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Norfolk, NE (June 25th, 2022) – Chad Simpson put an end to a Lucas Oil MLRA winless streak on Saturday night at the Off Road Speedway in Norfolk, NE cashing in on the $5,000 to win “Renegade 50”. The victory for the two time series champion is his 15th MLRA win all time and first since June of 2019 at the Rapid Speedway.

Tad Pospisil came into the weekend looking for his second career series win and looked to be in good shape early in the night as he collected the Dirt On Dirt Fast Time and paced the field from the pole position for the 50 lap main event alongside of Justin Zeitner. The early going would see a pair of quick cautions in the first five laps before giving way to a long green flag run at the 1/3 mile facility.

Pospisil controlled the early segment with Simpson moving into the runner-up spot early in the going. With both leaders running the extreme high line, Simpson was able to capitalize on an opportunity in heavy lapped traffic and took the lead from Pospisil for the first time on lap 23. Simpson slowly began to distance himself from the field over the next few laps while still having to maneuver heavy traffic.

On lap 26 Simpson would make contact with the lapped car of Cale Osborn, resulting in Osborn spinning and coming to rest at the top of turn two. Second running Johnny Scott made right side contact with Osborn and continued on but was followed into the incident by Pospisil who clipped the idle machine of Osborn and rolled multiple times before coming to rest. Both drivers were ok following the incident, but saw their nights come to an early end.

Following the near 20 minute red flag, Simpson would set sail for the remaining 24 laps. Scott continued to stalk his every move from the runner-up spot and took advantage of a Simpson miscue and stole the top spot on lap 33, only to give way off the exit of turn two turning the lead back over to Simpson. The final 17 laps would be near nose to tail between the series top two drivers, but in the end Simpson scored the victory by a margin of .998 seconds over Scott. Justin Zeitner continued his impressive weekend with a third place podium run followed by Kolby Vandenbergh and Ben Schaller rounding out the top five.

Simpson has finished in the top five in all but one regular MLRA start in 2022 and was glad to get his Ideal-Ready Mix Black Diamond Chassis back into victory lane. “It’s definitely been way to long. We struggled last year a little bit and didn’t get a win and it’s fun to finally get back here where we want to be,” he noted. “Early on there I was just kind of conserving and following Tad there. I knew he was good and knows how to get around here. He was just kind of sitting there waiting for them lap cars and it allowed me to kind of sneak up on him and get around him in the lap cars. Then I just had to stay aggressive with the lap cars.”

Scott will retain the Midwest Sheet Metal Spoiler indicative of the series top driver, commenting, "When that wreck happened over there it ripped the whole right side off of my car and after that I was just kind of hanging on. Before that happened I think we had a car to win it, but congrats to Chad he did a hell of a job. I got under him that one time and could have probably slid him, but it wouldn’t have been clean, so I just backed off and settled for second. Sometimes that’s just what you’ve got to do.”

As for Zeitner, who was making his first MLRA starts of the season, it was a pretty solid weekend scoring a pair of podium finishes. “If you’d have told me this before we left the shop I’d have been ok with it, but then I drive my race car and I know what I need to do better and I want to be up there in victory lane, but we’ll get there.”

Lucas Oil MLRA racing continues next Friday, July 1st, when the series makes another first time visit to the CJ Speedway in Columbus Junction, IA for a $5,000 to win main event. The weekend will conclude on Saturday with the 14th annual “Slocum 50” at the 34 Raceway in West Burlington, IA. This coveted event will dish out a top prize of $10,555 to the winner.

Off Road Speedway Contingencies 6/25/22
Lap Leaders – Tad Pospisil (1 - 22) Chad Simpson (24 - 32), Johnny Scott (33), Chad Simpson (34 - 50)
Cautions – 3
DirtonDirt.com “Overall Fast Time Award” – Tad Pospisil (13.556 sec.)
Illini Racing & Supply "Pole Award" – Tad Pospisil
Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race – Waylon Schultz
Hooker Harness "11th Place Finisher" – Eric Vanosdall
Performance Bodies "Performer of the Race" – Chad Simpson
Sunoco “Rookie of the Race” – Kolby Vandenbergh
Swift Springs “Move of the Race” – Chad Simpson
Midwest Sheet Metal "Points Leader Spoiler Challenge" – Johnny Scott

A Feature Lucas Oil 50 Laps | 01:06:15.120 | Lucas Oil
1. 25-Chad Simpson[3]; 2. 1ST-Johnny Scott[8]; 3. 62-Justin Zeitner[2]; 4. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[7]; 5. 98-Ben Schaller[11]; 6. 50-Kaeden Cornell[9]; 7. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[4]; 8. 07-Ben Sukup[12]; 9. 78S-Steve Stultz[16]; 10. 50C-Kayden Clatt[15]; 11. 9-Eric Vanosdall[17]; 12. 14M-Reid Millard[19]; 13. 45-Jon Haase[18]; 14. (DNF) 04-Tad Pospisil[1]; 15. (DNF) 36X-Chris Johnson[20]; 16. (DNF) 6C-Cale Osborn[10]; 17. (DNF) 1X-Aaron Marrant[5]; 18. (DNF) 21T-Travis Dickes[14]; 19. (DNF) 9A-Andy Eickhoff[22]; 20. (DNF) 22B-Gary Brown Jr[6]; 21. (DNF) 6-Al Humphrey[13]; 22. (DNF) 10C-Junior Coover[21]

Heat 1 My Race Pass 8 Laps | 00:03:02.373 | My Race Pass
1. 04-Tad Pospisil[1]; 2. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[3]; 3. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[2]; 4. 6C-Cale Osborn[4]; 5. 6-Al Humphrey[6]; 6. 78S-Steve Stultz[7]; 7. 14M-Reid Millard[8]; 8. (DNF) 9A-Andy Eickhoff[5]

Heat 2 Hooker Harness 8 Laps | 00:04:50.387 | Hooker Harness
1. 62-Justin Zeitner[1]; 2. 1X-Aaron Marrant[3]; 3. 1ST-Johnny Scott[2]; 4. 98-Ben Schaller[4]; 5. 21T-Travis Dickes[6]; 6. 9-Eric Vanosdall[5]; 7. (DNF) 36X-Chris Johnson[7]

Heat 3 Midwest Sheet Metal 8 Laps | 00:04:22.174 | Midwest Sheet Metal
1. 25-Chad Simpson[1]; 2. 22B-Gary Brown Jr[2]; 3. 50-Kaeden Cornell[4]; 4. 07-Ben Sukup[5]; 5. 50C-Kayden Clatt[3]; 6. 45-Jon Haase[7]; 7. (DNF) 10C-Junior Coover[6]

Norfolk, NE (June 24th, 2022) – For the longest time it looked like Friday nights first ever stop for the Lucas Oil MLRA at the Off Road Speedway was going to produce a first time winner. That would end up being an after thought however once series point leader Johnny Scott moved to the point and distanced himself from the field to score his fourth series win of the season.

Justin Zeitner looked to be unstoppable early in the evening as it appeared he was on the way to a perfect evening at the 1/3 mile facility in Norfolk, NE. The third generation driver scored the Dirt On Dirt Quick Time Award with a lap of 13.757 seconds, before winning his respective heat race that would put him on the Illini Racing Supply Pole Position for the 30 lap main event.

Zeitner and outside front row starter Aaron Marrant led the field to the green until a couple of early cautions slowed the pace on laps three and seven. With Zeitner showing the way Scott would restart on the inside line with Chad Simpson trying to use the high side momentum to his advantage.

As the field approached the half way point Scott was able to get a strong run down the backstretch and made it pay off with the Swift Springs Move of the Race by diving deep into three and sliding Zeitner for the race lead on lap 13. That lead however almost vanished as Scott got caught up and made contact with lapped traffic on the front stretch on the 15th circuit allowing Zeitner to drive back by for the lead. However, the contact led to a pair of cars sitting on the race track that would bring the caution back out before a lap could be scored with Zeitner at the point.

Scott led the field back to the green with 15 to go, leaving Zeitner and Simpson to battle for runner up honors. The nights fourth and final caution would wave on lap 18, and from there Scott slowly pulled away from the field to score his fourth MLRA victory of the season by 1.326 seconds over Zeitner. Chad Simpson moved into second in the series standings with his fifth consecutive top five run finishing in third. Sunoco Race Fuels Rookie of the year leader Kolby Vandenbergh captured a career best fourth place finish while hometown driver Tad Pospisil round out the top five.

The win by Scott allowed him to stretch out his point lead to 85 over Simpson commenting “Our year has been going good, so we’re just going to keep at it.” In speaking of the winning move he noted, “I just got a good run off of two there and I knew that was going to be my only opportunity to get by him (Zeitner), so I threw that slider on him and I thought I cleared him pretty good. He kinda crossed me up off of four and hit me in the ass, but we were just racing hard so it is what it is. It was definitely on the wheel tonight.”

For Zeitner the runner-up finish was oh so close to scoring his first breakthrough MLRA win. “Normally I’m sitting on my couch watching that guy (Johnny Scott) race on TV, so I’m not too upset about it but at that same time I didn’t need that caution. I got back by him, and I think we could have had a heck of a race. He might have gotten back by me he might not of—woulda shoulda coulda, I should have never let him got by me the first time,” he concluded.

“He really didn’t pull away from me when he got the lead and there was times I would close and there were times he’d leave me,” continued Zeitner. “I’ve got to eliminate my mistakes, I just don’t run this high horsepower enough and I make too many mistakes.”

Simpson had made his way around Scott early in the race but gave way to the eventual winner. “The middle of the track was just too slick and I didn’t have enough forward drive,” noted Simpson. “It seems like once I can get rolling up on the top I’m pretty good. The restarts were good and they were bad, I got Johnny on that one restart and I thought we were going to be alright. Those guys just got a little bit better traction than I do yet, so we’ve got a little work to do to try and figure out where that’s at.”

Lucas Oil MLRA action continues on Saturday night at the Off Road Speedway as the weekend culminates with the running of the "Renegade 50". The winner of the weekend finale will drive off with a $5,000 pay day with $600 going to all "A" main starters.

Off Road Speedway Contingencies 6/24/22
Lap Leaders – J. Zeitner (1 - 13), J. Scott (14 - 30)
Cautions – 4
DirtonDirt.com “Overall Fast Time Award” – Justin Zeitner (13.757sec.)
Illini Racing & Supply "Pole Award" – Justin Zeitner
Outerwears Crew Chief of the Race – Levi Demartino
Hooker Harness "11th Place Finisher" – Chad Walter
Performance Bodies "Performer of the Race" – Johnny Scott
Sunoco “Rookie of the Race” – Kolby Vandenbergh
Swift Springs “Move of the Race” – Johnny Scott
Midwest Sheet Metal "Points Leader Spoiler Challenge" – Johnny Scott

A Feature Lucas Oil 30 Laps | 00:27:19.291 | Lucas Oil
1. 1ST-Johnny Scott[3]; 2. 62-Justin Zeitner[1]; 3. 25-Chad Simpson[5]; 4. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[6]; 5. 04-Tad Pospisil[4]; 6. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[8]; 7. 1X-Aaron Marrant[2]; 8. 6C-Cale Osborn[9]; 9. 98-Ben Schaller[7]; 10. 78S-Steve Stultz[20]; 11. 14M-Chad Walter[21]; 12. 9-Eric Vanosdall[13]; 13. 10C-Junior Coover[15]; 14. 21X-Jared Hoerle[19]; 15. 6-Al Humphrey[17]; 16. 07-Ben Sukup[12]; 17. 21T-Travis Dickes[11]; 18. 9A-Andy Eickhoff[16]; 19. 50C-Kayden Clatt[14]; 20. 36X-Chris Johnson[18]; 21. 3AM-Cole Wayman[10]; 22. (DNS) 50-Kaeden Cornell

Heat 1 My Race Pass 8 Laps | 00:02:55.200 | My Race Pass
1. 62-Justin Zeitner[1]; 2. 04-Tad Pospisil[2]; 3. 98-Ben Schaller[3]; 4. 3AM-Cole Wayman[4]; 5. 9-Eric Vanosdall[7]; 6. 9A-Andy Eickhoff[6]; 7. 21X-Jared Hoerle[8]; 8. 50-Kaeden Cornell[5]

Heat 2 Hooker Harness 8 Laps | 00:02:51.870 | Hooker Harness
1. 1X-Aaron Marrant[2]; 2. 25-Chad Simpson[1]; 3. 22-Daniel Hilsabeck[3]; 4. 21T-Travis Dickes[5]; 5. 50C-Kayden Clatt[4]; 6. 6-Al Humphrey[6]; 7. 78S-Steve Stultz[7]

Heat 3 Midwest Sheet Metal 8 Laps | 00:02:53.489 | Midwest Sheet Metal
1. 1ST-Johnny Scott[2]; 2. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[1]; 3. 6C-Cale Osborn[3]; 4. 07-Ben Sukup[6]; 5. 10C-Junior Coover[5]; 6. 36X-Chris Johnson[7]; 7. 14M-Chad Walter[4]