DUBUQUE, Iowa – Bryce Garnhart thought he would settle for second.
Then the yellow light flashed in front of him due to the leader crashing.
The defending track champion put the peddle down on the restart and cruised to the 25-lap Smokey Rupp Memorial Merfeld Brothers IMCA Modified win Sunday at Dubuque Speedway.
“I know it was bad for him, but it made me happy,” Garnhart said in victory lane. “Car ran great and I can’t thank everyone enough that works on this and supports us.”
Hometown driver Austin Moyer helped lead the field to John Ryan’s green flag and quickly opened a large advantage. With a straightaway lead over Garnhart, who clawed from sixth in a competitive 22-car field, Moyer jumped the turn two cushion and banged the wall, ending his night on lap 19.
Garnhart beat Timmy Current off the restart on the top groove and sped to the win.
Kyle Brown, Jeff Larson, Chris Zogg and Current completed the top five.
Ron Klein had a similar misfortune to Moyer in the Eichmann’s Bar and Grill IMCA Late Model 25-lap finale. Klein got caught up with a lapped car about halfway through, breaking the front end. Jeff Tharp inherited the lead on the restart and blasted to the win.
Justin Kay, Luke Merfeld, Eric Pollard and Jermiah Hurst followed.
Jerry Miles launched on a restart and won the Peosta Warehousing Logistics IMCA SportMod 15-lap feature.
Miles got that spot when top two drivers Rusty Deshaw and Tyler Soppe battled off turn two, collided and went head on into the backstretch wall. Deshaw’s ride ended upside down. He was not hurt, but both cars were done.
Austin Heacock, Jason Roth, Justin Becker and Wes Digman came next.
Brannon Bechen led all 10 laps of the 4Cylinder feature to beat Thomas Adams, John W. Campbell and Jacob Welter.
The K Motorports IMCA Stock Cars and Kinsella Concrete IMCA Hobby Stocks took the track together for two races in one.
Cole Mather picked up his third Stock Car win of the season over Kyle Merkes, Matt Hudspeth and Reece Norton.
Daniel Wauters took another Hobby win over Dakota Simonsen, Brandon White, Roger Winkers and Hank White.