WHEATLAND, Mo. — Mother Nature tried yet again to spoil the fun in the final night of the ninth annual MLRA Spring Nationals at the Lucas Oil Speedway, but in the end it was Payton Looney raining on her parade by capturing his sixth career MLRA victory at the track on Saturday night.
Looney, the driver of the Atnip Enterprises Capital Chassis, along with the rest of the 35-car field had to endure a near one hour delay in the action as rain showers moved over the speedway just as Group B qualifying hit the race track. The shower would change the complexity of the nights action as Kolby Vandenbergh took advantage of the added tack and drove to his first career DirtonDirt.com Fast Time Award with a 15.052-second lap time.
Friday nights runner up Jason Papich appeared poised to do one spot better, firing from the pole by virtue of his heat win alongside Looney for the 40-lap affair. However, the top side momentum propelled Looney to the top stop at the drop of the green flag as Papich locked onto the race leader’s bumper.
On the ninth circuit, Papich made what looked to be the move of the night taking the lead away from Looney, only to have it taken away that same lap by virtue of the night’s first caution flag which waved as Kylan Garner slowed on the speedway.
The caution proved to be a big break for Looney who would quickly drive away from the field on the restart. Chad Simpson was able to clear Papich on the restart moving into second as the leaders maneuvered their way deep into lapped traffic, until Kaeden Cornell slowed on lap 25 bring out the nights second yellow flag.
Simpsons best bet at catching the 15 of Looney looked to be as the duo race their way through lapped traffic, but another pair of late race cautions allowed Looney to keep his nose out in front, as he drove to a 1.31-second victory over Simpson.
The $7,000 win was Looney’s second MLRA win at the Lucas Oil Speedway and first since his win in the 2020 Show Me 100.
Chad Simpson recorded his second MLRA podium finish of the year coming home in the runner-up spot, besting sibling Chris Simpson who also scored his best finish of the season in third.
Logan Martin charged from 13th on the grid to fourth, while last year’s series runner up Garrett Alberson finished fifth.
“The race track was kind of treacherous in one and two, so I was just trying to stay up in that brown and every once in a while I would kind of come off of it trying to miss them holes and I knew I was giving up ground,” Looney said. “In three and four I felt really comfortable all night, so I thought I was making up enough ground there to kind of withstand. I got kind of lucky on that yellow there, Papich kind of slid me and it was going to be hard to get back by him, it just pays to be a little lucky sometimes I guess.”
Matt Johnson topped the modified feature and Bryan White won the stock car main event.
The finish:
Feature (40 laps): 1. 15L-Payton Looney[2]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[4]; 3. 32S-Chris Simpson[3]; 4. 36M-Logan Martin[13]; 5. 58-Garrett Alberson[8]; 6. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[7]; 7. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[6]; 8. 91P-Jason Papich[1]; 9. 10-Jacob Magee[16]; 10. 93-Mason Oberkramer[23]; 11. 1ST-Johnny Scott[10]; 12. 04-Tad Pospisil[11]; 13. 1X-Aaron Marrant[20]; 14. 2S-Stormy Scott[15]; 15. 11-Trevor Gundaker[19]; 16. 30-Todd Cooney[25]; 17. 76-Blair Nothdurft[18]; 18. 96-Dalton Imhoff[22]; 19. 14G-Joe Godsey[21]; 20. 14W-Dustin Walker[24]; 21. 78S-Steve Stultz[26]; 22. 21-Billy Moyer Jr[14]; 23. 18-Shannon Babb[12]; 24. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[17]; 25. 50-Kaeden Cornell[9]; 26. 45-Kylan Garner[5]