HomeMissouriLebanon I-44 SpeedwayNASCAR Champs honored as Donahue wins Salute to 75

NASCAR Champs honored as Donahue wins Salute to 75

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Lebanon-I-44-SpeedwayLebanon, Mo. / Some information contributed by Ronnie Williams
For Immediate Release 9/21/2015 –

Lebanon, MO -2014 NASCAR Missouri State Rookie of the Year Kyle Donahue of Wildwood took the lead on lap 15 of the “Salute to 75” O’Reilly Auto Parts Pro Late Model Feature and then swapped the lead back and forth with 2-time Lebanon I-44 Speedway Track Champion Mike Slone of Rolla in capturing the season ending event. It was fitting that I-44 honored all five NASCAR Track Champions on the same night as honoring NASCAR’s only 5 time Short Track National Champion Larry Phillips at the “High-Banks” of the Lebanon I-44 Speedway.

The start of the feature saw tight racing action as Brian Brown jumped to the opening lead from pole sitter Payton Lucas as Kyle Donahue, Jimmy Vanzandt, Brennon Willard, Steve Holt and JC Newell followed door to door while the evenings top 2 qualifiers, Mike Slone and Jake Griffin started the feature from the 12th and 13th positions. Lucas would pull even with Brown, but Brown carried the speed off turn two and pulled ahead by 2 cars. The top 6 began to pull away from the rest of the pack with side by side action as Vanzandt moved around Donahue briefly on lap 5 for the 3rd spot. On lap 10, Lucas made a run around Brown to secure the top spot as now the top 10 were packed together while Donahue went back around Vanzandt for 3rd. Defending event winner Brennon Willard surged forward to move into 3rd on lap 14 as Donahue was putting pressure on Lucas for the lead. On the next lap, 15 year old Donahue took the lead as the top 10 were still packed together while Slone and Griffin had work to the 7th and 9th place spots. During this long green run, the top 4 of Donahue, Lucas, Willard, and I-44 point leader Newell started to break away as lap 18 saw Kansas City veteran charger Ronnie Hartford pull to the safety area and out of action with a flat tire. By lap 23, Slone and Griffin had moved to the 5th and 6th spot and were closing on the top 4. On lap 24 lapped traffic was just in front of the fast moving Donahue as Willard who had moved into 2nd on lap 20 was closing in quickly with Newell and Lucas in their shadows. The fast paced-tight action slowed on lap 32 as the first caution waved when early leader Brown and Vanzandt spun low in turn one. With that caution bunching the entire field even tighter, Donahue would find a fast moving Willard glued to his bumper on the restart, Donahue opened a 2 car advantage as Slone moved around Lucas to secure 4th and closed in on Newell for 3rd. Under green flag conditions Donahue couldn’t shake Willard as Newell was pressuring Willard for 2nd place. On lap 36, Newell shot to the inside of Willard after several laps of trying to the move top side. As the top 5 drivers including Donahue, Newell, Willard, Slone and Griffin had pulled away from the pack, the action rose even higher on lap 38 as Slone moved around Willard for 3rd and quickly closed on Newell for 2nd. The 5 car pack had now become a 3 car race by lap 50 as young Donahue opened a 5 car length lead as Newell and Slone battled behind him. With green flag racing still the call, Slone moved into the 2nd place spot around Newell on the 58th circuit and began his run on Donahue as Willard and Griffin continued to race for 4th. For the final 15 laps, Slone and Donahue stayed glued together as Slone was using his experience on the 2nd year driver. Around the lap 65 mark, Slone in the Paul Jepsen ride was putting on heavy pressure and pulled even with Donahue as the duo rubbed side by side with Slone grabbing the top spot. Heading out of turn 4, Donahue was keeping the pressure heavy as Slone just scrapped the front stretch wall, it took Donahue a couple of laps before he took back the top spot. On circuit 71, Slone made another run on Donahue as Newell was starting to close ground again. Donahue kept the nose of the car straight and withstood Slone’s challenges during each of the final 3 laps to take his 2nd win of the season and biggest of his young career with Slone a very close 2nd followed by Newell, Griffin, Willard, defending track champion Kaleb Allison, early leader Lucas, Steve Holt on the lead lap as Scotty Allen completed the top 10. Heat race wins went to Brown and Griffin with Slone topping time trials with a lap of 14.56 seconds. Newell captured the 2015 track and NASCAR Whelen All American Series Missouri State Championship becoming the 3rd different NASCAR Pro Late Model Championship in 3 years during the new NASCAR era.

Budweiser NASCAR Modified action saw former 3-time Modified Champion David Bates take advantage of leaders Rodrick Icenhower and Stephen Counterman making contact on lap 10 and hold on for his 4th feature win of the season. Rodrick Icenhower grabbed the opening lead from pole sitter Chris Johnson as Ricky Icenhower and Counterman followed quickly. With Icenhower setting a very quick pace, Bates shot from the 8th starting spot and moved into the lead pack by lap 3. After a very tough battle for 2nd spot, Counterman who started the night in the 7th starting spot, moved around Johnson on lap 4 as Bates was coming with him. Counterman and Bates began to close in on young Icenhower while newly crowned Champion Tim Swearengin moved around Johnson trying to join the lead pack. Action up front was tight as Roderick Icenhower was holding a very smooth tight line with Counterman glued to his bumper until Icenhower went for a spin in turn 4 on lap 10. Officials placed both Icenhower and Counterman at the rear as contact was deemed. This placed Bates in the top spot with Swearengin, Johnson, Ricky Icenhower, Joe Bunkers and Ronnie Hartford all battling in the pack. Bates was able to pull away at the restart leaving a great race for 2nd place between the pack as Counterman was starting to pick his way through after restarting 10th. By lap 13, Bates was maintaining a 5 car-length advantage as Swearengin, Johnson, Counterman, Ricky Icenhower and Hartford were swapping spots. Caution slowed the pace on lap 21 bringing the pack together even tighter. On the restart, Bates broke away again as Counterman was working on Swearengin for 2nd spot. As Counterman made the pass, the question was does he have enough time to run down Bates that had no plans of slowing at all. The answer was not enough as Bates took the checkered followed by Counterman, Swearengin, Johnson and a fast moving Rodrick Icenhower in the top 5 as Swearengin takes home the 2015 NASCAR Whelen All American Series Lebanon I-44 Speedway Championship. Heats went to Rodrick Icenhower and Counterman.

In Sportsman action, 2012 Champion Little JC Newell took the opening lead and never looked back in grabbing his 9th feature win of the season. 2015 point champion Big JC Newell gave chase to his grandson in different stages of the race, but it seemed as if Little JC had something left when a challenge would be mounted. Dayton Newell would cross the stripe in 3rd spot followed by Justin Blake and Jimmy Fohn. JC Newell made it a clean sweep by grabbing the heat race win.

For Hoosier Tire Street Stock 2015 champion, Jordan Nisbett powered to the lead on lap 3 from Shawn Schmidt and Aaron Wilke in a three wide pass to gather his 8th win of the season as the 15 lap feature went caution free with tight action throughout the field. Schmidt and Wilke kept the pack tight at the start with side by side racing up front. Nisbett and Les Mallard were slicing and dicing in the pack along with Michael Juergensen, Zack Morgan, George Buhr and Steve Shaw. When clearing the lead duo, Nisbett was trying to put some distance between him and the fast moving field. On lap 5, Mallard was flying high to the 2nd place spot as Wilke and Morgan were putting on pressure. Nisbett opened the lead to over 5 cars as Mallard and Morgan were nose to tail on lap 7 while Juergensen and Buhr were right with them. On lap 9, Morgan moved into 2nd place as Juergensen followed passing Mallard. Nisbett took the checkered with Morgan, Juergensen, Buhr and Shaw completing the top 5 with all cars finishing on the lead lap. Heat race wins went to Buhr and Morgan.

The Coca-Cola Charger Championship was on the line as only 1 point separated Ben White and 2013 Champion Jimmy Poindexter. Following the heat race win, Poindexter was 4 points ahead. The feature would decide the title and these two didn’t disappoint anyone. Japheth Nisbett took the opening lead as White and Poindexter were side by side trying to find their way to the front. On lap 3, White made the quick power move around Nisbett as Poindexter followed while behind the top 3 were Nik Taylor, Jesse Poindexter and Jerry Ellis swapping spots. As the dynamic duo pulled away, Poindexter tried several times to get around White. While completing lap 8, with lapped traffic in front, White made a move to get around top side while Poindexter shot to the low side and beat White out of turn 2 with the top position. White made runs inside and out on every corner for the final 3 laps as they went door to door in the corners while Poindexter was doing all he could to hold on to the lead. Going into the final lap with the title up for grabs, White pulled even again as the duo rubbed sheet metal with Poindexter just nipping White for his 6th win and the 2015 track championship. Following the leaders were early leader Nisbett, rookie driver Ellis and Taylor. Heats went to Nisbett and Poindexter.

The Staff and Management want to thank the many fans, drivers, and marketing partners for a very exciting and successful 2015 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series season. To keep up on the off-season announcements and 2016 information on Missouri’s only Active Asphalt and NASCAR sanctioned track, please visit the website at www.i44speedway.net and be sure to like us at Lebanon I-44 Speedway on Facebook .

Lebanon I-44 Speedway NASCAR Whelen All American Series Results for 9/19/2015
“Salute to 75” – O’Reilly Auto Parts NASCAR Pro Late Models

Feature (75 laps) – 1) Kyle Donahue-Wildwood, 2) Mike Slone-Rolla 3) JC Newell-Stoutland 4) Jake Griffin-Quincy, ILL. 5) Brennon Willard-Sleeper 6) Kaleb Allison-Mexico 7) Payton Lucas-Fair Grove 8) Steve Holt-Strafford 9) Scotty Allen-Urbana 10) David Wood-Blue Springs 11) Mandy Chick-Desoto, Kansas 12) Jimmy Van Zandt-Springfield 13) Brian Brown-Strafford 14) Ronnie Hartford-Raytown DNS-Paul Jepsen-Rolla
1st Heat – 1) Brown 2) Lucas 3) Hartford 4) Wood 5) Chick 6) Jepsen 7) Allen
2nd Heat – 1) Griffin 2) Newell 3) Donahue 4) Willard 5) Holt 6) Allison 7) Van Zandt 8) Slone

Budweiser NASCAR Modifieds
Feature – 1) David Bates-Fair Grove 2) Stephen Counterman-Fair Grove 3) Tim Swearengin-Springfield 4) Chris Johnson-Lebanon 5) Rodrick Icenhower-Fair Grove 6) Ricky Icenhower-Fair Grove 7 ) Ronnie Hartford-Raytown 8) Joe Bunkers-Harrisonville 9) Brian Lewis-Willard 10) Richard Lewis-Willard 11) Mark Riddle-Springfield 12) Kevin Blackburn-Lebanon
1st Heat – 1) Rod Icenhower 2) Johnson 3) Bunkers 4) B. Lewis 5) Riddle 6) Blackburn
2nd Heat – 1) Counterman 2) Bates 3) Swearengin 4) Ricky Icenhower 5) R. Lewis 6) Hartford

NASCAR Sportsman
Feature – 1) “Little” JC Newell-Stoutland 2) Big JC Newell-Decaturville 3) Dayton Newell-Stoutland 4) Justin Blake-Lebanon 5) Jim Fohn-Eldridge
Heat – 1) Newell Jr. 2) Newell Sr. 3) Fohn 4) Blake 5) D. Newell

Hoosier Tire NASCAR Street Stocks
Feature – 1) Jordan Nisbett-Lebanon 2) Zack Morgan-Springfield 3) Michael Juergensen-Lebanon 4) George Buhr-Neosho 5) Steve Shaw-Rogersville 6) Aaron Wilke-Bridgeton 7) Les Mallard-Fair Grove 8) Tony Johnson-Lebanon 9) Nick Cherry-Springfield 10) Shawn Schmidt-Springfield 11) David Jennings-Springfield
1st Heat – 1) Buhr 2) Wilke 3) Shaw 4) T. Johnson 5) Schmidt DNS-Cherry
2nd Heat – 1) Morgan 2) Juergensen 3) Nisbett 4) Mallard 5) Jennings

Coca-Cola NASCAR Chargers
Feature – 1) Jimmy Poindexter-Willard 2) Ben White-Rolla 3) Japheth Nisbett-Rolla 4) Jerry Ellis-Richland 5) Nik Taylor-Bolivar 6) Jesse Poindexter-Willard 7) Ethan Mathis-Edgar Springs 8) Mark Glorfeld-Springfield 9) Luke Oster-Linn Creek
1st Heat – 1) Nisbett 2) Taylor 3) Oster 4) Glorfeld 5) Mathis
2nd Heat – 1) Jimmy Poindexter 2) White 3) Jesse Poindexter 4) Ellis

For more information visit the website at www.i44speedway.net and be sure to like us at Lebanon I-44 Speedway on Facebook for updated information on Missouri’s only NASCAR sanction facility and the only weekly asphalt track within 300 miles.

#####
For more information, contact:
Name:Kevin Greven
Title:General Manager
Phone:(417) 399-5756
Email address:kevin@lebanoni44speedway.com

About Lebanon I-44 Speedway
Lebanon I-44 Speedway is Missouri’s only NASCAR facility along with being the only weekly asphalt racing oval within 300 miles. The “High Banks” of I-44 Speedway proudly fly the NASCAR Whelen All American Series banner 20 plus weeks a year.

The track is in Lebanon, Missouri right along Interstate 44, on the historic Route 66 which adds easy access from any direction. Just about 45 minutes to the East of Springfield, Missouri on I-44 and just 2 hours West of St. Louis on I-44 as well as just 30 minutes south of Lake of the Ozarks makes it easy to find for all fans and racers.

Lebanon I-44 Speedway has a history of producing great racecar drivers, and some of the biggest stars in American motorsports honed their skills on our tracks high banked 3/8-mile asphalt oval. Legends such as the great Larry Phillips, the only 5-time national champion in NASCAR’s weekly racing series, along with NASCAR stars like Mike Wallace, Jamie McMurray, Carl Edwards, Chase Elliott, Tony Stewart and the late Tony Roper have either won races, track championships, regional championships or even national championships over the years.

Lebanon I-44 Speedway offers a top notch racing surface, aluminum backed Grandstand seating, “Wild Side” tier parking that you can pull up in your car or tailgate in your pickup and enjoy all of the racing from the edge of the track the beautiful VIP Suites in the middle of the front stretch and the new Budweiser Fan Deck.

Lebanon I-44 Speedway runs many special events throughout the race season as well as an exciting NASCAR weekly show that consists of Pro Late Models, Modifieds, Sportsman, Street Stocks and the Chargers with special appearances by the United States Super Truck Series, Pro National Baby Grand Cars, CRA/JEGS All-Star Series, NASCAR racing special events and various Concerts.

For more information visit the website at www.i44speedway.net and be sure to visit and like the ever growing Facebook page and follow us on Twitter for updated information as drivers from Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas and Illinois compete each Saturday Night.

www.facebook.com/pages/Lebanon-I-44-Speedway
www.i44speedway.net

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