GAS CITY, Ind. — On Friday night Matt Westfall was victorious in the most competitive 25-lap sprint car feature so far this year at Gas City I-69 Speedway.
After a race-long war with three other front runners, the veteran from Pleasant Hill, Ohio became the seventh different sprint car feature winner this season at the Grant County quarter-mile dirt track.
Westfall started second and passed polesitter Evan Mosley with a move to the outside in turn 2 before Levi Wignet spun in turn 2 to cause a compete restart.
Mosley led the first lap before Westfall got him again, this time on the backstretch, to lead laps two and three, although there was a pause between those laps when Colin Grissom spun off turn 2. Lap three was also when Tye Mihocko charged under Mosley for second in turn 2 and set his sights on Westfall.
It only took Mihocko a quarter-mile, as he passed Westfall low in turn 4 to lead laps four through seven, setting the fastest lap of the race on lap five in the process. Scotty Weir, meanwhile, had made it to third by lap five after starting eighth, while Anton Hernandez was fourth after starting third.
Westfall tried the outside repeatedly to pass Mihocko. He made a pass stick at the start-finish line on lap eight, but four laps later Mihocko was still just 0.381 seconds behind Westfall’s Ray Marshall Motorsports DRC/Gressman Chevy.Â
Weir was close too, and on lap 13 Weir passed Mihocko for second. On the next lap the top four of Westfall, Weir, Mihocko and Hernandez were running under the proverbial blanket, and they kept it up until Matt Goodnight had a problem in turn 4 with 16 laps down to bring out another yellow.
The pressure ramped up even higher when they got another lap in the books and then Grissom brought out another yellow when he stopped on the frontstretch with 17 laps down.
Hernandez, who had just gotten a call from Scott Benic to drive the No. 2B, flew under Mihocko in turn 4 for third on lap 18, but Mihocko got him back on the very next lap.
Mihocko also passed Weir for second on lap 23, but Weir regained the spot on the white-flag lap. Driving the Scott and Donna Pedersen’s familiar DRC/Pedersen No. 4P, Weir was 0.624 of a second behind Westfall’s No. 33M at the checkered.
Michael Magic, didn’t use any hocus pocus to win the 20-lap main event for the USAC SpeeD2 Midwest Thunder midget series.Â
Zach Wigal flipped in turn 4 while running third with two laps down in the midget feature, but the high school student from Belpre, Ohio returned to win the 15-lap micro-sprint feature.
Andy King took the lead with three laps to go in the 15-lap Dirt Track Truck Series feature and led the early leader, Dan Ramey to the checkered flag.
Jeremy Jones tried his hardest, but he couldn’t stop Landon Arcaro from winning his sixth 15-lap hornet feature of the season at Gas City.
The Finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. Matt Westfall (2); 2. Scotty Weir (8); 3. Tye Mihocko (4); 4. Anton Hernandez (3); 5. Evan Mosley (1); 6. Jack Hoyer (5); 7. Colten Cottle (11); 8. Brayden Clark (10); 9. Ryan Barr (13); 10. Corey Smith (6); 11. Travis Hery (7); 12. Kevin Newton (9); 13. Jack James (20); 14. Korbyn Hayslett (17); 15. Ricky Lewis (21); 16. Matt Goodnight (18); 17. Cooper Welch (15); 18. Brady Click (16); 19. Colin Grissom (14); 20. Levi Wignet (19); 21. Tom Eller (12); 22. Andrew Cockman (22).
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