With frosty weather at home Christine and I decided to make a southern road trip for this racing weekend with Lebanon's I-44 Speedway in southwest Missouri serving as our Saturday destination. The Jegs CRA All Star tour was the headliner with the Champion Oil Masters of the Pros 144, the highest paying event for the pavement Pro Late Model division in the United States this year at $8,000-to-win and fittingly a series record field of 43 drivers from 16 states signed in.
The I-44 Speedway is a fantastic facility that started out as a dirt track back in 1983, then switched to pavement for several years until 2002. I never did make it here for its original life as a dirt track, but I did come a couple of times during that first run of asphalt and I had left with the impression that it was one of the raciest short tracks that I had seen, either in person or on television. It went back to dirt for several years and I can recall some spectacular Late Model and Modified shows that I attended back when we used to have a place at the Lake of the Ozarks before the track closed down in 2009. The Willard family took a year off to return it to pavement and spruce up the facility and now, not only is it once again one of the best paved tracks for racing action that you will find, but it is also one of the best fan-friendly facilities as well with new seating, a brand new scoring tower with VIP booths, and a fan deck and seating area for those who like to enjoy a cold beer or two while watching the action. And of course there is the "wild side" tier parking that stretches from turn one all the way down the back stretch where fans can park their cars and enjoy the races in a tailgate party fashion. As a NASCAR sanctioned track I would love to see a Camping World Truck Series race here or at the least a K&N East/West Challenge event as they definitely have the seating capacity to support it and the racing would be as good as those two series might find.
A 28-car field thundered to the green flag for the 144-lap finale with Travis Braden setting the opening pace before the caution waved on lap seven as local driver Kyle Donahue clipped the front stretch wall and then slid off the top of turn one. Yellow flag laps counted during the first 100 laps and once back to green Braden and Justin South ran away from the rest of the field to have their own race. South made one run on the bottom around lap 40 only to have Braden fight him off before they started lapping the back of the field. One of those lapped cars, Travis Eddy spun in turn four on lap 47 to produce the second caution and that brought the field back to the lead duo with John Hunter Nemechek who had started ninth now in contention..
South picked up the pressure on Braden once the green returned and on lap 57 Justin powered by for the lead with Nemechek soon following him into second. A Dakota Stroup spin put the field back under caution on lap 75 and, when back to racing, it was all Justin South as he motored away from the field opening nearly a straightaway lead as the laps counted down toward a scheduled ten minute break at lap 100. That break would arrive while under the caution flag though as two-time Daytona 500 champion Sterling Marlin's car went up in smoke on lap 97 and during the break the teams had to make a choice whether to change up to two tires or not.
If you stuck with what you had, you retained your track position. If you changed one tire, you started behind those who made no change and if you changed two tires you started behind those who only changed one. As evidence of just how good this track is none of the top ten needed new rubber and those that did put on new tires really did not have any apparent advantage when the race went back to green for the final 44 laps where the laps under the caution would no longer count.
Local driver J.C. Newell went for a spin on lap 107 and South again jumped to the lead on the restart. When Trevor Noles loosened up Nemechek with a nudge in turn four, South's lead grew quickly with Noles now racing in second and as the crowd watched to see if Nemecheck would return the favor they were instead shocked by happened just ahead when the leader skidded off the top of turn three at full song and slammed into the end of the retaining wall apparently the victim of either a flat tire or a steering malfunction. It was great news when it was reported that South had climbed from his car and had walked to the ambulance under his own power as it was quite a hit.
The North Carolina driver Noles assumed the lead on the restart and rather than using the bump and run method Nemechek went to work on him in the classy way and edged past him for his first visit to the top of the leader board on lap 115. The son of "Front Row Joe" and the winner of the Truck series race at Atlanta back in February, John Hunter was pulling away and appeared to have this one well in hand as the laps clicked away. But that all changed when Phil Bozell spun down the front stretch with fourteen laps to go.
Nemechek would go against the trend and choose the inside lane for the restart allowing Noles to ride side-by-side with him for a lap. When Nemechek cleared him down the back stretch Noles again gave the leader a nudge in turn four to open the door and take the lead away on lap 132. You had to be impressed with the teenager's patience though because he once again battled back and pulled even with the new leader without making contact and the two thrilled the crowd with a four lap door-to-door battle before Nemechek took back the lead with just six laps remaining.
Action was hot and heavy back in the pack as well with drivers fighting for position and contact from Cole Rouse sent the early leader Braden for a spin with three laps to go. Nemechek chose the outside line for this restart and he fought back Noles, but only for a lap before Matt Wallace stopped in turn two. setting up a green-white-checkered finish. The leader again went with the high line and Noles played nice as John Hunter Nemechek held him off for the final two laps to score the win and the "green jacket" in Masters tradition. Noles would hold off a challenge from veteran Georgia driver Bubba Pollard to finish second, former I-44 track champion Cole Williams started tenth and finished fourth while Cody Coughlin survived a final turn challenge from Brandon Oakley to finish fifth. Oakley spun in turn four making that challenge sending the field scrambling to reach the checkers with Oakley dropping all the way to 22nd in the final standings. Trevor Berry was sixth, Mexico, Missouri, driver Kaleb Allison was seventh, Casey Roderick was eighth, ninth went to Quinnton Bear and Stephen Nasse completed the top ten.
Earlier in the evening 13-year-old Michael Clancy Jr. earned a $1,000 paycheck in the Jegs Challenge for the non-qualifiers holding off Alabama's John Bohlen, local favorite Brennan Willard and Hope Hornish, the niece of Sam Hornish.
Two of the track's regular divisions, the four cylinder Chargers and the Street Stocks were also in competition and in the Chargers it was Ronnie Taylor going the distance to take the win. Jerry Ellis made a final lap pass to finish second ahead of the winner's brother Billy Taylor while James Ellis and Justin Gantt filled out the top five. Eleven-year-old Ty Allison, also from Mexico, Missouri, was impressive passing some cars late to finish eighth. The Street Stocks were short on numbers with only seven of the nine cars that signed in racing in the feature, but the battle for the lead was exciting as Justin Allen pulled even with race long leader Jordan Nisbett for the final two laps. Nisbett was looking for his fifth straight feature win, but it would be Allen by a matter of inches under the checkers to score the victory. Aaron Wilke towed his Mopar over from suburban St. Louis to finish in third with Nick Cherry and David Jennings next in line.
I didn't get a chance to say "hi" as he spent most of the night announcing from the infield, but it was great to hear the call of the local classes from old friend Ronnie Williams once again. He has an engaging style and a memory of stats like you wouldn't believe.
I know that most of you who read the Back Stretch are dirt track fans who may have never even been to a short track pavement race before. If you ever decide to give it a try sometime I would highly recommend this event when it returns to the schedule in May of 2017!
Next up a perfect stop on our way home as the "Scottie 42" UMP Big Ten Late Model series will be at the Quincy Raceways along with the track's other four weekly divisions. And yes, while it was nice to see something a little different for a night, it will be great to be slinging dirt once again. Perhaps we will see you on the Back Stretch!
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