WHEATLAND, Mo. — Veteran Tim Crawley led all the way to pick up the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series feature win on opening night of the 12th annual Jesse Hockett-Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway.
A total of 107 cars, including 78 ASCS Sprints, were in action on Thursday with the other half of the WAR Sprints scheduled to compete on Friday night for their preliminary program. Drivers in both divisions are compiling points toward the starting field on Saturday night.
The event recognizes the legacy of Jesse Hockett, from Warsaw, Missouri, who was a star in both the winged and non-wing sprint divisions when he lost his life in a shop accident in 2010. His cousin and crew chief, Daniel McMillin, was killed in an automobile accident in 2006.
Crawley, of Benton, Arkansas, started up front and led all 25 laps en route to the $3,000 Lucas Oil ASCS feature victory. He held off Derek Hagar in a race that ran caution-free and took only 7 minutes, 4 seconds.
“We work out butts off and this is what makes it all worthwhile,” Crawley said. “We lost a good friend at home this week to cancer and then here’s the Jesse and McMillin deal here. This all means a lot to me, it really does.”
Crawley points to his trophy and noted that he already has one Hockett-McMillin prelim trophy on his wall at home.
“Here’s another and we’ve got two more nights. I’ve got room for two more,” Crawley said in victory lane. Saturday night’s finale pays $10,000 to the ASCS feature winner.
Crawley, starting outside of row one, grabbed the lead at the start but Hagar and Joe B. Miller were close behind through the first five laps.
By lap 10, Crawley had gradually built a 1.5-second lead over Hagar in the extended green-flag run. He was able to navigate lapped traffic to maintain the margin as the laps quickly clicked away and opened a 2.2-second command with five remaining.
Crawley held on from there to beat fellow Arkansas driver Hagar by 1.2 seconds. Mark Smith finished third with Miller fourth and Wayne Johnson in fifth.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 1X-Tim Crawley[2]; 2. 9JR-Derek Hagar[6]; 3. 43M-Mark Smith[8]; 4. 51B-Joe B Miller[4]; 5. 2C-Wayne Johnson[1]; 6. 10-Landon Britt[7]; 7. 52-Blake Hahn[3]; 8. 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr[17]; 9. 87-Sean McClelland[18]; 10. 91-Michael Day[10]; 11. 95-Matt Covington[5]; 12. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[12]; 13. 84-Scott Bogucki[9]; 14. 5D-Zach Daum[15]; 15. 36-Jason Martin[11]; 16. 14E-Kyle Bellm[13]; 17. 45X-Kyler Johnson[20]; 18. 9-Chase Randall[22]; 19. 24-Garet Williamson[21]; 20. 22-Riley Goodno[14]; 21. 22K-Kaleb Johnson[19]; 22. 1XX-Jake Bubak[16]; 23. 98P-Miles Paulus[25]; 24. 187-Landon Crawley[24]; 25. 55B-Brandon Anderson[23]
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