WHEATLAND, Mo. — Ryan Middaugh’s hot month of June continued Saturday night as he captured another Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified main event at Lucas Oil Speedway.
The Fulton driver beat Matt Johnson to win the headliner on Public Safety Appreciation Night at the Races. It was Middaugh’s third victory of the Lucas Oil Speedway season and 10th overall in 2023. The USRA National points leader has won five in a row and six of seven races in June.
“I felt really bad in the heat race,” Middaugh said. “I was real tight and wasn’t sure what to do. We just changed a couple of small things and I guess it was the right call. It was set on kill. It’s hard to do when you’ve got guys like Matt Johnson and Dillon McCowan and Nic Bidinger behind you. To out-run those guys, it means a lot.”
Middaugh and Johnson started on the front row and set the pace from the outset. Middaugh maintained the lead but Johnson stayed within a few car lengths through the first 10 laps. By lap 13, Johnson had cut Middaugh’s margin to less than a half-second as the leaders neared lapped traffic.
Middaugh was able to pad his lead a bit as he passed slower cars, leading by one second by lap 20. He kept pulling away from there as the caution-free event remained green all 25 laps.
Middaugh’s fifth straight victory overall between Lucas Oil Speedway and his hometown Callaway Raceway, saw him beat Johnson by 1.9 seconds. Bidinger wound up third with McCowan fourth and Chad Melton coming home in fifth in his first appearance at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Other feature winners on the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series program Presented by KCTV-5 Kansas City were Larry Ferris (Hermitage Lumber Late Models), Mason Beck (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars) and Colson Kirk (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods).
Feature Finish (25 Laps)
1. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[1]; 2. 1X-Matt Johnson[2]; 3. 3B-Nic Bidinger[3]; 4. 8-Dillon McCowan[5]; 5. 71-Chad Melton[6]; 6. 26-Eric Turner[4]; 7. 03-Chase Jones[11]; 8. 14-Kameron Grindstaff[12]; 9. 22B-Rick Beebe[13]; 10. 76-Shawn Knuckles[8]; 11. 10T-Tyler Brown[9]; 12. (DNF) 21-Greg Scheffler[16]; 13. (DNF) 21W-Tracy Wolf[15]; 14. (DNF) 75L-Lane Whitney[7]; 15. (DNS) 9-Kenton Allen; 16. (DNS) 38C-Jason Pursley