WHEATLAND, Mo. — The 12th annual Summit USRA Nationals kicked off Wednesday night at Lucas Oil Speedway with each of the three feature events coming down to the final laps.
Brandon Davis emerged as the USRA Modified winner, Shadren Turner captured USRA B-Mod honors and Justin Custer came out of seemingly nowhere for the USRA Stock Cars win.
A total of 216 cars checked into the pits in the three divisions on the first of four nights of action.
Davis, of Hayfield, Minn., took over the lead with six laps remaining from Terry Phillips and went on to capture the USRA Modified opening-night feature win.
Phillips started up front and set a blistering early pace, opening a 1.4-second lead over Bobby Williams after five laps. The veteran from Springfield was maintaining that same gap by lap 10 as Davis was pressuring Williams for second.
Just as the leaders were catching lapped traffic, one of the slower cars spun to bring out a caution on lap 11. Davis took over second after the restart and began to close in on Phillips, pulling alongside on lap 15.
Phillips’ lead was .184 seconds as a lap-16 caution slowed the action.
Davis finally forged past Phillips going to the inside of turn one on lap 19. Davis quickly drew off to a 1.3-second lead in just two laps and rolled from there.
“When I got around Bobby Williams on that one restart, I noticed ‘TP’ was kind of struggling at times through the middle, just a little bit,” Davis said. “I was just waiting for an opening and could just stick a little bit better on entry. It was fun racing TP. He could have the crappiest race car and he could still get around this place and be fast. He’s so crafty here.”
Davis beat runner-up Harley Dais, who passed Phillips on lap 22, by 2.89 seconds. Phillips settled for third with Brandon Givens fourth and Williams fifth.
Shadren Turner of St. Joseph, Mo., won a thriller over Chad Clancy and Tim Karrick for the USRA B-Mod feature win.
Casey Thomas led the first lap before Karrick took over on lap two. Karrick and Chad Clancy were side-by-side for the lead when caution flew on lap nine.
Clancy took the lead after the restart on lap 10 before another caution slow the action with Karrick second and Shadren Turner third. Those three diced for the lead over the next several laps before Turner took the lead on lap 15.
The fourth-starting Turner held on from there, beating Clancy by just .179 seconds with Karrick right behind in third.
Tyler Kidwell finished fourth with J.C. Morton coming home in fifth.
Custer wins Stock Cars feature with last-lap pass: Justin Custer of Liberty, Mo., made a last-lap pass to steal the USRA Stock Cars feature from race-long leader Myles Michel. Custer rallied throughout a caution-filled race from a 25th-starting position.
Custer took advantage of a late restart to complete his charge and overtake four cars over the final four laps. He beat Michel by one car length.
Pole-starting Tyler Cadwallader was eliminated before an official lap was complete when he went upside down out of turn three during a multi-car pileup, causing a red flag, at the start of the feature.
Michehl, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, grabbed the lead after the restart, opening a one-second gap over Keller by lap five. The leader extended the margin to 1.8 seconds by the midway point on lap 10.
Michehl kept gradually pulling away from there, holding a 2.2-second command over Keller with five to go. Keller had his hands full with Mason Beck, who pressured him for second when the race’s complex changed with a lap-16 caution when fifth-running Josh Cain slowed to a stop in turn two.
Four cautions flew with only one lap completed, leaving Michehl leading Keller and Mason Beck with three to go. But it was Custer who pulled off the heroics to grab the win.
Jaylen Wettengel wound up third with Beck fourth and Rodney Schweizer was fifth.
The finish:
Modified Feature: 1. 50III-Brandon Davis[5]; 2. 87H-Harley Dais[6]; 3. 75-Terry Phillips[1]; 4. 10B-Brandon Givens[19]; 5. 1B-Bobby Williams[3]; 6. 15-Alex Williamson[11]; 7. 3B-Nic Bidinger[12]; 8. 21K-Kyle Brown[15]; 9. 56-Shadren Turner[16]; 10. 68-Dean Wille[8]; 11. 95-Keith Foss[22]; 12. 25-Scotty Roberts[23]; 13. 23JR-Nick Roberts[13]; 14. 17C-Henry Chambers[10]; 15. 99-Josh Angst[20]; 16. 8-Dillon McCowan[9]; 17. 9L-Vince Lucas[4]; 18. 10P-Dayton Pursley[21]; 19. 6-Jason Payton[18]; 20. 18-Brad Johnson[26]; 21. 17JR-Drake Long[14]; 22. 21N-Ben Nading[7]; 23. 73B-Shad Badder[25]; 24. (DNF) 98-Kevin Stoa[17]; 25. (DNF) 08-Mark Dotson[2]; 26. (DNS) 15W-Wyatt Gaggero
