WHEATLAND, MO. (June 29, 2023) – JC Morton enjoyed a career night as Lucas Oil Speedway celebrated its annual Casey’s Thursday Night Thunder Kids’ Night at the Races.
Morton, from Springfield, captured his first career Hermitage Lumber Late Model feature victory in the headliner of the program coming just a few minutes after driving his Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod to a feature victory.
While he’s won countless times in his B-Mod over the years, the Late Model win was special for Morton. He was driving the car for Moon Brothers Racing out of Sedalia. Morton held off veteran Justin Wells, the Lucas Oil Speedway runaway Late Model points leader, for the win.
“We’ve been really close,” Morton said of the Late Model. “We’ve had a bunch of seconds. I keep giving Justin a hard time to just let me win, but finally it all came together.”
Other feature winners Nic Bidinger (Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds) and Darrin Schmidt (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars).
A total of 96 cars checked into the pits for the special program – which concluded with a big fireworks display – to kick off the 4th of July Holiday Weekend. Another highlight of the evening saw 123 donated bicycles awarded to youngsters during intermission in the annual Kids’ Bicycle Giveaway.
Shortly after after winning the USRA B-Mod feature, Morton went from his B-Mod straight to the Late Model and started on the pole in the Late Model feature. He quickly set the pace in the 25-lapper, opening a three-second lead over sixth-starting Cole Wells by lap seven with Justin Wells in third.
Morton’s lead continued to grow, reaching 3.5 seconds by lap 10 before Cole Wells began to whittle into the margin just as Wells started to deal with lapped traffic. Cole Wells cut the gap to 2.1 seconds by lap 15 with Justin Wells another second behind.
Morton was able to push his lead back to three seconds over Justin Wells when the caution appeared on lap 18 when Jason Sivils spun in turn two.
After the restart, Morton rode the high side just as he did in the B-Mod feature, to hold a slim lead over Justin Wells who worked the inside. But it was Morton’s night to double down and he held off the six-time 2023 feature winner by .642 seconds at the checkers.
“Man, I watched Justin growing up as a kid and he was kind of an idol,” Morton said. “He is so good and to be able to compete with his is phenomenal. He raced me very clean. I ripped that lip the last time as hard as I could to try and get away.
“I have to thank Larry Moon, Dale Moon and Moon Brothers Racing and all the sponsors on the car. They do all the prep work to get it ready. Without those guys I wouldn’t be in this position.”
Cole Wells finished third with Larry Ferris fourth and Joe Walkenhorst fifth.
Morton took home $1,000 for the Late Model win presented by Rains Ice 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.
Morton’s last-lap pass scores USRA B-Mod win: Morton pulled off a dramatic victory, with a final-lap pass to edge race-long leader Eric Turner for the Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod win.
Turner set the pace from his outside front-row starting position, opening a one-second over Ryan Edde by lap five with Logan Smith running third. They remained in that order as the race hit the midpoint with seventh-starting Morton advancing into fourth.
By lap 13, Kris Jackson moved from 16th to fifth, but Turner was still setting the pace comfortably up front as the laps clicked by. The event’s first caution flag few on lap 17 for debris in turn three, taking away Turner’s 1.06-second lead over Eddie.
Morton mounted a charge on the three-lap sprint to the finish and rode the high groove to sail around Turner for the lead and the win in turn four of the final lap. Morton’s margin was .207 seconds while earning his first Lucas Oil Speedway feature win of the season.
“We had a long green run and I was kind of maintaining, trying to keep the tires a little cooler,” Morton said. “Kris got to me right before the yellow and I kind of blocked the bottom and he blew past me on the high side, so I knew it had to be good.
“If the the yellow hadn’t come out I probably wouldn’t be standing up here, because that saved the race for me. We ripped the lip for the last three or four laps and it came to us”
Edde wound up third with Smith fourth and Jackson fifth.
Bidinger claims USRA Modified feature: Nic Bidinger of Perry, Kansas, led the final 17 laps to earn his second Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified feature victory of the season.
“I’ve got a lot of people to thank. All these people up here with us work their butts off here in the heat of the summer,” Bidinger said. “My dad is around with us all the time and my uncle’s at home watching. I really appreciate all they do.
“This is a new Cade Dillard car. This thing is awesome. Also Chad Wheeler, he put it on ’em last weekend. We called and got some notes and here we are in victory lane.”
Bidinger grabbed the lead away from Brendon Gemmill after a lap-three restart after pole-starting Gemmill paced the first three laps. The race had little rhythm in the early going with three cautions in the first six laps.
Bidinger was able to open up a .867-second lead before another caution waved two laps later. The race then started to gain some green-flag momentum before second-running Gemmill spun to bring out the sixth caution on lap 13.
Pursley moved into second with Dylan Hoover third as Bidinger set sail on the restart. Bidinger drove away from there to prevail by 2.4 seconds over Purlsey with Hoover finishing third, Trevor Hughes fourth and Gary Christian fifth.
Schmidt leads all the way in USRA Stock Cars: Darrin Schmidt of Winchester, Kansas, led flag-to-flag in a caution-free O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars main event. Schmidt beat Mason Beck by about six car lengths.
“The beginning of the year we can here and started up front and it was a completely different story,” Schmidt said. “Got got it lined out and everything’s going good. It was a last-minute decision to come. We got here about 6:15.
“It was a heck of a day, but it was worth the drive, for sure.”
Schmidt started on the outside of row one and paced the action from the start, rolling to a 1.4-second lead by lap eight with season points leader Mason Beck and William Garner running second and third.
Schmidt’s lead remained constant as the feature continued without any caution flags, the 20 laps finishing in just six minutes, 56 seconds. It was Schmidt’s first win at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Beck finished .700 seconds behind the winner with Waylon Dimmitt rallying from ninth to finish third. Garner slipped to fourth and Dean Wille came home in fifth.
LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (June 29, 2023)
Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series
Hermitage Lumber Late Models
A Feature – 1. 72-JC Morton[1]; 2. 98-Justin Wells[5]; 3. 17-Cole Wells[6]; 4. 51-Larry Ferris[7]; 5. 90-Joe Walkenhorst[11]; 6. 14-Kyle Graves[2]; 7. 1A-Bryon Allison[10]; 8. 1T-Tucker Cox[12]; 9. 99-Larry Jones[8]; 10. 0X-Jason Sivils[3]; 11. 81-Jimmy Dowell[9]; 12. 21P-Darren Phillips[13]; 13. (DNF) 5-Tommy Cordray[14]; 14. (DNF) 88-Isaac Keepper[4]
Wasoba Seed & Trucking Heat 1 – 1. 51-Larry Ferris[3]; 2. 14-Kyle Graves[5]; 3. 88-Isaac Keepper[1]; 4. 0X-Jason Sivils[2]; 5. 81-Jimmy Dowell[4]; 6. 90-Joe Walkenhorst[7]; 7. 21P-Darren Phillips[6]
Reed Environmental & Dirt Track Specialist Heat 2 – 1. 98-Justin Wells[1]; 2. 99-Larry Jones[2]; 3. 72-JC Morton[3]; 4. 17-Cole Wells[6]; 5. 1A-Bryon Allison[5]; 6. 1T-Tucker Cox[4]; 7. 5-Tommy Cordray[7]
Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods
A Feature – 1. 18-JC Morton[7]; 2. 99T-Eric Turner[2]; 3. 15-Ryan Edde[1]; 4. 11L-Logan Smith[4]; 5. J2-Kris Jackson[16]; 6. 66-Ryan Gillmore[12]; 7. 30-Rex Harris[6]; 8. 1B-Bobby Williams[20]; 9. 2-Quentin Taylor[5]; 10. 10P-Dayton Pursley[9]; 11. 83-JC Newell[17]; 12. 54JR-Eddie Ingram Jr[3]; 13. 32-Robbe Ewing[11]; 14. 1RED-Dan Wheeler[10]; 15. 96-Cody Brill[24]; 16. 69ER-Tyler Cadwallader[13]; 17. 50-Jordan Martin[15]; 18. 15C-Cayden Stacye[19]; 19. (DNF) 24L-Dakota Lowe[23]; 20. (DNF) 90-Terry Schultz[18]; 21. (DNF) 8S-Jon Sheets[8]; 22. (DNF) F1-Mitchell Franklin[22]; 23. (DNF) 94-Tyler Potter[21]; 24. (DNF) 21-Jacob Potter[14]
B Feature 1 – 1. 83-JC Newell[1]; 2. 15C-Cayden Stacye[4]; 3. 94-Tyler Potter[2]; 4. 24L-Dakota Lowe[3]; 5. 12C-Stephen Clancy[5]; 6. 51-Brian Schutt[10]; 7. 24-Jerry Ellis[6]; 8. 66X-Chris Wright[7]; 9. 0K-Tracy Killian[9]; 10. 23N-Kenny Nutter[8]
B Feature 2 – 1. 90-Terry Schultz[2]; 2. 1B-Bobby Williams[1]; 3. F1-Mitchell Franklin[3]; 4. 96-Cody Brill[10]; 5. 7-Kynsey Collins[4]; 6. 84-Dayton Newell[7]; 7. 24D-Donnie Fellers[6]; 8. 31M-Michael Hascall[8]; 9. 2X-Cole Hamilton[5]; 10. 19R-Cole Stillwell[9]
Heat 1 – 1. 8S-Jon Sheets[1]; 2. 99T-Eric Turner[3]; 3. 66-Ryan Gillmore[4]; 4. 69ER-Tyler Cadwallader[6]; 5. 90-Terry Schultz[5]; 6. F1-Mitchell Franklin[8]; 7. 12C-Stephen Clancy[9]; 8. 84-Dayton Newell[7]; 9. 31M-Michael Hascall[2]
Heat 2 – 1. 15-Ryan Edde[2]; 2. 10P-Dayton Pursley[3]; 3. 32-Robbe Ewing[5]; 4. 21-Jacob Potter[1]; 5. 83-JC Newell[7]; 6. 1B-Bobby Williams[9]; 7. 24-Jerry Ellis[6]; 8. 23N-Kenny Nutter[8]; 9. 0K-Tracy Killian[4]
Heat 3 – 1. 2-Quentin Taylor[2]; 2. 54JR-Eddie Ingram Jr[4]; 3. 11L-Logan Smith[8]; 4. J2-Kris Jackson[3]; 5. 94-Tyler Potter[1]; 6. 7-Kynsey Collins[5]; 7. 2X-Cole Hamilton[9]; 8. (DNF) 51-Brian Schutt[7]; 9. (DQ) 96-Cody Brill[6]
Heat 4 – 1. 30-Rex Harris[1]; 2. 1RED-Dan Wheeler[3]; 3. 18-JC Morton[8]; 4. 50-Jordan Martin[2]; 5. 24L-Dakota Lowe[5]; 6. 15C-Cayden Stacye[7]; 7. 24D-Donnie Fellers[6]; 8. 66X-Chris Wright[4]; 9. 19R-Cole Stillwell[9]
Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds
A Feature – 1. 3B-Nic Bidinger[3]; 2. 38C-Jason Pursley[5]; 3. 99-Dylan Hoover[14]; 4. 712-Trevor Hughes[8]; 5. 58X-Gary Christian[13]; 6. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[21]; 7. 96-RC Whitwell[6]; 8. 16-Randy Brown[17]; 9. 85-Tyler Shaw[11]; 10. 9-Kenton Allen[10]; 11. 89-Tyler Hibner[18]; 12. 21-Ryan Middaugh[7]; 13. G3-Brendon Gemmill[1]; 14. 21G-Greg Scheffler[4]; 15. 12-Andrew Thomas[23]; 16. F26-Jay Fields[20]; 17. 17-Richard Kimberling[22]; 18. 21W-Tracy Wolf[12]; 19. (DNF) 97-Houston Johnson[2]; 20. (DNF) 3J-Lewis Jackson[15]; 21. (DNF) 92-Tyler Grooms[19]; 22. (DNF) 33-Jaren Martin[9]; 23. (DNF) 4W-Tyler Wolff[26]; 24. (DNF) C3-Chad Staus[16]; 25. (DNS) 75-Terry Phillips; 26. (DNS) 03-Chase Jones
Heat 1 – 1. 38C-Jason Pursley[5]; 2. 21G-Greg Scheffler[2]; 3. 712-Trevor Hughes[3]; 4. 21W-Tracy Wolf[4]; 5. 99-Dylan Hoover[7]; 6. 89-Tyler Hibner[6]; 7. 92-Tyler Grooms[8]; 8. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[9]; 9. 12-Andrew Thomas[1]
Heat 2 – 1. 3B-Nic Bidinger[5]; 2. 21-Ryan Middaugh[6]; 3. 9-Kenton Allen[2]; 4. 97-Houston Johnson[9]; 5. 3J-Lewis Jackson[4]; 6. C3-Chad Staus[7]; 7. (DNF) 03-Chase Jones[1]; 8. (DNF) 75-Terry Phillips[3]; 9. (DNS) 4W-Tyler Wolff
Heat 3 – 1. G3-Brendon Gemmill[3]; 2. 96-RC Whitwell[6]; 3. 33-Jaren Martin[2]; 4. 58X-Gary Christian[4]; 5. 85-Tyler Shaw[8]; 6. 16-Randy Brown[7]; 7. F26-Jay Fields[5]; 8. 17-Richard Kimberling[1]
O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars
A Feature – 1. 85-Darrin Schmidt[2]; 2. 0F-Mason Beck[4]; 3. 11-Waylon Dimmitt[9]; 4. 7-William Garner[1]; 5. 68-Dean Wille[5]; 6. 47-Ed Griggs[3]; 7. 2-Colton Bourland[8]; 8. 7K-Doug Keller[10]; 9. 8M-James McMillin[11]; 10. 23-Mark Simon[12]; 11. 74-Rodney Schweizer[6]; 12. 9H-Nic Hanes[18]; 13. 83-James Ellis[16]; 14. 45-Bob King[15]; 15. 27-Jeff Tennant[17]; 16. 24-Blayne McMillin[14]; 17. (DNF) 77-Zack Willis[7]; 18. (DNF) 12-Christopher Sawyer[13]; 19. (DNF) 1X-Derek Brown[19]
Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 1 – 1. 85-Darrin Schmidt[1]; 2. 68-Dean Wille[2]; 3. 77-Zack Willis[3]; 4. 0F-Mason Beck[9]; 5. 11-Waylon Dimmitt[7]; 6. 7K-Doug Keller[10]; 7. 24-Blayne McMillin[6]; 8. 45-Bob King[5]; 9. (DNF) 27-Jeff Tennant[4]; 10. (DNF) 1X-Derek Brown[8]
Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 2 – 1. 47-Ed Griggs[3]; 2. 7-William Garner[4]; 3. 74-Rodney Schweizer[6]; 4. 2-Colton Bourland[8]; 5. 23-Mark Simon[1]; 6. 8M-James McMillin[9]; 7. 12-Christopher Sawyer[2]; 8. 83-James Ellis[5]; 9. (DNF) 9H-Nic Hanes[7]
Next up: There will be no racing this Saturday at Lucas Oil Speedway. Action resumes on Saturday, July 8th with a Veterans and Military Appreciation Night as all Veterans and Military personnel will be admitted free with ID. The Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods will be the headline division with a special 25-lap, $750-to-win main event. The Hermitage Lumber Late Models, Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds and O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars also will be in action.
Pit gates will open at 4 p.m. and grandstands at 5 with hot laps at 6:30 and racing at 7:05.
Earlier that day, UTV Short Course racers will be in action on the off road course. Race classes will include Pro Turbo, Pro N/A, Expert Turbo, Expert N/A, Amateur Turbo, Amateur N/A, Vet 40+ Turbo, Vet 40+ N/A, Women’s Turbo, Women’s N/A, Youth 800 N/A, Youth 1000 N/A, 170 Stock, 170 Limited, 170 Modified.
Off Road gates are tentatively scheduled to open at 7:30 a.m. with hot laps at 8 a.m. and racing at 9:40 a.m. All fans purchasing Off Road tickets will have pit access at the Off Road track and free admission to that night’s dirt-track action.
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 Aug. 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