WHEATLAND, Mo. — Ayrton Gennetten led all 25 laps to win the POWRi 410 Sprint Series feature on night one of the 14th annual Jesse Hockett-Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway.
The Hockett-McMillin Memorial recognizes 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.
Gennetten was able to overcome three late restarts that wiped out sizable leads to not only win, but collect valuable points toward Saturday night’s $10,000-to-win 410 feature starting field.
“I’ve been rolling pretty good here of late and got the opportunity to drive a great piece of machinery here with Ryan and Ashley Heidbreder’s car,” Gennetten said. “I have a lot of good people who are behind me.”
Gennetten started up front and opened a 1.5-second lead just three laps into the feature over sixth-starting Reutzel with Kyle Jones third.
The top three remained unchanged through 10 laps with Gennetten sitting a half-second in front.
As the leaders caught lapped traffic in a caution-free event to that point, Gennetten was able to regain a bit of breathing room over Reutzel and Jones as Joe B. Miller settled into fourth.
Gennetten continued to excel in getting around slower cars and his gap jumped to 1.5 seconds by lap 17. One circuit later, the first caution flew as Zach Hampton came to a stop atop turn two.
That first yellow wiped away Gennetten’s 1.3-second lead and gave new life to Reutzel, Jones, Miller and fifth-running Jamie Ball with seven laps remaining.
Gennetten had a flawless restart and rolled to a 1.4-second lead in just a lap. But another yellow on lap 20 as Blake Hahn’s car slow in turn two blunted the leader’s march. But that proved only temporary as Gennetten again proved dominant over the final five laps.
Ball grabbed second on lap 21, but as Gennetten built a race-best 2.8-second lead another caution flew with three to go. It again proved to be no problem for the leader as Gennetten went on to beat Reutzel by 2.1 seconds at the finish.
“Luckily, we were able to hold on and it sets us up good for tomorrow. We’re fast and hopefully we can capitalize the rest of the week,” Gennetten said.
Reutzel said his car was strong, but not strong enough to stay up with the winner.
“They were good,” Reutzel said. “We got to second so quick that I was trying to bide my time and not destroy my tires like I did in the heat race. I needed some thick lapped traffic to have a shot at him. It wasn’t meant to be tonight.”
Miller wound up third with Ball fourth and Scott Bogucki fifth.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 19-Ayrton Gennetten[2]; 2. 87-Aaron Reutzel[6]; 3. 51B-Joe B Miller[7]; 4. 4W-Jamie Ball[3]; 5. 1X-Scott Bogucki[13]; 6. 27B-Jake Bubak[17]; 7. 12X-Chase Randall[9]; 8. 44H-Derek Hagar[18]; 9. 74-Xavier Doney[5]; 10. 20G-Noah Gass[12]; 11. 45X-Jace Park[16]; 12. 22M-Rees Moran[11]; 13. 44-Chris Martin[14]; 14. 98P-Miles Paulus[19]; 15. 23B-Brian Bell[4]; 16. 79-Kyle Jones[1]; 17. 52-Blake Hahn[8]; 18. 77-Jack Wagner[10]; 19. 99X-Dalton Stevens[20]; 20. 17-Zach Hampton[21]; 21. 91-Riley Kreisel[22]; 22. 9$-Kyle Clark[15]