Mercer Earns His Seventh, as Rain Shortens Casey’s Night at the Races

(WINSTON, Mo.) – As showers poured down on the opposite side of Interstate 35, I-35 Speedway began features while battling the closing storms on Casey’s Night at the Races. First out on track, the Grand Nationals and Midwest Outlaw Vintage Racers combined the two classes for the night. Chad Fuller jumped to the early lead and never looked back picking up his fourth win this season. Houston Johnson finished second, John Hanson third and Billie Hoover fourth. Jack Simmons won the Vintage portion of the race with Ron Lefholz second, Andy Wiles third, Dennis Fair fourth and Steve Tanner fifth.

Early in the E-Modified feature, Ben Stockton looked poised to make his way to McCarthy Auto Group Winner’s Circle. Chris Mercer had a different thought though as he pestered Stockton for the lead. On back-to-back restarts the two exchanged the lead. After another yellow, the next restart took the hope of victory away from Stockton as he made contact with third and found himself facing the wrong direction. That gave Mercer clear sailing for the rest of the race and he picked up his seventh feature win this season. Stockton battled back to second but did not have enough time to get back to Mercer. Josh Adkins finished third, Anthony Hill fourth and Charlie Brown fifth.

The Sport Compacts went all race without a caution as Alvin Cooney worked the cushion on his way to his fourth win this season. Steven Bunton made a late charge to second, while John Willard, David Miller III and Dave Petty Jr. made up the rest of the top five.

The Pure Stocks continued the trend of multiple time winners finding victory lane, as Ron Hill also pounded the cushion on his way to his fifth win this season. Jeff Dixon finished second making his first appearance in a Pure Stock this season. Rylee Fuller and Kristchon Hisel rounded out the field.

After the Pure Stocks lightning entered the area, quickly followed by rain, forcing I-35 Speedway officials to cancel the rest of the nights action. The USRA B-Modifieds, USRA Stock Cars and USRA Modifieds will all run their features on a later date. Randy Ainsworth and Chase Galvan picked up the B-Modified heat wins, Aaron Sauter the Stock Car heat win and Mark Dotson and Dennis Elliot the Modified heat wins.

I-35 Speedway Results 6-30-2018

Midwest Outlaw Vintage Racers

1. #J2 Jack Simmons
2. #20L Ron Lefholz
3. #53 Andy Wiles
4. #7F Dennis Fair
5. #XX Steve Tanner
6. #77 Jack Larson

Grand Nationals

1. #20 Chad Fuller
2. #97 Houston Johnson
3. #2H John Hanson
4. #99L Billie Hoover
5. DNS – #6 Michael Johnson

E-Modifieds

1. #13 Chris Mercer
2. #33S Ben Stockton (Heat Race Winner)
3. #91J Josh Adkins (Heat Race Winner)
4. #124 Anthony Hill
5. #3D Charlie Brown
6. #50 Leroy Morrison
7. #95S A.J. Sayers
8. #54 Eddie Ingram
9. #15 Kody Parrott
10. #1L Bobby Lopez
11. DNS – #64 John Ross

Sport Compacts

1. #69 Alvin Cooney
2. #95 Steven Bunton
3. #1/2CR John Willard
4. #55 David Miller III (Heat Race Winner)
5. #6 Dave Petty Jr.
6. #81 Chris Lewis (Heat Race Winner)
7. #81D Daniel Ruhnke
8. #8P Isaiah Penton
9. #20C Colby Acheson

Pure Stocks

1. #72 Ron Hill
2. #10 Jeff Dixon (Heat Race Winner)
3. #17R Rylee Fuller
4. #27X Kristchon Hisel