Grain Valley, MO (July 15, 2017) - In a race that saw four different leaders, Wyatt Burks made a late race pass of Zach Daum to pick up his second POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint win of the season Saturday, July 15 at Valley Speedway.

Chris Parkinson started on the pole of the feature event and would take the lead as the green flag dropped over Clinton Boyles, Danny Thoman, and Korey Weyant. With a lap in the books, the race's only caution would come out for Craig Carroll, who stopped with a flat left rear. After having it replaced, he was able to rejoin the field at the back of the pack.

Parkinson would lead lap two as Boyles got a good run and moved into the lead on lap three. Boyles would lead for two laps, but his night would come to an end as he pulled into the infield with a packed right rear.

Daum, who found the bottom of the raceway to his liking and had moved up to second, would assume the lead. With Daum out front, Burks moved past Parkinson and into second. Lap by lap, Burks tried to find a line to move past Daum, but to no avail.

On lap twenty three, in heavy lapped traffic, Burks was able to use the middle line of the raceway past Daum and into the lead. He would go on to lead the last three laps to pick up his fifth career POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprints win in the RCB Motorsports/Clem Signs/Bumper to Bumper/Jadon's Hope Foundation Salina-powered Maxim. Daum would edge Cody Baker at the flagstand to run second in his Daum Crop Insurance/5D Composites/Bell Helmets/Hinchman Indy Eagle. Baker was third in the Ultra-Shield/Hinchman Racewear/Bell Helmets Maxim with Ott power. Parkinson was a solid fourth in his Country Kids Daycare/54th Street Bar and Grill/Design Source Flooring/Kansas City Mavericks DRC with Kevin's Liberty Machine power. Rounding out the top five was Indy Race Parts Hard Charger Joe B. Miller, who won the B-Main and started seventeenth in his SEMO Services/Insights Wildlife Nutrition Speed Shack-powered Maxim. Running sixth was sixteenth starter Ty Hulsey as he was followed by Rob Caho Jr. and Weyant. Rounding out the top ten were Ryan Kitchen and Taylor Walton.

The POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprints will next be in action on Friday, July 28 as they make a return to Valley Speedway. They will follow up with a trip to the Springfield Raceway in Springfield, Missouri on Saturday, July 29.

Next weekend, the POWRi Lucas Oil WAR East Sprints will run on Friday, July 21 at the Champaign County Fairgrounds in Champaign, Illinois. The event will be filmed and televised later this year as part of Dirty 30 on MAVTV. The following night, they will make their first ever appearance at the Spoon River Speedway in Canton, Illinois.

POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint League
7/15/17
Valley Speedway - 27 cars

Hinchman Racewear Heat 1 - 8 laps
1. 77-Clinton Boyles, Greenwood, MO (2); 2. 65-Chris Parkinson, Gladstone, MO (3); 3. 24H-Ty Hulsey, Owasso, OK (1); 4. 8D-Terry Babb, Decatur, IL (6); 5. 21C-Brian Beebe, Oak Grove, MO (4); 6. 93-Steve Mahannah, Springfield, MO(5); 7. 77H-Rob Hockett, Lone Jack, MO (DNS)

Wilwood Disc Brakes Heat 2 - 8 laps
1. 5D-Zach Daum, Pocahontas, IL (6); 2. 7JR-JD Black, Grain Valley, MO (2); 3. 38-Cody Baker, Lone Jack, MO (4); 4. 27X-Tucker Klaasmeyer, Paola, KS (5); 5. 78-Rob Caho Jr, Wyoming, MN (7); 6. 2-Zach Clark, Lenexa, KS (1); 7. 10-Will Register, Green Ridge, MO (3)

Bell Helmets Heat 3 - 8 laps
1. 99-Korey Weyant, Springfield, IL (3); 2. 23-Brent Fasse, Independence, MO (2); 21- Ryan Kitchen, Lincoln, NE (4); 4. Craig Carroll, Collinsville, OK (5); 5. 41-Brad Wyatt, Kearney, MO (7); 6. 82-Vinny Ward, Warrenton, MO (1); 7. 88-Chad Tye, Independence, MO (6)

Schure Built Suspensions Heat 4 - 8 laps
1. 11W-Wyatt Burks, Topeka, KS (4); 2. 27-Danny Thoman, Lexington, MO (5); 3. 93X-Taylor Walton, Warrensburg, MO (2); 4. 70-Pete Palazzolo, Pacific, MO (1); 5. 51B-Joe B. Miller, Millersville, MO (6); 6. 42 -Warren Johnson, Overland Park, KS (3)

B-Main - 12 laps
1. 51B-Joe B. Miller (2); 2. 70-Pete Palazzolo (3); 3. 41-Brad Wyatt (1); 4. 21C-Brian Beebe(4); 5. 42-Warren Johnson (6); 6. 88-Chad Tye (7); 7. 93-Steve Mahannah (5); 8. 82-Vinny Ward (8); 9. 10-Will Register (9); 10. 2-Zach Clark (DNS)

POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprints A-Main - 25 laps
1. 11W-Wyatt Burks (5); 2. Zach Daum (6); 3. Cody Baker (9); 4. 65-Chris Parkinson (1); 5. 51B-Joe B. Miller (17); 6. 24H-Ty Hulsey (15); 7. Rob Caho Jr. (16); 8. 99-Korey Weyant (4); 9. 21-Ryan Kitchen (10); 10. 93X-Taylor Walton (12); 11. 7JR-JD Black (7); 12. 21C-Brian Beebe (20); 13. 8D-Terry Babb (11); 14. 23-Brent Fasse (8); 15. 24C-Craig Carroll (14); 16. 27-Danny Thoman (3); 17. 70-Pete Palazzolo (18); 18. 41-Brad Wyatt (19); 19. 77-Clinton Boyles (2); 20. 27X-Tucker Klaasmeyer (13)

Grain Valley, MO - Spencer Bayston of Lebanon, Indiana outlasted teammate Tanner Thorson to capture his sixth career POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League victory in the second night of the Inaugural Thunder in the Valley.  Thorson took the opening night of the Inaugural Thunder in the Valley and vied for the $1000 bonus paid to the driver who swept the weekend in their respective division, but came up one spot short.  The Thunder in the Valley featured the POWRi Lucas Oil West Midget League and the POWRi Lucas Allstar Midget League, alongside the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League. 

Earning high-point honors for the night, Bayston led the field to green and immediately took to the bottom of the high-banked quarter mile, catfishing with teammate Thorson in tow.  Slowing the action, Tucker Klaasmeyer and Ryan Robinson brought out the caution after ending up tangled on the bottom off turn four.  Returning to racing, Bayston continued to catfish, placing distance between he and Thorson while a gaggle of action happened for third on back.  Enduring a total of four yellows and one red, Bayston kept his composure as the laps wound down and the battle headed up. 

With 26 laps in the books, the final slowdown of the evening occurred when Ryan Robinson took a tumble down the front stretch, bringing out the only red and stopping the action.  Lined back up, Zach Daum followed Bayston with Thorson, Kyle Schuett, and Jonathan Beason in tow.  Coming back to green, Thorson took a gamble and shot straight for the curb, while Daum worked the bottom.  Coming to the white flag, Thorson clearly had second, but it was too little too late, to mount a challenge for the lead as Bayston crossed the line in first.  Kyle Schuett finished fourth after starting 17th, while Jonathan Beason rounded out the top five. 

"Starting on the pole there, I was a little worried," stated Spencer Bayston.  "Running the bottom really isn't my specialty, and it was pretty precise down there.  I knew who was starting behind me and I tried to hit my marks and run a good, clean race.  No one ever really showed me a nose, but I could hear them back there and I just tried to stay focused on what I was doing.  Big Al and Keith gave me a good enough racecar tonight that I was able to mess with it there and get myself more comfortable throughout the feature.  Hat's off to all those guys who work so hard in the shop." 

"There for a little bit the track was really single lane around the bottom and I was actually fortunate enough to see someone up above me," said Tanner Thorson.  "I jumped up there and made the best of what I could.  Hat's off to Spencer, he didn't make one mistake out there; it's good when the team wins.  I love coming to this track, it was real technical there."

"Just running the sprint car there, the cushion was so far around there, you could make little laps on the bottom," commented Zach Daum.  "Off of two is always good and off of four normally is, but it got pretty slick tonight.  We should have tightened it a little more; last night we didn't tighten it enough.  Tonight I didn't go far enough.  I just wish we would have been a couple spots better." 

Midgets

Speedway Motors Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 27 - TUCKER KLAASMEYER , Heat 2: 67 - TANNER THORSON, Heat 3: 7U - JOE B MILLER, Heat 4: 37 - ANDREW FELKER, Heat 5: 8J - JONATHAN BEASON

Toyota Semi Feature Winner: 9K - KYLE SCHUETT

Mesilla Valley Transportation Feature Winner: 97 - SPENCER BAYSTON

POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League Feature Results (30 laps): 1. 97 - SPENCER BAYSTON   2. 67 - TANNER THORSON  3. 5D - ZACH DAUM   4. 9K - KYLE SCHUETT   5. 8J - JONATHAN BEASON  6. 4A - LOGAN SEAVEY   7. 27 - TUCKER KLAASMEYER   8. 37 - ANDREW FELKER   9. 28K - KOREY SCHUDY  10. 3N - JAKE NEUMAN   11. 67K - HOLLY SHELTON  12. 7U - JOE B MILLER   13. 6A - AIDAN ROOSEVANS   14. 3 - DUSTIN GILBERT   15. 77W - JOEY WIRTH   16. 00 - GRADY CHANDLER   17. 98 - CLINTON BOYLES   18. 97K - JODIE ROBINSON  19. 22 - ANDY MALPOCKER   20. 44 - WESLEY SMITH   21. 71 - RYAN ROBINSON  22. 27Z - ZANE HENDRICKS   23. 71K - TANNER CARRICK  24. 9 - MATT MOORE   25. 28 - ACE MCCARTHY

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