WHEATLAND, Mo. — It was all Daniel Hilsabeck on Friday night at Lucas Oil Speedway as the Earlham, Iowa, driver led all 30 laps to beat Chris Simpson and capture the Night One win at the Late Model Fall Nationals.
Hilsabeck, 35, earned $5,000 for the victory, which not only his first of the season but first Open Late Model win of his career as 34 Late Models checked into the pits.
The division will have at it again on Saturday night with another full program, this time with $10,000 going to the feature winner – but Hilsabeck will not be on hand to swing for a sweep.
“I’ve got a wedding to go to and we’re leaving tonight, so we won’t be able to repeat,” Hilsabeck said in victory lane, before laughing that at least he will have an undefeated weekend to savor.
Also on Friday night, the Hickamo Super Stocks Big Buck 50 Presented by Whitetail Trophy Hunt saw Terry Schultz of Sedalia pick up the dash victory for the eight heat-race winners, assuring him of the pole for the final-night feature. A total of 85 Super Stocks entered the action that began with Thursday-night qualifying. B Mains and the 50-lap, $10,000-to-win feature is set for Saturday night.
Hilsabeck was fast all night. He set the fast qualifying lap at 15.913 seconds out of Group A with Simpson topping Group B at 16.032. Both won their heat races to earn front-row starting positions for the feature.
The field ran just one lap, with Hilsabeck leading Simpson, before a caution for debris slowed the action. Dillon McCowan slid into second on the restart, but another caution for a spinning Raymond Merrill flew after just one lap under green.
The disjointed first portion of the race continued with a third caution after a third completed lap as a couple of cars spun on the backstretch.
Once the race settled into a green-flag rhythm, Hilsabeck pulled away to a 2.6-second lead over McCowan by lap 10 with Simpson another second back in third. Eighth-starting Tyler Kuykendall moved to third by lap 11, dropping Simpson one position.
Hilsabeck encountered lapped traffic by lap 14 and McCowan responded by cutting the deficit to just under two seconds. But Hilsabeck soon was drawing off again, putting the suddenly second-running Kuykendall three seconds behind by lap 20.
Simpson made his move to leap from fourth to second by lap 23, but was still 3.7 seconds behind the leader. Hilsabeck’s gap was 2.8 seconds when caution flew on lap 27 after Gordy Gundaker slowed on the backstretch. That set up a three-lap shootout between Hilsabeck, Simpson, Kuykendall and McCowan.
“I hated to see that caution with three to go,” Hilsabeck said. “I felt like I was a sitting duck. I didn’t feel like I was all that great at the end, but this is awesome. This is my first Super Late Model win. We’ve been getting our butt kicked this year with the Lucas Series and it just feels great.”
Hilsabeck handled the restart and held on to beat Simpson by a .477-second margin. McCowan was third with 13th-starting Caden McWhorter rallying to fourth and Kuykendall settling for fifth.
“The long green-flag run, we started coming pretty good,” Simpson said. “For some reason it took too long to get going and before I knew it, I was in fourth and raced back up to second. We had a chance at the end, but Daniel was good. He could restart really good and get out in front of us to where it was comfortable for him.
“Congrats to those guys. We’ll go back and work on it and see if we can finish one position better tomorrow.”
Schultz, of Warrensburg, followed his fast-time on Thursday night by winning his heat race and the first dash. He passed Kris Lloyd on lap four of the eight-lapper to take the win and nail down the inside front-row starting spot in Saturday night’s main event.
The finish:
Feature – 1. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[1]; 2. 32-Chris Simpson[2]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan[3]; 4. 99-Caden McWhorter[13]; 5. 8K-Tyler Kuykendall[8]; 6. 1X-Aaron Marrant[4]; 7. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[14]; 8. 50-Kayden Clatt[7]; 9. 10-Daryn Klein[10]; 10. 98-Justin Wells[6]; 11. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[9]; 12. 99JR-Frank Heckenast Jr[12]; 13. 128-Kylan Garner[20]; 14. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[5]; 15. 12-Scott Crigler[15]; 16. 25B-Chevy Boyer[18]; 17. 82-Jace Parmley[11]; 18. 26P-Glen Powell[22]; 19. (DNF) 78-Steve Stultz[17]; 20. (DNF) 5*-John Briggs[21]; 21. (DNF) 3-Brennon Willard[19]; 22. (DNF) 12M-Raymond Merrill[16]
