Pit Stop Radio News

Logan Seavey used a late-race slider to capture the lead on lap 29 of 30 and then held off fellow Toyota driver Jason McDougal to win night two of the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League’s Midwest Season Opener at the Macon Speedway Saturday night.

Seavey’s win is his second POWRi triumph of the season after heading to Victory Lane eight days ago at Valley Speedway. He also won the USAC season opener at DuQuoin. It was the 15th national feature victory for a Toyota driver in 2018.

Saturday’s event provided another thrilling night of non-stop racing action right from the start with Seavey moving past Keith Kunz Motorsports (KKM) teammate Tucker Klaasmeyer for second on the opening lap as he set his sights on pole-sitter Joe B. Miller. The two battled throughout the first third of the race, exchanging the lead early with sliders before a lap five caution slowed the field.

On the restart, Klaasmeyer attempted to reclaim second from Seavey, but slipped over the cushion and McDougal capitalized to take over third. Seavey then started to close on Miller for the lead with McDougal in tow as it became a three-way battle for the top spot. McDougal, in just his second start with the Toyota-powered Petry Motorsports team, moved past Seavey to claim the second spot and closed quickly on Miller in lapped traffic only to see another caution wave on lap 14.

The top three continued their fight on the re-start as Seavey attempted to pass both Miller and McDougal, but both drove back by him. The three threw slider after slider at one another as the race continued, while behind them Ryan Robinson moved past Klaasmeyer to gain fourth by the time a caution waived at the midway point of the race.

McDougal continued to hound Miller on the restart, finally moving into the point position on lap 18 when he crossed underneath Miller using a slider into turn three to take the lead and immediately started to pull away. Miller began to fall back as Seavey claimed second with Friday night winner Robinson moving into third.

After a caution, the field went back to green with nine laps remaining as McDougal remained upfront with Seavey in pursuit. As they started to encounter lapped traffic in the final three laps, the two Toyotas went side-by-side on lap 28 with Seavey finally sliding him for the lead coming to the white flag. McDougal made a late challenge for the win on the final lap, but got together with a lapped car and spun in the final turn as Seavey took the win and McDougal eventually being scored in 13th.

Robinson would finish second and extend his point lead to 80 over Klaasmeyer, who placed sixth. Blake Carrick was seventh with his brother, Tanner Carrick, placing ninth. Presley Truedson made it six Toyotas in the top ten with a tenth-place finish. It was a career-best showing for the 16-year-old Truedson.

The POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League returns to Illinois for the ‘Southern Illinois Shootout’ next weekend, beginning with Friday night at Belle-Clair Speedway before moving on to the Southern Illinois Raceway in Marion on Saturday.