My Thursday started at the Lake of the Ozarks, saying goodbye to my son and his three boys as they headed back to Dallas after an eleven day visit, the final four of those spent on a surprisingly calm lake after all of the Fourth of July revelers had headed home. We then made the 242 mile trip back to Mount Pleasant so that I could put on my Mohrfeld Solar Sprint Invaders shirt and I then drove the 81 miles up to Tipton where twenty-two Invaders had signed in for a night of racing at the Cedar County Fair.
During that drive though, the skies darkened to the west and just before 6 p.m. the Fair suffered a pretty solid downpour for about ten minutes. After assessing the situation, including a dismal looking "future" radar that showed more rain coming around 9 p.m., the decision was made to cancel the event and so with a check of Waze to determine the quickest route, I started the 78 mile drive in hope of catching most of the Lucas Oil Late Model Series event at 34 Raceway west of Burlington.
So using my trusty calculator, that would be 401 miles of driving in order to go to a race at a track that is just 20 miles from my home! Fatigued from that, and with a big pile of items to catch up on from being away from work all week, I am going to refer you to my Positively Racing colleague Danny Rosencrans who has a detailed report of the evening in Racin' Down The Road, but I wanted to make a few comments on what was a fantastic program by the national touring Late Model series.
Having experienced a short rain delay as well, we were walking in as FloRacing announcer Dustin Jarrett was delivering the invocation and to say that the track prep was spot on would be an understatement. This was immediately evident in the three Late Model heats where despite lining straight up from qualifying, there was action from front to back and by the luck of how the qualifying order shook out, the top four in LOLMDS points were all in the second heat. And Man, did they put on a show!
With one of the twenty-seven entrants scratched following the heats, officials scrapped the B-Main and would start twenty-six cars in the fifty lap $15,000-to-win headliner. The first ten laps were frustrating as while the racing up front was phenomenal, it was interrupted by five different caution flags. Finally we would get five straight laps of racing in before point leader Ricky Thornton Jr. slowed at the top of turn four requiring one of the Beckman Towing wreckers to take him back to the work area.
Thornton would return to the track just as the field was going back to green nearly a half lap behind the back of the realignment so it was no surprise when he would happen to "spin out" in turn two on lap eighteen. His penalty? He would now make up that half lap distance and restart with the rest of the field. Yes, I know that he is your point leader and that a national touring series needs to take care of the regulars, but are you really okay with a driver, any driver, manipulating the circumstances in this manner to his favor?
I have always had a problem with how drivers on both national tours are allowed to cause multiple cautions during a feature race without some kind of a penalty. That's why you haven't seen me at Knoxville for the one hundred lapper for several years as drivers who didn't like how their race was going would just slow on the track to draw a caution, and then go to the work area to make changes, including tires, to their car in hope of more than overcoming the fact that they would now restart at the rear. Think about it, if this would have been a normal show at any other race track around Iowa, Thornton would have been done for the night for causing his second solo caution. But I digress......put a little teeth into it Lucas Oil, perhaps dock a driver 5 points for every solo caution they create over two?
Garrett Alberson had been leading these first eighteen laps running the bottom on both ends with a variety of drivers getting up to second at one time or another, but unable to mount a challenge on the leader. Devin Moran, who won this race here last season, was up to second from fifth and was keeping pace with Alberson until his right rear tire went flat with twenty laps to go. I believe that it was during this caution when Jarrett said "I don't believe that I have ever seen 34 Raceway this good" and that was not hyperbole as drivers were finding a quick line on the bottom, around the top and even through the middle, especially on restarts.
Brandon Overton who had started sixth was now on the hunt of Alberson ripping the cushion on both ends, but Garrett still had things under control until he left the bottom and started to search around. On lap thirty-five the leader would drift up the track exiting turn four and Overton pounced to go door-to-door with Alberson down the front stretch and then take the point himself with just fourteen laps remaining. Hudson O'Neal who had started from row six was right there as well and he drove under Alberson to take second lap later.
The caution would wave one final time on lap thirty-nine with Thornton again the culprit as he had bounced off the wall in turn three and then came down into the path of Daulton Wilson. The damage for RTJ, who had rallied back to seventh, was too much to overcome and he would be done for the night while Wilson was able to get some body work pulled out and restart. To say that it was a rough night for Ricky Thornton Jr. would be an understatement.
Once back to racing we would cringe every time that Overton hit the cushion in turns one and two as it was now right at the top of the speedway and one minor mistake would cost him several positions, but he would actually open up about ten car lengths on O'Neal and Albertson before that lower line came right back to the challengers. After scoring lap forty-five O'Neal's entry into turn one would more than "show" Overton that he was there so after getting the big run off of turn two, Brandon went to the bottom in turn three to block. That was like Christmas in July for Alberson who headed straight for the cushion and swept around both of them to take the lead and four laps later he would win his first Lucas Oil race of 2025.
O"Neal would drive under Overton after he went back to the top to finish second, Brandon was still in good spirits despite going from first to third in the final five laps, Jonathan Davenport would leave 34 as the new series point leader after coming from eighth to fourth and Carson Ferguson would close out the top five. The next three finishers were all big movers with Chad Simpson coming from sixteenth to sixth, Danial Hilsabeck came from fifteenth to seventh, Tyler Bruening started in the eleventh row and finished eighth. Brandon Sheppard and Devin Moran would finish out the top ten, both having come from the rear after changing flat tires.
The Mini Haulers/Trucks would run fifteen laps with just one caution as Brian Tipps went flag-to-flag for the win just prior to the Late Model headliner and following a lengthy post-race session on Flo, the twenty lap Modified race was dominated by pole-sitter Tripp Gaylord. There has been a lot of chatter lately in regard to the number of support classes, in particular with the UMP Summer Nationals, and if you want an example of how perfectly support classes can add to a show by filling the time needed for the premier division(s) to prepare, it was this night. A couple of simple suggestions for those tracks where the support classes made for some late nights: 1. Don't qualify them, draw for either the heat races or as they did in Davenport, a feature only, and 2. Use the "One Spin and Your In" rule in the heats and maybe even the feature.
So, my Friday night plans were just changed as the Sprint Invaders show at the Lee County Fair have been canceled for tonight and with a tornado warning close by I will now be watching Ryan Hall Y'All to stay safe. You do the same and I hope to see you again soon on the Back Stretch.
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