WHEATLAND, Mo. — Tanner Mullens bounded to the front on the opening lap and went on to lead all 40 circuits to capture Friday night’s opener of the 16th annual USMTS Slick Mist Show-Me Shootout Presented by Foley Equipment.
Mullens outdistanced Tyler Wolff to earn the $5,000 prize at Lucas Oil Speedway. The United States Modified Touring Series will go again on Saturday night in another 40-lapper for another $5,000 to win.
From the inside of row two, Mullens grabbed the lead shortly after the green, getting around pole-starter Nic Bidinger. He navigated two brief cautions and a bout with lapped traffic to score his third USMTS victory of the season and 16th overall win.
“I was fading there at the end,” Mullens said of his 1.5-second win over Wolff. “The lappers were right on the bottom and the middle was getting really, really dirty. I would stay out there for a few laps and if I wasn’t going to make it, I had to go back to the bottom.
“I’d seen Tyler (Davis) was getting close there. He’s really good here and I knew it would be tough, but I held on until the end. It was a pretty good evening.”
Mullens had a 1.4-second lead by lap five but the big early news was Davis, advancing to third from eighth. Ninth-starting Wolff, a few minutes after winning the Late Model feature, found himself in fifth after eight laps. That’s when the first caution flew for a spin in turn two. Davis took second away from Kyle Brown on the restart as Mullens pulled away.
Brown spun on lap 12 to bring out the second and final caution. Mullens got it rolling again after the restart and established a 1.5-second lead over Davis by the halfway mark.
Showing his strength on longer green-flag runs, Mullens’ lead peaked at 2.4 seconds by lap 24. But as he encountered lapped traffic soon after, Davis began to slice into the margin and the gap was under one second by lap 29. Then as Mullens got around a pack of slower cars and Davis was held up, he had breathing room again.
Mullens was flawless from there as the race remained green. He won by 1.5 seconds over Wolff, who passed Davis for second with one to go.
“It feels good. We’ve ran good here in the past,” Mullens said. “It’s just kind of hit or miss. Here lately we’ve been a little bit better. I just can’t thank everybody enough who’s on the car.”
Wolff said his only hope was to stay close and hope for a late-race caution.
“I was just trying to be patient,” Wolff said. “We were close. We were just off a little bit, but overall a good night for us. Getting to run a Late Model and Mod back-to-back is fun.”
Tenth-starting Bobby Williams finished fourth and Bidinger was fifth.
Other feature winners on Friday night were JC Morton (Clear Creek Golf Cars USRA B-Mods), Tyler Wolff (Hermitage Lumber Late Models) and Jason Hughes (Clear Creek Golf Cars USRA B-Mods).
The finish:
Feature (40 laps): 1. 02-Tanner Mullens[3]; 2. 4W-Tyler Wolff[9]; 3. 65-Tyler Davis[8]; 4. 1B-Bobby Williams[10]; 5. 3B-Nic Bidinger[1]; 6. 10-Dayton Pursley[7]; 7. 10B-Brandon Givens[4]; 8. 38C-Jason Pursley[11]; 9. 24C-Jim Chisholm[13]; 10. 20-Rodney Sanders[17]; 11. 2SS-Mark Smith[6]; 12. 58X-Gary Christian[20]; 13. 22C-Cole Campbell[16]; 14. 91-Joe Duvall[12]; 15. 75-Terry Phillips[22]; 16. 87-Darron Fuqua[14]; 17. 712-Trevor Hughes[26]; 18. 33S-Ben Stockton[25]; 19. 21K-Kyle Brown[5]; 20. 22H-Dustin Hodges[15]; 21. 25-Joe Chisholm[24]; 22. 55H-AJ Hoff[27]; 23. 16-Austin Siebert[2]; 24. 71-Chad Melton[18]; 25. 8-Kyle Strickler[23]; 26. 15G-Geoff Lary[21]; 27. 5-Reece Solander[19]
