GAS CITY, Ind. — Matt Westfall earned his second 25-lap non-wing 410 sprint car feature victory of the season at Gas City I-69 Speedway Friday night to highlight the opening night of the track’s two-night season finale, the fourth annual Fall Festival of Speed.
Chett Gehrke was victorious in the 20-lap Performance Electronics USAC SpeeD2 Midwest Thunder midget feature, which was the season finale for that series.
Dylan Cromer won the 20-lap non-wing micro-sprint main event to conclude the night’s action on the quarter-mile dirt oval.
Young Jack Hoyer started second and led the first 12 laps of the 25-lap sprint car feature in Paul Hazen’s famous Physical Medicine Consultants No. 57. He was able to build up nearly a one-second lead over Tye Mihocko, despite two yellow-flag periods that slowed the pace. The first caution was for a two-car tangle between turns three and four with seven laps down that left Clayton Rossman stranded, while the second flew with 10 laps down when Travis Hery o stopped on the backstretch.
Mihocko put the nose of Jamie and Michelle Paul’s High Asspirations Farms DRC in front a couple of times but he didn’t lead a lap until he made a pass stick coming out of turn four and onto the frontstretch on lap 13.
Mihocko led lap 14, too, but as he, Hoyer and Westfall were three wide coming out of turn four to complete lap 15, Westfall used the middle groove to vault from third and into the lead with his Ray Marshall Motorsports No. 33M DRC Gressman Chevy, which is sponsored by Buckeye Machine, Hempy Water and All Star Performance.
It was the winning move.
Westfall started eighth, cracked the top five on lap nine when he passed both Jake Swanson and Kyle Shipley., to take over fourth, and moved into third on lap 11 by passing Anton Hernandez. Once in front he led the rest of the way to join track champion Scott Weir and Mihocko as two-time winners this season at Gas City, although there were still fireworks to come.
Westfall had just a .392-second lead over Mihocko followed by Swanson, Hernandez and Hoyer on lap 23 when the third yellow flew after Corbin Gurley of Hebron, Ind. slowed in turn four and rolled to a stop on the frontstretch near turn one.
Westfall was just .291 seconds ahead of Mihocko when the fourth yellow flew with 24 laps down and dashed the hopes of two drivers for top-five-or-better finishes. The first driver was Hoyer, who stopped with mechanical difficulties while running fifth.
The second one was Hernandez, who was fourth but going for the lead when there was contact between he and Swanson on the backstretch. Hernandez’s Benic Enterprises No. 2b DRC left on the back of a wrecker with left-front damage, including a broken front axle.
The set up a green-white-checkered finish with 24 laps down. The top five for the restart were Westfall; Mihocko; Swanson; Zack Pretorius and Rylan Gray and they finished in that order. Westfall’s margin of victory was just .403 seconds.