WHEATLAND, Mo. — Chris Simpson’s weekend of settling for second-best at the Lucas Oil MLRA Fall Nationals took a positive turn as the veteran Iowa driver found his way to victory lane Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Simpson wrested the lead away from his older brother and MLRA points leader Chris Simpson on lap 19. He held it the rest of the way and went on to claim his second series victory of the season and second career MLRA victory at Lucas Oil Speedway.
It was worth $10,000 as the co-headliner with the 8th annual Super Stocks Big Buck 50 Presented by Whitetail Trophy Hunt.
The return of the Big Buck 50 after a four-year break saw a familiar winner. Peyton Taylor of Batesville, Ark., grabbed the $10,000 victory to go with his Big Buck victories in 2019 and 2020. He took command on lap 15 and led the rest of the way.
Taylor also earned a spot in the sold-out Whitetail Trophy Hunt next month in mid-Missouri, which pays $15,000 to win.
Chris Simpson capped a weekend of perseverance after finishing runner-up to Ryan Gustin two nights in a row. He said a poor qualifying performance left him displeased and with a lot of work to do, starting the final-nigh feature in eighth.
“We love coming here,” Simpson said. “I just have to thank all my guys. It’s a good way to end it. We’ve been working hard all year.
“I’m missing my daughter’s homecoming tonight, but at least I’m bringing 10 grand home,” Simpson added.
Chad Simpson led in the early going, with a 1.7-second margin by lap 10 over Dustin Hodges and eighth-starting Chris Simpson. Chad Simpson caught lapped traffic by lap 14 and Chris Simpson closed in on his back bumper with Scott third and Tony Jackson Jr. fourth.
The first and what would be the only lead change came on lap 19 as Chris Simpson, charging from eighth at the start, took over the top spot coming off turn four. Chris Simpson’s lead was 1.2 seconds over Scott when the race’s lone caution flew on lap 30 as Gustin – the feature winner the previous two nights – slowed on the front stretch while running 10th.
“I don’t know what happened to Ryan,” Chris Simpson said. “I figured if he finished, he’s probably in the top three. It would have been fun to battle it out with him. We both were good all weekend, but to top it off with the $10,000, I’ll take it.”
With a clear track ahead, Chris Simpson took off after the restart to a one-second lead lead over Scott with Chad Simpson another two seconds behind the top duo. Scott rallied to within a half-second with seven to go, with Jackson moving into third. As the race closed under a long green-flag run, Simpson held on and beat Scott by one second.
“We feel like we have qualifying figured out, we’re trying now what we need on these new cars when the race track dries out on a longer race,” Scott said. “Congrats to Chris and them. Hopefully we can come do this agan and get into victory lane.”
Jackson wound up third with Urbana’s Dillon McCowan fourth after starting 16th. Chad Simpson, after leading the first 18 laps, settled for fifth.
Jackson made some gains in the MLRA championship chase by finishing two spots ahead of Chad Simpson. Jackson now trails Simpson by 75, with Chris Simpson 65 behind his brother, as three series races remain.
A four-year break in between renditions of the Super Stocks Big Buck 50 Presented by Whitetail Trophy Hunt didn’t alter who went to victory lane, but the route to get there was unique.
Peyton Taylor, who won the race in 2019 and 2020, had to use a provisional to get into the field. He drove from 25th and last to start all the way to the lead well before the halfway mark of the 50-lapper.
Taylor took command from Terry Schultz on lap 15 and, driving a car borrowed from Jared Neiswander after Taylor’s car was plagued by motor issues on both preliminary nights, was never seriously threatened the rest of the way.
“To go back to back to back, it’s pretty surreal,” Taylor said. “Thank you all for bringing this back. This is a special event for a lot of us grassroots racers and I think everybody here had a fun time.
“Jared is one of my good buddies and he said, ‘man, I ain’t racing it, you’re racing it.’ Thanks to him, his dad, his family and all these great sponsors on this car.”
Pole-starting Gary Clark led the first three laps before fellow front-row starter Schultz grabbed the top spot on lap four. Tosh moved into second on lap five as Schultz led by 1.6 seconds.
Schultz, winner of the inaugural Big Buck 50 in 2014, had a 1.65-second lead over Tosh when action was slowed by a caution on lap nine as Colton Bourland’s car caught fire under the rear end.
After the restart, Schultz rolled to a 2.3-second lead by lap 14, when another caution flew. But the big news at that point was Taylor’s charge from 25th to third. Taylor needed only one more lap to complete his last-to-first run, taking over the lead on lap 15 as Schultz slid all the way back to fourth.
As the race continued into its longest green-flag run, Taylor’s lead was 2.2 seconds by lap 40 with Tony Anglin running behind J.T. Carroll. As the laps dwindled, Taylor’s lead started to shrink until Carroll got hung up in lapped traffic.
That helped Taylor increase his margin to 4.7 seconds with two remaining. But the comfortable drive to the checkers became a bit more dramatic when a caution flew just before the white flag was ready to appear.
It didn’t matter as Taylor had a flawless restart and went on to finish clear of Carroll by 1.7 seconds. Carroll was disqualified in post-race technical inspection, elevating Derek Brown to second. Anglin was third with Josh Jones fourth and Richie Tosh fifth.
The finish:
- 32-Chris Simpson[8]; 2. 2S-Stormy Scott[2]; 3. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[5]; 4. 8-Dillon McCowan[16]; 5. 25-Chad Simpson[3]; 6. 50C-Kayden Clatt[7]; 7. 36M-Logan Martin[13]; 8. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[6]; 9. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[14]; 10. 2T-Tyler Stevens[10]; 11. 22H-Dustin Hodges[1]; 12. 31C-Cole Henson[9]; 13. 78S-Steve Stultz[15]; 14. 15T-Tyler Kuykendall[18]; 15. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[21]; 16. 11-Jeff Herzog[19]; 17. 65-Jon Binning[22]; 18. (DNF) 1XMJ-Matt Johnson[20]; 19. (DNF) 9G-Joseph Gorby[17]; 20. (DNF) 19R-Ryan Gustin[4]; 21. (DNF) 29-Keith Hammett[11]; 22. (DNF) 93-Mason Oberkramer[12]; 23. (DNF) 1XM-Aaron Marrant[23]; 24. (DNF) 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[24]