WHEATLAND, Mo. — For the second straight night, a first-time United States Modified Touring Series winner found victory lane in the 15th annual Summit USMTS King of America at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Reece Solander, a Hodges Brother Racing teammate of Thursday night’s winner Gabe Hodges, led wire to wire to win the $3,000 prize in a caution-free affair.
The USMTS drivers will pursue a $15,000 feature win on Saturday night with the top nine locked into starting lineup, based on their best of two preliminary night results. Solander, second to Hodges on Night One, got the job done in a big way by leading all 33 laps.
Solander, 24, admitted he was a bit nervous as the laps clicked away.
“I didn’t see the five to go. The white flag just popped out,” Solander said in victory lane. “I’m not gonna lie. My last last was horrible. Nerves kicked in. It’s pretty special to be up here.”
Solander started on the pole Friday and set a brisk early pace, opening a 1.3-second lead over Tyler Stevens by lap five. Stevens gradually cut into the lead, cutting it to a half-second by lap 10 with Davis and Stormy Scott battling for third nearly two seconds behind.
The leaders caught lapped traffic by lap 15. Solander weaved his way through the slower cars and expanded the lead as the race continued its lengthy green-flag run. The cushion was two seconds by lap 25 over Davis, who caught and passed Stevens.
Solander took it home from there, beating the fifth-starting Davis, of Hayfield, Minn., by .720 seconds at the finish.
“I was super happy for (Hodges) last night. That was a cool deal to run 1-2,” Solander said of his teammate. “You don’t get to do that very often. It feels like we have the cars running pretty good right now. It’s awesome to be here with my first win at Lucas Oil Speedway.”
Stevens wound up third with Talan Willis fourth and Tanner Mullens fifth.
Cody King led all 20 laps and survived a late-race restart to grab the Clear Creek Golf Cars USRA B-Mod main event and $1,000.
King, who started sixth, took the lead on lap four after pole-starting Cayden Stacye led the first three circuits. King opened a 2.2-second lead by the halfway mark on lap 10.
As Stacye and Chad Clancy battled for second, King was making it a runaway. His lead ballooned to 3.4 seconds by lap 15. But the race’s first caution wiped out his big lead with three to go, giving Clancy and Stacye a chance.
King had a solid restart and held on to prevail over Stacye by .762 seconds with Stephen Clancy settling for third.
Johnny Fennewald made it back-to-back wins in the O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars, leading all the way and fighting off a late surge from Jeffrey Abbey.
Fennewald started up front and rolled to a 2.1-second lead over Rodney Schweizer before caution slow the action on lap six.
Kyle Falck took over second on the restart with Jeffrey Abbey into third as Schweitzer broke something on the left front wheel. Abbey, who started 13th, slid into second on lap 12 and gave chase to the leader.
Abbey caught Fennewald by lap 15 and the two were side-by-side to finish lap 17. The next time around, caution flew for a spinning car near the rear of the field just as Abbey was passing for the lead. The restart order reverted to the previous green-flag lap, giving Fennewald the lead for a three-lap shootout.
Fennewald executed a perfect restart and went on to beat Abbey by .997 seconds. Justin Custer was third with Falck fourth and Shayne Bailey fifth.
The finish:
Feature – 1. 5-Reece Solander[1]; 2. 50III-Brandon Davis[5]; 3. 2-Tyler Stevens[2]; 4. 10M-Talan Willis[7]; 5. 02-Tanner Mullens[8]; 6. 2S-Stormy Scott[3]; 7. 65-Tyler Davis[16]; 8. 127-Paden Phillips[6]; 9. 58X-Gary Christian[12]; 10. 7G-Gabe Hodges[4]; 11. 24C-Jim Chisholm[13]; 12. 21K-Kyle Brown[18]; 13. 87H-Harley Dais[9]; 14. 91-Joe Duvall[10]; 15. 20-Rodney Sanders[14]; 16. 17-Henry Chambers[20]; 17. 3B-Nic Bidinger[17]; 18. 25C-Joe Chisholm[25]; 19. 15WX-Alex Williamson[19]; 20. 56-Shadren Turner[22]; 21. 15W-Wyatt Gaggero[24]; 22. 75-Terry Phillips[23]; 23. 65X-Carlos Ahumada Jr[21]; 24. 14W-Dustin Walker[11]; 25. 16JR-Dustin Henigan[15]; 26. (DNS) 712-Trevor Hughes
