WHEATLAND, Mo. – During his Lucas Oil Speedway championship season last year, Cole Henson used consistency to forge his way to the speedway and Lucas Cattle Company ULMA national title.
This season, as Henson continues to lead the Missouri Metal Buildings ULMA Late Model and ULMA national standings, he’s also finding his way to victory lane. Saturday night, Henson held off Larry Ferris for his second feature win of the season.
Other feature winners on Ozarks Coca-Cola/Dr Pepper Night at the Races Presented by OzarksFIRST.com were Kris Jackson (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods), Dillon McCowan (Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds) and Lyle Dietrich (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars).
Henson lived up to his nickname of “Hammer” on a race track that he labeled “hammer down” for its dig-in traction after morning rain. He started up front and led all 25 laps in a caution-free main event, taking home $1,000.
But his one-time 2.5 second lead by lap 10 melted away to almost nothing as Ferris made a charge, pulling onto his back bumper by lap 18. Henson was up to the challenge, holding off the previous week’s feature winner to prevail by half a second.
“I’ll tell you what man, this track was hooked up tonight,” Henson said in victory lane. “That’s what I’m talking about! Hammer down and wheel that thing. Lapped traffic was getting a little sketchy there. I was just trying not to mess up.
“I couldn’t do any of this without my car owner, Rob Schlup, and my family and everybody. Thanks to all of them. They set me up with an awesome car every week.”
Dalton Imhoff rallied from fifth to third with Johnny Fennewald fourth and JC Morton finishing fifth.
Defending track champion Jackson continued his steamroll through the month of May, winning for a third straight Saturday this month for another Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod feature.
Jackson led 19 of 20 laps. After fighting off a mid-race challenge from Andy Bryant, he went on to pull away and finished 3.3 seconds in front of Bryant.
“I slept until noon because I thought there was no way they were going to have races today,” Jackson said of rain earlier in the day and a dire forecast. “They said they were racing and I couldn’t believe it. This track is awesome.”
Jackson started on the pole and got the jump on fellow front-row starter JC Newell for the lead into turn one after the green flag flew. Bryant took the lead coming to the flag stand to complete lap 11, but Jackson regained it by turn one and set sail from there to the checkers.
“I knew the top was fast, I just didn’t know how slow the bottom was compared to the top lane,” Jackson said. “I was passing those lapped cars and he just drove right by me. Luckily I kind of pinned him behind a lapped car and I was able to get back to the top groove.”
Newell finished third while Eric Turner wound up fourth and Ryan Edde was fifth.
McCowan started up front and led all 20 laps to capture his second Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified feature victory of the season.
The 17-year-old from Urbana checked out from the field in a race that remained green all the way. He prevailed by 6.3 seconds over runner-up Tracy Wolf with Chase Domer finishing third.
“It was a fast race track tonight,” McCowan said. “I knew if I could just keep my line together and not spin it out, we’d probably we all right tonight.”
As for his second feature win, McCowan said, “It’ll never get old. I just can’t say enough about the track tonight and all the people who help me. I couldn’t do it without them.”
Chase Jones wound up fourth with Jason Pursley in fifth.
Dietrich earned his first O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars feature win, taking over on lap five and leading the remainder of the way.
Dietrich started fifth and worked his way to second behind pole-position-starting Darren Phillips by lap three, then made the decisive pass two laps later. He wound up 5.6 seconds in front of Phillips.
Dietrich didn’t run his heat race because he attended a wedding earlier in the evening.
“It was fun. We came here several years ago and I always wanted to do this and we finally got it done,” Dietrich said. “I had to go to a wedding earlier and came over and parked the car. Dad got it ready. We missed the heat race, but made it for the feature and got it done.”
David Hendrix finished third as his feature winning streak ended at three. Scott Johnson was fourth and Craig Wright fifth.