WHEATLAND, Mo. — Wesley Smith led all 25 laps to capture the POWRi WAR Sprint League feature victory Saturday night, turning a close battle into a runaway late as he beat Jack Wagner by 2.8 seconds.
The victory, at the 13th annual Impact Signs Awnings & Wraps Open Wheel Showdown at Lucas Oil Speedway, moved Smith into second place in all-time POWRi WAR wins with 14. Smith is two-for-two in 2024, adding to a feature win in the season opener at I-70 Speedway.
“I think they put some new dirt on this surface and definitely for the better,” Smith said of Lucas Oil Speedway. “It’s definitely a little tricky. It’s not the smoothest or the fastest surface I’ve ever raced on, but it’s one of the funnest. It seems the WAR Series is putting on some great shows.”
Smith started up front and led the opening lap as Kory Schudy moved into second before a caution flew on lap two. Wagner moved around Schudy for the second spot two laps after the restart.
The order remained that way as the laps ticked by with Smith maintaining a quarter-second lead over Wagner. Those two waged a tremendous battle for the lead as the race reached lap 12 when Wagner couldn’t quite pull off a slider for the lead. No matter what Wagner tried, Smith was up to the challenge and he was able to use lapped traffic to expand his lead to close out the wire-to-wire victory.
“Man, that was a fun race,” Smith said, noting Wagner’s near-pass eight eight laps remaining. “I told him after the race ‘if you’d have waited one more corner and one more lap, you’d have passed me.'”
Schudy finished third with Keith Martin coming home in fourth.
Feature Results
1. 44-Wesley Smith[1]; 2. 77-Jack Wagner[4]; 3. 28-Kory Schudy[3]; 4. 79-Keith Martin[6]; 5. 73-Samuel Wagner[5]; 6. 21K-Kobe Simpson[7]; 7. 11W-Wyatt Burks[8]; 8. F5-Riley Kreisel[15]; 9. 13-Chase Howard[12]; 10. 33-Bryson Smith[9]; 11. 9M-Matt Fox[11]; 12. (DNF) 79X-Kyle Jones[16]; 13. (DNF) 88G-Garrett Hulsey[17]; 14. (DNF) 45-Jesse Bebee[14]; 15. (DNF) 9-Cody Baker[2]; 16. (DNF) 26-Zachary Clark[10]; 17. (DNF) 52-Dean Bowers[13]
Reinbold earns first POWRi Midget League victory
Hayden Reinbold dominated from start to finish for his first POWRi National and West Midget league career victory.
The 20-year-old Reinbold started on the pole and rolled to the lead in a race slowed by only one early caution. He opened a 2.2-second command over Shannon McQueen by lap nine and maintained consistent laps the rest of the way to lead all 15 circuits.
McQueen held off 15-year-old Gunnar Setser for the runner-up positions. Broc Elliott finished fourth.
“We’ve been struggling a little bit lately, so we came down here to run POWRi and we had a lot of fun,” Reinbold said. “It was a bummer we were rained out last night (at Callaway Raceway) but we were super happy to show that we have some speed.
“This place is awesome. The facility is nice,” Reinbold said of Lucas Oil Speedway. “I’ve been here once before and I crashed, but I had a lot of fun (tonight). This place is sick.”
Feature Results
1. 19AZ-Hayden Reinbold[1]; 2. 7-Shannon McQueen[2]; 3. 43-Gunnar Setser[5]; 4. 00-Broc Elliott[6]; 5. 44-Branigan Roark[4]; 6. 89-Todd McVay[3]; 7. 00X-Mark Elliott[7]
POWRi Ozark Region 360 Sprints
Miles Paulus overtook Randy Martin with three laps remaining and went on to score his first POWRi Ozark Region 360 Sprint feature victory.
Paulus started fourth and gave chase to Martin most of the way before finally reeling him in and making the decisive pass. Paulus wound up beating sixth-starting Gunner Ramey and Paulus at the checkers.
Martin sprinted to the lead from the start as Paulus gave chase and had a one-second lead over Paulus 10 laps into the feature. As the race continued under green, Paulus cut the lead to .090 of a second by lap 16.
Paulus completed his march to the front by sliding past Martin in turn two on lap 17 with Ramey, from Sedalia, right behind. Once out in front, Paulus pulled away as Martin, of California, Mo., and Ramey went back-and-forth for second. Paulus finished 3.06 seconds in front of Ramey with Martin settling for third.
“Everybody on the side of this car … I get to stand here and say that I won, but we won as a team,” Paulus said. “I’m very grateful for their support. It’s a team effort.”
Feature Results
1. 98P-Miles Paulus[4]; 2. 21-Gunner Ramey[6]; 3. 14-Randy Martin[1]; 4. 2B-Garrett Benson[3]; 5. 2-Chase Porter[5]; 6. 5T-James Turnbull[8]; 7. 73-Samuel Wagner[10]; 8. 77-Jack Wagner[12]; 9. 99D-Tucker Daly[9]; 10. 14E-Kyle Bellm[2]; 11. (DNS) 31-Casey Wills; 12. (DNS) 52D-Skyler Daly