WHEATLAND, Mo. — Tanner Mullens worked his way into contention from the 10th starting position, took the lead with three laps remaining and survived a late spin to win the featured Heartland Modified Touring Series feature during Casey’s Thursday Night Thunder at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Mullens, of Wichita, Kansas, overtook Gary Christian on lap 27, then won a two-lap shootout to the finish after a restart following a spin that he and Christian took to bring out a late caution. Tyler Wolff was a close second.
“Me and Gary got together down there getting into (turn) one. It’s just so slick and I knew if you stopped under yellow you were going to the back,” Mullens said after his second HMT feature win of the seasoen. “I tried to keep it going and I barely … I had the starter up just trying to chug along.”
Bobby Williams started on the pole and set the early pace with Christian settling into second and Wyatt Gaggero third. Williams’ lead was only a car length when the first caution waved on lap four.
Christian took advantage to grab the lead after the restart, passing Williams out of turn four to complete lap five. Christian wasted no time opening a 1.5-second gap before caution No. 9 on lap nine once again slowed the action.
Tanner Mullens continued his march toward the front on lap 10. The 10th-starting Mullens slid around Williams for second, but was 1.4 seconds behind Christian at the halfway mark on lap 15.
With the race staying caution-free for a lengthy run, Mullens sliced the leader’s margin to a half-second with eight to go and was right behind Christian by lap 25. Two laps later, Mullens squeezed past Christian on the inside coming out of turn four to take command.
The leaders made contract and spun sideways between turns one and two on lap 28, bringing out the event’s fourth caution. Mullens had a good restart and went on to beat Wolff by .647 seconds. He took home $2,000 for the victory.
“This was a new car we had tonight. So far so good,” Mullens said. “Not bad at all. I can’t thank all the fans enough for coming out and to Lucas for the fireworks show.”
Tyler Davis rallied late for third with Terry Phillips climbing to fourth and Dean Wille fifth. Williams, running in the top three on the final lap, spun ahead of the checkers and wound up 17th.
A total of 152 cars checked into the pits for the annual event, which included a Kids’ Bicycle Giveaway plus fireworks during intermission to celebrate the 4th of July holiday weekend.
Other feature winners were Tyler Wolff (Hermitage Lumber Late Models), Kris Jackson (Clear Creek Golf Cars USRA B-Mods) and Johnny Fennewald (O’Reilly USRA Stock Cars).
