TULSA, Okla. — Jacob Denney would lead early and recover late using a last lap pass to earn his third career feature win battling at Port City Raceway, with the POWRi National and West Midget Leagues, in night two of the Rujo Rumble after leading eight laps of the 30-lap feature event honoring an industry icon in the 20th Annual Charlene Meents Memorial presented by Driven2SaveLives.
Speedy on-track excitement with thirty-five talented entries in the POWRi National Midgets would find Gavin Miller start the action off with quick time in qualifying with a 10.000-second lap as Alex Sewell, Jonathan Beason, Kris Carroll, Chase McDermand and Jayden Clay would notch the heat racing wins. Semi-feature action would find Trey Marcham and Jason McDougal victorious.
Launching the feature field would find the high-point qualifier Denney and Beason, lead the field as the green flag flew with Denney gaining the initial advantage on the opening lap as Cannon McIntosh, Kameron Key, Miller and Colton Robinson all battling inside the early contending top five.
Overtaking for the top spot with a great lap seven restart, McIntosh would shoot to the front of the field as Denney stayed within striking distance with Miller also staying close as the top three separated from the remainder of the field with laps ticking away and lap traffic quickly caught.
Cruising out front, McIntosh would continue to show the way out front as a late race caution would erase the large lead and bunch the field back together as late race dramatics would be revealed in the waning stages of the feature.
Blasting to the front of the field on the final lap, Denney would shoot to the high side while McIntosh protected the bottom with Denney gaining the lead out of turn two while holding onto the top spot over the final pair of corners with McIntosh settling into finishing second as hard-charger Ethan Mitchell maneuvered past 16 other competitors to finalize the podium placements.
“The restart made the race for us, I got stuck behind lap cars during that long green run and just tried to stay close late” said Denney in the Port City Raceway winner’s circle. “I ran it into one and two as hard as I could and it stuck, I think he moved down maybe to block but I wasn’t moving from the top or lifting.”
Remaining in the hunt all event, rookie of the year winner Gunnar Setser would finish fourth with McDougal rounding out the top five.
Feature Finish (30 Laps)
1. 68-Jacob Denney[1]; 2. 71K-Cannon McIntosh[3]; 3. 19M-Ethan Mitchell[19]; 4. 43-Gunnar Setser[13]; 5. 7P-Jason McDougal[18]; 6. 11U-Andrew Felker[11]; 7. 5U-Kameron Key[6]; 8. 00T-Jeffrey Newell[15]; 9. 32-Trey Marcham[17]; 10. 14S-Tyler Edwards[8]; 11. 40-Chase McDermand[16]; 12. 97-Gavin Miller[4]; 13. 14J-Jody Rosenboom[9]; 14. 98-Steven Snyder Jr[12]; 15. 32T-Connor Lee[20]; 16. 7-Kris Carroll[10]; 17. 94-Hayden Wise[22]; 18. 8-Alex Sewell[14]; 19. 66-Jayden Clay[23]; 20. 00-Broc Elliott[24]; 21. 19-Colton Robinson[7]; 22. 45-Bradley Cox[21]; 23. 32S-Jonathan Beason[2]; 24. (DNS) 7U-Zach Daum.