WHEATLAND, Mo. — Riley Kreisel earned his 12th career POWRi WAR Sprint feature win, taking over the lead on lap 19 and holding it from there to win the POWRi WAR portion of the 15th annual Jesse Hockett-Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway.
He beat J.J. Yeley in the 25-lapper for wingless sprints by two seconds for the $2,000 prize.
Kreisel, who started third, took over after a restart and never gave it up. He marveled at how good it felt to win a feature in a race that honors one of his racing heroes from the same hometown.
“Unreal. We’ve never had speed here, period,” Kreisel said. “We built this thing about two weeks ago. This was our first night in it. It’s phenomenal to drive. It’s incredible to have speed here for this race. I just want to win this thing.”
Fourth-starting Ricky Lewis slid around the outside of first-lap leader Lewis out of turn four to complete lap two. Lewis forged a 1.2-second lead over Kobe Simpson by lap seven when the event’s first caution flew as third-running Xavier Doney spun and came to a stop in turn two.
Kreisel moved to second on the restart as Simpson slipped back two spots. Lewis and Kreisel dueled for the lead over the next few laps, but Lewis was able to hold off the charge. Kreisel didn’t go away, sticking within a half-second of the lead by lap 15.
Landon Simon spun on lap 18 to bring out the caution, as Lewis was holding a .301-second advantage over Kreisel with J.J. Yeley running third.
The restart saw Kreisel take over the lead on lap 19, sailing around Lewis on the outside.
“Ricky’s cagey. He has a lot of laps this year and I don’t,” Kreisel. “When I get by him, I have to be ready to go. I felt like the race car was coming to me a little more, but it wasn’t quite 100 percent yet. I didn’t want to get out in front of him and not have that to feel like I could get away from him. You think he’s giving 110 (percent) but he might be giving 95 to wait for you to get by and run you back down.”
The finish:
Feature – 1. 91-Riley Kreisel[3]; 2. 3J-JJ Yeley[9]; 3. 77-Jack Wagner[11]; 4. 00-Kyle Shipley[2]; 5. 44-Wesley Smith[14]; 6. 21K-Kobe Simpson[1]; 7. 16-Anthony Nicholson[13]; 8. 5V-Jesse Vermillion[6]; 9. 5-Wyatt Burks[7]; 10. 15E-Dakota Earls[20]; 11. 21-Caleb Stelzig[10]; 12. 97-Cam Schafer[15]; 13. 41-Brad Wyatt[17]; 14. 74-Xavier Doney[5]; 15. 2H-Luke Howard[19]; 16. 2-Chad Goff[16]; 17. 33-Bryson Smith[21]; 18. 73V-Blake Vermillion[12]; 19. 93-JR Parkinson[22]; 20. 41L-Ricky Lewis[4]; 21. 24-Landon Simon[8]; 22. 7T-Landon Thompson[18]
