GAS CITY, Ind. — Gregg Dalman beat Conner Morrell by 1.727 seconds to win the second 25-lap Great Lakes Super Sprints 360 winged sprint car feature ever held at Gas City I-69 Speedway Friday night.
Dillon Nusbaum won the quarter-mile dirt oval’s UMP modified championship last year without winning a feature, but he won one Friday night in a 20-lap contest.
The $100 bounty on the Headley family went unclaimed, as James Headley led all 15 laps of the hornet feature.
Thirteen-year-old Darin Naida won the 600cc outlaw winged micro-sprint feature, while Kevin Knittle won his heat and led every lap of the 15-lap feature for the tough truck division in a program broadcast live by WIWU TV and completed by 10:08 p.m.
Dalman, who finished second in the GLSS championship last year, earned $2,000 and gave himself a belated birthday present by winning the sprint car feature, as he turned 48 on July 20.
He started third in the 19-car field with his No. 49T, but his victory was not easy. He and Morrell exchanged the lead multiple times and ran side-by-side several times before Dalman got the upper hand for good with a move to the outside in turn two on lap 21.
Dustin Daggett hit the frontstretch wall on lap eight but survived to finish third. Chase Ridenour both started and finished in fourth place. Fifteen-year-old Andrew Scheid was the race’s hard charger, as he started 13th but finished fifth.
Nusbaum started second in the modified feature in Kim Wheeler and Dave Baker’s Pierce Platinum chassis. He took the lead on lap four by passing polesitter Aaron Orr on the outside, and led the rest of the way.
It was a race where it wasn’t good to be in second place.
Bub Roberts was in line for his best finish of the season at Gas City until he lost a wheel and went for a wild ride in turn four on lap 17 while running second. The accident was bad enough to bring out a red flag, but luckily he wasn’t hurt.
That put Andy Bishop in second place, but he and Clayton Bryant tangled in Turn 2 with 18 laps down to bring out a yellow. That gave second to Bill Griffith, but he faltered on the backstretch on lap 19 and ended up fifth.
In the end the driver Nusbaum passed for the lead in the early going, Orr, took the runner-up honors. Josh Betts finished third and Jessica Sroufe placed fourth.
Headley won his fourth hornet feature of the year at Gas City in dominant fashion. Gage Allen used lapped traffic to help him get by polesitter Jason Spencer for second place on lap seven and went on to finish in that position.
James Headley Jr. passed Spencer with a move to the outside as they were going through Turn 4 with five laps to go to nail down third. Spencer hung on for fourth and Andrew Clark finished fifth.
Naida started third in the Ollie’s Bargain Outlet No. 7N micro-sprint, took the lead from polesitter Alexis Adgate on lap four, and led the rest of the way in that 15-lapper.
Nate Franklin dipped under Adgate in turn four on lap nine to earn the runner-up honors. Mike Landis finished third followed by Adgate and Tyler Fitzpatrick.
The 15-lap tough truck feature went non-stop and Knittle won in dominant fashion from the pole with his truck that is sponsored in part by Hick’s Accounting. Devon Howard finished second and Dustin Ratliff was third. Andy King and Leslie Hurd rounded out the top five.