Media Contact: Billy Rock

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

Wheatland, MO (June 24, 2020) - The Lucas Oil Speedway's 1st Annual Mid-Week Mayhem lived up to the billing, as Las Cruces, New Mexico native Johnny Scott captured his first career Lucas Oil MLRA late model feature on Wednesday night. In doing so, Scott becomes the fourth different series winner in as many events in 2020.

Originally slated as a $3,000 to win event, Lucas Oil Speedway's Dan Robinson announced prior to the event that it would we bumped to a $5,000 to win main event, as there way of thanking the 37 drivers and teams for their support of the event and the MLRA series. Jake Neal got the night started off by capturing the Slick Mist "Fast Time Award" with a lap of 15.251 seconds, while heat race wins went to Justin Duty, Jake Timm, Jesse Stovall, and Payton Looney.

At the drop of the green flat it was Looney seizing control from his outside front row starting spot, jumping to the top side cushion with Stovall in tow. The duo pace the front of the pack for the first dozen laps before a rash of cautions began to slow the pace. The first caution waved as defending series champion Will Vaught came to a stop at the top of turn two, ending his night.

On the ensuing restart, Mitch McGrath gave up the fourth spot when he spun in front of the field in the middle of turns one and two.  Just one lap later it was Winona, Minnesota driver Jake Timm going around in the same spot as McGrath, bring his bid for a top five to an end. Problems again struck the top five in a big way just three laps later, when contact between Jeremiah Hurst and DirtonDirt.com pole sitter Justin Duty sent Duty spinning at the entrance to turn one. The incident would also collect the likes of Mason Oberkramer and Terry Phillips.

Back under green, it appeared as if Looney was on his way to his first career MLRA win, pulling away from the field by close to 1.5 seconds. However, on the final long run of the event, it was eighth starting Johnny Scott that found the rhythm and slowly started to real in the top two. Scott moved to the bottom side of turn four and was able to get his car to pin to the bottom side of the track, overtaking Stovall for second with just five laps remaining.

With lap traffic in the cross hairs of the leaders, Scott was able to power to the inside of Looney as the duo took the white flag and held on to score his first career Lucas Oil MLRA victory. Looney claimed his second consecutive runner-up finish at the Diamond of Dirt Tracks dating back to his performance in the MLRA finale last October. Stovall netted a third place finish ahead of Sunoco Race Fuels Rookie of the Race Garrett Alberson, and a hard charging Jeremy Grady.

Scott was all smiles in Cedar Creek Beef Jerky Victory lane following the 40 lapper commenting on his come from behind win, "I just had to bide my time. My car wasn't really good in the middle or the top, so I just stayed consistent on the bottom. The longer runs helped me, the short runs it would kill me. I was too loose to run the middle, but the bottom I could rotate right around there and before I knew it I had reeled in Stovall and Payton Looney and got by them at the end."  

The winning move the of the race came as Scott's XR1 Rocket blasted off the bottom side of turn four. "I kept brushing my nose down there on them tires, and if I could hit it just right I could get a heck of a run," he noted. "I gotta thank my crew, we have been working our butts off to get these things up front. We have been trying to follow that Lucas Oil tour and them guys have been beating on us hard, so we just came to run this deal this week to get some more experience. This is just my second night out in this XR1 and I gotta thank mark Richards for all his help."

Coming up one spot shy, Looney said, "I ran a 1350 there and went soft, me and Jesse both, and I was just a sitting duck those last ten laps and I knew it. I was just trying to hang on and make the car as wide as I could and Lake (Mooneyham) was doing his best out there trying to help me hang onto the lead. I guess I'm just cursed here, but we'll keep trying."

Next up: The Lucas Oil MLRA continues down the road on Thursday night June 25th, making a one night stand at the Outlaw Motor Speedway in Oktaha, OK. Club 91 Promotions under the direction of Joe Duvall, brings the MLRA back to the revived 3/8-mile facility for the first time since 2014 in a $3,000 to win main event. Action will then move to the Salina Highbanks Speedway on Friday and Saturday for the 7th Annual ARMI "Freedom Classic" on Friday and Saturday June 26th - 27th.  

Lucas Oil Speedway Contingencies 6/24/20
Slick Mist "Fast Time Award" - Jake Neal (15.251 sec.)
DirtonDirt.com "Pole Award" - Justin Duty
Allgaier Motorsports Racing Shocks Award - Payton Looney
Casey's General Store's "Hard Charger of the Race" - Tony Jackson Jr.
Dynamic Drivelines "Crew Chief of the Race" - Levi Demartino
Hooker Harness "11th Place Finisher" - Kaeden Cornell
Midwest Sheet Metal "Points Leader Spoiler Challenge" - Chad Simpson
Performance Bodies "Performer of the Race" - Johnny Scott
RacingJunk.com "Hard Luck Award" - Justin Duty
Sunoco "Rookie of the Race" - Garrett Alberson
  
Lucas Oil Racing TV A Feature (40 Laps): 1.Johnny Scott 2.Payton Looney 3.Jesse Stovall 4.Garrett Alberson 5.Jeremy Grady 6.Tony Toste 7.Jeremiah Hurst 8.Chad Simpson 9.Tony Jackson Jr. 10.Mitch McGrath 11.Kaeden Cornell 12.Logan Martin 13.Jeremy Conaway 14.Brennon Willard 15.Daniel Hilsabeck 16.Justin Duty 17.Terry Phillips 18.Jason Papich 19.Mason Oberkramer 20.Joseph Gorby 21.Jake Timm 22.Will Vaught 23.Jordan Yaggy 24.Cole Henson
  
Allgaier Motorsports Racing Shocks B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1.Terry Phillips 2.Cole Henson 3.Austin Theiss 4.Preston Luckman 5.Joe Duvall 6.Daniel Hilsabeck 7.Ryan Johnson 8.David Webster 9.Todd McCoin 10.Jake Neal (DNS) 11.Jake Davis (DNS)    

MAV TV Motorsports B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1.Kaeden Cornell 2.Jordan Yaggy 3.Jeremy Conaway 4.Raymond Merrill 5.Brennon Willard 6.Steve Johnson 7.Mark Shipman 8.Steven Crocker 9.Reid Millard 10.Tony Jackson Jr.    
  
Cedar Creek Beef Jerky Heat 1 (10 Laps): 1.Justin Duty 2.Mitch McGrath 3.Joseph Gorby 4.Jeremy Grady 5.Cole Henson 6.David Webster 7.Austin Theiss 8.Daniel Hilsabeck 9.Jake Neal 10.Terry Phillips

Casey's General Stores Heat 2 (10 Laps): 1.Jake Timm 2.Garrett Alberson 3.Jeremiah Hurst 4.Tony Toste 5.Jake Davis 6.Ryan Johnson 7.Joe Duvall 8.Todd McCoin 9.Preston Luckman

Sunoco Race Fuels Heat 3 (10 Laps): 1.Payton Looney 2.Logan Martin 3.Chad Simpson 4.Jason Papich 5.Reid Millard 6.Mark Shipman 7.Steven Crocker 8.Kaeden Cornell 9.Tony Jackson Jr.

Midwest Sheet Metal Heat 4 (10 Laps): 1.Jesse Stovall 2.Johnny Scott 3.Mason Oberkramer 4.Will Vaught 5.Jordan Yaggy 6.Raymond Merrill 7.Jeremy Conaway 8.Brennon Willard 9.Steve Johnson

For all of the latest news and information fans are encouraged to visit the series website at www.MLRARacing.com.