WHEATLAND, Mo. – Cody Frazon had been knocking on the door of his first Lucas Oil Speedway feature win, with three top-five finishes this year alone.
Finally, he knocked down that door Saturday night.
Frazon made a late pass of Toby Ott and went on to capture the O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks 25-lap main event, the headliner on Midseason Championship night.
Also picking up feature wins in the program presented by the Bolivar Herald-Free Press and NMI-VMG Marketing were Joe Duvall (Pitts Homes USRA Modifieds), Kris Jackson (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods) and Todd Shute (Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Models).
Jackson also celebrated a Midseason Championship with his third straight win. Other midseason champs were Paden Phillips (USRA Modifieds), Toby Ott (Street Stocks) and Kaeden Cornell (ULMA Late Models).
Each midseason champion received a $500 bonus. Victory Lane Track Action Race Review contributed $1,000 toward the bonus and Lucas Oil Speedway management matched the contribution with another $1,000.
The total of $2,000 was split among the points leaders in the four divisions.
In the evening’s featured division, Frazon went around Ott with two laps remaining and held on to prevail by .721 seconds.
“I had no idea tonight would be the night,” Frazon said of his breakthrough win. “What better night than $750 to win?”
Frazon started third, but had a poor start and fell out of the top five in the early going. But he rallied for a memorable win.
“I had a really terrible start,” Frazon said. “I couldn’t figure it out to be honest. I just started hitting some marks that were working for me.”
Ott and Bob Barnett spent the first 15 laps running side by side, trading the lead four times as Barnett used the top groove and Ott the inside line.
The race was caution-free until Daniel Deason and James Flood, in a battle for third, came together and spun going into turn three.
On the restart, Ott got a good start and Barnett lost the runner-up spot to Frazon. It was a sign of things to come.
“That wreck obviously closed the gap for me and I could see Toby was losing a little bit where he was running,” Frazon said. “I knew if I kept running underneath him, kept trying and kept trying, I would get it.”
From there, Frazon reeled in Ott, with Johnny Coats finishing third and Marc Carter fourth.
“I want to congratulate that guy,” Ott said, pointing toward Frazon. “He pulled off one heck of a race. I knew it was coming for him.
“I feel fortunate to be up here,” Ott added of his midseason title. “There are some good cars here, like (Frazon) and others who are tough.”
Duvall roared from his 14th-starting position and into the lead before the midpoint en route to the Pitts Homes USRA Modified feature win.
Duvall, a frequent United States Modified Touring Series competitor, was dominant in finishing ahead of second-place Robbie Reed, Phillips and Jason Pursley.
Phillips’ run was good enough to vault him past Jon Sheets for the midseason championship.
The points race was thrown into a jumble on lap two when Sheets – who led by six points at the start of the night – spun and hit the wall in turn three. He was unable to continue.
Reed started fourth and passed pole-starting Pursley for the lead on lap two. Meanwhile, Duvall scooted from 14th and into third by lap five as the race’s third caution came out.
Duvall slid past Reed in turn four to finish lap nine to take the lead and pulled away from there.
Midseason Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod track champion Jackson continued his roll, picking up his third straight feature win at Lucas Oil Speedway.
He led all 20 laps and finished .608 seconds ahead of runner-up Taylor Moore.
It also was his third feature win of the week. Jackson won in Iowa on Wednesday and at Midway Speedway in his hometown of Lebanon on Friday.
Jackson had nearly a two-second lead wiped out when the race’s lone caution waved with four laps to go. He handled the restart without any issues and opened a comfortable lead when another yellow, as he was taking the white flag, forced him to endure one more restart.
Moore finished second, ahead of third-place JC Morton, who rallied from 11th, and Eric Turner.
Shute led flag-to-flag to claim the Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Model feature, holding off Johnny Fennewald by just under one second.
It was the first feature win of the season in just his second start at Lucas Oil Speedway for Shute.
Cornell passed Larry Ferris for third place with two laps remaining. That was good enough to protect Cornell’s points lead as Aaron Marrant, who began the night six points behind, was 10th.