WHEATLAND, Mo. — Saturday night saw an area racing veteran take home the top honors at Lucas Oil Speedway as the Big Buck 50 and Late Model Fall Nationals concluded.
Wheatland’s Mike Striegel took the long road to the biggest victory of his lengthy racing career. The 56-year-old charged from 19th to victory lane in the 10th annual Hickamo Super Stocks Big Buck 50 Presented by Whitetail Trophy Hunt, holding off William Garner by less than one second.
“Can you believe that? How ’bout that butt whipping,” Striegel shouted after claiming the $25,000 first prize plus $500 as the hard charger award winer, presented by James and Donna Ray with Oak Ridge Ranch.
Striegel had to emerge from the B Feature to have a shot at the Big Buck 50 win, which also earned him a spot in the prestigious mid-Missouri Whitetail Trophy Hunt.
“This car is a 2009, believe it or not. Josh Franklin built this car back in 2009,” Striegel said. “It’s a bad mamba jamba.”
Front-row starters Johnny Fennewald and Richie Tosh ran 1-2 from the start. Defending race champion Fennewald had a 2.3-second lead over Tosh when caution flew on lap eight as 24th-running Kyle Davis rolled to a half in turn two.
Taylor passed Tosh for second on the restart before four more cautions by lap 17 as Fennewald had a one-car-length lead over Peyton Taylor with Tosh further behind in third. As action resumed, Taylor took to the bottom groove to try and edge past Fennewald as 19th-starting Striegel charged to third by the midpoint on lap 25.
Striegel’s march took him to the front on lap 27 as he emerged from a three-wide battle entering turn three with the lead as Fennewald backslid all the way to fourth. Striegel opened a 1.1-second lead by lap 30 as the race continued a lengthy green-flag run.
Then came caution No. 6, on lap 33, with Taylor trailing Striegel by just under one second as Tosh was third, Garner fourth and Fennewald fifth. Tosh used the restart to pass Taylor as Terry Schultz joined the top five.
Striegel continued to cruise up front, opening a race-best 2.3-second before the seventh caution slowed the action on lap 43 as 12th-running J.T. Carroll spun in turn two.
Garner, the two-time USRA Stock Cars track champion from Lebanon, passed Tosh for second on the restart and set his sights on Striegel. He was within a car length when one more caution waved to set up a three-lap shootout for the win.
Striegel held off Garner at the finish by .747 seconds or about three car lengths for the biggest-paying victory of his career.
“I thought I had a bad shock and the shock ended up not being bad,” Striegel said. “That’s not why I sucked until tonight. In the B Feature we lost a shock the second lap into it and we ran without a right-rear shock.
“I just appreciate everybody who helps me all year. I have an awesome tire guy down there by West Plains and he told me to run this right-rear tire and damned if it didn’t work out.”
Tosh was third, Schultz fourth and Taylor rounded out the top five.
