WHEATLAND, Mo. – Driving a race for the ages, Payton Looney etched his name into exclusive dirt-track company Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Looney, a 26-year-old from Republic, became the second Missouri driver to win the Show-Me 100 Presented by ProtecttheHarvest.com with a flawless performance in the 28th annual edition of the event.
The race was co-sanctioned by the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and the Lucas Oil Midwest Latemodel Racing Ass’n.
Looney led 87 of the 100 laps, beating Kyle Strickler by 1.677 seconds for the biggest win of his career. It was his fourth win the last six outings for the Lucas Oil MLRA points leader, but clearly the most-impactful.
“No, not really,” Looney said in victory lane, when asked if he could believe what just happened. “I changed my mind-set a lot this year. I put a lot of pressure on myself the past couple of years. I just realized that the sun’s coming up tomorrow.
“I have a beautiful wife and kids. There’s always more races. I’m just thankful to win this one.”
Prior to Saturday night, Springfield’s Terry Phillips in 1999 was the only Missouri driver to win the state’s biggest dirt-track race.
There were 48 entries representing 19 states for the race, postponed from its planned three-day event in May due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But it was Looney, in a star-studded field, who emerged with the $20,000 triumph.
Looney outraced fellow front-row starter Shannon Buckingham at the drop of the green and paced the first seven laps, when Buckingham went past for the lead going down the backstretch.
Buckingham led until Looney, working the high side as the leaders worked lapped traffic, regained the point coming to the line to complete lap 21. He went on top open a 1.7-second lead when the race’s first caution waved, on lap 28 when Tyler Bruening slowed to a halt.
That would be the only caution of the race. Looney, who didn’t win his first MLRA race until June 26 – two nights after finishing runner-up in a heartbreaker at Lucas Oil Speedway after leading 38 of 40 laps – was up to the challenge.
Strickler passed Buckingham on lap 83 and, after Looney had opened a 3.5-second lead with 10 laps remaining, was cutting into the lead as the laps clicked down.
“I was fading really bad. I was kind of a sitting duck,” Looney said. “I guess I burned up my right rear. I needed to be able to use the race track and momentum. That’s kind of what I did early. I was riding around there and I saw Shannon get by me.
“I didn’t really change anything I was doing, I just kind of ran my race. Once that top cleaned up a little bit, I knew I could circle back by him.”
Looney praised crew chief Lake Mooneyham, not only for helping prepare the Capital Race Car, but in signaling him throughout the race.
“I knew the whole time what kind of a lead I had and where to be on the race track,” Looney said. “There at the end, I knew if I didn’t miss that bottom they were gonna have to wreck me to get by me. It just all worked out.”
Strickler, a top-level modified racer who has recently moved into late models, was thrilled with his run.
“First of all, this is an absolutely amazing facility,” Strickler said. “So much of this is patience. Being a Modified guy, who don’t get too many 100-lappers. I said to (Tim) McCreadie before the race, I wish you could ride around with me and help me conserve some tires because he’s so good at it.”
Buckingham finished third with Chris Ferguson fourth and Ricky Thornton Jr. fifth. Rick Eckert, after starting 16th, advanced to sixth and four-time Show-Me 100 winner Jimmy Owens was seventh.
The finish:
1. 15L-Payton Looney[1]; 2. 8-Kyle Strickler[3]; 3. 50-Shanon Buckingham[4]; 4. 22F-Chris Ferguson[5]; 5. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[2]; 6. 0E-Rick Eckert[16]; 7. 20-Jimmy Owens[11]; 8. 1T-Tyler Erb[7]; 9. 81E-Tanner English[15]; 10. 1C-Chad Simpson[6]; 11. 1-Earl Pearson Jr[17]; 12. 49-Jonathan Davenport[21]; 13. 25-Shane Clanton[10]; 14. 14-Josh Richards[18]; 15. 40B-Kyle Bronson[24]; 16. 1ST-Johnny Scott[13]; 17. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[19]; 18. 58-Jeremiah Hurst[27]; 19. 39-Tim McCreadie[14]; 20. 16-Tyler Bruening[25]; 21. 75-Terry Phillips[8]; 22. 00-Jesse Stovall[9]; 23. 9-Devin Moran[23]; 24. 1V-Will Vaught[22]; 25. 21M-Billy Moyer Sr[20]; 26. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[28]; 27. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[12]; 28. 2S-Stormy Scott[26]