WHEATLAND, Mo. — Ryan Gustin regained the lead for good on lap 21 and held off Chris Simpson over the final nine laps to find victory lane Thursday night in the Lucas Oil Speedway Fall Nationals opener at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Gustin picked up $5,000 for his 11th career MLRA feature win, five of which have come at Lucas Oil Speedway. He beat Simpson by half a second with local weekly track champion Justin Wells improving 10 positions to capture third.
“It’s a love-hate relationship here,” Gustin said. “Sometimes we’re almost unstoppable here and other times we don’t make the show. Hopefully, we can just keep it rolling and be here the rest of the weekend.”
From the start of the MLRA feature, it was a battle between Gustin and Simpson. As the green flag waved, Simpson led the opening lap, but inside front-row starter Jon Binning spun in turn two of lap two for the race’s first caution. Several cars dodged Binning in what could have been a multi-car incident.
The restart saw Simpson off and running to a 1.1-second lead over Gustin by lap five with Stormy Scott third. The fourth-starting Gustin started to cut into the margin and was right behind Simpson by lap eight when the second caution appeared for a Jeff Herzog spin.
Gustin fired strong on the restart and took to the high side and was able to clear Simpson for the lead coming off turn two on lap 11. Simpson battled back on the inside and the two raced side by side for the next three laps before Gustin edged out to a three-car-length lead.
Simpson trailed by a half-second when the third caution waved on lap 16 as Chad Simpson, the MLRA championship leader, spun in turn two as he was running eighth.
Chris Simpson regained the top spot on lap 20, but Gustin went right back around him on the outside the next time around. That would be the final lead change as those two pulled away from the field as action remained green the rest of the way.
“I saw (Simpson’s) signal guy move him down, so I figured we were just gonna crack the whip and run the cushion and hope for the best,” Gustin said. “It all worked out.”
“Ryan was below me and I was like if Ryan’s good down there then I can be really good down there,” Simpson said. “I moved down on that restart, but I probably should have run that top one lap, just to stop him from getting a run.”
Gustin desperately held on as the duo dealt with lapped cars on the final lap. Simpson’s momentum was stopped entering turn three by a slower car.
“Either way it was a good race,” Simpson said. “I was a little better than him in (turns) three and four. I think we might have had something on that last lap, but (a car) was in the way. But we’ll take it. It’s a three-night weekend. To get second tonight is still a good night for us.”
Gustin prevailed by two car lengths as the pivotal weekend in the MLRA championship chase began. Chris Simpson began the action third in points, 200 behind the leader, his brother Chad Simpson who settled for 14th after his spin.
Chad Simpson unofficially leads Tony Jackson Jr. by 55 and Chris Simpson by 130 with five series races remaining.
Wells, the Lucas Oil Speedway Weekly Series Late Model champ, finished four seconds back in third. Wells beat Stormy Scott and Jackson, who were fourth and fifth.
In the Super Stocks qualifying, Jeremy Russell paced Group A with a lap time of 19.478 seconds and Jared Hays led Group B with the fast time overall at 19.130.
Sixty-three Super Stocks posted qualifying laps.
The finish:
Feature – 1. 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 2. 32-Chris Simpson[2]; 3. 49W-Justin Wells[13]; 4. 2S-Stormy Scott[5]; 5. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[11]; 6. 22H-Dustin Hodges[15]; 7. 20TC-Tristan Chamberlain[16]; 8. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[24]; 9. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[21]; 10. 15L-Payton Looney[8]; 11. 8-Dillon McCowan[23]; 12. 1XM-Aaron Marrant[17]; 13. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[22]; 14. 25-Chad Simpson[9]; 15. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[19]; 16. 1XMJ-Matt Johnson[12]; 17. 50C-Kayden Clatt[10]; 18. (DNF) 15T-Tyler Kuykendall[3]; 19. (DNF) 36M-Logan Martin[6]; 20. (DNF) 2T-Tyler Stevens[14]; 21. (DNF) 9G-Joseph Gorby[18]; 22. (DNF) 93-Brandon Overton[7]; 23. (DNF) 11-Jeff Herzog[20]; 24. (DNF) 65-Jon Binning[1]
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