From POWRi
Haubstadt, IN — (September 26, 2015) — Zach Daum of Pocahontas, Illinois claimed his second POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series victory of 2015, “Dauminating” the Ford EcoBoost Challenge at Tri-State Speedway. Recovering from a violent wreck overseas earlier in 2015, Daum was sidelined for a better part of the 2015 season hindering his bid to defend his POWRi championship titles.
Starting on the pole for the 30 lap feature event, Andrew Felker of Carl Junction, Missouri paced the field in the Sixty-Six Truck and Foreign Salvage-Stanton SR-11 powered-BOSS Chassis # 11A, sharing the front row with Justin Peck of Monrovia, Indiana. At the drop of the green flag, Felker would narrowly lead Peck to turn one as Peck took the lead entering the backstretch, only for the yellow to fly as Darren Hagen and Scott Hatton ended up tangled in turn one. Lined back up for a complete restart, Felker would again get the jump going down the front stretch, only for Peck’s Duracoat Products-Esslinger-powered-DRC Chassis to power into the lead coming off turn two and set a torrid pace as Zach Daum moved past Felker for second. As Peck worked the high-side of the high-banked ¼ mile, stretching his lead by the lap, Zach Daum worked to put space between himself and Felker.
With six laps in the books, Ryan Criswell would bring out the caution and bunch the field back up. As Peck led the field back to green, Zach Daum would take advantage of the opportunity and slide Peck for the lead entering turn one, fully taking the position down the back stretch. On lap eight Austin Brown and Critter Malone would move past Felker, as Justin Peck took to the infield one lap later.
Daum craftily worked his way through lap traffic, sticking mainly to the high side and dispatching of cars lap after lap. On lap 20, Critter Malone worked past Austin Brown for second. Daum set a blistering pace, lapping all the way up to seventh. However Daum hit a sticking point as his Daum Crop Insurance-Toyota-powered Eagle #5D came upon the Esslinger-powered BOSS Chassis #17 driven by Darren Hagen. Finally dispatching of Hagen on lap 29, Daum captured his second victory of 2015, while Critter Malone took second and Austin Brown, third. Andrew Felker brought home fourth and Dereck King rounded out the top five.
“I freaking love this place,” said Zach Daum. “I won my first big midget race here; the Hut Hundred. We did 100 laps on the bottom here and won that, and we put about 25-30 together on the top. This thing ran flawlessly tonight. I’m so happy. This is big right now. We’ve worked really hard on this team. We stepped our program up; we try to do better every week. I’d like to finish the year out strong.”
“We’ve raced the midget twice in the last ten years and both times have been here and run second,” said second place finisher Critter Malone. “I’m not sure what our plans are right now [regarding future midget races]. We were planning on going sprint car racing, but I need to see how bad that was from tonight. We’ll see what happens. We might show up there.”
“We had a pretty good run,” said third place finisher Austin Brown. “Flea and Corey gave me a good car tonight. I think the driver tailed off a little bit at the end. I should have adjusted my line on the track, but Critter wound up getting by us and that was my fault. But, we had a good run tonight and I’m happy to be here. It was an awesome track tonight, so hopefully it was good for the fans. The preparation on this facility is awesome, I always love coming here. It’s definitely one of the best tracks to run at.”
Midgets
Ford Heat Race Winners: Heat 1: 5D – Zach Daum, Heat 2: 7 – Austin Brown
Great Clips Feature Winner: 5D – Zach Daum
POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget Series Feature Results (30 laps): 1. 5D – Zach Daum 2. 7C – Critter Malone 3. 7 – Austin Brown 4. 11A – Andrew Felker 5. 91 – Dereck King 6. 17 – Darren Hagen 7. 3N – Jake Neuman 8. 11C – Chett Gehrke 9. 27 – Tucker Klaasmeyer 10. 9K – Kyle Schuett 11. 41 – Austin Prock 12. 11R – Ryan Criswell 13. 4A – Ted Kirkpatrick 14. 50 – Daniel Adler 15. 1 – Scott Hatton 16. 5X – Justin Peck