Wells celebrates unusual Late Model feature victory in Lucas Oil Speedway headliner as Bryant, Davis, McMillin also win

WHEATLAND, MO. (May 13, 2023) – Justin Wells’ latest Hermitage Lumber Late Model feature victory at Lucas Oil Speedway was by no means ordinary.

Larry Ferris led all 25 laps and crossed the finish line first. But Ferris didn’t make it to victory lane after his car failed to make minimum weight post race.

That elevated race runner-up Wells to his fourth Hermitage Lumber Late Model feature win of the season.

Wells, of Aurora, earned the $1,000 first prize with his 98th victory in his No. 98 2006 TNT chassis that he calls “Old Faithful.” The Late Models also collected bonus money in the heat races ($100 for first, $75 for second, $50 third and $25 fourth) thanks to sponsors Wosoba Trucking & Seed, Reed Environmental and Dirt Track Specialist.

Other winners on Saturday night in Vietti Marketing Group Night at the Races for the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series were Andy Bryant (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B Mods), Tad Davis (Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds) and James McMillin (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars).

It was an unusual and eventful victory, to say the least, for Wells. He recovered from an early race spin, the result of a lap-four skirmish with Ferris as they battled for the lead. It left Wells restarting in 12th place.

“I didn’t think I’d get a chance to get back that close,” Wells said. “I was happy with second, I guess, but I just hate a tore-up race car. I’m just happy for these guys who work hard on the race car. And this crowd is awesome tonight.”

Wells used the term “karma” afterward and said it was the second straight outing that he took issue with Ferris.

“He’s took us out two weeks in a row. There’s no sense in it,” Wells said. “Stuff happens. This is what he deserves.”

Ferris started second and Wells fourth and they were running 1-2 by the end of the first lap. Wells was challenging Ferris for the lead on the inside coming to the end of lap four when Wells spun into the infield to bring out a caution.

Ferris opened a 1.7-second lead over Dustin Walker as action resumed with third-place JC Morton about 2.5 seconds behind Walker. But Ferris’ lead was wiped out with a caution for a couple of spinning cars on lap 13.

The yellow also was timely for Wells, who had rallied to sixth but was still a half-lap behind Ferris. Wells moved into fourth by lap 15, but Ferris had clear sailing out front and was two seconds ahead of the field when another caution flew on lap 17.

Wells moved into third after the restart as Morton pulled onto to the rear end of Ferris’ car. Ferris held onto the lead, but Wells drove past Morton and into second on lap 20, 1.1 seconds behind the leader.

Ferris was able to hold on from there by a 1.4-second as the checkers flew – but after multiple tries he did not make required weight at the scales.

Morton finished second with Bryon Allison third, Walker fourth and Joe Walkenhorst fifth.

Bryant claims USRA B-Mod win: Andy Bryant of Fort Scott, Kan., took the lead midway through the 20-lap Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod feature and went on to hold off Lucas Oil Speedway division points leader Bobby Williams.

Bryant claimed his first victory of the season at Wheatland, beating Williams by 1.8 seconds at the finish.

“It’s been too long,” Bryant said of his return to victory lane. “I have to thank my crew and my dad for giving me one hell of a hot rod. I want to thank all my sponsors. They all do so much for me and this car wouldn’t be nearly as competitive without them.”

Williams and Bryant started on the front row and Williams grabbed the lead at the start. He opened up a one-second margin over Bryant by lap six as the leaders caught up to lapped traffic, with Ryan Gillmore close behind in third.

Bryant was able to edge past Williams on the low side in turns three and four, in the midst of the traffic, to take over the lead on lap 10. Just one second separated the top three through lap 15 as the race continued without a caution.

By lap 17, Bryant opened up a one-second lead over Gillmore as Williams dropped to third. He continued to stretch out the margin over the final three laps and wound up prevailing by about eight car lengths over Williams with Gillmore third.

Dayton Pursley finished fourth with JC Morton fifth in a race that ran caution free and took only six minutes and seven seconds.

Tad Davis wins USRA Modified feature: Tad Davis set the pace for all 20 laps to pick up his first victory of the season in the Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds.

Davis, of Mount Hope, Kan., held off a hard-charging Ryan Middaugh for the victory after a late restart left the outcome in some doubt.

“That was a long, hard race,” Davis said. “The track was very aggressive tonight. That wore me out. I’m just glad to finally get a win here. We’ve been trying for a long time. It just feels really good.”

Davis started on the pole and jumped out to an early command, leading Dylan Hoover by 1.5 seconds five laps into the 20-lapper. The lead grew to 2.6 seconds by the halfway mark with Ryan Middaugh getting around Hoover for second.

With action remaining caution-free, Davis had to weave through lapped traffic to maintain his lead and Middaugh began to whittle into the margin. It was down to .601 seconds by lap 16.

Davis appeared on his way to holding off Middaugh on what was to be the final lap when a caution for a stopped car brought on a caution. That set up a one-lap shootout for the win.

Davis had a terrific restart and drove to the win, finishing .458 seconds in front of Middaugh with Gary Christian third, Wyatt Gaggero fourth and Jason Pursley in fifth.

“I didn’t want to see that last caution,” Davis said. “But I had a little bit of juice left in me to finish one more lap.”

USRA Stock Cars win goes to McMillin: James McMillin of Warrensburg cruised to nearly a half-lap victory in the O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Modifieds for his first Lucas Oil Speedway win of the season.

“I was hooked up on the bottom and I just stayed there,” McMillin said after he finished nearly seven seconds in front of runner-up Mason Beck.

Third-starting McMillin led through the early going and sported a 2.1-second lead over Christopher Sawyer when the caution flag flew on lap four. McMillin once again opened a big league after the restart as a cluster of five cars battled for second, three seconds behind him.

Taking advantage of an extended green-flag run, McMillin continued to pour it on and was 5.6 seconds clear of Mason Beck by lap 14. As the laps clicked by, McMillin found himself all alone with his margin 6.9 seconds over Beck with Rob White third, Rodney Schweizer fourth and Waylon Dimmitt fifth.

Johnny Fennewald of Appleton City, the winner of the previous USRA Stock Cars feature two weeks ago, took a wild, tumbling ride into turn three on lap two. His car settled, wheels-up, leaning against the catch fence – but Fennewald walked away from the accident.

Action was halted for about 20 minutes during the red flag to remove Fennewald’s torn-up car.

LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (May 13, 2023)

Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series

Hermitage Lumber Late Models

A Feature – 1. 98-Justin Wells[4]; 2. 72-JC Morton[9]; 3. 1A-Bryon Allison[8]; 4. 14W-Dustin Walker[6]; 5. 90-Joe Walkenhorst[3]; 6. 7J-Jake Morris[7]; 7. 99-Larry Jones[16]; 8. 81-Jimmy Dowell[5]; 9. 149-John Rowland[10]; 10. 6-Bob Cummings[13]; 11. (DNF) 15-Bobby Ruff II[1]; 12. (DNF) 2K-Richard Kimberling[11]; 13. (DNF) 21P-Darren Phillips[12]; 14. (DNF) 31C-Cole Henson[14]; 15. (DNF) 0X-Jason Sivils[15]; 16. (DQ) 51-Larry Ferris[2]

Ozarks Coca-Cola Heat 1 – 1. 1A-Bryon Allison[1]; 2. 90-Joe Walkenhorst[4]; 3. 51-Larry Ferris[6]; 4. 98-Justin Wells[8]; 5. 72-JC Morton[2]; 6. 2K-Richard Kimberling[5]; 7. (DNF) 31C-Cole Henson[7]; 8. (DNS) 0X-Jason Sivils

Ozarks Coca-Cola Heat 2 – 1. 14W-Dustin Walker[1]; 2. 81-Jimmy Dowell[7]; 3. 7J-Jake Morris[4]; 4. 15-Bobby Ruff II[8]; 5. 149-John Rowland[2]; 6. 21P-Darren Phillips[5]; 7. 6-Bob Cummings[6]; 8. (DQ) 99-Larry Jones[3]

Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods

A Feature – 1. 28-Andy Bryant[2]; 2. 1B-Bobby Williams[1]; 3. 66-Ryan Gillmore[3]; 4. 10P-Dayton Pursley[4]; 5. 18-JC Morton[6]; 6. X2-Brian Bolin[8]; 7. 7G-Reece Solander[12]; 8. 46-Brice Gotschall[9]; 9. 54-Tyler Kidwell[7]; 10. 15-Kyle Russell[15]; 11. F1-Mitchell Franklin[25]; 12. 83-JC Newell[13]; 13. 15S-Kody Bray[21]; 14. 05N-Jimmy Nicholas[16]; 15. 116-Nathan Melanson[23]; 16. 0K-Tracy Killian[22]; 17. (DNF) 21A-Andrew Hodges[17]; 18. (DNF) 2G-Eric Graves[18]; 19. (DNF) 33-Brad Page[19]; 20. (DNF) 2-Quentin Taylor[10]; 21. (DNF) 98-Christopher Watts[26]; 22. (DNF) 11L-Logan Smith[5]; 23. (DNF) 17L-Chris Leathers[11]; 24. (DNF) 65-Kris Jackson[24]; 25. (DNF) 55-Colson Kirk[14]; 26. (DNS) 8S-Jon Sheets

Heat 1 – 1. 28-Andy Bryant[4]; 2. 66-Ryan Gillmore[9]; 3. 18-JC Morton[8]; 4. 7G-Reece Solander[2]; 5. 55-Colson Kirk[6]; 6. 05N-Jimmy Nicholas[7]; 7. (DNF) 0K-Tracy Killian[3]; 8. (DNF) 116-Nathan Melanson[5]; 9. (DNS) 98-Christopher Watts

Heat 2 – 1. 10P-Dayton Pursley[1]; 2. 54-Tyler Kidwell[3]; 3. X2-Brian Bolin[8]; 4. 83-JC Newell[4]; 5. 15-Kyle Russell[2]; 6. 21A-Andrew Hodges[6]; 7. 8S-Jon Sheets[7]; 8. 15S-Kody Bray[9]; 9. (DNF) F1-Mitchell Franklin[5]

Heat 3 – 1. 1B-Bobby Williams[1]; 2. 11L-Logan Smith[2]; 3. 46-Brice Gotschall[3]; 4. 2-Quentin Taylor[5]; 5. 17L-Chris Leathers[8]; 6. 2G-Eric Graves[6]; 7. 33-Brad Page[4]; 8. (DNF) 65-Kris Jackson[7]

Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds

A Feature – 1. 75-Tad Davis[1]; 2. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[6]; 3. 58X-Gary Christian[7]; 4. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[3]; 5. 38C-Jason Pursley[4]; 6. 98-Jeff Cutshaw[17]; 7. 5-Robbie Reed[14]; 8. 73B-Shad Badder[8]; 9. 51-Lucas Gibbs[13]; 10. 9-Kenton Allen[10]; 11. 356-Reggie Jackson[19]; 12. 155-Terry Kirk[16]; 13. 11N-Gene Nicholas[15]; 14. 47-Chet Buckley[12]; 15. 99-Dylan Hoover[2]; 16. 21W-Tracy Wolf[9]; 17. 8-Dillon McCowan[5]; 18. 23-Lucas Dobbs[11]; 19. 75L-Lane Whitney[18]; 20. 21-Greg Scheffler[20]

Heat 1 – 1. 8-Dillon McCowan[2]; 2. 99-Dylan Hoover[1]; 3. 38C-Jason Pursley[5]; 4. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[7]; 5. 21W-Tracy Wolf[9]; 6. 51-Lucas Gibbs[3]; 7. 47-Chet Buckley[10]; 8. 11N-Gene Nicholas[6]; 9. 75L-Lane Whitney[8]; 10. (DNF) 21-Greg Scheffler[4]

Heat 2 – 1. 58X-Gary Christian[2]; 2. 73B-Shad Badder[1]; 3. 75-Tad Davis[5]; 4. 9-Kenton Allen[3]; 5. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[10]; 6. 23-Lucas Dobbs[9]; 7. 5-Robbie Reed[4]; 8. 155-Terry Kirk[6]; 9. 98-Jeff Cutshaw[7]; 10. 356-Reggie Jackson[8]

O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars

A Feature – 1. 8M-James McMillin[3]; 2. 0F-Mason Beck[5]; 3. 5-Robert White[7]; 4. 74-Rodney Schweizer[10]; 5. 11-Waylon Dimmitt[1]; 6. 12-Christopher Sawyer[2]; 7. 83-James Ellis[9]; 8. 111-Butch Bailey[12]; 9. (DNF) 99-Jim Cihy[13]; 10. (DNF) 24-Blayne McMillin[11]; 11. (DNF) 7-William Garner[8]; 12. (DNF) 7X-John Scott[4]; 13. (DNF) 21F-Johnny Fennewald[6]

Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 1 – 1. 0F-Mason Beck[3]; 2. 12-Christopher Sawyer[1]; 3. 7-William Garner[4]; 4. 7X-John Scott[5]; 5. 83-James Ellis[6]; 6. 24-Blayne McMillin[2]; 7. (DNF) 99-Jim Cihy[7]

Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 2 – 1. 5-Robert White[5]; 2. 11-Waylon Dimmitt[1]; 3. 8M-James McMillin[6]; 4. 21F-Johnny Fennewald[3]; 5. 74-Rodney Schweizer[4]; 6. 111-Butch Bailey[2]

Drag boats conclude Sunday: The Kentucky Drag Boat Association-sanctioned KDBA Spring Opener on Lake Lucas concludes on Sunday. Ten divisions, headlined by the Top Alcohol Hydro boats, will be in action for eliminations. Action fires up with gates open at 8 a.m. and racing tentatively set for 9 a.m.

For more information on the Kentucky Drag Boat Association, including full schedule, points and entry information, click KDBA.net.

Drag Boat Sunday Admission:

(All tickets include access to the Drag Boat pit area)

Adults GA/Pit Pass combo (16 and up) – $15

Seniors (62 and up)/Military GA/Pit Pass combo (62 and up) – $12

Youth GA/Pit Pass combo (age 6 to 15) – $5

Family Pass GA/Pit Pass Combo = $35 (Includes admission for two adults and up to three kids ages 6-15)

Kids GA/Pit Pass combo (age 5 and under) – FREE

Scheduled off week, then Show-Me 100: Lucas Oil Speedway has a scheduled off week on May 20 before the 31st annual Show-Me 100 Presented by the Missouri Division of Tourism, May 25-27. The three-day mega event that pays $50,000 to win on Saturday, May 27th will include a pre-race concert with Nashville recording artist/songwriter Lee Newton presented by Nutrien Ag Solutions.

Nutrien Ag Solutions will add to the fan experience of the Show-Me 100 with a pre-race concert on May 27th from Newton. During pre-race ceremonies, Lucas Oil Speedway will honor the Veterans and Military as part of the Memorial Day Weekend as a nation.

The Show-Me 100 will feature the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series, co-sanctioned by the Lucas Oil MLRA. The event pays $50,000 to win the Saturday-night feature and is considered one of the crown jewel events of Dirt Late Model racing.

Reserved seats for Lucas Oil Speedway’s signature event are on sale to the general public. The three-day passes are $115 and can be purchased through the Lucas Oil Speedway office by calling Admissions Director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or email her at nichole@lucasoilspeedway.com for more information.

Each pass is for one reserved stadium-style seat, complete with high backs and armrests located in the top six rows of the main grandstand.

Show-Me 100 general admission three-day tickets through Stubwire are $100 for adults, $91 seniors/military and $30 for youth. Those can be found at https://www.stubwire.com/event/31stannuallucasoilshowme100/lucasoilspeedway/wheatland/28138/

The Show-Me 100 kicks off on May 25th with the 10th annual Cowboy Classic, honoring the long-time MLRA Owner/Promoter Allen “Cowboy” Chancellor, headlining the program. On May 26th it’s the Tribute to Don and Billie Gibson, in honor of longtime West Plains Motor Speedway owners Don and Billie Gibson who started the Show-Me 100 in 1991.

Results from the first two nights will help set the lineup for May 27th program and the 100-lap, $50,000-to-win main event. The Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds also will be in action each night.

For information about any event at Lucas Oil Speedway in 2023 contact admissions director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or email her at nichole@lucasoilspeedway.com for more information.