DODGE CITY, Kan. – The Lubbock Wrecker Service DCRP 305 Sprint Car Nationals turned out to be a lucrative venture for Arvada, Colorado’s Jake Bubak and the Dubose/Wells-powered Coyote Candle Company No. 74b Maxim sprint car team.
After topping both the Thursday and Friday preliminary features, Bubak topped the Triple 8 Trucking Dash for Cash to earn the pole position for Saturday night’s 30-lap championship feature atop the Dodge City Raceway Park clay oval.
He then led every lap to run his weekend winnings to $6,300 – including $1,500 in lap money and the $3,000 feature winner’s share.
It wasn’t as easy as it may sound though, as Liberal native and current Nebraska resident Jason Martin kept the pressure on throughout and briefly slid past Bubak on a pair of occasions only to have the latter successfully counter the move.
Martin first slid past Bubak in turn four momentarily after a lao four restart and then repeated the move in traffic on the 17th circuit.
Bubak successfully navigated past a pair of lapped cars and then found open track once again when a final caution waved with a dozen laps remaining.
Bubak reached the tail of the field once again in the final pair of laps, but was able to keep Martin at bay.
“I felt like I wasn’t as good as I needed to be in traffic, but we made it work,” Bubak commented afterward. “Once he showed me the bottom down in turn three and four, I changed my line up some and got a lot better.”
Martin settled for runner-up honors in the Myers-powered Trucks Plus/Midwest Linings No. 5x Eagle and collected an added $850 in lap money after holding down the second position over final 27 rounds.
After winning last year’s DCRP 305 Nationals, Fairview, Oklahoma’s Jake Martens claimed the show position in the Myers-powered Martens Machine Shop No. 48 Eagle, with Tony Bruce Jr., advancing four positions over the final half of the race to capture fourth.
Brian Herbert rounded out the top five ahead of Taylor Velasquez, Zach Blurton, Jeremy Huish, Luke Cranston and Brandon Anderson.
Steven Shebester held down fourth until the lap 18 caution, when he suffered race-ending damage after contact with a spinning lapped car.
In the accompanying 15-lap IMCA Sport Modified feature event, multi-time and defending track champion Jeff Kaup battled into the lead early and went on to snap a winless streak dating back a full calendar year, to last June 16.
A winner of 18 DCRP features since the 2012 season, Kaup’s first win of the season came ahead of Brian May, with Mike Lunow, Bart Baker and Mike Appel rounding out the top five.
The finish:
A-main (30 laps): 1. 74b-Jake Bubak (1) [$4,500], 2. 5x-Jason Martin (4) [$2,850], 3. 48-Jake Martens (3) [$2,330], 4. 11x-Tony Bruce, Jr. (8) [$1,400], 5. 97-Brian Herbert (2) [$1,120], 6. 21x-Taylor Velasquez (13) [$900], 7. 2J-Zach Blurton (9) [$800], 8. 88J-Jeremy Huish (21) [$700], 9. 49x-Luke Cranston (5) [$600], 10. 55b-Brandon Anderson (7) [$500], 11. 0-Steven Richardson (15) [$475], 12. 911-Ty Williams (11) ]$450], 13. 28-Tracey Hill (18) [$425], 14. 45d-David Luckie (12) [$400], 15. 72-Ray Seemann (17) [$400], 16. 78-Tanner Conn (16) [$400], 17. 16s-Steven Shebester (6) [$400], 18. 98-J.D. Johnson (20) [$400], 19. 45-Monty Ferriera (190 [$400], 20. 27-Andy Shouse (14) [$400], 21. 32k-Chris Kelley (10) [$400], 22. 2b-Brett Becker (22) [$400].
Lap Leader(s): Jake Bubak 1-30.