WHEATLAND, Mo. — One year after finishing as the runner-up and with some other near-misses in this race, Xavier Doney was able to get it done in the wingless portion of the Hockett-McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Doney took the lead with 10 laps remaining and held off Jesse Vermillion in a three-lap shootout after a late-race restart, to earn the $4,077 victory.
“I’ll be waking up (Sunday) and pinching myself, making sure this isn’t a dream,” the 18-year-old Doney said after his seventh win of the season – but undoubtedly the biggest of his young sprint-car career.
“It really feels amazing,” Doney added. “I guess the fifth time is the charm. It’s the fifth race here and finally winning the Hockett, one of the biggest races in Missouri every year. It’s a really special one to win.”
Doney was the third and final leader of the 25-lapper that saw several contenders suffer misfortune.
Chase Howard, starting on the outside of row one, grabbed the early lead. Howard already had a three-second lead over defending race winner Ricky Lewis when a red flag stopped the action on lap two as former Hockett-McMillin race winner Wesley Smith jumped the cushion and rolled his car in turn three and Anthony Nicholson had a rollover in turn two.
A strong restart by Howard kept him in the lead, but trouble struck on lap six as Howard’s motor went up in flames entering turn one. Kobe Simpson, a half-second behind Howard at that point, inherited the lead with Lewis third and Doney fourth.
The third-starting Simpson got away after the restart to open a nearly one-second lead over Lewis by lap 10. Doney moved around Lewis on the low side of turn four and into second on lap 12 and began to pursue Simpson.
Just three laps later, the sixth-starting Doney took over the top spot with an inside pass off turn two. Doney said the low groove is one he patiently waited to make work to his advantage.
“I kind of scouted (the bottom) out during hot laps,” Doney said. “Pretty much everywhere was quick in hot laps, except the bottom because the grease was there. I knew it would come in during this race and I stuck to the bottom and managed to get by the guys who were throwing slide jobs.”
Vermillion, who started 17th, moved into second on a lap-17 restart and Doney fought him off for the lead over the next several laps. Doney’s lead was .375 seconds over Vermillion when a caution flew on lap 22 as eighth-place Riley Kreisel spun in turn two.
That set up a three-lap shootout for the win. Before the field could complete a lap, Lewis took a wild flip between turns one and two. Lewis, who had charged back into the top 10 after changing the flat tire earlier, walked away from the wild ride which ended his chance for a repeat.
Doney was able to take it home from there as he beat Vermillion by .554 seconds at the finish. Simpson was third with Shawn Westerfield fourth and Kyle Shipley in fifth.
The finish:
Feature: 1. 74-Xavier Doney[6]; 2. 5-Jesse Vermillion[17]; 3. 21K-Kobe Simpson[3]; 4. 4J-Shawn Westerfeld[11]; 5. 4U-Kyle Shipley[15]; 6. 6-Mario Clouser[10]; 7. 15-Matt Sherrell[13]; 8. 79X-Kyle Jones[7]; 9. 77-Jack Wagner[9]; 10. 73-Samuel Wagner[18]; 11. 33W-Rece Wommack[16]; 12. 26-Zachary Clark[23]; 13. 24-Casey Shuman[12]; 14. 1-Paul White[22]; 15. 91-Riley Kreisel[4]; 16. 15E-Dakota Earls[20]; 17. 73V-Blake Vermillion[21]; 18. 49-Brian Ruhlman[24]; 19. 41-Ricky Lewis[1]; 20. 11W-Wyatt Burks[5]; 21. 2H-Luke Howard[19]; 22. 13-Chase Howard[2]; 23. 44-Wesley Smith[8]; 24. 16-Anthony Nicholson[14]
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