WHEATLAND, Mo. — Tyler Stevens jumped when the opportunity presented itself on Friday night at the Lucas Oil Speedway and visited victory lane in Lucas Oil MLRA late model competition.
The nights only caution came out on the initial start when sixth starting Cole Wells spun in turn three, setting up a complete restart.
On the restart, Chad Simpson quickly shot to the race lead and began to stretch out a one second advantage over the field as he circled the low line of the Lucas Oil Speedway. Simpson would catch the tail of the field just before the half-way point, all the while Stevens was quietly running a mid to high line.
As Simpson crossed the stripe on lap 15 he dove to the bottom and was pinched into the infield tires in turns one and two as he tried to put the car of Glen Powell a lap down.
The contact was enough to slow the momentum of the leader and allowed fourth starting Stevens to shoot by for the race lead off the exit of turn two.
Stevens, behind the wheel of a Longhorn Chassis, would officially take the top spot from Simpson on the nights 16th lap.
From there Stevens reversed the roles and built a near one second advantage over the three-time MLRA Champion Simpson. With 14 laps to go, Stevens still had to navigate his way through lapped traffic and at the line the Searcy, Arkansas did just that, collecting his first Lucas Oil MLRA win by just .328 seconds over Simpson.
“Man, you have no idea,” exclaimed Stevens. “We have had the worst luck this year. New car, new motor, new shocks, new everything and it feels good. We had a little bad luck at the Topless a few weeks ago and I knew we had a heck of a hotrod and we just needed to put it all together.”
For Simpson, the runner up finish was a bitter result to swallow, but it allowed him to expand his point lead with just five nights remaining in the season.
“The car is good, we just didn’t quite get tight enough there for the main and got beat in lapped traffic. I got one back home a couple of weeks ago in lapped traffic so maybe that’s mine back.”
“I just messed around with them (lapped traffic) way too much and when you are racing with these guys you got to go and if you try to hold up and try to pass cars it will cost you,” concluded Chad Simpson.
The finish:
Feature (30 laps):1. 2-Tyler Stevens[4]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[1]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan[7]; 4. 12C-Scott Crigler[2]; 5. 36-Logan Martin[10]; 6. 93-Mason Oberkramer[3]; 7. 98-Justin Wells[14]; 8. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[5]; 9. 7B-Mark Burgtorf[8]; 10. 50-Kaeden Cornell[9]; 11. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[11]; 12. 8X-Matt Johnson[13]; 13. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[16]; 14. 7D-Dusty Leonard[17]; 15. 32S-Chris Simpson[24]; 16. 15-Justin Duty[20]; 17. 14G-Trevor Gundaker[22]; 18. 11H-Jeff Herzog[19]; 19. 45-Cole Wells[6]; 20. 26-Glen Powell[12]; 21. 1X-Aaron Marrant[23]; 22. 77-Jeremy Petty[15]; 23. 96-Dalton Imhoff[18]; 24. (DNF) 1A-Bryon Allison[21]