WHEATLAND, Mo. — Chris Windom led all 30 laps to win Saturday night’s POWRi WAR Sprint Car Series feature at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Windom started outside the front row and took the checkered flag five seconds ahead of runner-up Brady Bacon.
The Illinois driver pulled away as the final 22 laps of the 30-lapper remained green to pick up the $3,077 first prize. Earlier, he won the Pole Shuffle to earn the front-row spot, then carried over that into the feature.
“This car would go anywhere I needed it to go,” Windom said, adding that the win was special to him because the late Jesse Hockett meant so much to the open-wheel world.
“It’s cool to come here and do this for Jesse Hockett. I raced with him a lot when I was growing up,” Windom said. “I learned a lot from him and to win this race is pretty special.”
The feature went red early when Slater Helt rolled his car in turn three, but he walked away from the incident. Meanwhile, front-row starters Windom and Bacon set the early pace, followed Burks third and Zach Daum fourth.
Those four continued to lead the way when another red on lap eight brought things to a halt as Colton Cottle’s car wound up on its side after tangling with Dave Darland in turns three and four. Daum went off with mechanical issues and that elevated Logan Seavey to fourth.
Windom and Bacon separated from the field after the restart, opening about a straightaway-margin lead over Burks and Seavey. About lap 20, Windom began to open a comfortable margin over Bacon, opening a three-second lead with five to go.
Windom held on from there for the dominating win. He said his motor acted up over the final portion of the race.
“The motor started laying down there at the end. It’s my oldest motor. We won a lot of races with it. I think it’s telling me it’s time to go to the spa and get a treatment.
“It was going to be hard to pass Chris regardless. The track was really tricky. Maybe we’ll get a chance to try again some other year.”
Bacon finished ahead of Seavey with Wyatt Burks fourth and Garrett Aitken fifth.
The finish:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 5G-Chris Windom, [1]; 2. 410-Brady Bacon, [2]; 3. 01-Logan Seavey, [4]; 4. 11W-Wyatt Burks, [6]; 5. 32-Garrett Aitken, [5]; 6. 24-Landon Simon, [13]; 7. 6-Mario Clouser, [8]; 8. 28-Kory Schudy, [12]; 9. 00-Thomas Meseraull, [20]; 10. 16-Anthony Nicholson, [11]; 11. 90-Riley Kreisel, [19]; 12. 31B-Joe B. Miller, [7]; 13. 37-Brian Beebe, [9]; 14. 77-Jack Wagner, [21]; 15. 51-Mitchell Moore, [10]; 16. 65-Chris Parkinson, [17]; 17. 7R-Dave Darland, [15]; 18. 77K-Katlynn Leer, [16]; 19. 73S-Lane Stone, [22]; 20. 5C-Colten Cottle, [14]; 21. 5D-Zach Daum, [3]; 22. 6P-Chris Phillips, [18]; 23. 22S-Slater Helt, [24]; 24. 54-Trey Gropp, [23]; 25. 99-Korey Weyant, [25]