LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — For the second year in a row, Justin Zimmerman found himself in preliminary night victory lane at I-30 Speedway’s second annual Wingless Short Track Nationals presented by KNP Painting.
This time, Zimmerman slipped underneath early race leader Landon Crawley on a lap four restart and then fought off several strong bids from Shane Cockrum over the remaining distance to take the $1,000 winner’s share in Friday’s Wingless STN 20-lap preliminary feature.
While Zimmerman gridded the feature field fifth, Jason Long led the way to the green flag with outside front row starter Crawley gunning into the early lead as Zimmerman made his way to second on the opening circuit.
After Long spun to a stop on the frontstretch with three laps in the books, Zimmerman wasted little time pouncing on Crawley to take command on the restart.
Cockrum followed suit a lap later and pressured Zimmerman the rest of the way, even sliding in front of Zimmerman once but to no avail as the reigning ASCS Elite Non-Wing Sprint Car champion countered in short order.
After three interruptions in the opening ten rounds including a lap-10 red flag for a Blake Jenkins flip in turn three that also collected Long and Chase Howard, Zimmerman held steady the rest of the way to secure the win.
Cockrum settled for runner-up honors with the young Crawley filling out the podium in third.
Reigning USAC Midwest Sprint Car champion Kory Schudy crossed the stripe fourth with Cody Gardner advancing a handful of positions to round out the top five.
The finish:
Feature (20 Laps): 1. #1-Justin Zimmerman (5), 2. 66-Shane Cockrum (6), 3. 187-Landon Crawley (2), 4. 28-Kory Schudy (4), 5. G6-Cody Gardner (10), 6. 1-Paul White (8), 7. 04-Kyle Jones (16), 8. 21ks-Kobe Simpson (9), 9. 16-Anthony Nicholson (17), 10. 44c-Cody Price (11), 11. 31-Mason Smith (7), 12. 33-Reece Wommack (14), 13. 48-Caden McCreary (18), 14. 12m-Greg Merritt (19), 15. 47ak-Knick Smith (12), 16. 19-Jason Long (1), 17. 91p-Zach Pringle (13), 18. 11a-Blake Jenkins (3), 19. 13-Chase Howard (15), 20. 63-Chris Williams (DNS).