Logan Seavey charged from tenth to second and then made a late run at leader Jake Neuman, but fell just short in finishing second as the top Toyota in Friday’s POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League feature at Belle-Clair Speedway.
After triumphing in the two most recent POWRi events last weekend, Seavey entered the night just two wins shy of Christopher Bell’s all-time POWRi single-season record of 11 victories set in 2014
Pole-sitter Daniel Robinson took the early lead with Austin Brown in second, Neuman in third, followed by Toyota drivers Cannon McIntosh in fourth and Jesse Love in fifth, with Seavey jumping from tenth to sixth on the opening lap. He would catch Love for the fifth spot one lap later.
The front of the field stayed intact through the first four laps, but a lap five incident would have not only major implications on the night, but in the championship as well. Running sixth through eighth, point leader Jesse Colwell, Andrew Felker and Holley Hollan all got together in turn four. Hollan would be able to continue, but Colwell and Felker each were forced to retire.
Robinson would bring the field back to green on lap five, with Neuman launching a slider to take the lead on lap six. By lap eight, Brown overtook Robinson and two laps later Seavey would do the same to move into third.
Seavey would then pass Brown for second on lap 12, only to see the caution flag wave after McIntosh spun in turn four, reverting the field back to the finish of the previous lap. The yellow would come back to haunt Seavey as the race moved past the midway point.
After the restart, Seavey would spend the next ten laps battling with Brown for second, while also holding off a hard-charging Karter Sarff, as Zach Daum completed the top five.
As Neuman began to pull away from the field, It wasn’t until lap 22 when Seavey would use a big slider to pass Brown for second. Behind them, Daum had moved into fourth, while McIntosh overcame his earlier incident to climb back into the top five.
At that point, Neuman had a full straightaway lead, pulling out to more than two-and-a-half seconds with five to go, but Seavey wasn’t done yet, as he quickly began to close. By lap 28, he had cut the lead to less than a second, but would eventually run out of laps on the lightning quick one-fifth mile dirt oval.
Neuman would take the win, followed by Seavey, Brown, Daum and McIntosh. Tanner Carrick placed seventh, while Daison Pursley was eighth as five Toyotas captured top-10 finishing positions on the night.
With his fourth-place finish, combined with Colwell’s early retirement, Daum has closed to within 180 points of the top spot in the POWRi point standings with nine races remaining.
The POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League returns to the track Saturday night at Macon Speedway.
TRD PR
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