WHEATLAND, Mo. — Ryan Gustin rolled into the I-70 Speedway for the first time on Thursday night, and displayed a dominant performance over the Lucas Oil MLRA field to capture his thirrd series win of the season.
Having won two of the last three MLRA events, Gustin led the field to the green flag for the 30-lap main event, alongside of Dillon McCowan.
The “Reaper” would jump out front at the drop of the green and made sure to take advantage of the clean air at the super-fast I-70 and stretched out the advantage in just a matter of laps to two plus seconds.
The nights first of four cautions slowed the pace on lap eight, when Daniel Hilsabeck slowed on the race track with a shredded right rear tire.
Gustin led McCowan and championship leader Chad Simson back to the green, again pulling away until Jon Binning spun to the infield on lap 15 just as Gustin began to work his way through lapped traffic.
Hilsabeck charged his way back through the field after his early race caution and was sitting in 6th, when he jumped the turn four cushion and made heavy contact with the turn three wall. The Earlham, Iowa, driver’s night came to an early end but fortunately he was able to walk away.
The night’s final stoppage occurred with just four laps to go for Steve Stultz who had slowed exiting turn four directly in front of the race leader Gustin.
The final restart of the night would go single file, giving Chad Simpson one final shot at taking down his second win of the season.
It would be all for not however, as Gustin picked up his 13th career Lucas Oil MLRA win by 2.777 seconds over Simpson. Tony Jackson Jr., McCowan and Chris Simpson completed the top five.
Following his $7,000 victory Gustin commented on his first visit to I-70.
“This place is fun, I have never been here before. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but it widened out there toward the end of that race. After the race I peeled to the bottom and I had traction down there too. All-in-all it was a very good night, very fast race car and an awesome place.”
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1. 19R-Ryan Gustin[1]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[5]; 3. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[8]; 4. 8-Dillon McCowan[2]; 5. 32-Chris Simpson[3]; 6. 11-Jeff Herzog[6]; 7. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[10]; 8. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[9]; 9. 78S-Steve Stultz[12]; 10. 1XK-Richard Kimberling[15]; 11. (DNF) 22H-Dustin Hodges[13]; 12. (DNF) 1XM-Aaron Marrant[4]; 13. (DNF) 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[7]; 14. (DNF) 65-Jon Binning[11]; 15. (DNS) 67-Jimmy Vanzandt