Chris Simpson charged from 9th on the grid to record his 17th career Lucas Oil MLRA victory in Friday nights opener of the 10th Annual Ron Jenkins Memorial.
Billy Moyer 2nd (Left), Chris Simpson 1st (Center), Tony Jackson Jr. 3rd (Right)
Todd Boyd Photo
Wheatland, MO (August 30, 2024) – After giving up ground on a tight MLRA championship battle one week ago, Chris Simpson made a statement on Friday night that he was not going away quietly, by scoring the opening night win in the 10th Annual Ron Jenkins Memorial at the Lucas Oil Speedway. Making it even sweeter for the Oxford, IA driver is the fact that it was his first career MLRA feature win at the Diamond of Dirt tracks after numerous prior podium finishes.
Late afternoon rain shows made for a busy couple of hours for track crews to get the track into racing condition. In MyRacePass qualifying it was youngster Kayden Clatt grabbing his first career Fast Time with a lap of 15.914 seconds, which also netted him a $500 bonus in memory of Ron Jenkins.
Jeff Herzog and Billy Moyer Sr. led the field to the green for the 30-lapper, with Herzog seizing control on lap one, and only before a pair of cautions slowed the pace in the early laps. In the early going Herzog opened up a 1.713 second advantage over the field as he approached the tail end of the 28-car starting field. While Herzog was setting the pace, it was 9th starting Chris Simpson making the noise, and putting himself into the runner up spot by lap 7. Back-to-back cautions on laps 8 and 9 bunched up the field, and this time it would be Simpson powering to the race lead on lap ten with a strong run exiting the bottom side of turn two.
Simpson was able to slowly stretch out the advantage with the 45-time MLRA winner Moyer starting to close ground around the high line of the speedway. The final two cautions of the night would wave on laps 15 & 18, but Simpson was able to drive away from the field in the closing laps to score his 17th career MLRA victory and first since April of last year at the Lake Ozark Speedway. Simpson collect a $5,000 pay day plus a $2,000 bonus from Mary Jenkins Holt in Memory of Ron Jenkins, the builder of the original Wheatland Raceway.
“I didn’t know how the track was going to be,” commented Simpson. “They got a lot of rain today right before the races started, and that bottom was so greasy in our heat races so we couldn’t even touch it you know, so we had to just run the middle there. It was a good track, and I had to move up there at the end. My crew guy Chad (Simondsen) told me Moyer was coming on the top, so I moved up and just kind of sailed from there.”
Simpson who finished 4th in the Cowboy Classic early in the season continued in saying, “When I was here for the show me—this is the same car and same set up. One and two held on a lot longer, and three and four started shining up on entry a little and you really had to hit it right just to make it work. I kind of figured if that top would get burnt in that somebody would be coming, but once I got by Herzog there I kind of had open track to move around.
The win allowed Chris Simpson to close the gap on the championship battle, with Chad Simpson clinging to a 15-point advantage with just 11 races remaining. “This points chase is pretty tight, so me and my brother are probably going to put on a hell of a show to end it,” noted the feature winner.
Moyer was happy with his second place run and noted of his new ride, “Tonight was the first time I’ve been in this thing, so we were guessing on a lot of things, but Cory and them guys give us a lot of help on some stuff. Now we have a night under our belt so we can work on it a little bit and hopefully make it a little bit better.”
The podium run for Jackson was his best MLRA finish of the season and second consecutive top five in his new Longhorn Chassis. After starting 8th on the grid he said, “We kind so struggled there early, I didn’t know if it was the track or me because the car is new. But I had a really good car there in the feature and we were able to make it up through there.”
Night number two of the 10th Annual Ron Jenkins Memorial continues on Saturday night at the Lucas Oil Speedway. The MLRA will take the track in a 50-lap main event that has been bumped to $12,000 to win thanks to a $2,000 added bonus from Mary Jenkins Holt in memory of Ron Jenkins.
Lucas Oil Speedway Contingencies 8/30/24
Lap Leaders – Jeff Herzog (1-10),Chris Simpson (11-30)
Cautions – 6
MyRacePass “Overall Fast Time Award” –Kayden Clatt (15.914sec.)
Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race – Chad Simondsen
MD3 “Most Laps Led” – Chris Simpson (20)
Swift Springs “Move of the Race” – Tony Jackson Jr.
Sunoco Race Fuel “Rookie of the Race” – Aaron Marrant
PEM Racing “4th Place Finisher” – Chad Simpson
Fluidyne: “5th Place Finisher: – Jeff Herzog
Sunoco “Engine Builders Challenge” – Durham
Midwest Sheet Metal “Points Leader Spoiler Challenge” – Chad Simpson
MSD Performance Holley: “1st B-Main NON-Qualifier” – N/A
MD3 Final Finisher: – Dillon McCowan
MLRA Late Models30 Laps | 00:42:26.828
1. 32-Chris Simpson[9]; 2. 21M-Billy Moyer Sr[2]; 3. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[8]; 4. 25-Chad Simpson[5]; 5. 11-Jeff Herzog[1]; 6. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[4]; 7. 1XM-Aaron Marrant[15]; 8. 15L-Payton Looney[16]; 9. 43-Derrick Stewart[23]; 10. 15T-Tyler Kuykendall[13]; 11. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[17]; 12. 33F-Rickey Frankel[10]; 13. 22H-Dustin Hodges[11]; 14. 50C-Kayden Clatt[6]; 15. 1AU-Joe Chalmers[25]; 16. 78S-Steve Stultz[24]; 17. 7D-Dusty Leonard[19]; 18. 14W-Dustin Walker[26]; 19. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[20]; 20. 7J-Ryan Johnson[3]; 21. 19L-Thomas Langley[28]; 22. (DNF) 128-Kylan Garner[14]; 23. (DNF) 3W-Brennon Willard[21]; 24. (DNF) 93-Mason Oberkramer[22]; 25. (DNF) 65-Jon Binning[18]; 26. (DNF) 26G-Glen Powell[27]; 27. (DNF) 11K-Shannon Kuhn[12]; 28. (DNF) 8-Dillon McCowan[7]
H1-Flo Sports8 Laps | 00:10:39.835
1. 11-Jeff Herzog[2]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[1]; 3. 32-Chris Simpson[3]; 4. 15T-Tyler Kuykendall[6]; 5. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[4]; 6. 3W-Brennon Willard[5]; 7. 1AU-Joe Chalmers[7]
H2-Simpson Race Products8 Laps | 00:02:08.286
1. 7J-Ryan Johnson[2]; 2. 8-Dillon McCowan[1]; 3. 22H-Dustin Hodges[4]; 4. 1XM-Aaron Marrant[5]; 5. 7D-Dusty Leonard[3]; 6. 43-Derrick Stewart[6]; 7. 26G-Glen Powell[7]
H3-Earnhardt Technologies8 Laps | 00:05:26.781
1. 21M-Billy Moyer Sr[2]; 2. 50C-Kayden Clatt[1]; 3. 33F-Rickey Frankel[4]; 4. 128-Kylan Garner[5]; 5. 65-Jon Binning[3]; 6. 93-Mason Oberkramer[7]; 7. 14W-Dustin Walker[6]
H4- Lucas Oil8 Laps | 00:08:40.355
1. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[1]; 2. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[6]; 3. 11K-Shannon Kuhn[4]; 4. 15L-Payton Looney[3]; 5. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[2]; 6. 78S-Steve Stultz[5]; 7. 19L-Thomas Langley[7]
GROUP A My Race Pass| 00:00:33.326
1. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:16.558[5]; 2. 8-Dillon McCowan, 00:16.588[14]; 3. 11-Jeff Herzog, 00:16.624[1]; 4. 7J-Ryan Johnson, 00:16.657[12]; 5. 32-Chris Simpson, 00:16.674[2]; 6. 7D-Dusty Leonard, 00:16.720[10]; 7. 11G-Gordy Gundaker, 00:16.754[9]; 8. 22H-Dustin Hodges, 00:16.834[3]; 9. 3W-Brennon Willard, 00:16.839[4]; 10. 1XM-Aaron Marrant, 00:16.989[11]; 11. 15T-Tyler Kuykendall, 00:17.030[6]; 12. 43-Derrick Stewart, 00:17.262[13]; 13. 1AU-Joe Chalmers, 00:17.366[7]; 14. 26G-Glen Powell, 00:17.432[8]
GROUP B My Race Pass| 00:03:49.032
1. 50C-Kayden Clatt, 00:15.914[11]; 2. 11T-Trevor Gundaker, 00:16.181[10]; 3. 21M-Billy Moyer Sr, 00:16.182[8]; 4. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt, 00:16.560[12]; 5. 65-Jon Binning, 00:16.571[6]; 6. 15L-Payton Looney, 00:16.616[9]; 7. 33F-Rickey Frankel, 00:16.621[13]; 8. 11K-Shannon Kuhn, 00:16.652[4]; 9. 128-Kylan Garner, 00:16.677[14]; 10. 78S-Steve Stultz, 00:16.722[1]; 11. 14W-Dustin Walker, 00:16.922[2]; 12. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr, 00:16.968[3]; 13. 93-Mason Oberkramer, 00:17.231[7]; 14. 19L-Thomas Langley, 00:17.704[5]
Category: Lucas Oil Speedway, Missouri
