WHEATLAND, Mo. — Jake Bubak celebrated victory in the POWRi 410 Sprint Series headliner during Saturday night’s 14th annual Jesse Hockett-Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Bubak emerged from an early three-car battle, wound up leading 24 of 25 laps and held off a late charge from Scott Bogucki to claim the $10,000 victory.
“This is really special,” Bubak said. “The Jesse Hockett-Daniel McMillin Memorial is a big one, probably the biggest memorial race in sprint cars.”
The Hockett-McMillin Memorial pays tribute to the legacy of Jesse Hockett of Warsaw, Mo., who was a star in both the winged and non-wing sprint divisions when he lost his life in a shop accident in 2010. His cousin and crew chief, Daniel McMillin, was killed in an automobile accident in 2006.
Bubak scored his fifth career POWRi 410 feature victory and his first Hockett-Memorial trophy.
Bubak started on the pole and led the opening laps with Ayrton Gennetten close behind as Aaron Reutzel ran third. Reutzel advanced into second on lap six before Gennetten regained the spot the next time around.
With the top three separated by less than a half-second, Reutzel grabbed the lead on lap nine with an outside pass out of turn four, but Bubak took it back a lap later just before the race’s first caution came out.
“That was pretty fun racing with Ayrton and Aaron,” Bubak said. “I appreciate Aaron giving me a lane there. He raced me really clean. That was really cool and a lof of fun.”
Bubak took off after the restart and needed just two laps to open a 1.8-second advantage over Gennetten with Reutzel third and in Bogucki fourth. Bubak continued to expand his cushion and it was 2.5 seconds by lap 20.
“That restart was good timing,” Bubak said. “I guess (Reutzel) didn’t beat me to the line, so I got to be the leader and choose where I wanted. We restarted and he just showed me I had to run a little harder in (turns) three and four. I started to run really hard up there and the car got better.”
The aggressive driving paid off as Bubak was able to build a sizeable lead with the laps winding down.
“I think I was just being too conservative knowing this place is so hard on tires and I definitely killed these tires … but I was gonna go for it,” Bubak said. “I just ran as hard as I could up there.”
Bogucki was on the move and roared into second by lap 21, but was still nearly two seconds behind Bubak with time running out. I turned out that Bogucki needed another lap or two.
Bubak was able to hold off the hard-charging Bogucki, winning by .693 seconds at the checkers as fireworks exploded over the infield.
“We were a little snug around the top side,” Bogucki said. “Ayrton and Aaron could get up there and free up and Jake as well. I just committed to the bottom and I think I made one and two wider and it was making my entry easier.
“As long as I was running them down, I wasn’t moving. It’s great to be here. A great place, great facility and always a good time.”
Reutzel wound up third with Thursday-night preliminary feature winner Gennetten fourth and Joe B. Miller fifth.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 27B-Jake Bubak[1]; 2. 1X-Scott Bogucki[6]; 3. 87-Aaron Reutzel[4]; 4. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[2]; 5. 51B-Joe B Miller[3]; 6. 98P-Miles Paulus[9]; 7. 79-Kyle Jones[13]; 8. 74-Xavier Doney[17]; 9. 52-Blake Hahn[21]; 10. 17-Zach Hampton[16]; 11. 21-Gunner Ramey[23]; 12. 45X-Jace Park[5]; 13. 4W-Jamie Ball[8]; 14. 3-Howard Moore[15]; 15. 23-Lance Moss[19]; 16. 44-Chris Martin[11]; 17. 9$-Kyle Clark[20]; 18. 99X-Dalton Stevens[24]; 19. 24-Elijah Gile[22]; 20. 12X-Chase Randall[10]; 21. 23B-Brian Bell[14]; 22. 22M-Rees Moran[12]; 23. 20G-Noah Gass[7]; 24. 91-Riley Kreisel[18]