WHEATLAND, Mo. — Ricky Lewis captured the POWRi WAR portion of the program on the opening night of the 14th annual Jesse Hockett-Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Lewis, the reigning champ of the event, led the final 11 laps to score his victory in the non-winged sprint car event.
Lewis grabbed the lead on lap 14 and outdistanced Riley Kreisel for the $2,000 POWRi WAR victory. The non-wing field is split into programs on Thursday and Friday with finishes helping determine the starting lineup for Saturday’s finale.
Wesley Smith appeared to be the car to beat for the first half of the race. Smith grabbed the lead at the start and opened a 1.3-second command by lap five as four cars battled for the runner-up position.
A lap later, Jack Wagner moved into second place but stayed there for just one circuit before he rolled to a stop in turn two with a flat right-rear tire.
On the restart, Wyatt Burks briefly passed Smith in turn two before Smith regained the point down the backstretch. But on lap 14, third-starting Lewis took the top spot away from Smith coming off turn two — just before the race’s fifth caution for a car that rolled to a stop in turn one.
Burks used the restart to move into second in front of Smith as Lewis set the pace up front. Smith rallied back into second on lap 18, but found himself one second behind Lewis with just seven laps to go.
Smith sliced the margin to a half second by lap 20 and was within a car length two laps later with Burks also in the mix. But on lap 23, Smith got into turn one too hard and spun. He was able to keep going and the race stayed green.
That was all Lewis needed to pull away to finish 3.4 seconds in front of Kreisel at the checkers.
Burks finished third with Kyle Jones fourth and Smith fifth.
“Me and Wesley had a pretty good battle,” Lewis said. “I know I sent it in pretty deep, but I know I’m racing again really good guys and they can adapt as I would do the same. Shout-out to Wesley, I love racing with him. We don’t get to race against each other often, but when we do it’s a blast.
“The race track was racy so you could race anywhere. That’s what you fans like to see.”
Ayrton Gennetten won the POWRi 410 Sprint Series feature.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 41-Ricky Lewis[3]; 2. 91-Riley Kreisel[4]; 3. 11W-Wyatt Burks[2]; 4. 79X-Kyle Jones[7]; 5. 44-Wesley Smith[1]; 6. 4U-Kyle Shipley[17]; 7. 77-Jack Wagner[5]; 8. 11X-Tom Curran[8]; 9. 15E-Dakota Earls[9]; 10. 2-Chad Goff[18]; 11. 1-Paul White[11]; 12. 73V-Blake Vermillion[10]; 13. 10-Bryan Debrick[12]; 14. 46M-Dusty Murray[16]; 15. 21M-Michael Moore[19]; 16. 7S-Wade Seiler[14]; 17. B52-Blake Bowers[13]; 18. 49-Brian Ruhlman[15]; 19. 06-Rylan Gray[6]