North Dakota's Johnson captures Legends feature while Kade and Beck also win at Lucas Oil Speedway's Thursday Night Madness
WHEATLAND, MO. — Sean Johnson of Kindred, N.D., grabbed the lead on lap 14 and never gave it back, taking the INEX Legends feature during a special Thursday Night Madness program at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Johnson, who started sixth in the 31-car field, picked up $500 for the victory, including $200 from "Racing for a Cause" organizer Warren Ropp.
Other feature winners were Tanner Kade (POWRi Midwest Mods) and Mason Beck (POWRi Pure Stocks).
A total of 74 checked into the pits in the three divisions, including 31 Legends.
The night didn't begin in ideal fashion for Johnson. He spun at the start of his heat race and had to restart in the back of the eight-car field, but was able to rally for the victory and earn a feature starting spot up front.
"I drove it into turn one a little too hard and ended up pointing backwards, the wrong way," Johnson said. "I thought my night could be done, but we went out for hot laps to begin the night and I told my brother we have a really good piece here.
"I drove it back through the field and won the heat. That took me by surprise. It's a lot of fun when you pass that many cars."
Justin Comer beat Jordan Miklas in the battle of front-row starters to the lead on the opening lap. Milklas was supplanted for second on lap four by Johnson, who began his chase of Comer. Those two were separated by only a quarter-second by lap seven, as Comer continued to set the pace.
But Johnson was right on the back side of Comer’s car at lap 11 and he edged past Comer and into the lead for the first time on lap 14. A caution flag flew the next time around, but Johnson held on from there once action resumed and went on to beat seventh-starting Michael Weber by .602 seconds.
Johnson, who made a 10-hour haul to make the event, said the track changed considerably from the heat to the feature.
"There was a lot of water, actually standing in the corners, in the heat and we couldn't run down there," Johnson said. "But the other classes burned that off and we had a really good track on the bottom. It started taking rubber pretty fast with as many legends as we had for the feature."
Comer finished third with Tommy Quenzer fourth and Miklas in fifth.
"Justin Comer is the class of the field down here in Missouri," Johnson said. "Then you have the guys from Iowa that run good everywhere they go. To hold them off is pretty good."
Kade captures Midwest Mods feature: Fourth-starting Tanner Kade took over the lead on lap four and led the rest of the way, capturing the POWRi Midwest Mods feature. He beat Scott Campbell by 2.6 seconds after opening a four-second lead in the late stages.
Kade, of Hermitage, took home $300 for earning his first Lucas Oil Speedway victory and fifth overall feature win of the season.
Steve Muilenburg started on the pole and he beat outside front-row starter Jacob Hall to the lead into lap one. Kade advanced into second by lap two with Campbell third before the first caution flew on lap three.
Kade took the lead away from Muilenburg on the restart with Campbell moving into second on lap seven as Kade had a three-quarter-second lead when a lap eight caution slowed the action.
As green-flag racing resumed, Kade opened up 2.9-second lead by lap 13 over Campbell. He began to pour in on from there as Pete Richardson moved into third, but Kade was able to roll to a four-second command by lap 16.
The winner was 2.6 seconds clear of Campbell at the finish with Richardson finishing third, Hall fourth and Muilenburg coming home in fifth.
Pure Stocks win goes to Beck on final lap: Seventh-starting Mason Beck of Urbana made a late charge, executing a last-lap pass of race-long leader Robbie Jones to win the POWRi Pure Stocks feature.
Beck, the speedway's championship leader in the O'Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Car division, ran fourth most of the race before charging in the final four laps. It was not a new script for Beck. He recently won a Stock Cars feature on the last lap and feels comfortable near the end of a feature.
"I always try to get there quicker than that, but I try to save my stuff," Beck said after the $300 win. "I just try to keep my tires cooled down where if we have a caution I can set myself in a position to chomp the lead."
Jones set the pace from the beginning as he started on the pole and held a 1.2-second lead over Payton McDowell when the event’s first caution, on lap 12, slowed the action and set up a restart with eight to go.
Jones and Bradley McDowell came across the start-finish line side by side to conclude lap 13. Payton McDowell jumped back to second the next time around with Jones settling into a three-car-length lead.
Beck suddenly got into contention as he was running third by lap 16. He pulled off the dramatic win, taking over second at the white flag and passing Jones on the final circuit.
Beck prevailed by .336 seconds over Jones with Payton McDowell third, Bradley McDowell fourth and Kolby Rathbone fifth.
LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (July 20, 2023)
Thursday Night Madness
INEX Legends
A Feature - 1. 58-Sean Johnson[6]; 2. 8W-Michael Weber[7]; 3. 38-Justin Comer[1]; 4. 49-Tommie Quenzer[4]; 5. 44J-Jordan Miklas[2]; 6. 64-Griffin McGrath[5]; 7. 99-Tyler Garretson[25]; 8. 34-Braxton Rupp[17]; 9. 57X-Rodney Baird[19]; 10. 07-Jay Reynolds[27]; 11. 10H-Steven Harshbarger Jr[10]; 12. 94-Bryce Barnhardt[23]; 13. 20H-Steve Harshbarger[15]; 14. 82L-Chris Luttrull[28]; 15. 31-Mike Gilbert[29]; 16. 01-Chance Gilbert[8]; 17. 53-Keith Meyer[11]; 18. 88-Colin Bowen[12]; 19. 67-Eric Tracy[14]; 20. 55-Kenny Foster[3]; 21. 81-Joe Phillips[24]; 22. 12M-Darren Murphy[20]; 23. 70-Brad Sims[31]; 24. 7-James Hartman[16]; 25. 4-Bruce Beechler[30]; 26. 75-Lonnie Muhlbauer[13]; 27. 57-Phil Burkybile Jr[9]; 28. 24-Shayla Waddell[26]; 29. 44-Matthew Bowen[18]; 30. (DNF) 48-Austin Azeez[22]; 31. (DNF) 65-Brian Boucher[21]
Heat 1 - 1. 49-Tommie Quenzer[1]; 2. 44J-Jordan Miklas[7]; 3. 10H-Steven Harshbarger Jr[3]; 4. 20H-Steve Harshbarger[5]; 5. 57X-Rodney Baird[4]; 6. 48-Austin Azeez[6]; 7. 94-Bryce Barnhardt[2]; 8. (DNS) 70-Brad Sims
Heat 2 - 1. 64-Griffin McGrath[1]; 2. 8W-Michael Weber[4]; 3. 53-Keith Meyer[3]; 4. 57-Phil Burkybile Jr[7]; 5. 34-Braxton Rupp[8]; 6. 65-Brian Boucher[2]; 7. 81-Joe Phillips[6]; 8. 99-Tyler Garretson[5]
Heat 3 - 1. 58-Sean Johnson[1]; 2. 01-Chance Gilbert[4]; 3. 88-Colin Bowen[3]; 4. 67-Eric Tracy[6]; 5. 44-Matthew Bowen[2]; 6. 12M-Darren Murphy[8]; 7. (DNF) 31-Mike Gilbert[5]; 8. (DNF) 4-Bruce Beechler[7]
Heat 4 - 1. 38-Justin Comer[7]; 2. 55-Kenny Foster[6]; 3. 75-Lonnie Muhlbauer[3]; 4. 7-James Hartman[5]; 5. (DNF) 24-Shayla Waddell[2]; 6. (DNF) 07-Jay Reynolds[1]; 7. (DNF) 82L-Chris Luttrull[4]
POWRi Midwest Mods
A Feature - 1. 19-Tanner Kade[4]; 2. 83-Scott Campbell[3]; 3. 64-Pete Richardson[11]; 4. 101-Jacob Hall[2]; 5. 33-Steve Muilenburg[1]; 6. 5D-Dustin Dennison[14]; 7. 91-Hoyt Miller[15]; 8. 668-Hunter Stutesmun[12]; 9. 39-Blake Muilenburg[9]; 10. 21R-Thomas Dunham[6]; 11. 28-Andrew Burenheide[5]; 12. 25-Clint Drake[7]; 13. 20-Michael Gillis[25]; 14. 51-Jimmy Cooper[10]; 15. 26B-Bobby Brown[17]; 16. 96-Dylan Daniels[21]; 17. 3-Jerry Wheeler[8]; 18. 4-Caleb Rhoads[18]; 19. 21W-Noah Wolf[13]; 20. 98-Garet Jones[20]; 21. S21-STEVE TIEDEMAN[23]; 22. (DNF) 00-Jason Ensley[22]; 23. (DNF) 18P-Shaine Paxston[16]; 24. (DNS) 8-Mitch Coulter; 25. (DNS) 28D-Dylan Dampier
Heat 1 - 1. 19-Tanner Kade[2]; 2. 28-Andrew Burenheide[4]; 3. 25-Clint Drake[5]; 4. 3-Jerry Wheeler[7]; 5. 668-Hunter Stutesmun[8]; 6. 26B-Bobby Brown[1]; 7. (DNF) 28D-Dylan Dampier[6]; 8. (DNS) 20-Michael Gillis
Heat 2 - 1. 33-Steve Muilenburg[6]; 2. 21R-Thomas Dunham[2]; 3. 39-Blake Muilenburg[1]; 4. 21W-Noah Wolf[3]; 5. 91-Hoyt Miller[5]; 6. 4-Caleb Rhoads[4]; 7. 98-Garet Jones[7]; 8. 00-Jason Ensley[8]
Heat 3 - 1. 101-Jacob Hall[5]; 2. 83-Scott Campbell[8]; 3. 51-Jimmy Cooper[2]; 4. 64-Pete Richardson[6]; 5. 5D-Dustin Dennison[3]; 6. 18P-Shaine Paxston[7]; 7. 8-Mitch Coulter[9]; 8. 96-Dylan Daniels[1]; 9. S21-STEVE TIEDEMAN[4]
POWRi Pure Stocks
A Feature - 1. 5M-Mason Beck[7]; 2. 20-Robbie Jones[1]; 3. 216-Payton McDowell[5]; 4. 26-Bradley McDowell[2]; 5. 22R-Kolby Rathbone[4]; 6. 7-Spencer Reiff[12]; 7. 5-Justin McDowell[9]; 8. 21-Darin Porter[6]; 9. 30-Trevor Wilson[11]; 10. 057-Dalton Roberts[8]; 11. 17-Shayne Healea[13]; 12. 88-Chris Messerli[18]; 13. 23R-Jeff Reid[16]; 14. 54C-Dennis Crenshaw[14]; 15. 21T-Jeff Turpin[10]; 16. 54-Dean Kimberling[15]; 17. 12-Aaron Ricks[17]; 18. (DNF) 24-Noah Long[3]
Heat 1 - 1. 20-Robbie Jones[3]; 2. 216-Payton McDowell[1]; 3. 21-Darin Porter[5]; 4. 5M-Mason Beck[6]; 5. 5-Justin McDowell[4]; 6. 30-Trevor Wilson[8]; 7. 17-Shayne Healea[9]; 8. 23R-Jeff Reid[7]; 9. 12-Aaron Ricks[2]
Heat 2 - 1. 22R-Kolby Rathbone[1]; 2. 26-Bradley McDowell[6]; 3. 24-Noah Long[8]; 4. 057-Dalton Roberts[4]; 5. 21T-Jeff Turpin[5]; 6. 7-Spencer Reiff[2]; 7. 54C-Dennis Crenshaw[9]; 8. 54-Dean Kimberling[3]; 9. (DQ) 88-Chris Messerli[7]
Ozarks Food Harvest Food Drive Night on Saturday: Racing continues on Saturday when it's Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing for Ozarks Food Harvest Food Drive Night Presented by OzarksFirst.com. Fans who bring four non-perishable food items will get FREE Admission to the races. The O'Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars will be featured with a 25-lap, $750-to-win feature.
For information about any event at Lucas Oil Speedway in 2023 contact admissions director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or email her at nichole@lucasoilspeedway.com for more information.
Saturday night admission:
(FREE with four non-perishable food items)
Advance Discount Tickets online only (16 and up) - $12
Adults (16 and up) - $15
Seniors/Military (62 and up) - $12
Youth (6-15) - $5
Kids (5 and under) - FREE
Family Pass - $35
Pit Pass - $35
Driver ticket pick up Saturday: Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series regulars can receive up to 50 free general admission tickets at payout Saturday, good for the Aug. 26 Rempfer Memorial Season Championship Night. Drivers with the most tickets used on Aug. 26 will win one free season pit pass for 2023.
CONTACT:
Danny Lorton
Lucas Oil Speedway General Manager
Office: (417) 282-5984
DLorton@lucasoilspeedway.com
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About Lucas Oil Speedway
Lucas Oil Speedway is considered by fans, drivers and industry insiders to be one of the top five racing facilities in the nation. Located in Wheatland, Missouri, approximately an hour from Springfield, Missouri, and just an hour and a half from the Kansas City metro area, the "Diamond of Dirt Tracks" lives up to its title.
Twenty-One VIP Luxury Suites, HD Jumbo-Tron Screen, Stadium Style Musco Sports Lighting, a Bose Sound System, Go-Kart Slick Track, The Diamond Bar, Track Treasures Gift Shop, the best track food in the country and paved pits are a few of the spectacular amenities setting the Diamond of Dirt apart. This year marks the 12th season for the Liquid Quarter Mile Drag Racing Lake, "Lake Lucas." New for 2017 was all-purpose built Off Road facility featuring a host of regional events.
Lucas Oil Speedway's dirt oval track plays host to some of the largest and most-popular events in the Midwest with national and regional touring series appearing frequently including: The Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, POWRi Midget National Series, Lucas Oil Pro Pulling League, United States Modified Touring Series, ASCS Sprint Cars and the Lucas Oil MLRA.
In addition to the special events, the Lucas Oil Speedway Weekly Racing Series features the Late Models, USRA Modifieds, USRA Stock Cars and USRA B-Mods.
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