WHEATLAND, Mo. — Brandon Davis completed a memorable weekend by completing a sweep Saturday night at the 17th annual Summit USMTS Slick Mist Show-Me Shootout Presented by Foley Equipment.
Davis took the lead from Tanner Mullens on lap 30 and went on to win $5,000 prizes on back-to-back nights at Lucas Oil Speedway. Moreover, it was Davis’ fifth straight USMTS victory.
“Heck no. I’ve never gotten five of these in one season,” Davis said of his streak in victory lane. “I haven’t raced with them as much, but these guys are good. This car is just really good right now.”
Davis started seventh and gradually worked his way toward the front as Mullens, of Wichita, Kan., set the pace. Mullens built the lead to 1.6 seconds by lap eight with Davis rallying into third by lap 17, three seconds behind the leader. Davis got around Stevens for second two laps later and began to slice into Mullens’ margin.
Mullens led Davis by 1.8 seconds at the halfway mark in a race that had remained caution-free. Davis continued to quickly gain and was within .420 seconds as caution flew on lap 25 for Gary Christian’s spin. Wolff was running third with Jim Chisholm fourth and Stevens fifth.
The restart saw Mullens retain the lead, but another caution appeared on lap 27 for 24th-running Ryan Murphy’s spin in turn two. Wolff and Davis swapped second the next couple of leaps.
Then it was Davis’ turn to take his first lead, sliding around Mullens out of turn four on lap 30. That would be the winning move en route to his 16th career USMTS triumph.
“Tanner was kind of moving around and defending and I thought I might catch him sleeping on the outside,” Davis said. “I actually ended up getting on the bottom and then doing the slider. This thing is so good. It’s crazy.
“I came here here a couple of different times for some big shows and thought I was never going to get the job done. To get it done against these guys it’s just surreal.”
Davis said his pursuit of a USMTS championship will continue with one car and one motor, plus a borrowed truck and hauler from a lifelong friend.
“I don’t know if I sealed my tire up or what,” Mullen said. “But I don’t think it would have mattered. He’s a lot better than us right now. We just have to work on it and get better.”
Before he could clear to a lead of any margin, caution appeared again on lap 31, leading Davis nine laps to hold off Mullens, Wolff and fourth-place Rodney Sanders. With three cars battling for second after the restart, Davis quickly opened a 1.7-second lead – but that’s when another caution slowed the field with five laps remaining.
The additional restart didn’t matter as Davis cruised once action resumed, beating Mullens by about 10 car lengths. Sanders finished third with Chisholm fourth and Jake Timm fifth after starting 22nd.
“We’re steady,” Sanders said of his finish. “Congrats to Brandon. He’s really good right now.”
Other feature winners on the program were Robbe Ewing (Hermitage Lumber Late Models), Jon Sheets (Clear Creek Golf Cars USRA B-Mods) and Rodney Schweizer (O’Reilly USRA Stock Cars).
The finish:
Feature – 1. 50III-Brandon Davis[7]; 2. 02-Tanner Mullens[3]; 3. 20-Rodney Sanders[10]; 4. 24C-Jim Chisholm[5]; 5. 49-Jake Timm[22]; 6. 4W-Tyler Wolff[4]; 7. 65-Tyler Davis[6]; 8. 5-Reece Solander[12]; 9. 21K-Kyle Brown[15]; 10. 22C-Cole Campbell[18]; 11. 22H-Dustin Hodges[17]; 12. 99L-Steve Lavasseur[24]; 13. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[19]; 14. 75-Terry Phillips[16]; 15. 7G-Gabe Hodges[8]; 16. 91-Joe Duvall[26]; 17. 55H-AJ Hoff[27]; 18. 10B-Brandon Givens[23]; 19. 3B-Nic Bidinger[9]; 20. 97JR-Landon Volkman[13]; 21. 32-Ryan Murphy[25]; 22. 2-Tyler Stevens[2]; 23. 38C-Jason Pursley[11]; 24. 54T-Matthew Day[1]; 25. 58X-Gary Christian[14]; 26. 1B-Bobby Williams[21]; 27. 18JR-Chase Sigg[20]
