WHEATLAND, Mo. — Night two of the 14th annual Jesse Hockett-Daniel McMillin Memorial saw Jake Bubak score a come-from-behind feature victory at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Bubak chased down race-long leader Jace Park with two laps remaining to score a thrilling win in the POWRi 410 Sprints.
The Hockett-McMillin Memorial pays tribute to the legacy of Jesse Hockett, 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.
Park appeared to be a lopsided winner as he built a big lead with only a handful of laps remaining.
But Bubak, who started sixth, came charging to steal the $3,000 win. His winning pass after a lap-23 restart and just after a previous pass for the lead was wiped out as a caution flew before the lap was completed.
“That was a bummer,” Bubak said of having to go back to second and do it all over again. “But I kind of found the top there right before the yellow and knew it was there, so I just committed to it.
“I’m happy to be in victory lane. I really wanted to win that one. We’re happy to be here and I love this track and this facility.”
Park was the driver to beat most of the way. He out-sprinted fellow front-row starter Chase Randall for the lead at the start and those two stayed nose-to-tail through eight laps. They were staging a tremendous battle for the lead on lap nine, but as Randall was trying to complete the pass he drifted too high, got into the cushion and flipped his car in turn four.
Park quickly opened a 1.7-second lead after the restart over Noah Gass with Bubak lurking in third. But Park kept pouring it on, extending the gap to 3.2 seconds by lap 17, as Bubak got around Gass for the runner-up spot.
Bubak started to immediately cut into Park’s margin, pulling within .668 seconds with four circuits remaining as the two battled each other and lapped traffic.
Bubak made the pass the next time around on the backstretch, but the caution came out for a spinning car in turn four.
With scoring reverting to the last completed lap, Park was scored the leader over Bubak with Gass in third for a final restart. Bubak made the winning move on the outside heading down the backstretch on lap 24.
“It was big,” he said. “I had it the lap before and he opened his entry up enough that I had to hit the brakes and try it again the next lap.”
Bubak held on from there to beat Park by .847 seconds.
“I knew after that restart that Jake had something going for him when he showed his nose,” Park said. “I kind of got saved by the bell when that caution came out.”
Gass wound up third with Joe B. Miller fourth and Scott Bogucki fifth.
The finish:
Feature – 1. 27B-Jake Bubak[6]; 2. 45X-Jace Park[2]; 3. 20G-Noah Gass[3]; 4. 51B-Joe B Miller[9]; 5. 1X-Scott Bogucki[11]; 6. 91-Riley Kreisel[10]; 7. 74-Xavier Doney[15]; 8. 87-Aaron Reutzel[22]; 9. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[13]; 10. 21-Gunner Ramey[8]; 11. 98P-Miles Paulus[16]; 12. 3-Howard Moore[17]; 13. 44-Chris Martin[5]; 14. 4W-Jamie Ball[14]; 15. 17-Zach Hampton[18]; 16. 79-Kyle Jones[4]; 17. 22M-Rees Moran[7]; 18. 99X-Dalton Stevens[20]; 19. 12X-Chase Randall[1]; 20. 77-Jack Wagner[19]; 21. 23-Lance Moss[12]; 22. 44H-Derek Hagar[21]