WHEATLAND, Mo. — The man who is the answer to one of Lucas Oil Speedway’s great trivia questions celebrated again in victory lane Thursday night.
Ozarks-area racing veteran Justin Wells, who won the first late model feature at Lucas Oil Speedway in 2006, made a 13th-to-first charge to take the Hermitage Lumber Late Model win.
Wells, of Aurora, earned $1,000 courtesy of Rains Ice in the special Thursday Night Thunder holiday-weekend program Presented by Casey’s and KY3.Â
Wells – who won a Midwest Late Model Racing Ass’n feature as the speedway opened 16 years ago – became the first Late Model winner other than midseason co-champions Larry Ferris and Cole Henson in 2022. He beat Ferris by about six car lengths and emerged from the car with a big smile and fist pump.
“I just want to tell the guys here at Lucas Oil Speedway, what a hell of a track,” Wells said. “Man, this thing, you could run anywhere on it.”
Wells, making his first appearance at Lucas Oil Speedway this season, found the low line was golden. He advanced to third by lap six and began to reel in Cole Henson before passing to move into second by lap 14.
“They threw the green and I went from 13th to fifth in two laps,” Wells said, adding that an early caution forced him to go to the back after a restart and do it all over again.
“I thought my chances were gone,” Wells said. “But I caught Cole and Larry there, as they were running the high side and I had a really good line on the bottom that worked really good.
Continuing to use the extreme low groove. Wells began to gain on Ferris and pulled alongside and made a pass for the lead coming out of turn four to complete lap 17.
Wells took it home from there, but not before a pair of cautions – on laps 18 and 20 – forced him to hang on through a pair of restarts. The Ozarks Area Racers Foundation Hall of Famer executed them both to perfection and went on to beat Ferris by .701 seconds.
Henson beat fellow front-row starter Ferris as the race began, but Ferris used a crossover move in turn four to grab the lead on lap two. As those two set sail and opened a considerable gap from the field, Wells was quickly advancing.
Tucker Cox finished third with Tommy Cordray fourth and Larry Jones in fifth.
Other feature winners were Kris Jackson (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods), Darron Fuqua (Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds) and Derek Brown (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars). A total of 101 cars checked into the pits.
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