GRANITE CITY, Ill. — Fourth-starting Jake Neuman cashed in on a $3,000 payday with the Morrow Brothers Ford MOWA Sprint Car Series Friday night at Tri-City Speedway.
As the 20-car starting field took the green flag, the race was immediately halted for a red-flag incident on the frontstretch. Ryan Bunton and Joe B. Miller got upside down and were unable to rejoin the field.
Corey Nelson was involved in the altercation and retired early with damage.
Daum jumped to the early lead with Bruns in second. NASCAR Cup Series regular Alex Bowman started third and was comfortably holding his position while Jake Neuman navigated the top-shelf of the three-eighths-mile oval to move to the point by lap five.
Neuman jumped to a sizable lead and was approaching lapped traffic, only to be slowed once again by a lap-eight caution.
Returning to green flag action, Neuman pulled away from the field and again made his way into lapped traffic with a comfortable lead over Zach Daum and Cory Bruns. Luke Verardi who was on his way to a career-best finish with the series, slowed in turn three on lap 18 to bring out the final caution of the night.
A two-lap shootout to the finish was set and Neuman knew he had to have a perfect restart to capitalize on the lurking Daum. Neuman’s machine shot of a cannon as the field roared back to life and never looked back as he sailed to victory ahead of Zach Daum, Ayrton Gennetten, Cory Bruns and Zach Hampton, who charged from 20th to finish fifth.
Bowman came home sixth and Chase Briscoe was eighth.
The finish:
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 3N-Jake Neuman[4]; 2. 5D-Zach Daum[2]; 3. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[8]; 4. 44-Cory Bruns[1]; 5. 35-Zach Hampton[20]; 6. 55-Alex Bowman[3]; 7. 97-Scotty Milan[11]; 8. 14-Chase Briscoe[17]; 9. 10S-Jeremy Standridge[5]; 10. 5-Kory Bales[10]; 11. 21R-Gunner Ramey[18]; 12. 79J-Jacob Patton[14]; 13. 1T-Trevin Littleton[12]; 14. 3B-Shelby Bosie[16]; 15. 71-Caden Englehart[15]; 16. 28-Luke Verardi[6]; 17. 9X-Paul Nienhiser[19]; 18. 6-Corey Nelson[9]; 19. 51B-Joe B Miller[13]; 20. 6R-Ryan Bunton[7]