KANSAS CITY, Kan. — It was a drama filled night off the track on Friday night at the Lakeside Speedway, but when the final checkered flag waved it was Chase Junghans capturing his second career victory under the Lucas Oil MLRA banner in the Ellis Family Memorial.
A number of drivers encountered gremlins early in the night including series point leader Chad Simpson who recorded a DNF in his heat race before recovering to finish in sixth after starting scratch on the field of the 30 lapper.
However, the biggest storyline belonged to defending series champion Tony Jackson Jr. After setting the nights fast time in DirtonDirt.com Qualify and winning his heat race the team discovered motor issues prior to the feature, resulting in Jackson not being able to start from his scheduled pole position.
Jackson’s bad luck would hand the top spot for the 30 lapper to Andrew Kosiski who would fire off alongside of Junghans. At the onset, Kosiski jumped to the lead circling the low line around the speedway, but by lap three Junghans had found his rhythm and drove past Kosiski for the lead exiting turn four. Immediately after the duo past the scoring loop the caution would wave for the first time on the night as Brennon Willard dropped a driveshaft down the backstretch.
Another quick caution slowed the pace on lap five for Stormy Scott, but after that the field would go green through the mid-point of the feature with Junghans showing the way and Kosiski locked up in a battle with Aaron Marrant for runner up honors.
The nights final caution waved on lap 16, wiping out a 3.862 second advantage for Junghans.
The remaining 14 laps would go green with Junghans cashing in on the $5,000 victory by nearly four seconds at the line. Kosiski who dropped to third, rebounded late to score a career best 2nd with the MLRA series, while Lakeside veteran Marrant captured his first podium finish of the year. Payton Looney started 11th and drove up to a fourth place finish while Spencer Diercks finished in fifth after scoring his first series win just two weeks ago.
Junghan’s said of the early battle for the lead, “We were good, I just messed up in that first corner and got too tight. The track was fun, it had a lot of character to it, you had to kind of move around and stuff to pass lapped cars, but all in all it was a good night and we finally got er’ done.”
After a late bobble allowed Kosiski to momentarily close the gap on the leader, Junghans continued, “I was cussing myself a couple of times in the helmet. It just got tricky and I about fenced it one lap up there, you would just lose the front end and stuff
like that, and you definitely had to be up on the wheel to get it done tonight.”
For Kosiski it was all smiles following the main event, as he exclaimed to the crowd, “I think I’m happier than Chase is right now.” I’m telling ya, I needed this big time. We have been struggling and we went and raced with WoO last week and didn’t make a show. You know you start thinking about a lot of stuff—holy moly I can’t believe I just ran second tonight.”
Kosiski kept his MB Custom glued to the bottom for most of the race and continued, “My car is always really good around the bottom and I could run the bottom tonight. I was scaring myself because I would hit the holes and the whole car would shove and I was like man I hope I’m leaving them a lane you know.”
Just like Kosiski, Marrant recorded his first career MLRA podium finish on Friday at a track in which he has experienced a lot of success over the years. “It’s nice to be at a track that I have made some laps on. We we’re pretty good tonight, the car was just a little tight and we definitely got lucky with starting position and got to move up to the outside but we were good. I had to run about a tire width right below the cushion which was killing some speed for sure, but it’s a good way to start the weekend off.”
The Finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 18-Chase Junghans[2]; 2. 53K-Andrew Kosiski[1]; 3. 1X-Aaron Marrant[4]; 4. 15L-Payton Looney[9]; 5. 29D-Spencer Diercks[5]; 6. 25-Chad Simpson[18]; 7. 2S-Stormy Scott[6]; 8. 7D-Dusty Leonard[3]; 9. 76-Blair Nothdurft[8]; 10. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[12]; 11. 6C-Cale Osborn[10]; 12. 14W-Dustin Walker[13]; 13. 22S-Steve McDowell[19]; 14. 78S-Steve Stultz[17]; 15. 6-Al Humphrey[14]; 16. (DNF) 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[7]; 17. (DNF) 65B-Jon Binning[11]; 18. (DNF) 10-Jacob Magee[16]; 19. (DNF) 3-Brennon Willard[15]; 20. (DNF) 62-Justin Zeitner[20]; 21. (DNS) 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr