WHEATLAND, Mo. — Score another Hermitage Lumber POWRi Late Model victory for Justin Wells at Lucas Oil Speedway.
The veteran driver led all 25 laps to capture the Casey’s Thursday Night Thunder Presented by State Tech feature headliner. It was his eighth feature win in nine attempts at Lucas Oil Speedway this season and earned him $1,000.
Wells posted victory No. 113 in his 2006 TNT chassis. He needed only five laps to open a 1.2-second lead over Andy Bryant with Tucker Cox running third. Bryant whittled the margin to one-quarter second by lap 10 as he pulled within two car lengths of the leader.
As Wells started to weave through lapped traffic, he extended the lead back to just over one second before Bryant again was able to close in. Just as before, Wells seemed to find an extra boost when needed and he again opened a one-second gap by lap 17 as the green-flag laps clicked by.
Wells kept it rolling from there to pick up his latest victory, finishing one second behind Bryant at the checkers in a caution-free main event. Cox finished third with Brandon Conkwright coming from 10th to fourth and Jim Greenway fifth.
Wells said he had some doubts about what kind of track to expect after it was reworked during intermission. But any fears that it would not to be to his liking were put aside quickly.
“I wondered what it would do, whether it would be too fast,” Wells said. “The track was multi-grip anywhere you want to go. Hats off to (track superintendent Richard Turner) because the track was awesome.”
Wells extended his points lead, which was a huge 340-point margin over Cox to begin the night, to 360 points.
Also winning features on the program, which included the annual Kids’ Bicycle Giveaway during intermission and post-race fireworks, were Jon Sheets (Clear Creek Golf Cars USRA B-Mods) and Matt Johnson (Arctic Food Equipment USRA Modifieds). After three cautions before an official lap could be completed in the O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars feature, lightning began moving into the vicinity of the speedway and the feature was postponed.
A total of 119 cars checked into the pits for the holiday special.