DONNELLSON, Iowa — Brady Bacon flexed his racing muscles with the POWRi Honest Abe Roofing 410 Outlaw Sprint League on night one of the Hawkeye Nationals presented by Start2Finish TV at Lee County Speedway.
The initial green flag start would find high-point qualifier Roger Crockett and Sean Rayhall lined up in the front row as Crockett gained the lead on the first pair of laps with Rayhall taking the lead for the next seven revolutions.
Setting the pace out front, Rayhall battled Bacon on lap 10 with Bacon taking the preferred position as Aaron Reutzel followed into the runner-up spot with Emerson Axsom and Clinton Boyles within the mid-point top five.
Bacon led the way as a late-race caution bunched the field back together, setting the stage for late-race dramatics over the single-file restart with less than four laps remaining.
Holding steady out front over an action-packed final four laps, Bacon claimed his first POWRi 410 Outlaw Sprint victory, with Reutzel hustling into the runner-up position by only one-tenth of a second.
“I did not want to see that late race caution, I didn’t know how fast the top was going to be on the restart as I thought we had a better car in lap traffic through the middle,” said Bacon. “It was all the guest crew-chief tonight, we’ve been up and down all year, so it feels great to get this win, and we get to try to do it again tomorrow night.”
Austin McCarl raced from 12th to finish third, with Axsom and Hank Davis completing the top five.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 21H-Brady Bacon[5]; 2. 87-Aaron Reutzel[3]; 3. 88-Austin McCarl[12]; 4. 27-Emerson Axsom[4]; 5. 12X-Hank Davis[7]; 6. 2KS-Ian Madsen[20]; 7. 19-Clinton Boyles[6]; 8. 14-Sean Rayhall[2]; 9. 11-Roger Crockett[1]; 10. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[8]; 11. 51-Scott Bogucki[13]; 12. 45X-Landon Crawley[9]; 13. 44-Chris Martin[18]; 14. 74-Xavier Doney[17]; 15. 51B-Joe B Miller[11]; 16. 22-Riley Goodno[10]; 17. 22M-Rees Moran[14]; 18. 97-Scotty Milan[15]; 19. 33-Scotty Broty[19]; 20. 15JR-Cole Mincer[22]; 21. 42P-Preston Perlmutter[16]; 22. 79-Gage Montgomery[23]; 23. 65-Jordan Goldesberry[21]
