McCowan doubles up in USRA Modified on Lucas Oil Speedway Season Championship Night

WHEATLAND, MO. (Aug. 28, 2021) – One new track champion was crowned with three others adding to their Lucas Oil Speedway title resumes Saturday night.

Dillon McCowan nailed down his first Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified crown on Rempfer Memorial Season Championship Night Presented by Bill Roberts Chevrolet-Buick.

McCowan, a 17-year-old from Urbana, not only won the season title but also captured the feature with a late pass for third feature victory of season in the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series.

Meanwhile, Kris Jackson celebrated his sixth Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod championship, Cole Henson repeated his ULMA Late Model points title and David Hendrix earned the O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars title.

Other feature winners on Saturday night were Andy Bryant (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods), Larry Ferris (ULMA Late Models) and Scotty Allen (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars).

McCowan doubles up with title, feature win: McCowan won the championship in style, passing Jason Pursley for the lead with four laps remaining and going on to celebrate his third feature victory of the season in addition to the points title.

“It hasn’t sunk in just yet. It’s a lot bigger than just me,” McCowan said in victory lane. “It’s everybody behind the scenes who helped me get here. It’s been fun this year.”

The ultra-consistent McCowan had 13 top-five finishes in his first full season of driving a USRA Modified.

Pursley started on the front row and grabbed the lead at the drop of the green with Kyle Thompson moving into second on lap two. But on a lap-13 restart, Thompson’s car seemed to stall and McCowan sailed past him and into second.

Three laps later, McCowan made the pass for the lead, using the low line out of turn four. He never looked back from there, going on to win by 2.1 seconds over Pursley – who also finished runner-up in the points chase, unofficially 65 behind.

“It was an awesome race,” McCowan said. “We kept getting stuck on the bottom on those restarts and I didn’t know if it was going to work out. Then they went single-file and I thought ‘man, I don’t know if I can get it done.

“I don’t know what happened to Kyle. It looked like he may have lost power, but we started gaining on Jason and it worked out in our favor tonight.”

Lucas Gibbs finished third with Kevin Blackburn fourth and Thompson was fifth.

Bryant wins B-Mod feature and Jackson earns championship: Andy Bryant grabbed an early lead and checked out on the field en route to the Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod feature victory. Meanwhile, Lebanon’s Kris Jackson clinched his sixth season championship without even making it into the feature starting field.

Bryant, of Fort Scott, Kansas, beat Ryan Gillmore by 1.2 seconds for his second feature victory of the season.

Bryant took the lead on lap three and opened a five-second command before a lap-15 caution bunched the field, setting up a five-lap sprint to the finish. Just one lap was completed before another caution, but in that time Gillmore moved around John Potter and into second.

Despite challenges by Gillmore from the inside groove, Bryant was able to hold on for the win. Shawn Whitman was third with JC Morton fourth and Potter coming home in fifth.

“Those restarts, I was getting pretty tired of them,” Bryant said. “The long green-flag run we had, I knew I had a pretty good distance. We got the car home in one piece and the track was pretty good tonight for the most part, from what I could see.”

Jackson took an unconventional final-night road to his sixth track championship. After struggling in his heat race, Jackson had to run a B Main and his car was wounded in two separate accidents, not of his making, before a single lap could be completed.

Jackson pulled into the pits, returned a lap down and wound up ninth, leaving him out of the feature field. Fortunately for Jackson, his 77-point lead at the beginning of the night gave him enough of a cushion to hold on for another championship. He also won titles in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2019 and 2020.

“Luckily, we had a strong enough year that tonight didn’t matter,” said Jackson, who had seven feature wins during the season. “It’s one of those things. This is racing. This is our form of gambling and it didn’t go very well for me tonight. If it could go wrong, it went wrong.

“We’re gonna take it. We’re lucky enough to still win the points. I’m pretty proud of my whole team for this.”

Jackson unofficially wound up 35 points in front of Morton.

ULMA Late Model win to Ferris as Henson repeats title: Larry Ferris continued his late-season roll, winning the ULMA Late Model feature for the second straight week. Ferris, of Nevada, passed Henson with three laps remaining and held off the season champ by sixth-tenths of a second.

“I had a good run on him on that caution and I think I would have got him,” said Ferris, who slipped past Henson coming out of turn four to complete lap 17 – one lap after making a pass that didn’t stick due to a caution flag.

“We ended up getting him after the caution. I just wanted to make sure I didn’t touch him,” Ferris said. “He’s a great friend of mine. We had a good race and I didn’t want to mess his points deal up.”

Henson began the night 35 points in front of Fennewald and removed all mystery about the championship battle by leading the first 16 laps and never letting Fennewald around him. The Russellville driver ended Fennewald’s championship streak at three last season.

“I’ll tell you what, it’s incredible,” said Henson, who also leads the Lucas Cattle Company ULMA national points. “We came into the year and were not gonna run for points, but the consistency was there. We won two races down here and we were there, so we said ‘let’s go battle for it.

“It’s awesome to be back up here again. I can’t thank my car owner Rob Schlup enough. Without him, I wouldn’t be standing up here tonight.

“I’m so happy to see Larry Ferris get the win. He drove a heck of a race. I drove as hard as I could and he drove a little harder and got me. But that’s awesome.”

Including his three feature wins, Henson had 11 top-five feature finishes in 12 events this season.

Allen earns USRA Stock Cars win, Hendrix the championship: Scotty Allen picked up his fourth O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars feature win of the season and David Hendrix brought home the season championship.

Allen, of Urbana, took over the lead from Burl Woods on lap three, making a pass coming out of turn four. He held it the rest of the way, fighting off a mid-race challenge from Ed Griggs as the top two were side by side for several laps.

Allen was able to start building his lead, getting it to 1.5 seconds by lap 15 and extended it to a final margin of 2.9 seconds over Griggs. Robert White finished third with Woods fourth and Hendrix fifth.

“There’s an awful lot of good Stock Cars coming now every week,” Allen said. “It’s an awesome class. I’m a life-long Modified guy. Everybody knows it. I don’t if this is a retirement home for me or what, but I really like it. These guys are tough. It’s a lot of fun.”

Waynesville’s Hendrix, meanwhile, celebrated the track championship in the division’s initial season. Hendrix had won two previous track championships in the Street Stock class.

Hendrix won three early season features and used consistency to built an insurmountable points lead entering championship night.

“That’s pretty cool,” Hendrix said of becoming the first Stock Cars track champ. “We’re having a blast in this class. We’ve been struggling a little bit the last half of the year. We’ve had the dirt gremlins after us I guess you’d say.

“We’ve had like 20 top-fives (overall). It’s been an awesome year. I wish we’d have had more wins to go with, but we’re having fun and that’s what it’s supposed to be about.”

LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (Aug. 28, 2021)

Rempfer Memorial Season Championship Night

O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars

A Feature – 1. 12-Scotty Allen[1]; 2. 31-Ed Griggs[4]; 3. 5-Robert White[3]; 4. 26-Burl Woods[2]; 5. 54-David Hendrix[6]; 6. 8M-James McMillin[5]; 7. 21P-Darren Phillips[10]; 8. 31T-Tanner Calhoun[9]; 9. 12S-Christopher Sawyer[7]; 10. 28-Bryan White[11]; 11. 22X-Chad Donaldson[13]; 12. 25X-Rodger Detherage[8]; 13. 24W-Craig Wright[12]

Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 1 – 1. 26-Burl Woods[3]; 2. 5-Robert White[6]; 3. 54-David Hendrix[2]; 4. 25X-Rodger Detherage[4]; 5. 31T-Tanner Calhoun[1]; 6. 28-Bryan White[7]; 7. 22X-Chad Donaldson[5

Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 2 – 1. 12-Scotty Allen[6]; 2. 31-Ed Griggs[4]; 3. 8M-James McMillin[1]; 4. 12S-Christopher Sawyer[2]; 5. 21P-Darren Phillips[5]; 6. 24W-Craig Wright[3]

Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods

A Feature – 1. 28A-Andy Bryant[3]; 2. 66-Ryan Gillmore[4]; 3. 54-Shawn Whitman[15]; 4. 18-JC Morton[13]; 5. 6P-John Potter[1]; 6. 25-Galen Hassler[5]; 7. 30-Rex Harris[18]; 8. 98-James Gates[21]; 9. 58M-Jamie Mauk[10]; 10. 11-Jimmy Willis[16]; 11. 414-Ryan Thomas[7]; 12. 28-Wesley Briggs[20]; 13. 0K-Tracy Killian[22]; 14. 28C-Thomas Creech[24]; 15. (DNF) 8X-Scott Chism[9]; 16. (DNF) 42J-Donnie Jackson[19]; 17. (DNF) 08-Chad Neill[23]; 18. (DNF) 46-Brice Gotschall[2]; 19. (DNF) 14-Shawn Nations[6]; 20. (DNF) 83-JC Newell[12]; 21. (DNF) 114-todd Mauk[8]; 22. (DNF) 10P-Dayton Pursley[11]; 23. (DNF) 21G-Greg Scheffler[17]; 24. (DNF) 21-Jacob Potter[14]

B Feature – 21G-Greg Scheffler[1]; 2. 30-Rex Harris[8]; 3. 42J-Donnie Jackson[16]; 4. 28-Wesley Briggs[7]; 5. 98-James Gates[13]; 6. 0K-Tracy Killian[10]; 7. 08-Chad Neill[18]; 8. 28C-Thomas Creech[11]; 9. 65-Kris Jackson[3]; 10. (DNF) 14T-Quentin Taylor[2]; 11. (DNF) 24-Jerry Ellis[9]; 12. (DNF) 9R-Cody Stillwell[15]; 13. (DNF) 77-Koby Chadd[4]; 14. (DNF) 39-Dwight Brown[12]; 15. (DNF) 25G-James Gish[14]; 16. (DNS) 99D-Dalton Teel; 17. (DQ) 19R-Cole Stillwell[5]; 18. (DQ) 24L-Dakota Lowe[6]

Heat 1 – 1. 28A-Andy Bryant[1]; 2. 14-Shawn Nations[3]; 3. 10P-Dayton Pursley[2]; 4. 83-JC Newell[6]; 5. 18-JC Morton[7]; 6. 54-Shawn Whitman[9]; 7. 14T-Quentin Taylor[11]; 8. 28-Wesley Briggs[5]; 9. 28C-Thomas Creech[4]; 10. 39-Dwight Brown[12]; 11. (DNF) 42J-Donnie Jackson[10]; 12. (DNS) 99D-Dalton Teel

Heat 2 – 1. 46-Brice Gotschall[2]; 2. 414-Ryan Thomas[1]; 3. 6P-John Potter[9]; 4. 25-Galen Hassler[10]; 5. 21-Jacob Potter[6]; 6. 77-Koby Chadd[7]; 7. 19R-Cole Stillwell[5]; 8. 24L-Dakota Lowe[4]; 9. 0K-Tracy Killian[3]; 10. 98-James Gates[11]; 11. (DNS) 08-Chad Neill

Heat 3 – 1. 66-Ryan Gillmore[1]; 2. 114-Todd Mauk[2]; 3. 8X-Scott Chism[5]; 4. 58M-Jamie Mauk[7]; 5. 21G-Greg Scheffler[3]; 6. 11-Jimmy Willis[9]; 7. 65-Kris Jackson[11]; 8. 30-Rex Harris[8]; 9. 24-Jerry Ellis[10]; 10. 25G-James Gish[6]; 11. (DNF) 9R-Cody Stillwell[4]

Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds

A Feature – 1. 8-Dillon McCowan[5]; 2. 38C-Jason Pursley[2]; 3. 51-Lucas Gibbs[6]; 4. 16S-Kevin Blackburn[7]; 5. 292-Kyle Thompson[4]; 6. 98-Jeff Cutshaw[1]; 7. 21TW-Tracy Wolf[8]; 8. 24D-Donnie Fellers[12]; 9. 03-Chase Jones[3]; 10. 23-Lucas Dobbs[13]; 11. 93D-Josh Dugan[14]; 12. (DNF) 98D-Paden Phillips[10]; 13. (DNF) 6-Ryu Taggart[9]; 14. (DNF) 55-Tyler Brown[11]; 15. (DNS) 25-Scotty Roberts

Heat 1 – 1. 98-Jeff Cutshaw[2]; 2. 03-Chase Jones[4]; 3. 51-Lucas Gibbs[5]; 4. 21TW-Tracy Wolf[6]; 5. 6-Ryu Taggart[8]; 6. 55-Tyler Brown[7]; 7. (DNF) 23-Lucas Dobbs[1]; 8. (DNF) 25-Scotty Roberts[3]

Heat 2 – 1. 38C-Jason Pursley[2]; 2. 292-Kyle Thompson[4]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan[6]; 4. 16S-Kevin Blackburn[7]; 5. 98D-Paden Phillips[3]; 6. 24D-Donnie Fellers[5]; 7. (DNF) 93D-Josh Dugan[1]

ULMA Late Models

A Feature – 1. 51-Larry Ferris[3]; 2. 21S-Cole Henson[1]; 3. 7X-Todd McCoin[7]; 4. 21-Johnny Fennewald[2]; 5. 98-Justin Wells[4]; 6. 00-Matt Becker[9]; 7. 12J-Justin Russell[11]; 8. 72M-JC Morton[14]; 9. 160-Michael Maggard[6]; 10. 1T-Tucker Cox[13]; 11. 42H-Chad Richwine[5]; 12. 1A-Bryon Allison[12]; 13. 0X-Jason Sivils[18]; 14. 96-Dalton Imhoff[8]; 15. 662-Cayden Campbell[16]; 16. 6-Bob Cummings[15]; 17. (DNF) 99-Larry Jones[10]; 18. (DNF) 71-Bradley Potter[19]; 19. (DNF) 89-Foxie Sumner [17]

Ozarks Coca-Cola Heat 1 – 1. 21-Johnny Fennewald[3]; 2. 42H-Chad Richwine[1]; 3. 160-Michael Maggard[5]; 4. 7X-Todd McCoin[7]; 5. 12J-Justin Russell[10]; 6. 99-Larry Jones[9]; 7. 1T-Tucker Cox[8]; 8. 6-Bob Cummings[6]; 9. (DNF) 0X-Jason Sivils[4]; 10. (DNF) 71-Bradley Potter[2]

Ozarks Coca-Cola Heat 2 – 1. 98-Justin Wells[1]; 2. 21S-Cole Henson[8]; 3. 51-Larry Ferris[9]; 4. 96-Dalton Imhoff[2]; 5. 00-Matt Becker[7]; 6. 1A-Bryon Allison[3]; 7. 72M-JC Morton[5]; 8. 662-Cayden Campbell[6]; 9. 89-Foxie Sumner [4]

Big Labor Day Weekend ahead: Lucas Oil Speedway plays host to a big Labor Day Weekend of racing next with the 11th annual Diamond Drag Boat Nationals set for Friday through Sunday on Lake Lucas. Next door on the dirt track, the 2nd annual Lucas Oil MLRA Ron Jenkins Memorial is set for Saturday night with USRA Stock Cars and USRA B-Mods joining the Late Models.

For ticket information for any event during the 2021 Lucas Oil Speedway season, contact admissions director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or via email at Nichole@lucasoilspeedway.com. Fans also can use the online ticketing system.