WHEATLAND, MO. (June 24, 2023) – Ryan Middaugh’s hot month of June continued Saturday night as he captured another Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified main event at Lucas Oil Speedway.
The Fulton driver beat Matt Johnson to win the headliner on Public Safety Appreciation Night at the Races. It was Middaugh’s third victory of the Lucas Oil Speedway season and 10th overall in 2023. The USRA National points leader has won five in a row and six of seven races in June.
Other feature winners on the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series program Presented by KCTV-5 Kansas City were Larry Ferris (Hermitage Lumber Late Models), Mason Beck (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars) and Colson Kirk (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods).
“I felt really bad in the heat race,” Middaugh said. “I was real tight and wasn’t sure what to do. We just changed a couple of small things and I guess it was the right call. It was set on kill. It’s hard to do when you’ve got guys like Matt Johnson and Dillon McCowan and Nic Bidinger behind you. To out-run those guys, it means a lot.”
Middaugh and Johnson started on the front row and set the pace from the outset. Middaugh maintained the lead but Johnson stayed within a few car lengths through the first 10 laps. By lap 13, Johnson had cut Middaugh’s margin to less than a half-second as the leaders neared lapped traffic.
Middaugh was able to pad his lead a bit as he passed slower cars, leading by one second by lap 20. He kept pulling away from there as the caution-free event remained green all 25 laps.
Middaugh’s fifth straight victory overall between Lucas Oil Speedway and his hometown Callaway Raceway, saw him beat Johnson by 1.9 seconds. Bidinger wound up third with McCowan fourth and Chad Melton coming home in fifth in his first appearance at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Ferris captures Late Model win after Wells DQ: Hermitage Lumber Late Model points leader Justin Wells appeared to have his seventh victory of the season, but he was disqualified in post-race inspection for an infraction with the engine weight distribution.
That gave the feature victory to Larry Ferris, the 2022 track champion, who ran a close second in the 20-lap feature. Wells crossed the line .673 seconds ahead of Ferris with JC Morton, Tucker Cox fourth and Bryon Allison following. Cox was making his return after a hard crash on April 15.
Kayden Clatt set the early pace from his pole-starting position with Ferris and Wells close behind when the first caution appeared on lap three.
Wells went in front at the conclusion of lap three following the restart with Ferris giving chase. Over the next several laps, Wells rode the high line and Ferris worked the inside as the duo broke away form the field by nearly five seconds by lap 10.
Wells gradually built his lead over Ferris, with a 1.6-second margin when catching lapped traffic on lap 14 and it was a 1.7-second cushion when a yellow on lap 15 bunched the field.
Continuing to excel in the high groove after restart, the season points leader held on to beat Ferris to the checkers. But later in tech inspection, Ferris was declared the race winner.
Earlier this season, Wells was elevated to the race winner when Ferris’ car came in too light at the scales.
The Late Model winner took home $1,000 with heat-race bonus cash ($100, $75, $50, $25 for the top four) also boosting the prize money in the division due to sponsors Wasoba Seed & Trucking, Reed Environmental and Dirt Track Specialist.
Beck wins a USRA Stock Cars thriller: Mason Beck of Urbana led only one lap, but it was the most important one. Beck overtook race-long-leader William Garner on the final circuit to claim the O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars feature.
Beck, who started eighth, battled his way through the field and into contention midway through the race. A four-way for second saw Beck emerge and begin his chase of Garner. Beck was on the leader’s back bumper by lap 13 with Johnny Fennewald about five car lengths behind in third.
Beck went to the high side coming to the white flag and pulled slightly ahead of Garner coming out of turn two. He then won a drag race coming off turn four to the checkers to score his third feature win of the season.
“That was the most-exciting race I’ve ever been a part of,” Beck said. “From fifth on – me, Waylon (Dimmitt), (James) McMillin, Fennewald, it was hard-fought and clean racing all the way to the checkered flag.”
Fennewald finished third, Dimmitt was fourth and McMillin fifth.
Kirk earns B-Mod feature win: Urbana’s Colson Kirk held off a determined charge from Jon Sheets on the final lap to earn his first Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod feature win of the season.
“The race track was awesome,” Kirk said. “A big thanks to my ‘Pops.” I’d have never started if it wasn’t for him.”
Season points leader Bobby Williams passed Kirk for the lead at the start-finish line for lap eight, but the caution flew immediately after. That meant the order reverted to the previously completed lap for the restart, putting Kirk in front for the restart.
Sheets took the second position as green-flag action resumed and Kirk opened a three-quarters of a second lead. As the battle for second continued Kirk’s lead grew to 1.5 seconds by lap 12, when another caution appeared.
Sheets pulled alongside Kirk in turn one on lap 16, but was unable to get around the leader. Sheets made a final bid on the last lap, trying to make an inside pass off turn four, but Kirk held on by a car length.
Williams finished third with JC Morton fourth and JC Newell in fifth.
LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (JUNE 24, 2023)
Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series
Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds
A Feature – 1. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[1]; 2. 1X-Matt Johnson[2]; 3. 3B-Nic Bidinger[3]; 4. 8-Dillon McCowan[5]; 5. 71-Chad Melton[6]; 6. 26-Eric Turner[4]; 7. 03-Chase Jones[11]; 8. 14-Kameron Grindstaff[12]; 9. 22B-Rick Beebe[13]; 10. 76-Shawn Knuckles[8]; 11. 10T-Tyler Brown[9]; 12. (DNF) 21-Greg Scheffler[16]; 13. (DNF) 21W-Tracy Wolf[15]; 14. (DNF) 75L-Lane Whitney[7]; 15. (DNS) 9-Kenton Allen; 16. (DNS) 38C-Jason Pursley
Heat 1 – 1. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[3]; 2. 71-Chad Melton[7]; 3. 3B-Nic Bidinger[8]; 4. 75L-Lane Whitney[6]; 5. 10T-Tyler Brown[1]; 6. 14-Kameron Grindstaff[4]; 7. (DNF) 38C-Jason Pursley[2]; 8. (DNS) 21-Greg Scheffler
Heat 2 – 1. 1X-Matt Johnson[2]; 2. 8-Dillon McCowan[5]; 3. 76-Shawn Knuckles[1]; 4. 26-Eric Turner[4]; 5. 9-Kenton Allen[3]; 6. 03-Chase Jones[7]; 7. 22B-Rick Beebe[6]; 8. (DNF) 21W-Tracy Wolf[8]
Hermitage Lumber Late Models
A Feature – 1. 51-Larry Ferris[4]; 2. 72-JC Morton[5]; 3. 1T-Tucker Cox[7]; 4. 1A-Bryon Allison[3]; 5. 90-Joe Walkenhorst[12]; 6. 99-Larry Jones[2]; 7. 14-Kyle Graves[11]; 8. 50-Kayden Clatt[1]; 9. 81-Jimmy Dowell[14]; 10. 40-Josh Newman[9]; 11. (DNF) 98B-Jarrett Ballard[13]; 12. (DNF) 0X-Jason Sivils[10]; 13. (DNF) 21P-Darren Phillips[8]; 14. (DQ) 98-Justin Wells[6]
Wasoba Seed & Trucking Heat 1 – 1. 72-JC Morton[3]; 2. 50-Kayden Clatt[1]; 3. 1T-Tucker Cox[6]; 4. 21P-Darren Phillips[5]; 5. 40-Josh Newman[4]; 6. (DNF) 81-Jimmy Dowell[7]
Reed Environmental & Dirt Track Specialist Heat 2 – 1. 98-Justin Wells[3]; 2. 99-Larry Jones[2]; 3. 51-Larry Ferris[6]; 4. 1A-Bryon Allison[1]; 5. 0X-Jason Sivils[4]; 6. 14-Kyle Graves[7]; 7. 90-Joe Walkenhorst[5]
O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars
A Feature – 1. 0F-Mason Beck[5]; 2. 7-William Garner[2]; 3. 91-Johnny Fennewald[4]; 4. 11-Waylon Dimmitt[7]; 5. 8M-James McMillin[3]; 6. 2-Colton Bourland[9]; 7. 83-James Ellis[8]; 8. 74-Rodney Schweizer[6]; 9. 24-Blayne McMillin[1]; 10. (DNF) 47-Ed Griggs[10]
Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 1 – 1. 11-Waylon Dimmitt[2]; 2. 91-Johnny Fennewald[3]; 3. 83-James Ellis[4]; 4. 24-Blayne McMillin[1]; 5. (DNF) 47-Ed Griggs[5]
Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 2 – 1. 74-Rodney Schweizer[2]; 2. 7-William Garner[1]; 3. 8M-James McMillin[5]; 4. 0F-Mason Beck[4]; 5. 2-Colton Bourland[3]
Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods
A Feature – 1. 55-Colson Kirk[1]; 2. 8S-Jon Sheets[3]; 3. 1B-Bobby Williams[2]; 4. 18-JC Morton[6]; 5. 83-JC Newell[8]; 6. 10P-Dayton Pursley[9]; 7. 11L-Logan Smith[4]; 8. 2-Quentin Taylor[12]; 9. 24D-Donnie Fellers[11]; 10. 0K-Tracy Killian[14]; 11. 27L-Clifford Lean[10]; 12. (DNF) 15-Ryan Edde[5]; 13. (DNF) 2X-Cole Hamilton[13]; 14. (DNF) 23N-Kenny Nutter[7]
Heat 1 – 1. 1B-Bobby Williams[2]; 2. 55-Colson Kirk[6]; 3. 11L-Logan Smith[4]; 4. 15-Ryan Edde[3]; 5. 10P-Dayton Pursley[7]; 6. 24D-Donnie Fellers[1]; 7. 2-Quentin Taylor[5]
Heat 2 – 1. 18-JC Morton[4]; 2. 8S-Jon Sheets[1]; 3. 83-JC Newell[7]; 4. 23N-Kenny Nutter[6]; 5. 27L-Clifford Lean[2]; 6. (DNF) 2X-Cole Hamilton[3]; 7. (DNF) 0K-Tracy Killian[5]
Thursday Night Thunder, Kids’ Bicycle Night and Fireworks next: Next up for the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series is the annual Casey’s Thursday Night Thunder Kids Night at the Races program with post-race fireworks, kicking off the 4th of July weekend on Thursday, June 29th. Visit participating area Casey’s locations for $2 discount coupons.
The annual Kids’ Bicycle Night giveaway will be a big part of the evening and anyone wishing to donate a bicycle or make a monetary donation to purchase bikes for youngsters, ages 5-through-12, may do so. Anyone interested in donating a new boys’ or girls’ bicycle, or make a cash donation, can stop by the Lucas Oil Speedway office during business hours.
For questions or more details, contact Lisa Lorton at the Lucas Oil Speedway office (417) 282-5984 or via email at Lisa@lucasoilspeedway.com.
The youngsters can sign before intermission on June 29th for a chance to enter a drawing for the new bicycles of various sizes.
Camping World SRX Series tickets on sale: Some of racing’s legends are coming to Lucas Oil Speedway for the Camping World SRX Series. The August 17th SRX “Thursday Night Thunder” will be the finale of the six-race series and determine the 2023 champion. All SRX races will air live on ESPN.
Drivers announced for the Lucas Oil Speedway event include NASCAR Cup Series champions Tony Stewart, Brad Keselowski and Bobby Labonte, along with NASCAR drivers Kenny Wallace, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer and Hailie Deegan. Also on hand will be four-time Indy 500 winer Helio Castroneves, plus reigning SRX Champion Marco Andretti and Indy-car drivers Paul Tracy and Ryan Hunter-Reay.
Click here to purchase tickets now
The series will pit the drivers against one another in identically prepared cars with points accumulated in each of the six events. The championship chase will culminate at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Tickets for the SRX event are $35 in advance and $40 at the gate (ages 16 and over). Kids (ages 6-15) will be $20 with ages 5-and-under free. Advance tickets can now be purchased via Stubwire. Pit passes are $50 and must be purchased the day of the event.
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.
CONTACT:
Danny Lorton
Lucas Oil Speedway General Manager
Office: (417) 282-5984