WHEATLAND, Mo. — A relative newcomer to the American open-wheel racing scene, Ryan Newton took center stage during Saturday night’s 15th annual Jesse Hockett-Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Australian Newton won for only the second time in the United States as he led the final 11 circuits of the POWRi 410 Outlaw Sprint feature.
The Hockett-McMillin Memorial recognizes the legacy of Jesse Hockett, from Warsaw, Mo., 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.
Newton took the lead on lap 20 and held off Hank Davis and Landon Crawley and two late restarts to earn the POWRi 410 victory, worth $10,000 to the driver from Sunshine Coast, Queensland.
It was the first POWRi 410 sprint feature win for the 30-year-old driver from down under.
“It’s my biggest win in the States and probably Australia as well,” Newton said. “We struggled a little bit (Friday) night in the feature and tonight we tried a a few different things and changed my driving up a little bit. I had a super-fast car in the feature and I was able to get past Landon.
“It’s my second win in the USA. These aren’t easy to get and I can’t thank everyone enough who helps me out. It’s just awesome.”
Crawley started outside of row one and set the early pace, beating pole-starting Kyle Jones to the lead. Crawley led the first 10 laps, but Jones closed in and was dueling for the lead the next time around as the two went through lapped traffic.
Jones grabbed the lead out of turn four on lap 12, but caution waved before the lap was completed. The lineup reverted to the previous lap, meaning Crawley brought the field to the green on the restart.
Crawley got away to a 1.1-second lead by the race’s midway point on lap 15 over the fifth-starting Newton with Davis third and Jones fourth. Newton whittled the leader’s margin to .111 second over the next three laps.
Newton grabbed the lead headed into turn one on lap 20, then got through lapped cars to open a 1.5-second lead in just two laps. He was off and running from there as Crawley struggled to stay within two seconds.
Newton’s lead was up to 1.8 seconds when Friday’s feature winner Clinton Boyles, who was running third, hit the turn-four wall and flipped his car on its side on lap 26. That set up a four-lap shootout for the win.
On the restart, Newton traded a slider with Crawley in turn two and had a 1.2-second lead on lap 28 when Jones spun into the wall to bring out one more caution. That gave Crawley and Davis one more shot at overtaking Newton over two laps.
Newton executed a flawless restart and drove to the win by 1.3 seconds over Davis with Crawley third, Zach Daum fourth and Joe B. Miller fifth.
“This is an awesome facility and an awesome race track and we’re glad we made the trip here,” Newton said.
Ironically, it was the second straight year a driver from Australia won the POWRi 410 Sprint portion of the Hockett-McMillin Memorial as Scott Bogucki prevailed in 2024.
Davis said his car was strong but just not quite strong enough.
“The car was good. We just weren’t as good as the 66,” Davis said, tipping his hat to the winner. “Those guys have that thing rolling. I think on that first restart he got in front of me and who knows? If I get out front, maybe I can set the pace, but it’s not how it happened.”
The finish:
Feature – 1. 66-Ryan Newton[5]; 2. 12X-Hank Davis[4]; 3. 45X-Landon Crawley[2]; 4. 31-Zach Daum[3]; 5. 51B-Joe B Miller[12]; 6. 1X-Jake Bubak[18]; 7. 11-Roger Crockett[10]; 8. 73B-Braden Chiaramonte[9]; 9. 3-Ayrton Gennetten[25]; 10. 14-Sean Rayhall[8]; 11. 9$-Kyle Clark[21]; 12. 22M-Rees Moran[20]; 13. 79X-Gage Montgomery[22]; 14. 97-Scotty Milan[15]; 15. 21-Cam Sorrels[14]; 16. 17W-Elijah Gile[17]; 17. 74N-Natalie Doney[23]; 18. 75-Tyler Blank[24]; 19. 42P-Preston Perlmutter[16]; 20. 79-Kyle Jones[1]; 21. 5X-Ryder McCutcheon[7]; 22. 19-Clinton Boyles[6]; 23. 1JR-Steven Russell[11]; 24. 40-Howard Moore[13]; 25. B8-John Barnard[19]
