WAYNESFIELD, Ohio — Paul Dues came into Waynesfield Raceway Park looking for his first feature victory there after several years of trying and by the end of the night he accomplished his goal.
Dues wired the field from the pole position leading all 25 markers of the Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series feature on his way to the checkered flag.
Pressured, pushed, and hounded by local talent Matt Westfall basically every lap, Dues would set an early barn burner pace, then search the track for more bite, and hang on for a late race, two-lap shootout to get the victory.
“It’s been a long time coming,” noted Dues. “It has always been a goal to win here, and we finally got it done. The track was pretty good, I knew Matt was back there, but I also knew he would race me clean. That last restart I was just hoping my tire pressures stayed up under that yellow, and I was appreciative of the clean air in front of me.”
Dues would bring the field to the start with Mike Miller alongside as they fired into turn one. Dues would get the advantage and tow the field down the backstretch as Westfall charged by into second. Miller would get back by Westfall as Dues continued his journey. Miller’s charge came to a halt when he rolled to a stop in turn two ten laps into the event and would be relegated to the tail of the field for the restart. Back green off went Dues, but this time Westfall stayed right in his tracks.
Westfall would show Dues the nose dipping to the inside in turn three a couple times, but just not enough to complete the pass as Dues stayed disciplined and ran his own race. A tangle in turn three involving three cars would put the field in a red-flag condition with just two laps to go.
Dues would again, tow the field to the start just like he did at the beginning, and he never looked back scoring the victory. Westfall would fall to third coming off turn four to the checkered flag when Korbyn Hayslett sailed into second.
Kyle Simon and Luke Hall rounded out the top five in the 20-car field.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 87-Paul Dues[1] ; 2. 1H-Korbyn Hayslett[5] ; 3. 33M-Matt Westfall[4] ; 4. 23S-Kyle Simon[6] ; 5. 9N-Luke Hall[10] ; 6. 74-Drew Rader[7] ; 7. 9X-Ricky Peterson[18] ; 8. 53-Steve Little[3] ; 9. 24L-Lee Underwood[17] ; 10. 82-Mike Miller[2] ; 11. 26W-Cody White[11] ; 12. 78-Ron Cahoe Jr.[15] ; 13. 11-Ricky Lewis[9] ; 14. 73-Blake Vermillion[13] ; 15. 18H-Dallas Hewitt[8] ; 16. 24-Landon Simon[12] ; 17. 10-Saban Bibent[19] ; 18. 2DI-Dustin Ingle[16] ; 19. 9G-Cody Gardner[14] ; 20. 34-Parker Fredrickson[20]