Brent Kirchner won his first ever ASA Midwest Tour presented by SCAG Power Equipment and Lester Buildings in the ‘3M 150’ at Iowa Speedway on Saturday night.
Brent Kirchner and Chris Wimmer battled all night long and finished one-two. The irony of it all is that Kirchner was running Chris Wimmer’s old car and got set-up tips from Wimmer.
“I can’t thank Chris Wimmer enough for his help. He gave me a good set-up and I couldn’t have done this without him,” said Kirchner.
Wimmer did all he could but just came up short. “I got really tight right at the end there. I just overdrove it,” said Wimmer.
ECHO and ECHO Bear Cat Touring Star, Jonathan Eilen started on the outside of the front row and quickly pulled away from the field but Chris Wimmer was not going to let him get away that easily as he came back on lap to on the inside challenging for the lead. The two were side-by-side on laps two and three as the #34 of Brandon Hill hit the turn two wall bringing out the first caution of the night.
Eilen once again pulled away but this time it was Brent Kirchner who wanted the lead. He took it on lap 18 and Wimmer followed suit as Eilen fell all the way back to fifth. Last year’s winner, Jeff Choquette passed Eilen for fourth behind Nathan Haseleu who kept the top two within reach.
As the top three began to pull away from the rest of the field, back in the pack Jeff Storm and Steve Wallace were on the move along with ECHO Bear Cat Quick Cut Qualifier, Griffin McGrath. All three were running in the top ten.
On lap 40, Wimmer started to look inside Kirchner to take the top spot but Kirchner shut the door. The two went back and forth as Kirchner was a little better coming off turn four allowing him to pull back in front of Wimmer.
Griffin McGrath had one of the fastest cars on the track moving into sixth on lap 50. As Kirchner and Wimmer encountered lapped traffic it gave Wimmer the opportunity to finally make the move and take the lead from Kirchner.
Nathan Haseleu was a factor running in the top three and keeping the top two in his sights. At the break Haseleu discovered a possible electrical issue and made some changes in hopes to stay up front.
Well, the changes worked. When the green flag fell at the restart, Wimmer and Haseleu took off with the top two spots. Wimmer started to pull away, but Kirchner once again was on the move passing Haseleu for the second position.
By lap 100 the field seemed to settle in. Griffin McGrath was still on the move along with Jeff Storm. The two of them were picking off the top ten running in sixth and seventh. The caution came out once again however, as Austin Theriault left fluid on the track.
As the green flag fell the top four crossed the line but Griffin McGrath and Dillon Oliver weren’t so lucky. The two got together and Oliver’s car was on top of McGrath’s. After having the fastest car of the day, McGrath’s day ended in the trailer.
After clean-up there were only 12 laps to go but Wimmer and Kirchner wanted to make sure they each had a fair shot. The first restart was waved off because Wimmer got too much of a jump and when they came around to try it again, Kirchner got too big of a jump. The two were warned and the third time was a charm.
Wimmer and Kirchner battled back and forth lap after lap until Kirchner seemed to pull away a little bit with a handful of laps remaining. Nathan Haseleu slowed off the pace ending his chances at a victory.
Chris Weinkauf snuck up to third followed by last year’s winner, Jeff Choquette, Jeff Storm, Nick Panitzke, Steve Wallace, Jason Weinkauf, Nathan Haseleu, and Peter Cozzolino rounded out the top ten.
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