KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Making just his third Lucas Oil MLRA start of the season, Derrick Stewart stayed hot on the MLRA scene and raced his way to his first career Lucas Oil MLRA victory on Friday night at the Lakeside Speedway.
Coming into the night, the driver of the Grace Motorsports Capital Chassis had already logged a pair of top ten finishes, including a fourth-place finish in the series most recent outing at the Callaway Raceway. He would again start off his night on the right foot, by capturing his second consecutive MyRacePass Fast Time Award with a lap of 16.374 seconds and followed that up with a win in the nights first heat race, placing him on the pole for the 30-lap main event.
At the drop of the green flag, it was third starting and 16-year-old Tyler Kuykendall taking the early advantage, as he charged past both Stewart and current series point leader and front row starter Chad Simpson for the early race lead. However, the lead for Kuykendall would be short lived as Stewart quickly charged to the point off the exit of turn two and put himself out in front at the line on lap two.
The nights lone caution also slowed the pace on lap two, when Dustin Hodges spun and came to a stop in turn two. Simpson who had dropped to fourth, took advantage of the restart and quickly moved into the runner up spot and began his pursuit of his fellow Iowa driver. By lap 11 Simpson found the bottom line to be the way to go, and charged to the lead off the exit of turn two, while Stewart stayed committed to the high line.
Yet again, Stewart was not about to give up the point, as just one lap later he charged back by Simpson to regain the lead and would race his way through lapped traffic over the remainder of the race, scoring the $5,000 win by 3.7 seconds.
2022 Lakeside MLRA winner Chase Junghans race his way from sixth on the grid to the runner up spot, passing Simpson for the position on lap 16, while Simpson battled with Dillon McCowan for the final podium position. McCowan would get by Simpson momentarily, but in the end, it was Simpson snagging the final podium position with McCowan and Tony Jackson Jr. rounding out the top five.
An exhausted Stewart climbed from his car in victory lane and commented by saying, “I didn’t think it was going to be that fast, or that wide open, or that physical. Simpson showed his nose there and I got up on the wheel, and there for a while I didn’t know if I was going to have enough gas to make it — I’m pretty wore out.”
Stewart’s 28 laps out in front netted him the MD3 “Most Laps Led.”
“I think it was big deal,” he noted of being able to be out in front. “That guy (Kuykendall) got by me on the bottom and I was like whoa, it must be pretty good down there and I crossed him over down the backstretch and just told myself you know you run five to ten hard laps here and get out there and get a lead, and you can kind of cool your tires off and start hitting your marks and calm down. About the time we did that we got into lapped traffic and Simpson showed me the nose, and the race was on from there.”
“You had to be careful with what you were doing, you know you can’t enter here without any air on your nose,” he continued. “Lapped traffic seemed to be running the middle to the bottom and I got real tight on entry and a couple guys left a hole open and it was just one of those deals where if you’re going to drive in there and try to slide em’ you have to 100% commit going down this back stretch. Fortunately, it worked out and they left us enough room to get by and I just kept telling myself, keep putting these lapped cars between ya and keep pulling away.”
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. 43-Derrick Stewart[1]; 2. 18-Chase Junghans[6]; 3. 25-Chad Simpson[2]; 4. 8-Dillon McCowan[9]; 5. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[5]; 6. 1XM-Aaron Marrant[12]; 7. 15T-Tyler Kuykendall[3]; 8. 32-Chris Simpson[4]; 9. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[10]; 10. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[15]; 11. 78S-Steve Stultz[18]; 12. 33F-Rickey Frankel[16]; 13. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[13]; 14. 11-Jeff Herzog[8]; 15. 3W-Brennon Willard[17]; 16. 85D-Mark Dotson[23]; 17. 26G-Glen Powell[20]; 18. 41-Matt Menzie[21]; 19. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[19]; 20. (DNF) 7J-Ryan Johnson[14]; 21. (DNF) 77Y-Jordan Yaggy[11]; 22. (DNF) 7D-Dusty Leonard[22]; 23. (DNF) 22H-Dustin Hodges[7]