WHEATLAND, Mo. – Jesse Stovall grabbed the lead on lap 12 and held it the rest of the way to win Saturday night’s 50-lap Lucas Oil MLRA Larry Phillips Memorial Presented by Rugged Radios at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Stovall held off MLRA points leader Will Vaught to earn $5,075 for capturing a race that honors the late Larry Phillips, a five-time NASCAR Short Track National Champion and former MLRA champion.
Stovall finished 1.345 seconds in front of Vaught, with Jason Papich in third.
“This is huge,” Stovall said of what the race win meant to him. “We’ve been trying to win it like, I don’t know, we’ve had it won two or three times and it just slipped out of our pockets.”
Before post-race interviews and the trophy presentation, there was some tension on the front straightaway. As the top three emerged from their cars for interviews in front of the large grandstand crowd, emotions were charged between the top two finishers.
“I’m a little frustrated right now and sorry to the fans for what happened there, but I’m done with it, I’m not dealing with it no more,” Stovall said.
“These guys are good racers. I’m not gonna take that away from them,” Stovall added. “I’m done getting hit after the race and playing these games. This was an awesome race track and I have to thank my sponsors.”
Logan Martin started on the pole and got the jump on outside front-row starter Jake Neal as the green flag waved. He opened about about a one-second lead as the two caught lapped traffic by lap 10 and that’s when Neal and the slower car of Reid Millard got together and spun to bring out a caution.
Stovall restarted in third and it took him just one lap to move into second and one more to take over the lead with a daring slider on Martin in turns three and four.
J.C. Wyman spun while running fourth, on lap 17, to bring out the second caution after Stovall had opened a two-second lead over Martin. By this point, Vaught had advanced to sixth after starting 20th.
Stovall wasted little time after the restart to regain separation, opening a 3.3-second lead over Mason Oberkramer by the midpoint on lap 25. When Mark Burgtorf slowed on lap 30 to bring out a caution, Stovall had a 5.9-second command over Oberkramer with Vaught third and Martin fourth.
Oberkramer began to fade over the next several laps and, while running fifth on lap 40, spun on the backstretch to bring out another caution. Stovall’s 3.9-second lead over Vaught was wiped away and it set up a 10-lap sprint to the finish.
There were two more cautions the rest of the way and each time, Stovall was up to the challenge on the restarts, the final one with five to go. Vaught drove it deep into turns one and three, but was unable to get past Stovall, who picked up his 25th career MLRA victory.
Papich was third with Martin fourth and Joe Gorby fifth.
“This track puts on for some wide-open racing when it gets like this,” Stovall said. “I think we showed ’em what we had. We’ve got some Scott Bailey power under the hood and it’s unbelievable. This is a brand new motor and he takes care of me.”
A potentially damaging points night turned out to be a good one for Vaught, who had to start the feature 20th after suffering mechanical problems in his heat and pulling off early in the B-Main. He began the night 81 points ahead of Mitch McGrath, who wound up sixth.
“We chased electrical problems all night long,” Vaught said. “Coming out of the B-main, we’re just very happy to find the problem. We threw everything we had at it in the trailer. We’re just happy to put a good show on for this crowd.”
Vaught said he gave it all he had on the restarts near the end.
“I had a chance. I had to start too far back and my old tires were slick,” Vaught said. “I just wish I’d have started beside him. We might have had a hell of a show.”
Also picking up feature wins on a night in which 140 cars checked into the pits were Cody Frazon (O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks), Andy Bryant (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods) and J.T. Carroll (Pure Stocks).
The finish:
1. Jesse Stovall, 2. Will Vaught, 3. Jason Papich, 4. Logan Martin, 5. Joseph Gorby, 6. Mitch McGrath, 7. Hayden Ross, 8. Rusty Griffaw, 9. Reid Millard, 10. JC Wyman, 11. Kaeden Cornell, 12. Mason Oberkramer, 13. Jeremy Grady, 14. Dave Eckrich, 15. Mark Burgtorf, 16. Jon Binning, 17. Ryan Johnson, 18. Chad Simpson, 19. Jake Neal, 20. Joe Godsey, 21. Todd McCoin, 22. Steve Johnson, 23. Skip Frey, 24. Rickey Frankel.