Fennewald charges late to earn ULMA Late Model thriller in Lucas Oil Speedway main event

WHEATLAND, MO. (August 15, 2020) – Never count Johnny Fennewald out. In a race or in a season championship chase.

The three-time reigning track champion rallied late to capture the Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Model feature, headlining Saturday night’s action at Lucas Oil Speedway.

Fennewald, of Appleton City, went from third-to-first after a restart with four laps remaining and held off Todd Shute for the $1,000 prize.

Other feature winners on the Big Adventure Weekly Racing Series Presented by NMI/VMG Marketing and Wild Animal Safari included Kris Jackson (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods), Joe Duvall (Pitts Homes USRA modifieds), Derek Brown (O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks) and Logan Headley (Pure Stocks).

Fennewald has been facing an uphill climb in the points race since early season mechanical issues. But he’s now won four features and has climbed, unofficially, to within 21 points of points leader Cole Henson with one week remaining.

“I said I had to win tonight and Cole had to finish fourth or worse,” Fennewald said. “I had to win the last two nights, I got to win out. You know what? I’ve gotta do whatever I gotta do to win races.”

Kaeden Cornell started on the pole and set the pace through nine laps, but when he slipped high in turn four Shute took advantage and took over the lead to complete lap 10.

Those two had separated from the field by 2.3 seconds, but two laps later the race’s first caution bunched things up with Fennewald running third and Henson fourth.

Shute was able to take advantage as Cornell and Fennewald dueled behind him and open up a two-second lead by lap 20. That margin went away when the race’s second stoppage, as Justin Russell hit the wall in turn four, set up a five-lap shootout to the finish.

One lap after the restart, Cornell and Fennewald made contact on the front stretch and caution came out for debris. An exciting finish then saw Fennewald make the decisive, inside pass out of turn four to finish lap 22, as Shute drifted a bit high in turn four.

Fennewald held on from there, winning by a car length over Shute with Cornell third, Henson fourth and Tucker Cox in fifth.

“I hate it that me and Kaeden got into it there, coming off turn four,” Fennewald said. “I had a good run off the bottom. He knows I don’t race him like that and I totally apologize.”

Both were able to continue and Fennewald found something that worked, using the low groove.

“I was glad to see that caution,” Fennewald said, “because they kept riding that top and underneath the caution I got down on the bottom and said, ‘I need to wow this thing up and get down there.’ I tell you what, we just took off.”

Jackson earns 4th B-Mod win: Track points leader and reigning Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod National Champion Kris Jackson led all 20 laps to earn his fourth Lucas Oil Speedway feature win of the season.

Jackson, of Lebanon, drove away to his 11th feature win overall as Andy Bryant finished a distant second.

“This is another perfect race track. I don’t think there’s a bump in this thing,” said Jackson. “It was really fun tonight. I’m just glad to be here.”

Bryant worked his way from seventh to second midway through the race and tried to use the high groove to close in on the winner, but to no avail.

“I saw on the scoreboard that he had moved into second and if Andy’s moving forward, he’s usually on the top,” Jackson said. “He was turning some pretty good laps and knew he would eventually be there. But I seen we just had a few laps left and I just bided my time and waited it out.”

Jackson and Dillon McCowan started on the front row and Jackson got the jump as action went green. He gradually expanded his lead to a 1.6-second margin over McCowan and JC Newell by lap seven, when the race’s first caution bunched the field.

Newell went around McCowan and into second as the race resumed. Those two swapped positions on the next lap, but during a flurry of three cautions at the race’s midpoint, McCowan exited the track with apparent mechanical issues.

That left Jackson in front of Newell, Bryant, JC Morton and Eric Turner with 10 laps to go.

Jackson was able to control things from there, winding up 1.58 seconds in front of seventh-starting Bryant with Morton finishing third, Turner fourth and Newell in fifth.

Duvall cruises in USRA Mods: Joe Duvall of Claremore, Oklahoma, started up front and led all 20 laps to capture the Pitts Homes USRA Modified feature win. He finished about a full straighaway in front of runner-up Kyle Thompson in the caution-free event.

Duvall got the jump on fellow front-row starter Mickey Burrell at the drop of the green and was never seriously threatened in taking his first feature win of the season.

“It’s always a big confidence booster to win here,” Duvall said. “It’s a great field of cars every time you come out here. It’s pretty cool. God is good. I’d like to say thank you to everybody who helps on the 91 car and thanks to everybody who supports this race track.”

Fifth-starting Thompson held off points leader Robbie Reed, who started seventh and finished third. Chase Domer went from 11th to fourth and Ryan Middaugh came home in fifth just in front of Burrell.

Make it six Street Stock wins for Brown: Stoutland’s Derek Brown continued his season of domination in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks division, leading all the way to pick up his sixth feature victory of the season.

Brown held off Johnny Coats by .359 seconds at the finish with Toby Ott in third, Tim Brown fourth and James Flood finishing fifth.

Derek Brown started on the pole and opened up a three-second lead over Ott midway through the 20-lapper. A lap-12 caution gave the others a chance, after Brown’s lead had expanded to 4.1 seconds.

Coats pulled alongside Brown to challenge for the lead on lap 16, but another caution led to another restart. Coats again made a bid for the lead on the inside, but Brown was able to regroup, hold on and beat Coats to the checkers by one car length.

“I seen him there beside me,” Brown said of Coats. “He got me there off the bottom. I don’t know that I didn’t like the middle better. It worked out, I guess.”

Headley takes Pure Stocks with late pass: Logan Headley of Kansas City passed Leroy Morrison with three laps remaining and held on to take the feature win the special guest Pure Stocks category.

Morrison, of Raymore, led the first 16 laps but it was Headley making the pass going into turn three the next time around. Headley won by about four car lengths.

“Man that was fun,” Headley said. “We run a lot together and Leroy was fast tonight. I didn’t think I was gonna get around him. I was trying high, I was trying low, I was trying everything. He finally slid up coming out of four there and I had my chance.

“This is the best win I’ve ever had. I’ve won a few this year, but this is the best one.”

Justin Roberts finished third with Mason Beck fourth and Trevor Wilson was fifth.

LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY RESULTS (Aug. 15, 2020)

Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods

A-Feature (20 Laps): 1. 65-Kris Jackson[2]; 2. 28-Andy Bryant[7]; 3. 18-JC Morton[6]; 4. 99T-Eric Turner[9]; 5. 83-JC Newell[8]; 6. 7J-Jake Richards[10]; 7. 31-Luke Phillips[18]; 8. 10P-Dayton Pursley[13]; 9. 4B-Brayton Skaggs[17]; 10. 8S-Jon Sheets[5]; 11. 929-Garrett Thompson[19]; 12. 1F-Mitchell Franklin[15]; 13. 41-Bryan White[3]; 14. 2-Hagen Stevenson[21]; 15. 21-Luke Aitken[22]; 16. 99-Jim Cihy[20]; 17. 28B-Wesley Briggs[4]; 18. 02-Tracy Killian[23]; 19. (DNF) 58M-Jamie Mauk[11]; 20. (DNF) 8D-Dillon McCowan[1]; 21. (DNF) 30R-Rex Harris[14]; 22. (DNF) 14T-Quentin Taylor[16]; 23. (DNS) 8J-James Gates; 24. (DQ) 46-Brice Gotschall[12]

B-Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 4B-Brayton Skaggs[1]; 2. 31-Luke Phillips[10]; 3. 929-Garrett Thompson[4]; 4. 99-Jim Cihy[2]; 5. 2-Hagen Stevenson[3]; 6. 21-Luke Aitken[6]; 7. 02-Tracy Killian[9]; 8. 8J-James Gates[7]; 9. (DNS) 12-Scotty Allen; 10. (DNS) 11S-Scotty Bough; 11. (DNS) 25G-James Gish; 12. (DNS) 10T-Sam McDaniel; 13. (DNS) 25-Kenny McDonald JR; 14. (DNS) 5-Don Williams

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 8S-Jon Sheets[2]; 2. 41-Bryan White[6]; 3. 7J-Jake Richards[1]; 4. 58M-Jamie Mauk[5]; 5. 46-Brice Gotschall[8]; 6. 1F-Mitchell Franklin[9]; 7. 929-Garrett Thompson[7]; 8. 25-Kenny McDonald JR[3]; 9. (DNF) 31-Luke Phillips[4]; 10. (DNF) 12-Scotty Allen[10]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 8D-Dillon McCowan[3]; 2. 28-Andy Bryant[4]; 3. 28B-Wesley Briggs[9]; 4. 30R-Rex Harris[2]; 5. 10P-Dayton Pursley[8]; 6. 99-Jim Cihy[7]; 7. 2-Hagen Stevenson[6]; 8. 21-Luke Aitken[1]; 9. 02-Tracy Killian[10]; 10. (DNF) 25G-James Gish[5]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 65-Kris Jackson[3]; 2. 18-JC Morton[5]; 3. 83-JC Newell[6]; 4. 99T-Eric Turner[8]; 5. 4B-Brayton Skaggs[2]; 6. 14T-Quentin Taylor[9]; 7. 10T-Sam McDaniel[10]; 8. 8J-James Gates[1]; 9. (DNF) 5-Don Williams[4]; 10. (DNS) 11S-Scotty Bough

Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Models

Feature (25 Laps): 1. 21-Johnny Fennewald[5]; 2. 5-Todd Shute[4]; 3. 50-Kaeden Cornell[1]; 4. 31C-Cole Henson[3]; 5. 1T-Tucker Cox[9]; 6. 51-Larry Ferris[7]; 7. 69-Dalton Imhoff[8]; 8. 99-Larry Jones[10]; 9. 42H-Chad Richwine[11]; 10. 16-Ashlee Lancaster[12]; 11. 15-John Aitken[14]; 12. 14C-Jerry Croney[13]; 13. (DNF) 99D-Dylan Hoover[6]; 14. (DNF) 12J-Justin Russell[2]

Cedar Creek Beef Jerky Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 12J-Justin Russell[3]; 2. 5-Todd Shute[1]; 3. 21-Johnny Fennewald[5]; 4. 51-Larry Ferris[7]; 5. 1T-Tucker Cox[6]; 6. 16-Ashlee Lancaster[4]; 7. 15-John Aitken[2]

Cedar Creek Beef Jerky Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 31C-Cole Henson[2]; 2. 50-Kaeden Cornell[7]; 3. 99D-Dylan Hoover[4]; 4. 69-Dalton Imhoff[6]; 5. 99-Larry Jones[5]; 6. 42H-Chad Richwine[3]; 7. 14C-Jerry Croney[1]

Pitts Homes USRA Modifieds

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 91-Joe Duvall[1]; 2. 292-Kyle Thompson[5]; 3. 5-Robbie Reed[7]; 4. 227-Chase Domer[11]; 5. 21-Ryan Middaugh[6]; 6. 73-Mickey Burrell[2]; 7. 4-Dan Powers[3]; 8. 21R-Rusty Skaggs[12]; 9. 98D-Paden Phillips[9]; 10. 03-Chase Jones[15]; 11. 9E-Evan Hubert[10]; 12. 12M-JC Morton[14]; 13. 21W-Tracy Wolf[4]; 14. 38C-Jason Pursley[16]; 15. 4A-Josh Lanterman[8]; 16. 24D-Donnie Fellers[18]; 17. 23-Lucas Dobbs[19]; 18. 6-Ryu Taggart[17]; 19. 60-Cody Kretchmar[13]; 20. 2+12-Khaled Graham[20]; 21. (DNS) 134-Robert Heydenreich

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 73-Mickey Burrell[2]; 2. 91-Joe Duvall[6]; 3. 21-Ryan Middaugh[3]; 4. 5-Robbie Reed[5]; 5. 98D-Paden Phillips[7]; 6. 9E-Evan Hubert[9]; 7. 12M-JC Morton[1]; 8. 38C-Jason Pursley[8]; 9. 6-Ryu Taggart[4]; 10. 23-Lucas Dobbs[10]; 11. 2+12-Khaled Graham[11]

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 4-Dan Powers[1]; 2. 21W-Tracy Wolf[3]; 3. 292-Kyle Thompson[5]; 4. 4A-Josh Lanterman[2]; 5. 227-Chase Domer[4]; 6. 21R-Rusty Skaggs[6]; 7. 60-Cody Kretchmar[8]; 8. 03-Chase Jones[7]; 9. 24D-Donnie Fellers[9]; 10. (DNS) 134-Robert Heydenreich

O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 11-Derek Brown[1]; 2. 35-Johnny Coats[8]; 3. 27OTT-Toby Ott[2]; 4. 111-Tim Brown[4]; 5. 42-James Flood[3]; 6. 3J-Josh Halbrook[7]; 7. 69-Brian Brown[5]; 8. 2-Colton Bourland[9]; 9. 7M-Scott Johnson[10]; 10. 27-Bob Barnett[6]; 11. (DNF) 24-Derek Long[11]; 12. (DNF) 75-Dylan Keeper[12]; 13. (DNS) 54B-Brandon Hays

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 27OTT-Toby Ott[1]; 2. 42-James Flood[2]; 3. 69-Brian Brown[4]; 4. 35-Johnny Coats[3]; 5. 2-Colton Bourland[6]; 6. 75-Dylan Keeper[7]; 7. (DNS) 54B-Brandon Hays

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 11-Derek Brown[4]; 2. 111-Tim Brown[2]; 3. 27-Bob Barnett[3]; 4. 3J-Josh Halbrook[1]; 5. 7M-Scott Johnson[5]; 6. 24-Derek Long[6]

Pure Stocks

A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 23-Logan Headley[4]; 2. 50-Leroy Morrison[1]; 3. 57-Justin Roberts[2]; 4. 5B-Mason Beck[9]; 5. 30-Trevor Wilson[7]; 6. 5-Kyle Rowland[20]; 7. 21P-Preston McDowell[10]; 8. 4G-Bodie Gamble[24]; 9. 12S-Christopher Sawyer[5]; 10. 5D-DJ Barnes[14]; 11. 19-Richard McCaulley[19]; 12. 99B-Corey Cagle[12]; 13. 3-Jerry Wheeler[11]; 14. 69-Zack Williams[16]; 15. (DNF) 86S-Justin Stuteville[15]; 16. (DNF) 25-Benjamin Lipe[23]; 17. (DNF) 27H-Brandon Hoover[13]; 18. (DNF) 21-Joey Chadwick[18]; 19. (DNF) 88R-Robin Showers[3]; 20. (DNS) 91-Jack Turner

Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 23-Logan Headley[1]; 2. 57-Justin Roberts[5]; 3. 21P-Preston McDowell; 4. 3-Jerry Wheeler[6]; 5. 99B-Corey Cagle[3]; 6. 5D-DJ Barnes[7]; 7. 69-Zack Williams[2]; 8. (DNF) 4G-Bodie Gamble[8]; 9. (DNS) 91-Jack Turner

Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 50-Leroy Morrison[5]; 2. 57D-Dalton Roberts[3]; 3. 88R-Robin Showers[8]; 4. 5B-Mason Beck[7]; 5. 27H-Brandon Hoover[4]; 6. 86S-Justin Stuteville[1]; 7. (DNF) 5-Kyle Rowland[2]; 8. (DNF) 540-Shawn Huston[6]

Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 12S-Christopher Sawyer[8]; 2. 30-Trevor Wilson[2]; 3. 41-Duane Mackey[5]; 4. (DNF) 29-Cody King[3]; 5. (DNF) 21-Joey Chadwick[1]; 6. (DNF) 19-Richard McCaulley[6]; 7. (DNF) 85-Robert Douglas[4]; 8. (DNF) 25-Benjamin Lipe[7]

Off Road and Dirt Track action next: A big weekend of action is ahead at Lucas Oil Speedway with the return of the Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series to the off road track, Friday through Sunday, for the Lucas Oil Off Road Shootout Presented by General Tire.

The Lucas Oil Off Road Racing Series Presented by General Tire features the top off-road short course drivers in the world. Classes in action will include Pro 2, Pro Lite, Pro Buggy, Production 1000 UTV Pro Lite, Mod Karts, JR 2 Kart and RZR 170.

Each day, gates are scheduled to open at 10:30 a.m. with racing at noon and opening ceremonies at 2 p.m.

Saturday night on the dirt track it will be the Rempfer Memorial Season Championship Night Presented by Bill Roberts Chevrolet-Buick and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital-Springfield. Also, it is Public Safety Appreciation Night as all Police, Fire and Rescue Personnel are admitted free to the Speedway with ID.

Hot laps at the dirt track start at 6:30 with racing at 7:05. Those purchasing Saturday tickets to the off road event or three-day off road passes will be admitted free to the dirt track action.

For ticket questions or information for any event at Lucas Oil Speedway, contact Admissions Director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or email her at nichole@lucasoilspeedway.com for more information.