10/10/2020
RacinBoys
Gustin slides past Moyer for victory at Lucas Oil Speedway
By Lyndal Scranton (Wheatland, MO) -- With laps dwindling, Ryan Gustin said it was go time with just five to go Friday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.
Gustin threw a slider on Billy Moyer going into turn one and made it stick. The daring move propelled the Marshalltown, Iowa, driver to a $3,000 victory on Night One of the MLRA Fall Nationals Presented by Lucas Oil. He also won opening night of the Fall Nationals in 2019.
PHOTO CREDIT: Lloyd Collins/Fast Track Photos
The Lucas Oil MLRA has a 50-lap, $5,000-to-win feature on Saturday to conclude the doubleheader. The B-Mods Clash III Presented by RacinDirt.com - which began with a double set of qualifying heat races on Friday for 63 entries - also concludes on Saturday with a 30-lap feature for $3,000 to win.
Gates will open at 3 p.m. Saturday with hot laps at 5:30 and racing at 6:05.
Gustin, 29, said it was a thrill to outduel Moyer, a 62-year-old Hall of Famer.
"Any time you can chase that 21 car (of Moyer) you're doing something right, for sure," Gustin said. "To pass him to get a win is pretty cool."
Gustin slid underneath Moyer in turn one on lap 35 and went on to his second straight MLRA victory. He pulled away over the final five laps to prevail by two seconds and deny the veteran from Batesville, Arkansas, a 44th career MLRA win.
Mason Oberkramer finished third with Kyle Beard fourth and Tony Jackson Jr. fifth.
Through 35 laps, Moyer had led all but one lap - when Gustin passed him at the start-finish line on lap 20. That lead lasted only two turns before Moyer wrestled it back.
As the final laps neared, Gustin said he kept looking at the jumbotron in turn three and knew time was running out to make one, decisive attempt.
"I think he was on a little bit softer tire than we were, so I knew the longer the greens were the better we were going to get," Gustin said. "But a veteran like that, he can deal with a softer tire.
"I kept looking at the board and I was like, 'I gotta run here, I gotta do something.' You never know if you're gonna get that run again. So that's what we did and it worked out."
Garrett Alberson was the overall fast qualifier with a time of 14.568. Alberson went on to win his heat race to earn the pole position for the feature.
But it was Moyer, starting to Alberson's outside, getting the jump at the start and setting the early pace ahead of Oberkramer and Gustin. Alberson, meanwhile, backtracked to seventh by lap four when the first caution flew.
Moyer was leading by one second over Gustin when Justin Duty spun in turn two to bring out a caution. Jason Papich and Chad Simpson made contact while battling for third at the same time, on the opposite end of the track. Papich had to pit with a flat tire as Simpson continued with some bent sheet metal.
Moyer and Gustin broke away by about three seconds over Simpson with Gustin briefly grabbing the lead, at the start-finish line, on lap 20. But Moyer regained it by turn two and was back in front as the duo dueled side by side.
Working the inside, Gustin appeared to re-take the lead on lap 24 - but the race's third caution before that lap was complete sent the restart order back to the previous lap, putting Moyer back to the front with 17 laps remaining.
The race remained green the remaining 15 laps and it came down to a battle between Gustin and Moyer with the Iowan prevailing.
"He ran a little harder tire than we did, but the car needs to be a little bit better," Moyer said. "We just need to keep working a little bit on it."
Oberkramer, of Broseley, Missouri, backed up his winning performance at Lucas Oil Speedway over Labor Day Weekend in the MLRA Ron Jenkins Memorial with a solid third.
"I'll stand behind these two guys every night of the week if you want me to," Oberkramer said of his podium finish, alongside Gustin and Moyer. "Everybody wants to win, but when you get beat by these two guys ... they've won lots and lots of features. We're proud to be here."
The championship battle took a turn on lap 25 as points leader Payton Looney, who had advanced from 12th to seventh, suddenly slowed going down the backstretch and exited the track. Looney began the night 57 points in front of Simpson, the 2018 MLRA champion.
Simpson finished seventh as Looney wound up 15th after his second straight series DNF. Looney's lead is now just 17 points over Simpson with four MLRA events remaining.
B-Mod Clash of Champions III: A couple of familiar Lucas Oil Speedway faces unofficially earned front-row starting positions for the 30-lap USRA B-Mod Clash of Champions III main event on Saturday night.
Reigning track and USRA B-Mod national champion Kris Jackson of Lebanon and former track champion JC Morton of Springfield both had finishes of first and second in their two sets of qualifying heats on Friday.
Passing points from Friday will determine the top 16 in the starting lineup for the A-Feature. Alphabet features will begin with an E Feature, with the top six transferring to the D, then top six from the D to the C, top six from the C to the B and finally the top eight from the B added to A-Feature lineup.
LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY RESULTS (October 9, 2020)
MLRA Fall Nationals Presented by Lucas Oil
A-Feature - 1. 19-Ryan Gustin[4]; 2. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[2]; 3. 93-Mason Oberkramer[3]; 4. 86B-Kyle Beard[9]; 5. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[13]; 6. 91P-Jason Papich[6]; 7. 25-Chad Simpson[5]; 8. 58-Jeremiah Hurst[7]; 9. 62Z-Justin Zeitner[8]; 10. 59-Garrett Alberson[1]; 11. 15-Justin Duty[11]; 12. 91T-Tony Toste[18]; 13. 69-Dalton Imhoff[23]; 14. F15-Jeremy Conaway[19]; 15. (DNF) 15L-Payton Looney[12]; 16. (DNF) 21JR-Billy Moyer Jr[17]; 17. (DNF) 1X-Aaron Marrant[10]; 18. (DNF) 6W-NIck Whitehead[16]; 19. (DNF) 49T-Jake Timm[22]; 20. (DNF) 43G-Jeremy Grady[21]; 21. (DNF) 88L-Larry Clawson[20]; 22. (DNF) 12C-Scott Crigler[15]; 23. (DNF) 14J-Jake Neal[14]; 24. (DNF) 3W-Brennon Willard[24]
B-Feature - 1. 21JR-Billy Moyer Jr[3]; 2. 91T-Tony Toste[1]; 3. F15-Jeremy Conaway[4]; 4. 88L-Larry Clawson[2]; 5. 43G-Jeremy Grady[8]; 6. 49T-Jake Timm[12]; 7. 69-Dalton Imhoff[6]; 8. 13-Joey Smith[7]; 9. 99J-Chase Jones[13]; 10. 5-Austin Vincent[5]; 11. (DNF) 29B-Blonde Bomber Mitchell[9]; 12. (DNF) 3X-Skip Frey[10]; 13. (DNS) 65-Jon Binning; 14. (DNS) 36M-Logan Martin; 15. (DNS) 14M-Reid Millard; 16. (DNS) 99M-Cliff Morrow; 17. (DNS) 3W-Brennon Willard
Heat 1 - 1. 59-Garrett Alberson[1]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[3]; 3. 86B-Kyle Beard[2]; 4. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[8]; 5. 91T-Tony Toste[6]; 6. F15-Jeremy Conaway[4]; 7. 43G-Jeremy Grady[5]; 8. (DNF) 49T-Jake Timm[7]; 9. (DNS) 3W-Brennon Willard
Heat 2 - 1. 93-Mason Oberkramer[1]; 2. 58-Jeremiah Hurst[2]; 3. 15-Justin Duty[3]; 4. 12C-Scott Crigler[4]; 5. 88L-Larry Clawson[7]; 6. 5-Austin Vincent[6]; 7. (DNF) 29B-Blonde Bomber Mitchell[8]; 8. (DNS) 99M-Cliff Morrow
Heat 3 - 1. 21-Billy Moyer Sr[2]; 2. 91P-Jason Papich[4]; 3. 1X-Aaron Marrant[1]; 4. 14J-Jake Neal[3]; 5. 21JR-Billy Moyer Jr[5]; 6. 69-Dalton Imhoff[6]; 7. 3X-Skip Frey[7]; 8. 99J-Chase Jones[8]
Heat 4 - 1. 19-Ryan Gustin[1]; 2. 62Z-Justin Zeitner[3]; 3. 15L-Payton Looney[2]; 4. (DNF) 36M-Logan Martin[4]; 5. (DNF) 6W-NIck Whitehead[6]; 6. (DNF) 13-Joey Smith[8]; 7. (DNF) 14M-Reid Millard[7]; 8. (DNS) 65-Jon Binning
Qualifying Group A - 1. 59-Garrett Alberson, 00:14.568[10]; 2. 93-Mason Oberkramer, 00:14.855[13]; 3. 86B-Kyle Beard, 00:14.885[8]; 4. 58-Jeremiah Hurst, 00:14.886[14]; 5. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:15.150[12]; 6. 15-Justin Duty, 00:15.249[6]; 7. F15-Jeremy Conaway, 00:15.311[17]; 8. 12C-Scott Crigler, 00:15.404[5]; 9. 43G-Jeremy Grady, 00:15.489[15]; 10. 99M-Cliff Morrow, 00:15.723[7]; 11. 91T-Tony Toste, 00:15.730[4]; 12. 5-Austin Vincent, 00:15.737[11]; 13. 49T-Jake Timm, 00:16.224[3]; 14. 88L-Larry Clawson, 00:16.579[2]; 15. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr, 00:16.606[1]; 16. 29B-Blonde Bomber Mitchell, 00:16.652[9]; 17. (DNS) 3W-Brennon Willard, 00:16.652
Qualifying Group B - 1. 1X-Aaron Marrant, 00:14.711[13]; 2. 19-Ryan Gustin, 00:14.956[8]; 3. 21-Billy Moyer Sr, 00:14.983[7]; 4. 15L-Payton Looney, 00:15.008[2]; 5. 14J-Jake Neal, 00:15.020[14]; 6. 62Z-Justin Zeitner, 00:15.083[12]; 7. 91P-Jason Papich, 00:15.100[4]; 8. 36M-Logan Martin, 00:15.123[16]; 9. 21JR-Billy Moyer Jr, 00:15.175[11]; 10. 65-Jon Binning, 00:15.213[3]; 11. 69-Dalton Imhoff, 00:15.492[6]; 12. 6W-NIck Whitehead, 00:15.662[15]; 13. 3X-Skip Frey, 00:15.699[5]; 14. 14M-Reid Millard, 00:15.912[9]; 15. 99J-Chase Jones, 00:16.220[1]; 16. 13-Joey Smith, 00:16.587[10]
B-Mod Clash of Champions III Presented by RacinDirt
Heat 1-A - 1. 65-Kris Jackson[4]; 2. 22T-Tyler Tesch[2]; 3. 32E-Robbe Ewing[1]; 4. 28-Andy Bryant[7]; 5. 7B-Terry Schultz[3]; 6. 46-Brantlee Gotschall[5]; 7. 2-Hagen Stevenson[9]; 8. 57J-John Fellers[10]; 9. (DNF) 47-Tyson Lanfermann[8]; 10. (DNF) 17R-Rylee Fuller[11]; 11. (DNS) 11S-Scotty Bough
Heat 2-A - 1. 10P-Dayton Pursley[2]; 2. 05-Jeremy Lile[4]; 3. 3W-BJ Deal[3]; 4. 42C-Casey Thomas[1]; 5. 134-Robert Heydenreich[5]; 6. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[11]; 7. 1*-Jason Pike[8]; 8. 14T-Quentin Taylor[7]; 9. 510-Cody King[10]; 10. 53H-Tye Hollingsworth[9]; 11. 33S-Dustin Steinbrink[6]
Heat 3-A - 1. 181-Luke Nieman[1]; 2. 34-Donnie Aust[2]; 3. 29-Chris Spalding[4]; 4. 69ER-Tyler Cadwallader[7]; 5. 1BB-Matthew Kay[8]; 6. 13-Cody Nivens[5]; 7. 98K-Kenton Allen[6]; 8. 96-Cody Brill[3]; 9. 21T-Trevor Tesch[9]; 10. 20-Jeremy Lahey[10]; 11. 3A-Aaron Speck[11]
Heat 4-A - 1. 24-Jerry Ellis[1]; 2. 36K-Jayden Larson[4]; 3. 56H-Brandon Hare[5]; 4. 17J-Jeremy Chambers[10]; 5. 58M-Jamie Mauk[8]; 6. 83-Scott Campbell[3]; 7. 28B-Wesley Briggs[7]; 8. 97-Damien Vandenberg[6]; 9. (DNF) 66-Ryan Gillmore[2]; 10. (DNF) 95X-Shaun Walski[9]
Heat 5-A - 1. 54-Shawn Whitman[1]; 2. 57-Tim Powell[5]; 3. 12-Eric Turner[4]; 4. 13C-Sawyer Crigler[7]; 5. 7J-Jake Richards[9]; 6. 8D-Dillon McCowan[10]; 7. 42-Jerry Morgan[6]; 8. 8J-James Gates[2]; 9. 16-Paul Lanfermann[3]; 10. (DNF) 65T-Terry Taylor[8]
Heat 6-A - 1. 17X-Mike Striegel[3]; 2. 18-JC Morton[10]; 3. 28ZEE-Randy Zimmerman[6]; 4. 16M-Brian Myers[4]; 5. 24D-Donnie Fellers[1]; 6. 122-Doug Scism[7]; 7. 17T-Shadren Turner[5]; 8. 15-Nick Drew[9]; 9. 32-Taylor Skauge[8]; 10. 56W-Troy Whitt[2]
Heat 1-B - 1. 28-Andy Bryant[5]; 2. 95X-Shaun Walski[2]; 3. 83-Scott Campbell[8]; 4. 33S-Dustin Steinbrink[6]; 5. 32E-Robbe Ewing[11]; 6. 24D-Donnie Fellers[10]; 7. 8J-James Gates[9]; 8. 3A-Aaron Speck[1]; 9. (DNF) 13-Cody Nivens[7]; 10. (DNF) 65T-Terry Taylor[3]; 11. (DNF) 122-Doug Scism[4]
Heat 2-B - 1. 56-Tony Jackson Jr[1]; 2. 13C-Sawyer Crigler[4]; 3. 28ZEE-Randy Zimmerman[5]; 4. 134-Robert Heydenreich[7]; 5. 29-Chris Spalding[8]; 6. 58M-Jamie Mauk[3]; 7. 54-Shawn Whitman[10]; 8. 11S-Scotty Bough[6]; 9. (DNS) 66-Ryan Gillmore; 10. (DNS) 20-Jeremy Lahey
Heat 3-B - 1. 510-Cody King[2]; 2. 05-Jeremy Lile[8]; 3. 46-Brantlee Gotschall[7]; 4. 17T-Shadren Turner[6]; 5. 42-Jerry Morgan[5]; 6. 24-Jerry Ellis[10]; 7. 17R-Rylee Fuller[1]; 8. (DNF) 28B-Wesley Briggs[4]; 9. (DNF) 21T-Trevor Tesch[3]; 10. (DNF) 96-Cody Brill[9]
Heat 4-B - 1. 18-JC Morton[1]; 2. 65-Kris Jackson[8]; 3. 3W-BJ Deal[9]; 4. 16M-Brian Myers[7]; 5. 57-Tim Powell[6]; 6. 1BB-Matthew Kay[4]; 7. 34-Donnie Aust[10]; 8. 53H-Tye Hollingsworth[3]; 9. 97-Damien Vandenberg[5]; 10. 57J-John Fellers[2]
Heat 5-B - 1. 8D-Dillon McCowan[1]; 2. 12-Eric Turner[7]; 3. 17X-Mike Striegel[8]; 4. 56H-Brandon Hare[6]; 5. 10P-Dayton Pursley[10]; 6. 7B-Terry Schultz[9]; 7. 181-Luke Nieman[11]; 8. 69ER-Tyler Cadwallader[5]; 9. 2-Hagen Stevenson[3]; 10. 1*-Jason Pike[4]; 11. (DNF) 15-Nick Drew[2]
Heat 6-B - 1. 7J-Jake Richards[2]; 2. 17J-Jeremy Chambers[1]; 3. 98K-Kenton Allen[6]; 4. 32-Taylor Skauge[3]; 5. 47-Tyson Lanfermann[4]; 6. 36K-Jayden Larson[7]; 7. 14T-Quentin Taylor[5]; 8. 16-Paul Lanfermann[8]; 9. 22T-Tyler Tesch[10]; 10. (DNF) 56W-Troy Whitt[9]; 11. (DNF) 42C-Casey Thomas[11]
Saturday’s schedule:
3 p.m. - Gates open
5:30 p.m. - Hot laps
6 p.m. - Opening ceremonies
6:05 p.m. - Racing begins
Saturday's admission:
Adults (16 and over) - $20
Seniors (62 and over)/Military - $17
Youth (ages 6-15) - $10
Kids (5 and under) - FREE
Family pass - $50
Pit pass $40
For ticket questions or information for any event at Lucas Oil Speedway, contact Admissions Director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or email her at nichole@lucasoilspeedway.com for more information.
Submitted By: Kirk Elliott
