Lonnie Wheatley, ELDON, Mo. (April 9, 2022) – After leading the opening dozen circuits of Saturday night’s Xtreme Outlaw Non-Wing Sprint Car Series 30-lap feature event at Lake Ozark Speedway, it appeared that C.J. Leary was out of contention for the $5,000 payday when he fell back as far as fourth in the ensuing laps.
But a late caution when race leader Brady Bacon spun to the infield with just seven laps to go gave Leary the spark he needed as he slid past Shane Cockrum for second and then battled past Robert Ballou to pace the final four laps aboard the Michael Motorsports Kodiak Products No. 77m.
“Sometimes being the leader is not always the best thing,” Leary commented in victory lane. “I think Brady (Bacon) had the best car, he could run where I couldn’t. When he spun out, I had given up two spots and I thought we were kinda done. The racetrack got really racy there and took a little rubber in turn three.”
It had all the looks of a Leary night with a heat race win from the third starting position that landed him the pole for the main event.
Leary jumped out front at the outset and paced the field as Bacon was working his way up from fifth and soon began to pressure Leary for the point with fourth-starter Mario Clouser in the mix as well.
Working the bottom to perfection, Bacon slid past Leary for the lead on the 13th round and kept Leary at bay until the first caution flew after 16 rounds for Clouser.
The complexion of the race changed quickly when foruth-place runner Carson Short flipped in turn one on the restart and then fellow podium contender Alex Bright flipped as well in turn one just three laps later.
In the meantime, 17th-starter Ballou was entering the lead chase after missing the scales negated a heat race win that forced a run from the tail of “B” Main action just to make the main event.
Ballou charged past Leary and turned the heat up on Bacon in short order until the reigning USAC National Sprint Car champion ultimately looped it in turn two, surrendering the point with just seven laps to go.
As Ballou led the way to the restart ahead of Cockrum, Leary reignited and wasted little time racing past both of them to become the first Xtreme Sprint Car repeat winner in just three events.
Overcoming the early-night miscue, Ballou settled for second.
“When you piss off a bull, sometimes you get the horns,” Ballou said of his runner-up finish. “I raced with C.J. quite a bit over the years, there’s been some good races and some bad ones. I kinda squeezed him into the wall a little bit there, I lifted because I didn’t want to wreck us both. C.J. found the rubber first, he’s really good at rubber racing and I’m good when the track is badass.”
After starting ninth, Cockrum took the show position. “Through the middle part of the race, I thought we were the car to beat,” Cockrum explained. “Just that last restart, I lost a little bit of momentum.”
Matt Westfall climbed from 12th to fourth with 15th-starter Jason McDougal rounding out the top five. Wesley Smith was the top-finishing Show Me State driver in sixth with Jack Wagner, Kory Schudy, Jake Swanson and Isaac Chapple completing the top ten.
Bacon posted the night’s quickest overall qualifying lap of 13.086 seconds before Leary, Bright, Cockrum and Wagner topped heat race action and then Ballou rallied from 12th to top the 12-lap “B” Main.
Xtreme Outlaw Non-Wing Sprint Cars
Lake Ozark Speedway – Eldon, MO
Saturday – April 9, 2022
Xtreme Outlaw Sprint Cars:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 77M-CJ Leary[1]; 2. 12-Robert Ballou[17]; 3. 66-Shane Cockrum[9]; 4. 33M-Matt Westfall[12]; 5. 67-Jason McDougal[15]; 6. 44-Wesley Smith[8]; 7. 77-Jack Wagner[2]; 8. 28-Kory Schudy[13]; 9. 21AZ-Jake Swanson[18]; 10. 52-Isaac Chapple[3]; 11. 31-Zach Daum[22]; 12. 6-Mario Clouser[4]; 13. 77K-Katlynn Leer[21]; 14. 98-Brady Bacon[5]; 15. 75-Dustin Clark[14]; 16. 11W-Wyatt Burks[23]; 17. 2B-Chad Boespflug[6]; 18. 16-Anthony Nicholson[20]; 19. 21H-Dallas Hewitt[19]; 20. 28M-Brandon Mattox[11]; 21. 17GP-Kyle Shipley[16]; 22. 20-Alex Bright[7]; 23. 21S-Carson Short[10]; 24. 24-Landon Simon[24]
Last Chance Showdown 1 (12 Laps): 1. 12-Robert Ballou[12]; 2. 21AZ-Jake Swanson[1]; 3. 21H-Dallas Hewitt[3]; 4. 16-Anthony Nicholson[4]; 5. 77K-Katlynn Leer[2]; 6. 31-Zach Daum[14]; 7. 24-Landon Simon[8]; 8. 14-Jadon Rogers[11]; 9. 11W-Wyatt Burks[5]; 10. 41L-Ricky Lewis[9]; 11. 26-Zachary Clark[13]; 12. 40S-Shain Kaiser[7]; 13. 73-Samuel Wagner[6]; 14. 33-Bryson Smith[10]; 15. (DNS) 13-Dennis Gile; 16. (DNS) 38-Cody Baker; 17. (DNS) 78-Rob Caho Jr; 18. (DNS) 91-Steven Russell; 19. (DNS) 41-Brad Wyatt
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 77M-CJ Leary[3]; 2. 21S-Carson Short[2]; 3. 98-Brady Bacon[4]; 4. 17GP-Kyle Shipley[7]; 5. 21AZ-Jake Swanson[6]; 6. 11W-Wyatt Burks[5]; 7. 41L-Ricky Lewis[8]; 8. 26-Zachary Clark[9]; 9. 12-Robert Ballou[1]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Alex Bright[1]; 2. 52-Isaac Chapple[3]; 3. 2B-Chad Boespflug[4]; 4. 75-Dustin Clark[2]; 5. 77K-Katlynn Leer[6]; 6. 73-Samuel Wagner[5]; 7. 33-Bryson Smith[9]; 8. 31-Zach Daum[8]; 9. 91-Steven Russell[7]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 66-Shane Cockrum[1]; 2. 6-Mario Clouser[3]; 3. 44-Wesley Smith[4]; 4. 67-Jason McDougal[2]; 5. 21H-Dallas Hewitt[7]; 6. 40S-Shain Kaiser[8]; 7. 24-Landon Simon[6]; 8. 38-Cody Baker[5]; 9. 41-Brad Wyatt[9]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 77-Jack Wagner[2]; 2. 33M-Matt Westfall[1]; 3. 28M-Brandon Mattox[3]; 4. 28-Kory Schudy[4]; 5. 16-Anthony Nicholson[5]; 6. 13-Dennis Gile[6]; 7. 14-Jadon Rogers[7]; 8. 78-Rob Caho Jr[8]
Qualifying Group 1: 1. 98-Brady Bacon, 00:13.846[2]; 2. 77M-CJ Leary, 00:13.853[9]; 3. 21S-Carson Short, 00:13.981[5]; 4. 12-Robert Ballou, 00:13.991[8]; 5. 11W-Wyatt Burks, 00:14.292[3]; 6. 21AZ-Jake Swanson, 00:14.414[6]; 7. 17GP-Kyle Shipley, 00:14.568[1]; 8. 41L-Ricky Lewis, 00:14.876[4]; 9. 26-Zachary Clark, 00:15.841[7]
Qualifying Group 2: 1. 2B-Chad Boespflug, 00:14.235[7]; 2. 52-Isaac Chapple, 00:14.547[8]; 3. 75-Dustin Clark, 00:14.646[4]; 4. 20-Alex Bright, 00:14.713[1]; 5. 73-Samuel Wagner, 00:15.333[2]; 6. 77K-Katlynn Leer, 00:15.346[3]; 7. 91-Steven Russell, 00:15.506[5]; 8. 31-Zach Daum, 00:15.534[9]; 9. 33-Bryson Smith, 00:15.886[6]
Qualifying Group 3: 1. 44-Wesley Smith, 00:13.975[8]; 2. 6-Mario Clouser, 00:14.318[5]; 3. 67-Jason McDougal, 00:14.582[1]; 4. 66-Shane Cockrum, 00:14.624[2]; 5. 38-Cody Baker, 00:14.824[9]; 6. 24-Landon Simon, 00:15.005[4]; 7. 21H-Dallas Hewitt, 00:15.253[6]; 8. 40S-Shain Kaiser, 00:15.565[7]; 9. 41-Brad Wyatt, 00:15.660[3]
Qualifying Group 4: 1. 28-Kory Schudy, 00:14.541[2]; 2. 28M-Brandon Mattox, 00:14.583[4]; 3. 77-Jack Wagner, 00:14.652[3]; 4. 33M-Matt Westfall, 00:14.735[8]; 5. 16-Anthony Nicholson, 00:14.880[1]; 6. 13-Dennis Gile, 00:14.914[7]; 7. 14-Jadon Rogers, 00:15.008[6]; 8. 78-Rob Caho Jr, 00:15.674[5]
Lap Leaders: Leary 1-12, 27-30; Bacon 13-22; Ballou 23-26. TJ Forged Hard Charger: Ballou +15.