8/24/2024
Lucas Oil MLRA
Derrick Stewart Soars To First Career Lucas Oil MLRA Win At Lakeside Speedway
Kansas City, KS (August 23, 2024) – Making just his third Lucas Oil MLRA start of the season, Ainsworth, Iowa’s Derrick Stewart stayed hot on the MLRA scene, and raced his way to his first career Lucas Oil MLRA victory on Friday night at the Lakeside Speedway in Kansas City, KS.
Coming into the night, the driver of the Grace Motorsports Capital Chassis had already logged a pair of top ten finishes, including a 4th place in the series most recent outing at the Callaway Raceway. He would again start off his night on the right foot, by capturing his second consecutive MyRacePass Fast Time Award with a lap of 16.374 seconds and followed that up with a win in the nights first heat race, placing him on the pole for the 30-lap main event.
At the drop of the green flag, it was third starting and 16-year-old Tyler Kuykendall taking the early advantage, as he charged past both Stewart and current series point leader and front row starter Chad Simpson for the early race lead. However, the lead for Kuykendall would be short lived as Stewart quickly charged to the point off the exit of turn two and put himself out in front at the line on lap two.
The nights lone caution also slowed the pace on lap two, when Dustin Hodges spun and came to a stop in turn two. Simpson who had dropped to fourth, took advantage of the restart and quickly moved into the runner up spot and began his pursuit of his fellow Iowa driver. By lap 11 Simpson found the bottom line to be the way to go, and charged to the lead off the exit of turn two, while Stewart stayed committed to the high line.
Yet again, Stewart was not about to give up the point, as just one lap later he charged back by Simpson to regain the lead and would race his way through lapped traffic over the remainder of the race, scoring the $5,000 win by 3.7 seconds. 2022 Lakeside MLRA winner Chase Junghans race his way from 6th on the grid to the runner up spot, passing Simpson for the position on lap 16, while Simpson battled with Dillon McCowan for the final podium position. McCowan would get by Simpson momentarily, but in the end, it was Simpson snagging the final podium position with McCowan and Tony Jackson Jr. rounding out the top five.
An exhausted Stewart climbed from his car in victory lane and commented by saying, “I didn’t think it was going to be that fast, or that wide open, or that physical. Simpson showed his nose there and I got up on the wheel, and there for a while I didn’t know if I was going to have enough gas to make it—I’m pretty wore out.”
Stewart’s 28 laps out in front netted him the MD3 “Most Laps Led”. “I think it was big deal,” he noted of being able to be out in front. “That guy (Kuykendall) got by me on the bottom and I was like whoa, it must be pretty good down there and I crossed him over down the backstretch and just told myself you know you run five to ten hard laps here and get out there and get a lead, and you can kind of cool your tires off and start hitting your marks and calm down. About the time we did that we got into lapped traffic and Simpson showed me the nose, and the race was on from there.”
“You had to be careful with what you were doing, you know you can’t enter here without any air on your nose,” he continued. “Lapped traffic seemed to be running the middle to the bottom and I got real tight on entry and a couple guys left a hole open and it was just one of those deals where if you’re going to drive in there and try to slide em’ you have to 100% commit going down this back stretch. Fortunately, it worked out and they left us enough room to get by and I just kept telling myself, keep putting these lapped cars between ya and keep pulling away.”
Simpson’s third place run was good enough to allow the four-time series champion to stretch out his point lead heading into I-70 Speedway on Saturday. “It took too long there early on for my right rear to go. We blistered it in the heat race, so we had to put a brand new one on, and it just didn’t want to go at the beginning of the race. I fell all the way back to 5th or 6th there at one time so I was sweating bullets sitting back there. And then it just kind of came to me and I found that bottom and I caught Derrick and I thought man we’re going to be pretty good. And then I got hung up with a couple of lapped cars, and I lost all of that ground. I kind of got a rhythm going and then Chase drove around me on the bottom, so he seen that bottom too and seen it a little better than I did,” concluded Simpson.
The I-70 Speedway in Odessa, MO will welcome the Lucas Oil MLRA on Saturday night August 24th, for the inaugural running of the "K.C. Cup" presented by Mid American Automation Services. Hot laps for the $7,000 to win main event will get underway at 6:30 PM with racing action to follow.
Lakeside Speedway Contingencies 8/23/24
Lap Leaders – Tyler Kuykendall (1), Derrick Stewart (2 - 10), Chad Simpson (11), Derrick Stewart (12 - 30)
Cautions – 1
MyRacePass “Overall Fast Time Award" – Derrick Stewart (16.374sec.)
Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race – Eric Stewart
MD3 "Most Laps Led" – Derrick Stewart (28)
Swift Springs “Move of the Race” – Derrick Stewart
Sunoco Race Fuel “Rookie of the Race” – Aaron Marrant
PEM Racing "4th Place Finisher" – Dillon McCowan
Fluidyne: "5th Place Finisher: – Tony Jackson Jr.
Sunoco "Engine Builders Challenge" – Clements
Midwest Sheet Metal "Points Leader Spoiler Challenge" – Chad Simpson
MSD Performance Holley: “1st B-Main NON-Qualifier” – N/A
MD3 Final Finisher: – Dustin Hodges
MLRA Late Models30 Laps | 00:13:31.541
- 43-Derrick Stewart[1]; 2. 18-Chase Junghans[6]; 3. 25-Chad Simpson[2]; 4. 8-Dillon McCowan[9]; 5. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[5]; 6. 1XM-Aaron Marrant[12]; 7. 15T-Tyler Kuykendall[3]; 8. 32-Chris Simpson[4]; 9. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[10]; 10. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[15]; 11. 78S-Steve Stultz[18]; 12. 33F-Rickey Frankel[16]; 13. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[13]; 14. 11-Jeff Herzog[8]; 15. 3W-Brennon Willard[17]; 16. 85D-Mark Dotson[23]; 17. 26G-Glen Powell[20]; 18. 41-Matt Menzie[21]; 19. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[19]; 20. (DNF) 7J-Ryan Johnson[14]; 21. (DNF) 77Y-Jordan Yaggy[11]; 22. (DNF) 7D-Dusty Leonard[22]; 23. (DNF) 22H-Dustin Hodges[7]
H1-Flo Sports8 Laps | 00:03:50.000
- 43-Derrick Stewart[1]; 2. 32-Chris Simpson[2]; 3. 22H-Dustin Hodges[3]; 4. 15S-Clayton Stuckey[7]; 5. 11G-Gordy Gundaker[4]; 6. 33F-Rickey Frankel[6]; 7. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt[8]; 8. (DNF) 7D-Dusty Leonard[5]
H2-Simpson Race Products8 Laps | 00:03:44.000
- 25-Chad Simpson[1]; 2. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr[2]; 3. 11-Jeff Herzog[3]; 4. 77Y-Jordan Yaggy[4]; 5. 7J-Ryan Johnson[7]; 6. 3W-Brennon Willard[5]; 7. 26G-Glen Powell[8]; 8. 85D-Mark Dotson[6]
H3-Earnhardt Technologies8 Laps | 00:04:53.000
- 15T-Tyler Kuykendall[2]; 2. 18-Chase Junghans[3]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan[1]; 4. 1XM-Aaron Marrant[4]; 5. 11T-Trevor Gundaker[5]; 6. 78S-Steve Stultz[6]; 7. 41-Matt Menzie[7]
GROUP A My Race Pass| 00:00:36.000
- 43-Derrick Stewart, 00:16.374[17]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson, 00:16.450[13]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan, 00:16.567[21]; 4. 32-Chris Simpson, 00:16.612[15]; 5. 56JR-Tony Jackson Jr, 00:16.623[16]; 6. 15T-Tyler Kuykendall, 00:16.646[3]; 7. 22H-Dustin Hodges, 00:16.698[5]; 8. 11-Jeff Herzog, 00:16.715[7]; 9. 18-Chase Junghans, 00:16.797[19]; 10. 11G-Gordy Gundaker, 00:16.824[4]; 11. 77Y-Jordan Yaggy, 00:16.854[14]; 12. 1XM-Aaron Marrant, 00:16.860[22]; 13. 7D-Dusty Leonard, 00:16.869[9]; 14. 3W-Brennon Willard, 00:16.935[11]; 15. 11T-Trevor Gundaker, 00:16.960[12]; 16. 33F-Rickey Frankel, 00:16.964[23]; 17. 85D-Mark Dotson, 00:17.075[20]; 18. 78S-Steve Stultz, 00:17.083[2]; 19. 15S-Clayton Stuckey, 00:17.301[18]; 20. 7J-Ryan Johnson, 00:17.386[10]; 21. 41-Matt Menzie, 00:17.903[6]; 22. 67-Jimmy Vanzandt, 00:17.956[8]; 23. 26G-Glen Powell, 00:18.195[1]
Article Credit: Billy Rock
Submitted By: Billy Rock
