(Video Highlights from DirtVision.com)
5/1/24
Jacksonville Speedway
Jacksonville, IL
WoO
56 cars
A massive car count was expected, but added a few with a High Limit rain out. Kyle Larson, Chase Briscoe and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. represented NASCAR, while Brandon Sheppard usually finds himself in a late model. The field was divided into two sets of qualifying. Buddy Kofoid (20th car out to time) set quick time in the first group with a time of 10.063 seconds on the 1/5-mile. David Gravel (10th car out) was second quick, followed by Carson Macedo (12th), Sheldon Haudenschild (13th) and Brad Sweet (2nd). Brady Bacon (1st car out to time in the second group) set quick time overall at 10.062. Kyle Larson (13th car out) was second quick in that group, followed by Gio Scelzi (8th), Corey Day (18th) and Cole Macedo (17th). Only the top 40 qualified for heats, the rest were placed in a non-qualifier heat.
Non-Qualifier Heat (started): 1. Chase Briscoe 5 (1) 2. Jake Neuman 3N (3) 3. Zach Daum 31 (4) 4. Riley Goodno 22 (2) / 5. Max Guilford 79G (7) 6. Tyler Duff 9 (8) 7. Jadon Rogers 17GP (14) 8. Tyler Lee 7 (10) 9. Joey Moughan 5H (5) 10. Tim Estenson 14T (13) 11. Kevin Newton 16TH (11) 12. Brayton Lynch 29 (9) 13. McKenna Haase 55T (12) 14. Jeremy Standridge 10s (15) 15. Chris Martin 44 (6) DNS – Jake Blackhurst 96
The 8-lapper saw the top four start at the tail of the four respective heats. Lynch and Martin got together two laps in. Martin was done. Haase had a flat left rear, but returned. Guilford claimed the fourth and final transfer on the restart from Goodno, but Riley retook it on lap four. The top three remained unchanged.
Heat one (started): 1. Ca. Macedo 41 (2) 2. Kofoid 83 (1) 3. Parker Price-Miller 9P (4) 4. Sweet 49 (3) 5. Chase Randall 2KS (7) / 6. Brock Zearfoss 3z (6) 7. Brenham Crouch 1 (5) 8. Zach Hampton 35 (8) 9. Trevin Littleton 1T (10) 10. Bill Rose 6 (9) 11. Briscoe (11)
10-lap heats took the top five to the feature and the top two to the dash. Ca. Macedo led the distance over Kofoid. PPM had third early, but Sweet shot by on lap two. In a good battle, Price-Miller reclaimed it on lap three. Zearfoss had the final transfer, trying to hold off Randall. Randall kept the pressure on and made the pass for the spot high in turn four with two to go.
Heat two (started): 1. Gravel 2 (1) 2. Haudenschild 17 (2) 3. James McFadden 83SR (4) 4. Reutzel 87 (3) 5. Joe B. Miller 51B (6) / 6. Donn Schatz 15 (8) 7. Landon Crawley 7s (5) 8. Neuman 3N (11) 9. Emerson Axsom 27 (7) 10. Brandon Sheppard B5 (9) 11. Bryce Norris 37 (10)
This was a mostly single-file event that saw Miller hold off Schatz for the final transfer.
Heat three (started): 1. Scelzi 18 (2) 2. Co. Macedo 16T (3) 3. Danny Sams III 24D (4) 4. Bill Balog 17B (6) 5. Kraig Kinser 70 (10) / 6. Daum 31 (11) 7. Paul Nienhiser 9x (7) 8. Sterling Cling 34 (8) 9. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 17JR (9) 10. Scotty Milan 97 (5) 11. Bacon 21H (1)
Scelzi led Bacon, Sams, Co. Macedo and Balog early. Daum slid sideways and stopped three laps in. Scelzi chose the outside on the restart. Bacon was in pursuit until getting sideways and over the turn one berm, launching over the wall. He was done, but back for the B. That restart saw Scelzi leading Sams, Col Macedo, Balog and Cling. Milan jumped up to fifth on that restart. Kinser, who had started tenth, began to pressure and gained the final transfer from Milan with two to go. A lap later, Milan made heavy contact with the turn four wall and was done. Co. Macedo had a late shot at Sams and eked by for the final dash spot at the checkers using the low side.
Heat four (started): 1. Larson 57 (1) 2. Day 14 (2) 3. Logan Schuchart 1s (3) 4. Skylar Gee 99 (6) 5. Garet Williamson 23 (5) / 6. Scotty Thiel 73 (7) 7. Austin McCarl 88 (8) 8. Logan Seavey 24 (4) 9. Shelby Bosie 3B (9) 10. Gage Montgomery 79 (10) 11. Riley Goodno 22 (11)
A chain reaction from Bosie to Montgomery to Goodno saw Goodno get upside down hard and done for the night. He was o.k. Montgomery went off on the hook too. Larson led wire to wire. The battle was on for the final transfer. Seavey had it early, until Williamson got by on lap two. Thiel was making the bottom work, got by Seavey and reeled in Williamson. He passed him for the spot with four to go. On the last lap, Thiel missed the bottom of turn three and got into a fishtail and spun across the line, allowing Williamson to retake the transfer.
D main (started): 1. Duff (2) 2. Guilford (1) / 3. Rogers (3) 4. Newton (7) 5. Moughan (5) 6. Lee (4) 7. Estenson (6) 8. Haase (8) 9. Martin (9) DNS – Lynch, Standridge, Blackhurst
The 10-lapper saw the top two transfer to the back of the C. Duff and Guilford were unchallenged.
C main (started): 1. Stenhouse Jr. (2) 2. Littleton (1) / 3. Axsom (3) 4. Briscoe (9) 5. Milan (6) 6. Sheppard (7) 7. Rose (5) 8. Duff (11) 9. Guilford (12) 10. Montgomery (8) 11. Norris (10) 12. Bosie (4) DNS – Goodno
The 10-lapper took the top two to the B. Littleton led Stenhouse until Bosie spun while running third. Littleton took the low side on the restart, and Stenhouse powered by on the cushion to go on to win.
Dash (started): 1. Kofoid (2) 2. Larson (1) 3. Gravel (4) 4. Scelzi (3) 5. Haudenschild (8) 6. Ca. Macedo (6) 7. Day (7) 8. Co. Macedo (5)
The 8-lapper set the front four rows of the feature. Kofoid led Larson from the jump. Gravel gained third from Scelzi on lap two.
B main (started): 1. Crouch (1) 2. Daum (4) 3. Schatz (5) 4. Nienhiser (8) / 5. Zearfoss (3) 6. Thiel (6) 7. Crawley (7) 8. Hampton (9) 9. Neuman (11) 10. Stenhouse (14) 11. Bacon (2) 12. Seavey (13) 13. Cling (12) 14. Littleton (15) 15. McCarl (10)
The 12-lapper transferred the top four to the feature. Crouch led early over Zearfoss, Daum, Bacon and Schatz. Daum took second from Zeafoss on lap three, while Schat took the final transfer from Bacon. Schatz worked on Zearfoss and got by him with a slider in four for third on lap 8. Bacon was chasing down Zearfoss when he again got over the turn one berm and spun with three to go. Crouch led the field back to green, ahead of Daum, Schatz, Zearfoss and Nienhiser. Nienhiser slid in front of Zearfoss on the restart to grab the final transfer. Daum completed an unlikely run from the Non-qualifier to the feature.
A main (started): 1. Gravel (3) 2. Larson (2) 3. Kofoid (1) 4. Ca. Macedo (6) 5. Day (7) 6. Scelzi (4) 7. Haudenschild (5) 8. McFadden (11) 9. Co. Macedo (8) 10. Sweet (13) 11. Schatz (23) 12. Balog (14) 13. Price-Miller (9) 14. Sams (10) 15. Schuchart (12) 16. Gee (16) 17. Daum (22) 18. Kinser (18) 19. Nienhiser (24) 20. Williamson (20) 21. Randall (17) 22. Crouch (21) 23. Miller (19) 24. Reutzel (15)
The race was reduced from 40 to 35 laps for tire concerns that didn’t appear to develop. Part of that was the race went non-stop, and arguably the best one of the year so far. Larson led Kofoid, Scelzi, Gravel and Ca. Macedo early. Scelzi took second from Kofoid on lap four, while Ca. Macedo moved into fourth. Once leaders hit lapped traffic on lap 8, all bets were off. Gravel was using a low to middle groove and gained fourth from Macedo. Macedo battled back on lap fourteen, and Gravel recovered on lap 15 to pass both Macedo and Kofoid to climb to third. Kofoid regained that spot on lap 16, and Macedo worked back by Gavel for fourth on lap 17. Lap 18, saw Larson, Kofoid and Gravel as we can throw a blanket over them. Gravel shot by Kofoid on lap 19 for second, as Day entered the top five. On lap 24, Gravel used the middle of turn two to get by Larson for the lead. Two laps later, Larson shot back to the point on the top of turn two as the two raced wheel to wheel. With three to go, Gravel put a slider on Larson in turn four to take the lead for good. Schatz was the hard-charger.