Lonnie Wheatley, ELDON, Mo. (June 11, 2022) – A fourth row starting position did little to deter Brady Bacon at Lake Ozark Speedway on Saturday night, as he worked his way forward to take the $6,000 winner’s share in the fourth round of Xtreme Outlaw Non-Wing Sprint Car action.
After pole starter Robert Ballou and then Jake Swanson shared stints in the lead, Bacon worked the low side of the track to take command at the midway point en route to victory lane aboard the Glenn Farms/Fatheadz Eyewear No. 98 Sprint Car.
“I was worried when the top three, all of us at one point, had tires coming apart and we hadn’t been running hard enough to warrant that,” Bacon said in victory lane. “We’re dealing with subpar products that we’re forced to run and it’s cost me a lot of races this year already and I thought it was gonna cost me another one. Luckily it slowed down enough and we were able to putt around the bottom and not have it come apart all the way. I was just holding on and not pushing it too hard because I knew the tires were coming apart.”
With Bacon working from seventh at the drop of the green flag, Ballou jumped into the early lead ahead of fellow front row starter Swanson and set the pace for the opening half-dozen circuits before a red flag flew for Garrett Aitken’s frontstretch tumble.
Swanson pounced on Ballou for the lead on the restart as Bacon worked his way up to fourth by the time another caution flew after 12 circuits when fifth-runner Mario Clouser came to a stop on the backstretch.
Bacon went to work on the restart and raced past Matt Westfall, Ballou and Swanson to take command by the midway point as C.J. Leary took to the topside of the track to work his way into contention after taking Xtreme honors at Lake Ozark on April 9.
Leary’s charges netted second by the 23rd round when a caution flew as Ballou and Swanson tangled getting into turn one while dicing for position.
Bacon denied Leary momentum over the closing rounds though, slipping away to secure the win as Westfall outdueled Leary to snare runner-up honors in the closing stages.
“I think there at the end we had something, I should have went to the bottom on that last restart,” Westfall commented afterward.
Leary summed up his third-place run with commenting that, “We made it a lot harder on ourselves tonight, we had to change engines before the feature. We made a late-race charge there, but didn’t have anything on the restart.”
After making a trip to the work area a dozen laps into the feature, Shane Cockrum rallied back through the field to claim fourth with Alex Bright rounding out the top five.
Fourteenth-starter Kory Schudy crossed the stripe in sixth with Jack Wagner, Clouser, 20th-starter Anthony Nicholson and 22nd-starter Steven Russell completing the top ten.
After Leary set the quickest overall time of 13.758 seconds in qualifying, Bright, Swanson, Ballou and Westfall scored heat race wins with Wagner best in the “B” Main.
Xtreme Outlaw Non-Wing Sprint Cars
Lake Ozark Speedway – Eldon, MO
Saturday, June 11, 2022
Xtreme Outlaw Non-Wing Sprint Cars:
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 98-Brady Bacon[7]; 2. 33M-Matt Westfall[3]; 3. 77M-CJ Leary[13]; 4. 66-Shane Cockrum[8]; 5. 20-Alex Bright[5]; 6. 28-Kory Schudy[14]; 7. 77-Jack Wagner[17]; 8. 6-Mario Clouser[4]; 9. 16-Anthony Nicholson[20]; 10. 1JR-Steven Russell[22]; 11. 11W-Wyatt Burks[18]; 12. 44-Wesley Smith[15]; 13. 74-Xavier Doney[9]; 14. 12-Robert Ballou[1]; 15. 17GP-Kyle Shipley[10]; 16. 4-Braydon Cromwell[21]; 17. 21AZ-Jake Swanson[2]; 18. 24-Landon Simon[16]; 19. 2B-Chad Boespflug[6]; 20. 91-Riley Kreisel[11]; 21. 9-Cody Baker[12]; 22. 32-Garrett Aitken[19]
Last Chance Showdown 1 (12 Laps): 1. 77-Jack Wagner[1]; 2. 11W-Wyatt Burks[3]; 3. 32-Garrett Aitken[4]; 4. 16-Anthony Nicholson[5]; 5. 4-Braydon Cromwell[2]; 6. 1JR-Steven Russell[10]; 7. 73-Samuel Wagner[7]; 8. 77K-Katlynn Leer[9]; 9. 24LCR-Chris Morgan[12]; 10. 17K-Braden Knipmeyer[11]; 11. 26-Zach Clark[6]; 12. 41-Brad Wyatt[8]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 20-Alex Bright[1]; 2. 2B-Chad Boespflug[2]; 3. 17GP-Kyle Shipley[3]; 4. 77-Jack Wagner[5]; 5. 44-Wesley Smith[4]; 6. 73-Samuel Wagner[7]; 7. 1JR-Steven Russell[6]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 21AZ-Jake Swanson[2]; 2. 66-Shane Cockrum[1]; 3. 98-Brady Bacon[3]; 4. 77M-CJ Leary[4]; 5. 4-Braydon Cromwell[5]; 6. 41-Brad Wyatt[6]; 7. 24LCR-Chris Morgan[7]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 12-Robert Ballou[4]; 2. 91-Riley Kreisel[1]; 3. 74-Xavier Doney[3]; 4. 24-Landon Simon[2]; 5. 11W-Wyatt Burks[5]; 6. 26-Zach Clark[6]; 7. 17K-Braden Knipmeyer[7]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 33M-Matt Westfall[2]; 2. 9-Cody Baker[1]; 3. 6-Mario Clouser[4]; 4. 28-Kory Schudy[3]; 5. 32-Garrett Aitken[7]; 6. 16-Anthony Nicholson[6]; 7. 77K-Katlynn Leer[5]
Qualifying Group 1: 1. 44-Wesley Smith, 00:13.881[5]; 2. 17GP-Kyle Shipley, 00:14.166[1]; 3. 2B-Chad Boespflug, 00:14.348[4]; 4. 20-Alex Bright, 00:14.352[7]; 5. 77-Jack Wagner, 00:14.492[3]; 6. 1JR-Steven Russell, 00:14.620[6]; 7. 73-Samuel Wagner, 00:14.771[2]
Qualifying Group 2: 1. 77M-CJ Leary, 00:13.758[4]; 2. 98-Brady Bacon, 00:13.777[5]; 3. 21AZ-Jake Swanson, 00:13.896[1]; 4. 66-Shane Cockrum, 00:14.019[7]; 5. 4-Braydon Cromwell, 00:14.352[2]; 6. 41-Brad Wyatt, 00:14.852[6]; 7. 24LCR-Chris Morgan, 00:15.467[3]
Qualifying Group 3: 1. 12-Robert Ballou, 00:13.801[2]; 2. 74-Xavier Doney, 00:14.079[5]; 3. 24-Landon Simon, 00:14.189[3]; 4. 91-Riley Kreisel, 00:14.230[4]; 5. 11W-Wyatt Burks, 00:14.539[1]; 6. 26-Zach Clark, 00:14.640[7]; 7. 17K-Braden Knipmeyer, 00:15.409[6]
Qualifying Group 4: 1. 6-Mario Clouser, 00:14.067[6]; 2. 28-Kory Schudy, 00:14.145[2]; 3. 33M-Matt Westfall, 00:14.264[3]; 4. 9-Cody Baker, 00:14.269[7]; 5. 77K-Katlynn Leer, 00:14.603[5]; 6. 16-Anthony Nicholson, 00:14.605[4]; 7. 32-Garrett Aitken, 00:14.724[1]