WHEATLAND, Mo. — The Summit USRA Nationals began Wednesday night at Lucas Oil Speedway with 138 cars in three divisions going through heat races and features.
The top six feature finishers for USRA Modifieds, USRA B-Mods and USRA Stock Cars locked themselves into the main events on Saturday.
Opening-night feature wins went to Colson Kirk and Mitchell Franklin in the USRA B-Mods, Nic Bidinger and Houston Johnson in USRA Modifieds and Johnny Fennewald, Josh Cain and Kevin Donlan in USRA Stock Cars.
Colson Kirk of nearby Urbana passed Springfield’s JC Morton on the final lap to capture the first USRA Modified feature.
Morton and Shadren Turner started on the front row and they ran 1-2 until a caution on lap eight. As action resumed, Morton stayed on the high side with Turner continually challenging in the low groove.
By lap 13, Kirk joined the battle making his way from a seventh-starting spot. The top three were separated by a quarter-second when a caution flew on lap 16.
Kirk slipped past Turner on the restart and set his sights on the leader. Kirk was able to make the winning pass in turn two of the final lap and beat Morton at the finish by .403 seconds.
“I just thought if I could ever clear Shad, I could slide JC and it finally worked. It was awesome,” Kirk said.
Turner wound up third with B-Mod national points leader Ty Griffith fourth and Tim Eaton fifth.
The second B-Mod feature saw another Ozarks-area driver, Mitchell Franklin, grab the lead on lap 15 and drive away from runner-up Jake Richards the rest of the way.
Richards had led since he passed early race leader Taylor Ausrud on lap four. Bobby Williams charged into second on six, one second behind Richards. The margin was 1.5 seconds when a lap-13 caution set up a restart.
Franklin had a great restart and powered around Richards on the high side of turn four on lap 15. He took it home from there, finishing 1.9 seconds in front of Richards at the finish.
“We took very good notes the last time we won here and this is very similar,” Franklin said. “We just put it back to ‘go get ’em mode.’ My didn’t fire the first couple of laps, but once I got ’em warm … it came to me.”
Williams finished third with J.T. Carroll fourth and Chad Clancy fifth.
Modifieds
Nic Bidinger took control on lap 11 and pulled away from there to capture the opening USRA Modified feature.
Derek Green set a fast pace in leading after the green flew and was two seconds in front of Dean Wille by lap five with Bidinger third. Green was half-a-straightaway clear of Wille by lap seven, when the first caution came out.
The seventh-starting Bidinger moved into second after the restart and began to chase down Green, making the pass out of turn four on lap 11. Bidinger soon pulled away and had a two-second lead over Wille.
Bidinger went on to win by three seconds over Wille. Green finished third with Colton Eck fourth and Dayton Pursley fifth.
“I knew we were in really good position, with or without the yellow flag,” Bidinger said. “The car was really, really good. The track was wide and it was really racy. The car was good enough that we could go wherever we needed to.”
Houston Johnson started up front and led all the way to win the second feature, getting away from a challenging Tyler Wolff on a restart with eight laps to go.
Wolff, the USRA Modified national points leader, advanced from seventh at the start to second by lap five as Johnson set the pace. Johnson’s lead was .352 seconds at the midpoint on lap 10.
The first caution flew on lap 12 as a pair of slower cars spun in front of Johnson and Wolff, that they were able to avoid. Johnson had a better restart and was able to open a race-best 1.6-second advantage over Wolff with Brandon Givens further back in third.
Johnson had no trouble from there, winning by 1.7 seconds over Wolff for his ninth overall feature win of the season. Givens was third with Joe Chisholm fourth and Henry Chambers fifth.
“It’s been a little bit of a roller-coaster year, but I think probably the best overall,” Johnson said. “It’s helped getting out. We’ve been at Humboldt quite a bit, we’ve been to Monett. I think it just makes it easier when I come down here.”
Stock Cars
Johnny Fennewald took command with 12 laps remaining and held off Waylon Dimmitt to capture the first USRA Stock Cars feature.
The third-starting Fennewald got around Jeremy Vaughn off turn two for the lead on lap eight after Vaughn had led the first six times around.
Fennewald built a 1.3-second lead when caution came out on lap 11. Dimmitt moved into second after the restart and closed in on Fennewald with five laps remaining. But Fennewald moved higher on the track and was able to stave off the challenger, with a lap 18-caution setting up a two-lap shootout.
Fennewald won the sprint, beating Dimmitt by .269 seconds.
Vaughn wound up third with Bryan White fourth and Todd Staley fifth.
The second Stock Cars feature had a tough time getting going, with three cautions and a red flag before four official laps were completed.
Once it finally found some rhythm, USRA Stock Cars national points leader Josh Cain settled in at the front.
Cain led all 20 laps en route to his 33rd overall victory of the season and 24th in USRA action.
Derek Green stuck close behind Cain most of the way, staying within two car lengths the second half of the race. But Green slipped on lap 17, allowing Cain to stretch his lead to nearly three seconds.
Cain prevaield by 3.2 seconds over Green with David Hendrix third, James Ellis fourth and Christopher Theodore fifth.
The best race of the night was the last one, with Kevin Donlan making the winning pass on the final turn to edge Brandon Hare. The top five were separated by less than a half-second.
The sixth-starting Hare passed early leader Jaylen Wettengel on lap five, using the low groove heading into turn three. Donlan cruised around Wettengel for the runner-up spot on lap nine and started to chase Hare when caution flew on lap nine.
Hare had a one-second lead over Wettengel when another caution slowed the action on lap 12. It was Pat Graham’s turn to take over second on lap 13 as Hare continued to lead by just under a half-second.
Graham was pulling alongside the leader when a lap-17 caution came out and left three laps to settle it.
Glued to the bottom of the track, Hare desperately tried to hold off a gaggle of challengers. It was Donlan who emerged as the hero, riding the outside lane out of turn four of the final lap.
The official margin of Donlan’s win was .206 seconds. Graham wound up third, Wettengel fourth and William Garner fifth.