WHEATLAND, Mo. — Tyler Courtney took the lead with five laps remaining Friday night and captured the victory on night one of the Kubota High Limit Racing Diamond Classic at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Courtney roared from third and into the lead after a lap-24 restart and went on to earn $10,000 with his fourth Kubota High Limit Racing feature win of the season. He beat Brad Sweet at the finish with James McFadden capturing third.
The series returns for Saturday night’s Diamond Classic finale with $25,000 awaiting the feature winner.
“The last time I ran here, I won in a midget (in 2016) and it’s pretty cool to come back in a winged car and have success,” the ninth-starting Courtney said in victory lane. “That was fun, a lot of fun.”
Courtney, driving for Clauson Marshall Racing, finished two seconds clear at the checkers as he pulled away from Brad Sweet and the rest after taking the lead on lap 25. He was the fourth and final leader of the 30-lapper.
“The track was quite a bit different than the heats, but I don’t think you could ask for much more than that,” Courtney said. “There was racing everywhere. A hot day, but a great day.”
Courtney picked up an additional $4,500 along with lucky fan Patrick Walker after the Durst Dice Roll, which was a nine – and Courtney won from ninth.
Sye Lynch won the drag race with fellow front-row starter Corey Day and grabbed the lead at the drop of the green, with Sweet settling into third. The top three were separated by only one second when the first caution flew on lap three.
Day grabbed the lead away from Lynch on the restart and used the cushion on the high side to open a 1.7-second lead in just four laps. He soon was dealing with lapped traffic and suddenly slowed to a crawl entering turn three on lap 10.
Day, who won two nights earlier at Lake Ozark Speedway, was unable to continue. Lynch re-inherited the lead with Sweet second and Courtney third. Lynch pulled away after the restart to lead by nearly two seconds by lap 15. Action ground to a half at that point as Brent Marks rolled his car in turn four, bringing out the red flag.
Sweet swept to the lead after the restart, coming on the outside of turn four to complete lap 17. Before he could get too far away from Lynch, a lap-20 caution flew as two cars spun in turn four.
Lynch was applying the heat to Sweet with Courtney right behind when a caution appeared on lap 23 for a one-car spin in turn four, leaving seven laps to settle things. Courtney took second away from Lynch on lap 24, then grabbed the top spot the next time around.
Courtney rolled from there, driving away for the victory over series points leader Sweet. McFadden, who started 13th, captured third with 14th-starting Tanner Thorson fourth and Lynch winding up fifth.
“Luckily I was third there and Sye got Brad to moving around,” Courtney said. “I just stuck to my guns there and just ran the top as hard as I could and came away with the win.”
Sweet said his car was not quite have the car dialed in enough to win.
“I’m happy to get locked into a little bit better spot for tomorrow,” Sweet said. “That’s important on this prelim nights to run top four. I felt I wasn’t quite good enough to win, no matter which line I was trying to run or make work it seemed like someone was pushing me.
“Sye was getting back to my inside, so I committed to the inside. I just wasn’t good enough. I had to slow the car down way too much to run the bottom, but running the top I would get spinning on the (turn) exit. Tyler was just clearly a little bit better than us tonight.”
Tyler Davis took over the lead on lap 21 and held on to beat Tad Davis by half a second in the Heartland Modified Tour feature.
The finish:
Feature: – 1, Tyler Courtney. 2, Brad Sweet. 3, James McFadden. 4, Tanner Thorson. 5, Sye Lynch. 6, Justin Peck. 7, Hunter Schuerenberg. 8, Chris Windom. 9, Jacob Allen. 10, Zeb Wise. 11, Ryan Timms. 12, Cory Eliason. 13, Kasey Kahne. 14, Spencer Bayston. 15, Rico Abreu. 16, Xavier Doney. 17, Brenham Crouch. 18, Parker Price Miller. 19, Howard Moore. 20, Jace Park. 21, Garet Williamson. 22, Gage Montgomery. 23, Brent Marks. 24, Tyler Blank. 25, Brian Bell. 26, Corey Day.