (2015) and Terry Schultz (2014). The event was rained out in 2018 and there was not a Big Buck from 2021-23.


LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (Oct. 10, 2025)
Late Model Fall Nationals

A Feature - 1. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[1]; 2. 32-Chris Simpson[2]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan[3]; 4. 99-Caden McWhorter[13]; 5. 8K-Tyler Kuykendall[8]; 6. 1X-Aaron Marrant[4]; 7. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[14]; 8. 50-Kayden Clatt[7]; 9. 10-Daryn Klein[10]; 10. 98-Justin Wells[6]; 11. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[9]; 12. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[12]; 13. 128-Kylan Garner[20]; 14. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[5]; 15. 12-Scott Crigler[15]; 16. 25B-Chevy Boyer[18]; 17. 82-Jace Parmley[11]; 18. 26P-Glen Powell[22]; 19. (DNF) 78-Steve Stultz[17]; 20. (DNF) 5*-John Briggs[21]; 21. (DNF) 3-Brennon Willard[19]; 22. (DNF) 12M-Raymond Merrill[16]

B Feature 1 - 1. 25B-Chevy Boyer[2]; 2. 128-Kylan Garner[1]; 3. 26P-Glen Powell[4]; 4. 7-Cole Wells[3]; 5. 96-Dalton Imhoff[5]; 6. 90-Joe Walkenhorst[6]; 7. 15A-John Aitken[7]; 8. 7J-Richard Kimberling[8]

B Feature 2 - 1. 78-Steve Stultz[2]; 2. 3-Brennon Willard[5]; 3. 5*-John Briggs[4]; 4. 24C-Brandon Conkwright[7]; 5. 14W-Dustin Walker[9]; 6. 65-Jon Binning[6]; 7. (DNF) 41-Matt Menzie[3]; 8. (DNF) 77-Jordan Yaggy[1]; 9. (DNF) 26B-Bobby Brown[8]; 10. (DNS) 93-Mason Oberkramer

Heat 1 - 1. 32-Chris Simpson[1]; 2. 98-Justin Wells[2]; 3. 10-Daryn Klein[3]; 4. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[4]; 5. 128-Kylan Garner[5]; 6. 7-Cole Wells[7]; 7. 96-Dalton Imhoff[6]; 8. 15A-John Aitken[8]

Heat 2 - 1. 1X-Aaron Marrant[2]; 2. 8K-Tyler Kuykendall[1]; 3. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[4]; 4. 12M-Raymond Merrill[5]; 5. 25B-Chevy Boyer[3]; 6. 26P-Glen Powell[6]; 7. 90-Joe Walkenhorst[7]; 8. 7J-Richard Kimberling[8]

Heat 3 - 1. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[1]; 2. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[2]; 3. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[3]; 4. 99-Caden McWhorter[4]; 5. 77-Jordan Yaggy[7]; 6. 41-Matt Menzie[5]; 7. 3-Brennon Willard[6]; 8. 24C-Brandon Conkwright[8]; 9. 14W-Dustin Walker[9]

Heat 4 - 1. 8-Dillon McCowan[3]; 2. 50-Kayden Clatt[1]; 3. 82-Jace Parmley[5]; 4. 12-Scott Crigler[4]; 5. 78-Steve Stultz[6]; 6. 5*-John Briggs[8]; 7. 65-Jon Binning[7]; 8. 26B-Bobby Brown[9]; 9. (DNF) 93-Mason Oberkramer[2]


Hickamo Super Stocks Big Buck 50

Heat 1 - 1. B4-Terry Schultz[1]; 2. 10-Braden Jarvis[2]; 3. 68-Dean Wille[6]; 4. 26-Burl Woods[3]; 5. 22W-Craig Wiggens[7]; 6. 44-James Nighswonger[4]; 7. 41-Cragar Harris[8]; 8. 12V-Nathan Vaughn[9]; 9. 73-Francisco Escamilla[5]; 10. 30-Craig Spencer[10]; 11. 53-Danny O'Neal[11]

Heat 2 - 1. 1XL-Kris Lloyd[1]; 2. 51-CLAUDIE COOK[2]; 3. 00-Cory Flamm[4]; 4. 59R-Jacob Rexing[3]; 5. 10K-Kyle Davis[11]; 6. 27S-Will Smart[6]; 7. 7-Sam McIntare[5]; 8. 27B-Jerett Evans[8]; 9. 35W-Jeremy Willard[7]; 10. 05-Dale Berry[10]; 11. 8V-Cody Vail[9]

Heat 3 - 1. 3-Aaron Poe[1]; 2. 5C-Bailey Cook[2]; 3. 9H-Aaron Halpain[3]; 4. 67-Devin Irvin[10]; 5. 07D-Mike Daugherty[5]; 6. 28K-Chris Kircher[4]; 7. 21P-Darin Porter[8]; 8. 16-Logan Thompson[9]; 9. 83-James Ellis[6]; 10. (DNF) 10BS-Steve Beach[7]

Heat 4 - 1. 56-Richie Tosh[3]; 2. 17S-Mike Striegel[2]; 3. 25-Jay Prevete[6]; 4. 51S-Brian Schutt[5]; 5. 15M-Michael Matthews[8]; 6. 31X-Whitney Nunally[7]; 7. 40H-Alcoa Harris[10]; 8. (DNF) 14W-Travis Wolf[4]; 9. (DNF) 08-Scott Pullen[9]; 10. (DNS) 2-Colton Bourland

Heat 5 - 1. 140-Neil Kemp[1]; 2. 21-Johnny Fennewald[3]; 3. 14B-Brian Worley[2]; 4. KEG1-Jeremy Russell[4]; 5. 27D-Derek Henson[5]; 6. 99-Matt Brown[7]; 7. 35XXX-John Kelly[6]; 8. 56M-Mark Davis[11]; 9. 19-Chris Hawkins[10]; 10. 1X-Mitchell Waters[9]; 11. (DNS) 10C-Jacob Combs

Heat 6 - 1. 40-Taylor Carver[1]; 2. 11-Derek Brown[2]; 3. 94-Kenny Carroll[4]; 4. 4-Jared Hays[5]; 5. 26M-Donnie Miller[3]; 6. 1T-Bradley Tucker[9]; 7. 5-Payton McDowell[11]; 8. 70-Patrick West[8]; 9. (DNF) 66-Matthew Kay[6]; 10. (DNF) 18K-Kyle Cotter[10]; 11. (DNF) 4X-Charles Brown[7]

Heat 7 - 1. 04-Blaine Ewing[1]; 2. 29X-Keith Hammett[4]; 3. 4G-Gary Clark[3]; 4. 164-Michael Muskrat[5]; 5. 111-Tim Brown[6]; 6. 88-Alex Reddmann[10]; 7. 88W-Jason Winkle[2]; 8. (DNF) 320K-Cameron Kelly[9]; 9. (DNF) 29KM-Terry Muskrat[8]; 10. (DNF) 1J-Josh Jones[7]; 11. (DNS) 27-Aaron Gustin

Heat 8 - 1. 94C-JT Carroll[1]; 2. 1GX-Tony Anglin[4]; 3. 112-Kevin Brown[2]; 4. 2K-Mike Keever[5]; 5. 35-Johnny Coats[6]; 6. 18-Wyatt McIntare[9]; 7. 7XL-Colby Carter[10]; 8. 23N-Jase Nelson[3]; 9. 1G-Nick Gibson[7]; 10. 216-Brian Junkersfeld[8]


Gates open at 4 p.m. Saturday with hot laps scheduled for 6 p.m. and racing to follow.


Saturday admission:

Advance Discount Tickets online only (13 and up) - $27
Adults (13 and up) - $30
Seniors (62 and up)/Military - $27
Youth (6-12) - $10
Kids (5 and under) - FREE
Family Pass - $70
Pit Pass - $45


UTV Short-Course finale: Qualifying for Round 6 of the UTV Side-by-Side Short Course racing schedule on the Off Road track was rained out on Friday. Qualifying and races will be combined into Saturday's day-time event with gates tentatively set to open at 7 a.m. with racing at 8.

Race classes include 200 stock: ages 5-12, 200 limited: ages 5-12, 250 modified: ages 7-12, 700cc and under: ages 10-15, youth 1k: ages 13-17, sportsman na: ages 14 and up, sportsman turbo: ages 14 and up, women's na: ages 13 and up, women's fi: ages 13 and up, vet na: ages 40 and over, vet fi: ages 40 and over, pro-am na: ages 18 and up, pro-am turbo: ages 18 and up, pro na: ages 18 and up, pro turbo: ages 18 and up.


Off Road Saturday grandstand admission:

Adults (13 and up) - $45
Seniors (62 and up)/Military (62 and up) - $42
Youth (age 6 to 12) - $20
Kids (age 5 and under) - FREE
(All tickets include access to the off-road pit area)
(Saturday tickets include entry to the Dirt Track Event Saturday night)


For information on admission or camping for any Lucas Oil Speedway event in 2025, contact Admissions Director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-6119 or (417) 295-6043 or email her at nmcmillan@lucasoilspeedway.com for more information.