PRYOR CREEK, Okla. — Tony Jackson, Jr. continued his career season with the Lucas Oil MLRA on Friday night, by capturing the win in night one of the eighth annual Freedom Classic at the Salina Highbanks Speedway.
Jackson led wire-to-wire in capturing his fourth win of the season.
Jason Papich, behind the wheel of a new Longhorn Chassis rolled from the pole for the third time on the season, but it was Jackson taking advantage of the top side and taking the top spot on lap one.
Jackson quickly began to stretch out the advantage until lap six, when he began working his way through lapped traffic. The lapped traffic would slow the leaders pace just enough to allow Papich and Stovall to close the gap with the top three running nose to tail as the event made its way past the halfway point.
On lap 16, Stovall would slip the cushion in one and two and eventually came to a stop on the front stretch to bring out the first of three StopTech Brakes Cautions of the night. Jackson again assumed the lead on the restart, but the pace was again slowed on lap 19 when Tony Toste slowed on the speedway with a flat right rear tire, sending him to the hot pit area. Toste would rebound for a sixth-place finish.
The lap 19 woes would continue on the restart, as this time Papich jumped the cushion and exited the speedway, avoiding disaster by nearly missing contact with the end of the turn two wall. Garrett Alberson and Jeremiah
Hurst would restart side-by-side behind Jackson with just eleven laps remaining, but Jackson once again proved to be too strong, going on to capturing his fourth MLRA win of 2021 and a $3,000 pay day.
Alberson picked up his second runner-up finish of the season along with earning the Casey’s Hard Charger of the race by advancing five spots, while Hurst finished in third. Daniel Hilsabeck rebounded from a roll-over at the Show-Me 100 to collect a career best MLRA finish of fourth along with being credited with the Swift Springs Move of the Race. Justin Duty rounded out the top five finishers at the line.
“We had to work on it a little bit tonight, but it was good”, noted Jackson. “When you get good race cars up there it’s hard to get by them, so you know the first few laps are pretty crucial. We were able to get a pretty good start and hold them off.”
The finish:
Feature (30 laps): 1. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[2]; 2. 59-Garrett Alberson[7]; 3. 41-Jeremiah Hurst[4]; 4. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[8]; 5. 15-Justin Duty[6]; 6. 91T-Tony Toste[5]; 7. 55K-Chris Kratzer[9]; 8. 3W-Brennon Willard[10]; 9. 91P-Jason Papich[1]; 10. 78S-Steve Stultz[11]; 11. 36R-Jason Redman[14]; 12. 19-Kenny Shelton[12]; 13. 00-Jesse Stovall[3]; 14. (DNF) 93-Mason Oberkramer[13]