WHEATLAND, Mo. — The POWRi Wingless Auto Racing League feature on opening night of the 11th annual Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial at Lucas Oil Speedway went to Kory Schudy.
Fourth-starting Kory Schudy held off Mario Clouser by a half-second to earn the $2,000 feature prize for the POWRi Wingless Auto Racing Series.
“It took everything I had,” Schudy said after picking up his fourth WAR feature win of the season. “I could (Clouser) most of the race. I knew on that restart he was going to go for it. I just had to hit my marks in one and two.”
Schudy led all by one lap with his command peaking at 2.7 seconds over Zach Daum, on lap 14. Daum had moved into the runner-up position on lap three and remained there until Clouser began to make his move, passing Daum with 10 laps remaining in the 25-lapper.
Over the next several laps, Clouser began to cut into the lead with the margin just one second when the caution flew on lap 21. That set it up for a four-lap shootout between the top two.
Clouser, the series points leader, took over the lead from the high groove on lap 23 — but it was Schudy regaining command with one to go by using the inside line.
“We all know he’s going to be at the top,” Schudy said of Clouser. “I just had to hit my marks on the bottom. We know the car is so good down there. It has been all year.”
Schudy hung on from there for the victory with Clouser second, Daum third, Casey Shuman fourth and Riley Kreisel in fifth.
Clouser said he just didn’t quite have enough over the final two laps.
“It’s just so tricky to get off four there, I just couldn’t get enough momentum to get around him,” Clouser said.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. 28-Kory Schudy[4]; 2. 6-Mario Clouser[1]; 3. 5D-Zach Daum[7]; 4. 24X-Casey Shuman[6]; 5. 91-Riley Kreisel[5]; 6. 74-Xavier Doney[2]; 7. 11W-Wyatt Burks[11]; 8. 9-Cody Baker[17]; 9. 5C-Colten Cottle[16]; 10. 15B-Quinton Benson[18]; 11. 77-Jack Wagner[3]; 12. 5-Jesse Vermillion[10]; 13. 79X-Keith Martin[9]; 14. 44-Wesley Smith[12]; 15. 16-Anthony Nicholson[23]; 16. 51B-Joe B Miller[8]; 17. 20G-Noah Gass[21]; 18. 24LCR-Chris Morgan[14]; 19. 1#-Justin Zimmerman[15]; 20. 36T-Trey Robb[20]; 21. 93-Taylor Walton[19]; 22. 36-Tyler Edwards[22]; 23. 17K-Braden Knipmeyer[13]