Pit Stop Radio News

Jerry Coons Jr. turned in a dominating performance in winning Friday night’s POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League feature at Federated Auto Parts I-55 Raceway as Toyota-powered cars captured the top six finishing positions.

The win is the first of the season for Coons and the third for his Petry Motorsports team, which had won the two season-opening POWRi events at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla., with Kevin Thomas Jr.  Coons’ victory is the 26th national midget feature win for a Toyota-powered driver in 2018.

Starting from the outside of row two, Coons immediately went to the lead on the opening lap of the 25-lap feature, overtaking pole-sitter Tyler Thomas with Holly Shelton moving up to third.

After a lap two caution, Coons remained in the top spot, but Shelton would overtake Thomas for the second position, with Tucker Klaasmeyer running fourth and Sam Johnson in fifth. The lead pair would remain the same, but POWRi point leader Klaasmeyer would move up into third on lap six, with Thomas eventually falling back to fifth behind Ryan Robinson.

Shelton began to close in on Coons as the race passed the midway point and overtook Coons for the lead briefly on lap 18, but Coons would quickly regain the top spot the following lap. In the final laps, he extended his lead to almost 1.5 seconds at the checkers. He was followed by Shelton, who has earned three consecutive POWRi podium finishes, Klaasmeyer, Thomas, who had moved in front of Robinson on lap 23, Robinson and Andrew Felker.

“It’s great to put this Petry Motorsports car in victory lane,” said Coons. “It’s been a long time coming. I can’t thank all these guys enough. The Spike/Toyota was running great. We got a good start, fortunately, and got to the bottom. I guess that’s what happens when you’re old and run the miles. You’re used to the concrete wall.”

With the third-place finish, Klaasmeyer extends his point lead over Keith Kunz Motorsports teammate Robinson to 50 points, with Zach Daum in third.