WHEATLAND, Mo. — Peyton Taylor said his path to victory in the sixth annual Big Buck 50 Presented by Whitetail Trophy Hunt at Lucas Oil Speedway was anything but easy.
“We’ve overcome a lot this week,” Taylor said. “We qualified and had a bad engine. We changed it and wound up changing the gears, four shocks, four springs. I just can’t thank my crew, about 10 of us, that worked on it all weekend.
“We put our heads together and just figured out what we had to do to make the grip.”
Taylor took the lead from David Hendrix just past the halfway point of the 50-lap feature and went on to claim the $10,000 first prize and free hunt into the Whitetail Trophy Hunt later this fall, valued at another $3,000 with a chance to win more in the hunt.
The O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks three-day event attracted 107 entries and Taylor, the veteran racer from Batesville, Arkansas, called it one of America’s biggest for the division.
“To have 107 cars here … this place is just unreal,” Taylor said. “Thanks to the fans for coming out and fighting the rain and stuff. I have to give all the glory to my savior, Jesus Christ.
“I’m a little choked up. I’ve won a bunch of them, but I’ve been chasing these horns for years. We got a good car and a great team. I get to do the easy part. Congratulations to Hendrix. He ran me clean.”
After four caution flags in the first six laps, the race settled down and remained green the final 44 laps. Hendrix led the first 27 circuits with Taylor following as those two separated themselves from the rest of the field.
Taylor made the decisive pass for the lead on the high side of turn two. He gradually pulled away from there and finished 4.1 seconds in front of Hendrix and 12 seconds clear of third-place Derek Brown of Stoutland. Taylor lapped all the way up to the sixth-place finisher.
Hendrix, the fast qualifier on Thursday who earned the pole by winning his heat race and dash on Friday, said it was a great weekend.
“We had a real good car,” Hendrix said. “Peyton is a class act. I don’t get to race with him or be around him very often. He’s usually way out ahead of me.”
Hendrix said he lost power steering on about lap 10 and started to pull off.
“I held on to it all I could. We had a good car,” Hendrix said. “It was an awesome race. Oh, so close.”
Kris Lloyd finished fourth and Dale Nelson, who started 16th, rallied to fifth.
Cole Henson made a daring pass of Johnny Fennewald in the final turn of the 30-lap Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Model feature to pick up the $2,000 victory.