WHEATLAND, Mo. — A NASCAR Cup Series veteran with an extensive open-wheel background came home the winner in the POWRi WAR feature during the 15th annual Jesse Hockett-Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway.
J.J. Yeley led all 30 laps. He held off a charging Jack Wagner in the non-winged feature to earn $5,077.
“I really like this place. That was fun,” Yeley said in victory lane. “I knew Jesse for a long time. He drove for my dad and was a true stand-up guy. Brand new car. It was a nightmare yesterday, but had brakes, had gas and everything it needed today.
“We kept tuning on it and made some adjustments for the feature. I’m here to win this thing, I don’t want to run second. We tightened the hell of this thing and was way too tight, but I hope the fans enjoyed it. Not that I wanted to make it too close, but it’s nice to win a race and earn it.”
Yeley started on the pole and needed only seven laps to open a 1.1-second leader over fellow front-row starter Kyle Shipley. Wyatt Burks had moved from seventh to third by lap eight and that’s when the first caution came out for a two-car spin.
Burks took over second on lap 11, pulling within three car lengths of Yeley with Shipley also in the mix. Fifth-running Riley Kreisel hit the wall coming off turn two on lap 13 to bring out another caution as the top three were within a half-second of one another.
As action resumed, Yeley cleared away to a 1.2-second lead over Landon Simon by lap 18. Shipley claimed back into second by lap 20, but found himself with nearly two seconds to make up on the leader with 10 to go. Yeley’s lead was wiped out, however, with a lap-23 caution as Chad Goff came to a stop in turn two.
That left the running order Yeley, Shipley and Jack Wagner with seven remaining. Wagner used the restart to get around Shipley, but Yeley maintained the lead and was able to hold on the rest of the way.
Yeley beat Wagner by .838 seconds.
“What a race, what a blast, what a facility,” said Yeley, 48, who’s made 398 NASCAR Cup starts over a 20-year career. “This (win) ranks way up there. I’ve known the Hockett family for a lot of years.”
Wagner, driving the Hockett-family-owned No. 77, was ecstatic about his run from 11th to the runner-up spot.
“I’ve been here once before standing on the podium and it’s been years,” Wagner said. “To get back here is great, coming on as strong as we did with six laps to go. I figured we had something for these guys and J.J. just shot out of a cannon and absolutely left us.”
Shipley wound up third with Wesley Smith fourth and Simon fifth.
The finish:
Feature – 1. 3J-JJ Yeley[1]; 2. 77-Jack Wagner[11]; 3. 00-Kyle Shipley[2]; 4. 44-Wesley Smith[9]; 5. 24-Landon Simon[8]; 6. 16-Anthony Nicholson[12]; 7. 21-Caleb Stelzig[18]; 8. 5V-Jesse Vermillion[6]; 9. 74-Xavier Doney[13]; 10. 21K-Kobe Simpson[3]; 11. 2H-Luke Howard[10]; 12. 5-Wyatt Burks[7]; 13. 73-Samuel Wagner[17]; 14. 33-Bryson Smith[4]; 15. 73V-Blake Vermillion[16]; 16. 41-Brad Wyatt[21]; 17. 10-Bryan Debrick[19]; 18. 76-Edison Aldrich[23]; 19. 2-Chad Goff[22]; 20. 93-JR Parkinson[24]; 21. 97-Cam Schafer[15]; 22.
