Pit Stop Radio News

Logan Seavey led Tanner Carrick across the finish line in a Toyota one-two finish at the POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League’s Herb Barlow Memorial feature at the Jacksonville Speedway, Friday night.

The triumph is Seavey’s seventh national midget feature win of the season, the most by any driver. It also marked the 34th victory for a Toyota-powered driver in 2018.

With Carrick and Seavey starting next to each other on the front row, it was Carrick who would immediately move out to the lead with Seavey in tow.

It appeared it was going to be the 16-year-old Carrick’s night as he pulled out to a comfortable lead before Seavey was eventually able to close up as they begun to work his way through lapped traffic before the midway point of the race. Things quickly unraveled for Carrick on lap 18 of 30 when his left rear tire went down, resulting in a yellow flag and sending the Lincoln, California native into the pits. He would rejoin the race, but be forced to start from the back of the field.

That would be all that Seavey, the 2017 POWRi champion, would need. He quickly pulled away from second-place Zeb Wise until another caution would slow the field on lap 20. Seavey would bring the field back to green leading Wise with Tucker Klaasmeyer having climbed to third.

While Seavey resumed the lead, it was Carrick who was garnering much of the attention having gone from last back into the top five. He would continue his march up to the front, climbing up to second and closing on Seavey, but he would eventually run out of laps as Seavey would take the checkered flag for his fifth POWRi win of the season with Carrick placing second.

“It was a really good run,” said Seavey. “I just had to take care of it with the way the racetrack was. You’ve got to get through the holes really precise and if you don’t, well you saw what happened to Tanner. It was just one of those deals where you have to take care of your racecar more than anything.”

Klaasmeyer finished fourth, while Holley Hollan placed fifth to give Toyota four of the top-five qualifiers. The fifth-place showing is Hollan’s first top-five finish in national midget competition. Joining them in the top ten were fellow Toyota drivers Zach Daum in sixth and Sam Johnson in tenth.

Klaasmeyer now has a commanding 530-point lead over Ryan Robinson in the POWRi point standings with just six races remaining.

The POWRi Lucas Oil National Midget League is back in action Saturday night at the Spoon River Speedway in Canton, Ill.