SPRING VALLEY, Minn. — Chris Simpson rolled to his 15th Lucas Oil MLRA feature victory on Saturday night at Deer Creek Speedway.
Simpson rolled out a new MB Custom Chassis that his team had just finished assembling the day prior and gave the new ride a perfect and undefeated record with the $5,000 victory.
Saturday night’s feature marked the second visit for the MLRA series to the Creek and first since 2016.
Blair Nothdurft started the 40-lap main event from the pole for the first time in his MLRA career, alongside of Chris Simpson.
At the drop of the green flag Simpson jumped out in front leading the first circuit, before Nothdurft shot by for the top spot on the second lap of the main event. Nothdurft’s time at the point was short lived, as Simpson would drive back to the top spot just one lap later.
While Simpson was cruising on the bottom, Garrett Alberson was letting the sparks fly off the right rear quarter panel of his Black Diamond along the outside line edging close to the top spot in search of his first MLRA victory. The night’s first of three yellow flags slowed the pace on lap 25 when Aaron Marrant slowed on the speedway.
Jordan Yaggy restarted second after moving past Alberson just prior to the caution.
The yellow would again fly just one lap later when Mason Oberkarmer spun on the front stretch. Simpson would show the way on the restart, stretching out the advantage over Yaggy, who would start to chase down the race leader until the caution again slowed his charge with eight laps remaining.
On the final restart, Simpson jumped to the point and drove to victory. Yaggy held off a hard-charging Earl Pearson Jr. at the line for second, while Alberson and Chad Maeder rounded out the top five.
“I know the track rubbered up a little, but I felt like we really had a good car all night. We could move around and we did what we had to do in the heat to win,” Simpson said. “I knew the top was crumby and I knew if I could get the lead and get down, and them my crew guy was telling me to go to the top, so I knew it must have rubbered.”
Yaggy came home one spot short of his first MLRA victory.
“It seems like at these shows we have run every place there is in the top five, so hopefully that win is coming,” he said. “It seemed like if we could go four or five laps green, my car would really pick up. There was about four to go there and I tried to make a run at him and seemed like we sucked up to him a little bit and then my right rear tire started shuddering on me and I thought I better behave and be happy with what I’ve got. It was a great night for our team.”
The finish:
Feature (40 laps): 1. 32S-Chris Simpson[2]; 2. 77Y-Jordan Yaggy[3]; 3. 1P-Earl Pearson Jr[8]; 4. 59-Garrett Alberson[4]; 5. 55C-Chad Mahder[12]; 6. 41-Jeremiah Hurst[10]; 7. 76-Blair Nothdurft[1]; 8. 15-Justin Duty[5]; 9. 25-Chad Simpson[11]; 10. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[17]; 11. 21M-Luke Merfeld[7]; 12. 91P-Jason Papich[26]; 13. 49T-Jake Timm[21]; 14. 98-Jason Rauen[16]; 15. 93-Mason Oberkramer[9]; 16. 10P-Paul Parker[18]; 17. 3W-Brennon Willard[20]; 18. F15-Jeremy Conaway[22]; 19. 74-Mitch McGrath[6]; 20. 24W-Brad Waits[14]; 21. 51F-Matt Furman[25]; 22. 10S-Taylor Scheffler[23]; 23. 1X-Aaron Marrant[19]; 24. 17-Tim Simpson[13]; 25. LXV-Lucas Peterson[24]; 26. 90-Lance Matthees[15]