Eldon, MO. (09/06/2020) For the final night of the Second Annual Lake Ozark Speedway Non-Wing Nationals with the POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint League, 30 entrants would fill the pits laying everything on the line for the top prize and title of “King of the Lake Ozark Non-Wings”. Exceptional racing would highlight the night with battles throughout the field as the top three swapped positions nearly every lap. After the full twenty-five feature laps were complete Zach Daum would stand victorious in victory lane with his McGarry Motorsports hot-rod.
Early track actions would witness Zach Daum #311 log the fastest lap time in hot-laps sessions with a 14.169-second lap. Three heat races were heavily contested with #91 Riley Kreisel, Zach Daum, and #29 Mitch Wissmiller all claiming their preliminary racing victories. Xavier Doney #74, in just his second full-size non-wing sprint start, would earn the twelve laps B-Feature. Paul Nienhiser #9x would use a sixth to second place run in his heat race to earn the night’s high point qualifier award, gaining the pole starting spot for the main event.
Pacing the field for the initial start Paul Nienhiser and Riley Kreisel would lead the field to green in a side-by-side battle for the top running spot. Flying into the first corners both front row challengers would seek speed on the high side, leaving an opening for Joe B. Miller #31. Miller would capitalize leading the first four laps. With Joe B. showing the way, Kreisel would grab the lead on lap five showing Nienhiser the fastest way around Miller.
Kreisel and Nienhiser would both then trade the lead multiple times, many lead swaps occurring on the same lap. With Kreisel leading laps five through eight and Nienhiser taking control on laps eight through eleven, caution would take the top two front-runners from the competition. When Nienhiser would make contact with the outside wall coming off turn four causing him to slow, Kreisel would have nowhere to retreat climbing the slowing Nienhiser and stopping just before the entrance to turn one with both cars caught together.
Joe B. Miller would inherit the lead after the caution was cleared while maintaining a close run upfront with this McGary Motorsport teammate Zach Daum and #6 Mario Clouser in hot pursuit. These three drivers would then put on a display of close-quarter racing unlike any other. With slide-jobs and crossovers on both sides of the track, Miller would lead the way on laps twelve through eighteen. Daum would earn a slight advantage on lap nineteen with Joe B. back to the point on the twentieth through twenty-third revolutions around “The Lake”.
With Miller, Clouser, and Daum all three vying for first, neither of the drivers giving an inch, Zach Daum would grab the lead using a low-line maneuver on the second to last lap and hold on to the lead for the final laps in a thrilling feature event. Mario Clouser would be in the thick of the heated frontend battle ending the night in the runner-up position. Joe B. Miller would place a tight third in a great showing for the night, putting the second McGarry Motorsports entry onto the podium. Mitch Wissmiller would mount a charge towards the front in the later stages of the race to place fourth. Xavier Doney #74 would impress all driving from a seventeenth starting spot after winning the B-Feature to round out the top-five in finishing positions and earning a hard charger award for his efforts.
KSE Racing Products Top Time: #311 Zach Daum - 14.169 second lap time.
Hinchman Racewear Heat Race 1 Winner: #91 Riley Kreisel
Bell Helmet Heat Race 2 Winner: #311 Zach Daum
Schure Built Suspension Heat Race 3 Winner: #29 Mitch Wissmiller
Hoosier Racing Tire Semi-Feature Winner: #74 Xavier Doney
AutoMeter High Point Qualifier Winner: #9x Paul Nienhiser
Super Clean Hard Charger: #74 Xavier Doney +12 (17th to 5th)
Lucas Oil Feature Winner: #311 Zach Daum
Feature Results from Lake Ozark Speedway with the POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint League: (25 Laps) 1. 311-Zach Daum[6]; 2. 6-Mario Clouser[10]; 3. 31-Joe B Miller[3]; 4. 29-Mitch Wissmiller[7]; 5. 74-Xavier Doney[17]; 6. 38-Cody Baker[5]; 7. 28-Kory Schudy[8]; 8. 22-Koby Barksdale[15]; 9. 2X-Zach Clark[19]; 10. 7JR-JD Black[22]; 11. 22S-Slater Helt[21]; 12. 91-Riley Kreisel[2]; 13. 11X-Tom Curran[16]; 14. 77-Jack Wagner[11]; 15. 2-Jason Billups[23]; 16. 73-Samuel Wagner[18]; 17. ST1-Lane Stone[14]; 18. (DNF) 77K-Katlynn Leer[13]; 19. (DNF) 410-Brady Bacon[9]; 20. (DNF) 9X-Paul Nienhiser[1]; 21. (DNF) 24-Landon Simon[4]; 22. (DNF) 20G-Noah Gass[12]; 23. (DNF) 16-Anthony Nicholson[20]
Next up for the POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint League will be one of the biggest events of the year with a three-day spectacle at Lucas Oil Speedway for the annual running of the Jesse Hockett/ Daniel McMillin Memorial on September 17th-19th.
Follow along for more information such as race recaps, updates, full results, and press releases online at www.powri.com, or on Twitter & Instagram at @POWRi_Racing or on Facebook at POWRi. POWRi League rules, contingencies, forms, and payouts can be found under the info tab at the top of the POWRi website.
Photo Credit: Nicole Hockett