BELLEVILLE, Ill. — Chelby Hinton would lead 22 of the 30-lap feature event to win Eibach Championship Night of the Lil’ Texas Micro Mania KKM Challenge with the POWRi Outlaw Micro League presented by Rush Race Gear to claim his third seasonal league victory after an intense and incredibly impressive star-studded event.
Entering a stout field of combined preliminary night 85 entries in the POWRi Outlaw Non-Wing Micro division on Eibach Championship Night of the Micro Mania KKM Challenge would find Darren Brown and Steven Snyder Jr. gaining the hard-fought semi-feature victories.
As the green flag flew, Braden Chiaramonte held the front of the field for the first pair of fast-paced laps around Lil’ Texas Motor Speedway as Hinton, Sam Johnson, NASCAR Xfinity Series star Sheldon Creed and Colby Sokol all battled inside the early contending top five as a caution flag would wave.
Restarting with the choose-cone in play would find Chiaramonte protecting the front of the field as Snyder would blast to the lead pack and into the runner-up spot with Hinton staying close in third as Darren Brown and Creed battled within the top five.
Overtaking for the lead by using a perfect restart would find Snyder taking the top spot on the field briefly as Hinton would drive to the point placement with Chiaramonte recovering to run third in a barrage of battles around Lil Texas Motor Speedway.
Sticking to the fastest low-line path, Hinton would hold steady up front while guarding the constant pressure from Chiaramonte.
Adding even more intrigue to an already instant classic of a feature event would see a caution displayed with two laps remaining to bunch the field back together for a shootout to determine the victor as Hinton would defend the top spot for the final laps to earn his third career POWRi Outlaw Non-Wing Micro victory. Chiaramonte would finish in the closely guarded second spot with Snyder finalizing the podium placements.
“I noticed on the last restart that the rubber was coming in on the bottom and when I saw Snyder get on the top I knew I had to get up on the wheel through one and two and I got really lucky with lap traffic too,” said Hinton in victory lane. “This win means a lot for our team moving into Port with a lot of momentum.”
Keeping a solid showing all night, Brown placed fourth as Creed rounded out the top-five finishers. Two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Kyle Busch finished 12th after starting 14th.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. 28-Chelby Hinton[2]; 2. 73B-Braden Chiaramonte[1]; 3. 21S-Steven Snyder Jr[10]; 4. 11C-Darren Brown[9]; 5. 74-Sheldon Creed[5]; 6. 82S-Austin Saunders[8]; 7. 24S-Colby Sokol[7]; 8. 81-Frank Flud[4]; 9. 29-Chase Cabre[11]; 10. 20Q-Brecken Reese[13]; 11. 12C-Chase Spicola[16]; 12. 51-Kyle Busch[14]; 13. 25S-Justis Sokol[12]; 14. 22M-Sammy McNabb[22]; 15. 14-Harley Hollan[20]; 16. 19J-Justin Robison[21]; 17. 80N-Shawn Jones[24]; 18. 21-Jadan Bowling[17]; 19. 110-Karter Battarbee[18]; 20. 50-Jacob Severn[23]; 21. 17G-Isaiah Garcia[6]; 22. 19-Sam Johnson[3]; 23. 44C-Cameron Paul[15]; 24. 1E-Eric Braundmeier[19].