WHEATLAND, Mo. — Ryder McCutcheon chased Xavier Doney for 24 laps and most of the 25th. Then, on the final turn, McCutcheon made the winning pass as Doney’s car lost power.
That sent McCutcheon to victory lane in Saturday night’s POWRi 410 Sprint feature in Round 2 of the Rod End Supply Road to the Hockett at Lucas Oil Speedway. Series Rookie of the Year contender McCutcheon, a 15-year-old from Alamogordo, N.M., scored his first POWRi 410 victory, worth $5,000, in dramatic fashion.
“I’m very blessed to have all these guys on my side,” McCutcheon said of his crew, car owners and sponsors at Hubland Motorsports. “Thank you for the opportunity. Thank you for letting me get here.”
Those two were the main contenders throughout the 25-lap event.
Doney out-ran McCutcheon into the first turn as the green flew to take the lead and the front-row starters set the early pace. Doney had a half-second lead when caution flew on lap five as Kyle Clark spun to a stop in turn three.
Just two laps were completed after the restart before third-running Scotty Milan’s car lost power and had to be pushed to the pits. That elevated Gage Montgomery to third behind Doney and McCutcheon.
Another caution slowed action on lap nine as Kyle Bellm hit the backstretch wall and headed to the pits. The race settled into a green-flag rhythm after the next restart and that allowed Doney to open his lead to nearly one second by lap 15, when he and McCutcheon caught lapped traffic.
McCutcheon pulled alongside on lap 18, but Doney was able to withstand the challenge and keep the lead. Another caution appeared on lap 21 as eighth-running Landon Crawley slowed to a half on the frontstretch, leaving four laps to settle the outcome.
They made it just two laps before Steven Russell rolled to a stop atop turn four as another caution flew, making it a two-lap sprint to the finish. McCutcheon found himself in the right place at the right time as Doney’s car lost power entering the final turns, running out of fuel.
“Xavier ran a really good race. I don’t want to win a race like that, honestly,” McCutcheon said. “He should be going home with the trophy. But our car was on rails tonight, the best it’s ever been.”
Doney, who coasted to the finish line to finish third behind Gage Montgomery, said he ran out of fuel after the multitude of caution laps.
“Props to Ryder. He raced me clean and ran a good race, and he put more fuel in the car,” Doney said.
Dylan Bloomfield was fourth and Roger Crockett finished fifth.
Other winners on the program were Wesley Smith (POWRi WAR) and Randy Martin (IMCA RaceSaver 305 Sprints).
The finish:
Feature – 1. 5-Ryder McCutcheon[2]; 2. 79X-Gage Montgomery[3]; 3. 74-Xavier Doney[1]; 4. 8N-Dylan Bloomfield[6]; 5. 11-Roger Crockett[7]; 6. 19-Kaleb Johnson[11]; 7. 51B-Joe B Miller[15]; 8. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[18]; 9. 98P-Miles Paulus[14]; 10. B8-John Barnard[12]; 11. 75-Tyler Blank[13]; 12. 74N-Natalie Doney[23]; 13. 1-Sean McClelland[9]; 14. 5B-Kory Bales[20]; 15. 3H-Chris Solomon[16]; 16. 14-Landon Muehlberger[21]; 17. 1JR-Steven Russell[17]; 18. 12X-Landon Crawley[5]; 19. A7-Paul Solomon[22]; 20. 21D-Kyle Bellm[8]; 21. 97-Scotty Milan[4]; 22. 9S-Kyle Clark[10]; 23. 01-Kameron Key[19]
