WHEATLAND, Mo. — After mechanical issues while leading dashed his hopes for a season-opening victory at Lucas Oil Speedway last month, nothing stood in J.C. Newell’s path to victory lane Saturday night.
Newell led all 25 laps and handled restarts after four cautions to earn the Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod feature win. It was his first at Lucas Oil Speedway since the 2021 season.
“It was a long night to lead for all 25 laps. Every caution had my nervous,” Newell said. “But it was a really good night.”
Newell picked up $750 for the victory, which headlined Round 2 of the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series Presented by Townsquare Media & KIX 105.7.
Newell and Zimmerman started on the front row and Newell grabbed the early lead with Zimmerman, Casey Thomas and Dustin Atkinson following. That’s how they ran through nine laps and caught lapped traffic. A lap later, caution flew for the first time for a call stalled in the exit opening to the pits.
Newell’s lead with six-tenths of a second over Zimmerman at the time with Thomas, J.C. Morton and Mitchell Franklin rounding out the top five with 15 laps remaining.
With a clear track ahead of him for the restart, Newell was able to open a 1.3-second lead by lap 14, when the event’s second yellow flag slowed the action. Franklin moved to second after the restart and was challenging Newell for the lead when a four-car pileup in turn one brought out another caution.
Newell cruised from there as the race ran caution-free the rest of the way. He prevailed by just under one second (.957) over Franklin with Atkinson finishing third, Morton fourth and Bobby Williams fifth.
It also was Newell’s first win in his Allen Autosports B-Mod, which he debuted last month. He said his father-in-law and car builder, Scotty Allen, helped with final prep on Saturday morning.
“It was a rocket ship tonight; I probably didn’t do a very good job of driving it those last five laps,” Newell said. “But it was really good and our Ruble Racing Engine really shined tonight.”
Other feature winners on the program included Rob White (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars), Justin Wells (Hermitage Lumber Late Models) and Dillon McCowan (Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds).
Feature Finish (25 Laps)
1. 83-JC Newell[2]; 2. F1-Mitchell Franklin[8]; 3. J2-Dustin Atkinson[4]; 4. 18-JC Morton[6]; 5. 1B-Bobby Williams[5]; 6. 46-Brice Gotschall[12]; 7. 90-Terry Schultz[18]; 8. 15-Cayden Stacye[14]; 9. 2-Quentin Taylor[20]; 10. 6-Jay Flinn[13]; 11. 39-Dwight Brown[16]; 12. (DNF) 01B-Brett Holman[22]; 13. (DNF) Z28-Randy Zimmerman[1]; 14. (DNF) 42C-Casey Thomas[3]; 15. (DNF) 8S-Jon Sheets[7]; 16. (DNF) 10P-Dayton Pursley[15]; 17. (DNF) 42J-Donnie Jackson[11]; 18. (DNF) 33D-Adam Dunwoodie[19]; 19. (DNF) 27-Terry Williams[21]; 20. (DNF) 21-Dalton Teel[10]; 21. (DNF) 80-Thomas Yount[23]; 22. (DNS) 11S-Logan Smith; 23. (DNS) 2X-Brian Bolin