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Fennewald earns dramatic ULMA Late Model victory in Lucas Oil Speedway headliner

By Lyndal Scranton (Wheatland, MO) -- Johnny Fennewald came from seemingly nowhere to capture his second straight Warsaw Marine & RV ULMA Late Model feature on Saturday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.

Fennewald, of Appleton City, made it two feature wins in a row when he made a last-lap pass of Kaeden Cornell in the headliner of the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series program presented by Benne Media. Fennewald took home $1,000 courtesy of Hickamo Country Store.

PHOTO: ULMA Late Model feature winner Johnny Fennewald-- CREDIT: GS Stanek Racing Photography

Also earning visits to victory lane in the program Presented by Benne Media were JC Morton (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods), Terry Phillips (Pitts Homes USRA Modifieds) and Derek Brown (O'Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks). A total of 97 cars checked into the pits for Week 3 action.

Fennewald wasn't much of a factor until near the end as it appeared to be a two-car race most of the way. Cornell and Brad Looney started on the front row of the Late Model feature and wasted little time pulling away from the field with Cornell taking the lead, opening a 1.82-second margin 10 laps into the event.

Looney was able to close in on lap 15 when Cornell encountered trouble with a lapped car and Looney cut the lead to half a second. Third-place Tucker Cox, meanwhile, was 10 seconds behind the leaders and eighth-starting Fennewald was running behind him.

Finally Looney, the veteran from Republic, slipped past Cornell in turn three on lap 20. But on the next circuit, Cornell pulled alongside Looney on the inside, exiting turn two, and slid in front of him in turn three. Looney was unable to slow his momentum in time before the two cars made contact, with Looney getting the worst of it and having to exit via a tow truck.

That left a five-lap shootout with Cornell in front of suddenly second-place-running Fennewald, Cox and Cole Henson as the race returned to green.

Three-time-reigning track champion Fennewald put the heat on Cornell until passing him in turn two of the final lap when Cornell slipped high.

"I knew we had five extra laps tonight," Fennewald said. "My car really wasn't that good (early). This track's different tonight and we had to start so far back. I just said everybody's gonna be on the bottom and realized I was gonna have to get up on the top and just rim-ride.

"I don't really like doing that. It's pretty abusive on equipment. That caution came out and I seen that Kaeden was not near as good in one and two and that's where I shine. I was like he can ride that cushion in three and four, but I'll pass him in one and two. It was like playing a chess game."

Fennewald finished five car lengths in front with Henson third, Cox fourth and Larry Ferris in fifth.

Morton captures B-Mod win: JC Morton of Springfield took the lead with six laps remaining and held off Andy Bryant for his first Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod feature win of the season.

Morton went around Bryant - who had grabbed the lead two laps earlier - coming out of turn four to complete lap 14. He held on from there to win by about four car lengths.

"We've been struggling here the last couple of weeks, just trying some different stuff," Morton said. "We finally went back to what we know and it came to life tonight."

Dillon McCowan started on the pole and jumped to the lead with Morton moving from a fifth-starting position into second by lap three.

Morton and seventh-starting Bryant were closing in on McCowan on lap eight and the leader spun in turn four with Morton going around him for the lead.

McCowan kept going and the race stayed green, dropping McCowan well back in the pack. Bryant went around Morton three laps later and the running order was Bryant-Morton-Kris ackson when the race's first caution flew on lap 13.

"We had that restart there and Andy got out and got going there," Morton said. "He bobbled in one and two and I had to hit it perfect down here (in turns three and four). I assume he hit the rut and it shoved the nose and that gave me the advantage and then, I just had to hold on."

Lucas Isaacs finished third with Eric Turner fourth and McCowan rallied for fifth place.

Terry Phillips prevails in USRA Mods: Veteran Springfield driver Terry Phillips, prepping for next Wednesday's USMTS Wednesday Madness program at Lucas Oil Speedway, captured the Pitts Homes USRA Modified feature by a comfortable margin.

"We had too much time on our hands this winter and I've rebuilt this thing three times," Phillips said. "So I thought we'd better race it sometime. I'm thinking, hoping what we've done has helped. It felt pretty good."

Third-starting Robbie Reed sprinted to the early lead before Phillips went around him on the outside coming to the start-finish line to finish lap five.

Following a lap eight caution and ensuing restart, Phillips gradually pulled away and, without another caution, dominated. He wound up winning by 4.1 seconds over Reed, who edged Paden Phillips by a few feet for the runner-up spot.

Mitch Keeter finished fourth and Robert Heydenreich was fifth.

Brown wins another Street Stocks feature: Stoutland's Derek Brown made it 3-for-3 in the O'Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks in 2020, taking the lead with six laps remaining and driving away for the victory.

"I really like a race track like this. It brings the driver out," Brown said. "You have to finesse every lap and hit your marks. That's the only way you're going to go fast on a track like this. It took about 10 laps, but I finally figured out what I needed to do."

Reggie Jackson started on the pole and set the pace, but Tony Anglin advanced from eighth to second before a lap-nine caution. Those two and third-place Brown were separated by a half-second when the action was slowed.

Brown went from third to first on lap 14, going past Jackson and Anglin in turn two. He had a 1.4-second lead when a caution came out with four laps to go, giving Jackson and third-place Toby Ott an opportunity.

But Brown had a flawless restart and went on to beat Ott by two seconds with Tim Brown third, Jackson fourth and Ted Welschmeyer fifth.

Wife Rachel and the couple's four-day-old son, Kade, joined Derek in victory lane.

"I tried to leave her at home, but she insisted on coming, so here they are," Brown said, with a laugh.

LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY RESULTS (May 30, 2020)
Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series
Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Models
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 21-Johnny Fennewald[8]; 2. 50-Kaeden Cornell[1]; 3. 31C-Cole Henson[9]; 4. 1T-Tucker Cox[3]; 5. 51-Larry Ferris[7]; 6. 14-Shawn Strong[5]; 7. 14W-Dustin Walker[6]; 8. 66T-Matt Becker[4]; 9. 69-Walt Imhoff[11]; 10. (DNF) 14B-Brad Looney[2]; 11. (DNF) 16-Ashlee Lancaster[12]; 12. (DNF) 15-John Aitken[13]; 13. (DNS) 1A-Bryon Allison; 14. (DNS) 3-Jamie Carter; 15. (DNS) 27-Derek Henson; 16. (DNS) 49-Eddie Martin; 17. (DNS) 42H-Chad Richwine
Cedar Creek Beef Jerky Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 50-Kaeden Cornell[5]; 2. 14B-Brad Looney[8]; 3. 14W-Dustin Walker[4]; 4. 31C-Cole Henson[2]; 5. 3-Jamie Carter[3]; 6. 69-Walt Imhoff[7]; 7. (DNF) 1A-Bryon Allison[1]; 8. (DNF) 49-Eddie Martin[9]; 9. (DNS) 42H-Chad Richwine
Cedar Creek Beef Jerky Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 1T-Tucker Cox[1]; 2. 14-Shawn Strong[2]; 3. 66T-Matt Becker[7]; 4. 51-Larry Ferris[6]; 5. 21-Johnny Fennewald[8]; 6. 16-Ashlee Lancaster[5]; 7. 15-John Aitken[4]; 8. (DNS) 27-Derek Henson

Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods
A Feature (20 Laps): 1. 18-JC Morton[5]; 2. 28-Andy Bryant[7]; 3. 6-Lucas Isaacs[9]; 4. 99T-Eric Turner[18]; 5. 8D-Dillon McCowan[1]; 6. 37-Clint Johnson[14]; 7. 65-Kris Jackson[8]; 8. 32-Robbe Ewing[3]; 9. 8S-Jon Sheets[11]; 10. 22C-Cole Campbell[12]; 11. 57E-Earl Pryor[10]; 12. 30R-Rex Harris[22]; 13. 84-Dayton Newell[13]; 14. 67A-Austin Seets[15]; 15. 42J-Donnie Jackson[4]; 16. 360-John Seets III[20]; 17. 46-Brice Gotschall[17]; 18. 83F-Kyle Fritter[21]; 19. 28B-Wesley Briggs[19]; 20. (DNF) 21-Luke Aitken[16]; 21. (DNF) 83-JC Newell[6]; 22. (DNF) 10P-Dayton Pursley[2]; 23. (DNF) 1B-Ben Newell[24]; 24. (DNF) 57J-John Fellers[23]
B Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 46-Brice Gotschall[7]; 2. 28B-Wesley Briggs[2]; 3. 83F-Kyle Fritter[4]; 4. 57J-John Fellers[11]; 5. 8-Clifford Lean[6]; 6. (DNF) 28I-Isaac Cuno[9]; 7. (DNF) 19R-Cole Stillwell[8]; 8. (DNF) 30-Mark Long[1]; 9. (DNF) 99-Jim Cihy[3]; 10. (DNF) 24-Jerry Ellis[5]; 11. (DNS) 4B-Brayton Skaggs
B Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 99T-Eric Turner[2]; 2. 360-John Seets III[3]; 3. 30R-Rex Harris[4]; 4. 1B-Ben Newell[5]; 5. F1-Mitchell Franklin[6]; 6. 1-Kurt Sledd[9]; 7. 28A-Justin Amick[10]; 8. (DNF) 11-Jimmy Willis[1]; 9. (DNF) 42C-Casey Thomas[7]; 10. (DNS) 15-Ryan Edde
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 83-JC Newell[1]; 2. 6-Lucas Isaacs[3]; 3. 65-Kris Jackson[7]; 4. 67A-Austin Seets[6]; 5. 99T-Eric Turner[5]; 6. 30R-Rex Harris[4]; 7. 360-John Seets III[10]; 8. F1-Mitchell Franklin[9]; 9. 42C-Casey Thomas[2]; 10. 19R-Cole Stillwell[8]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 28-Andy Bryant[1]; 2. 10P-Dayton Pursley[7]; 3. 42J-Donnie Jackson[10]; 4. 21-Luke Aitken[5]; 5. 28B-Wesley Briggs[4]; 6. 99-Jim Cihy[8]; 7. (DNF) 15-Ryan Edde[6]; 8. (DNF) 28I-Isaac Cuno[9]; 9. (DNF) 4B-Brayton Skaggs[2]; 10. (DNF) 57J-John Fellers[3]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 18-JC Morton[3]; 2. 57E-Earl Pryor[1]; 3. 8S-Jon Sheets[5]; 4. 84-Dayton Newell[8]; 5. 30-Mark Long[2]; 6. 24-Jerry Ellis[6]; 7. 1B-Ben Newell[9]; 8. 46-Brice Gotschall[4]; 9. (DNF) 28A-Justin Amick[7]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 8D-Dillon McCowan[4]; 2. 32-Robbe Ewing[7]; 3. 22C-Cole Campbell[5]; 4. 37-Clint Johnson[8]; 5. 11-Jimmy Willis[3]; 6. 83F-Kyle Fritter[2]; 7. 8-Clifford Lean[1]; 8. 1-Kurt Sledd[6]

Pitts Homes USRA Modifieds
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 75-Terry Phillips[1]; 2. 5-Robbie Reed[3]; 3. 98D-Paden Phillips[2]; 4. 52-Mitch Keeter[4]; 5. 134-Robert Heydenreich[5]; 6. 03-Chase Jones[8]; 7. 21-Ryan Middaugh[20]; 8. 21R-Rusty Skaggs[9]; 9. 292-Kyle Thompson[13]; 10. 00-Cody Jolly[18]; 11. 38C-Jason Pursley[15]; 12. 73-Mickey Burrell[6]; 13. 51G-Lucas Gibbs[21]; 14. 24D-Donnie Fellers[16]; 15. 2+12-Khaled Graham[19]; 16. 19-Darrick Waggoner[17]; 17. (DNF) 25-Scotty Roberts[11]; 18. (DNF) 55-Colson Kirk[12]; 19. (DNF) 227-Chase Domer[10]; 20. (DNF) 12-Scotty Allen[14]; 21. (DNF) 155-Terry Kirk[7]; 22. (DNS) 19L-Tyler Barker; 23. (DNS) 112-Justin Moon
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 98D-Paden Phillips[4]; 2. 134-Robert Heydenreich[5]; 3. 21R-Rusty Skaggs[7]; 4. 25-Scotty Roberts[6]; 5. (DNF) 21-Ryan Middaugh[3]; 6. (DNF) 51G-Lucas Gibbs[2]; 7. (DNF) 19L-Tyler Barker[1]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 75-Terry Phillips[5]; 2. 5-Robbie Reed[6]; 3. 155-Terry Kirk[7]; 4. 227-Chase Domer[8]; 5. 292-Kyle Thompson[2]; 6. 38C-Jason Pursley[4]; 7. 19-Darrick Waggoner[3]; 8. (DNF) 112-Justin Moon[1]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 73-Mickey Burrell[1]; 2. 52-Mitch Keeter[6]; 3. 03-Chase Jones[7]; 4. 55-Colson Kirk[2]; 5. 12-Scotty Allen[3]; 6. 24D-Donnie Fellers[4]; 7. 00-Cody Jolly[5]; 8. 2+12-Khaled Graham[8]

O'Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks
A Feature 1 (20 Laps): 1. 11-Derek Brown[4]; 2. 27OTT-Toby Ott[5]; 3. 111-Tim Brown[7]; 4. 356-Reggie Jackson[1]; 5. 21W-Ted Welschmeyer[10]; 6. 04-Cody Frazon[3]; 7. 69-Brian Brown[12]; 8. 19-Kenny Shelton[14]; 9. 35-Johnny Coats[9]; 10. 7M-Scott Johnson[13]; 11. 44S-Steve Scott[16]; 12. 7X-John Scott[15]; 13. 7-Joshua Lewis[20]; 14. 27-Bob Barnett[11]; 15. 20-Robbie Jones[17]; 16. 19D-Derek Long[18]; 17. (DNF) 2-Colton Bourland[19]; 18. (DNF) 1G-Tony Anglin[6]; 19. (DNF) 73-Francisco Escamila[8]; 20. (DQ) 35Z-Zach Zeugin[2]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 27OTT-Toby Ott[1]; 2. 11-Derek Brown[5]; 3. 111-Tim Brown[3]; 4. 1G-Tony Anglin[10]; 5. 35-Johnny Coats[7]; 6. 27-Bob Barnett[8]; 7. 19-Kenny Shelton[4]; 8. 44S-Steve Scott[6]; 9. 20-Robbie Jones[2]; 10. 7-Joshua Lewis[9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 356-Reggie Jackson[9]; 2. 35Z-Zach Zeugin[8]; 3. 04-Cody Frazon[10]; 4. 73-Francisco Escamila[3]; 5. 21W-Ted Welschmeyer[7]; 6. 69-Brian Brown[6]; 7. 7M-Scott Johnson[1]; 8. 7X-John Scott[2]; 9. 19D-Derek Long[4]; 10. 2-Colton Bourland[5]

Kaeden Cornell (50 and Brad Looney (14) come together in a lap-20 incident, battling for the lead and ending Looney's night. (GS Stanek Racing Photography)

Wednesday Night Madness next: Lucas Oil Speedway will hold a special weeknight program with the Inaugural USMTS Modified/USRA Iron Man Wednesday Night Madness. The USRA Iron Man Stock Cars will be at the speedway for the first time.

Gates will open at 4 p.m. with hot laps at 7 and racing at 7:35.

Ticket prices:
Adults (16 and over): $20
Seniors (62 and over)/Military: $17
Youth (ages 6-15): $10
Kids (5 and under): FREE
Family Pass: $50
Pit Pass: $40

Weekly action next Saturday: The Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series resumes next Saturday, June 6, with TA/Petro Night at the Races Presented by ThunderBurst Media. The Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods will take center stage with a 25-lap, $750-to-win main event. Gates open at 4 with hot laps at 6:30 and racing at 7:05.

For ticket questions or information for any event this season, contact Admissions Director Nichole McMillan at (417) 282-5984 or email her at nichole@lucasoilspeedway.com for more information.

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