WHEATLAND, MO. — Dillon McCowan enjoyed one of the most thrilling feature victories of his career at Lucas Oil Speedway on Saturday night.
McCowan drove from a 14th-starting position all the way to the front to capture the $1,000-to-win feature victory and headline the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series program. He beat Nick Bidinger by a car length for his fifth feature victory of the season and further expanded his points lead in defense of his track championship.
Eighteen-year-old McCowan had an unusually poor seventh-place run in his heat race that left him seemingly buried deep in the field as the 25-lap feature went green.
“I want to say a special shout-out to my grandpa. He’s not been here in a while and this is one of the more special ones because he got to be here and we came from the back,” McCowan said.
Bidinger sprinted away from his pole-starting position to the lead and opened up a 2.9-second lead over Dustin Hodges by lap seven when the race’s first caution appeared.
Meanwhile, McCowan continued his charge through the field as the race returned to green. He moved into third by lap 10, settling behind Bidinger and Hodges.
On lap 15, McCowan passed Hodges and set his sights on the leader, who was 1.7 seconds ahead.
Continuing to use the high groove, McCowan closed to the back bumper of Bidinger on lap 21 as the duo entered lapped traffic. He split the two slower cars to take the lead, coming to the start-finish line to complete lap 23.
Bidinger made a last-lap bid, but McCowan took the checkers by navigating another lapped car coming out of turn four.
“It was definitely hectic,” McCowan said of the win. “It got intense there when we hit lapped traffic and I didn’t know if I was gonna fit through those two on the front stretch. We did and (Bidinger) was really good.
Hodges wound up third, with Ryan Middaugh fourth and Jason Pursley fifth.
Other feature winners on $5 Night at the Races were Johnny Fennewald (O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars), Cole Henson (Hermitage Lumber Late Models) and Shadren Turner (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods).
Feature (25 laps): 1. 8-Dillon McCowan[14]; 2. 3B-Nic Bidinger[1]; 3. 22H-Dustin Hodges[3]; 4. 21M-Ryan Middaugh[12]; 5. 38C-Jason Pursley[2]; 6. 73-Mickey Burrell[5]; 7. 03-Chase Jones[8]; 8. 14W-Dustin Walker[10]; 9. 73B-Shad Badder[11]; 10. 98-Jeff Cutshaw[6]; 11. 155-Terry Kirk[15]; 12. 23-Lucas Dobbs[17]; 13. 311-John Baker[13]; 14. 24D-Donnie Fellers[16]; 15. 28C-Thomas Creech[18]; 16. (DNF) 16S-Eric Turner[9]; 17. (DNF) 21-Johnny Fennewald[4]; 18. (DNF) 96-Cody Brill[7].