Tanner Mullens of Wichita, Kan., drove to his first Central Missouri Speedway win of the season in Saturday's USRA Modified feature event.

Central Missouri Speedway returned to weekly championship racing on a warm heart-of-summer Saturday with 85 drivers on hand for competition in the USRA Modifieds, Out-Pace USRA B-Mods, Street Stocks, Midwest-Mod Lites and Pure Stocks. At the end of the night, four drivers took their first victories of the year from the five main events, which capped the night.

Out-Pace USRA B-Mods were next in line with 19 cars on hand as heat-race wins went to Rex Harris of Mack’s Creek, Brad Smith of Belton and Russell Niehoff of Lockwood. For the 20-lap feature event, it was Smith and Kameron Grindstaff of Independence who began the race on row one. Smith, a multiple-time CMS feature winner and former track champion sat a vigorous pace during the opening laps at one time building up nearly a straightaway lead. Grindstaff ran solidly in the top three until Ebert came up to challenge around the midway point. Even through a series of restarts no one challenged Smith, who sailed on to his second feature win of the weekend after taking the checkers at Lakeside Speedway on Friday night. Fifth-starting Ebert advanced to second at the finish with Grindstaff rounding out the podium. Cody Frazon of LaMonte started tenth and was consistent throughout the event and came away fourth while Dean Bachner advanced from 15th on the grid to record his best finish of the year in fifth.

Sixteen USRA Modifieds signed in for action one week after the first big-money special event of the season. Two heat races decided the starting grid for the 25-lap main event later in the night and it was Gressel Racing’s new edition Tanner Mullens of Wichita, Kan., grabbing the opening heat race as Nathan Vaughn of nearby Sedalia claimed the victory in the final heat race of the night. For the main event, Mullens and Vaughn accumulated the most passing points and began the main event on row one just in front Terry Schultz and Kevin Blackburn in row two.

After lap one, Mullens led the field with Terry Schultz advancing to second by the second lap. Tim Karrick moved up to third by lap three from sixth on the grid while Blackburn held down the fourth position while Vaughn stayed inside the top five early in the race. By lap twelve, John Allen of Chanute, Kansas moved into the top five as Mullens continued to lead the filed until lap 19, when Schultz passed Mullens for the lead, dropping Mullens back to second. On lap 22, Lewis Jackson once again found the turns three and four area not to his liking as he flipped off the track and ended up on his lid; ultimately, Jackson was uninjured in the accident.

For the final restart Schultz led Mullens, Karrick, Blackburn and Allen and appeared to be on his way to his first CMS win of the year; however, bad luck struck the Sedalia driver on the white-flag lap as a mechanical issue derailed his sure-to-be victory coming off turn two. Mullens darted to the low side with Karrick moving around Schultz on the high to setup a thrilling battle to the finish between the two Kansas drivers. In the end, Mullens prevailed with Karrick coming up a bit short but recording his best finish of the year in second. It was Mullens’ first victory since taking over the Ed Gressel racing team modified.

Behind Mullens and Karrick, seventh-starting Danny Scrogham advanced from seventh to third for his best finish of the year while Schultz limped home in a field of heavy traffic to finish fourth, just in front of John Allen in fifth. Rounding out the top ten were, Jim Moody who was forced to Ben Welsch’s car as a backup who finished sixth, followed by Blackburn, David Wood, Dalton Kirk, and Lockwood, Missouri’s long-distance traveler Dwight Niehoff tenth.

Next week is Budweiser Night, once again featuring the weekly championship classes of USRA Modifieds, Out-Pace USRA B-Mods, Street Stocks, Midwest Mod-Lites and Pure Stocks set for another exciting night of racing at CMS.

On Saturday, pit gates open at 4:30, grandstands at 5, driver pill draw closes at 6:15. Warning: late drivers will not be awarded passing points. The pit meeting takes place at 6:30, hot laps roll out at 7:00 and racing begins at 7:30. General admission adults $12, Military w/I.D. and Seniors 65 to 74 $10, kids ages six to twelve $5, five years and under are free, seniors 75 and older are also free. Seniors 80 and older may receive free pit admission courtesy of promoter Earl Walls, who recently celebrated his own 80th birthday in 2017 last April! All pit passes for the weekend are $30 per person.

Keep up with CMS on Twitter @CMSgoing_green. Like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/pages/Central-Missouri-Speedway. Join our email group by emailing info@centralmissourispeedway.net. Find CMS on YouTube at CMS Going Green! Keep up with CMS news and information by pointing your browser to www.centralmissourispeedway.net. The Website includes standings, results, schedule, news, and much more!

CMS wishes to thank its 2017 primary sponsors for their support including Cliff Harris Warrensburg Ford, Budweiser, KMZU 100.7 FM, Sunoco Race Fuels, Midwest Coatings, Better Country KIX 105.7, KSDL, and KSIS FM, Comfort Inn Warrensburg Station, KRLI FM 103.9 & KAOL 101.3 FM The Grenade, Pepsi, 610 Sports Radio Kansas City, College Town Apartments of Warrensburg, and Heartland Waste.

The list of 2017 business partners includes: Batliner Recycling, Kleinschmidt’s Western Store, OK Wheel Alignment, OK Tire Stores, Blue Springs Truck Line Inc., Brooks Auto LLC, Rick Darling Racing Engines/Head Porting, KMMO Radio, Sabre Solar LLC, KDKD Radio, LJS Graphics, Wilderness Ridge Tent & Canvas, DQ Grill & Chill of Warrensburg, Zaxby’s, Miller Lite, Victory Trophies & Plaques, Joslins Jewelry, Eickleberry Concrete & Construction, RockAuto.com, R & B Septic Services, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Wilderness Ridge Tent and Canvas, and Seeburg Mufflers. To join the CMS business partner team, call Susan Walls at (816) 229-1338. No calls after 8 p.m. please.

For complete results, visit www.centralmissourispeedway.net under the Results and Stats drop-down link and then select Results and Standings. Here you will find links to SpeedScore1 version results and PDF versions of track results by class.

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OFFICIAL RESULTS
United States Racing Association
Summit Racing USRA Weekly Racing Series
Central Missouri Speedway, Warrensburg, Mo.
Saturday, June 3, 2017

OUT-PACE USRA B-MODS

Feature:
1. (1) 99 Brad Smith, Belton
2. (5) 94 Jacob Ebert, Oak Grove
3. (2) 14 Kameron Grindstaff, Independence
4. (10) 73 Cody Frazon, Lamonte
5. (15) 91 Dean Bachner, Olathe, Kan.
6. (9) 181 Luke Nieman, Nortonville, Kan.
7. (12) 10 Johnny McGinnis, Hardin
8. (4) 10r Russell Niehoff, Lockwood
9. (16) 03 Chris Brockway, Warrensburg
10. (18) 7b Bobby Russell, Smithville
11. (6) 96 Cody Brill, Harrisonville
12. (13) 20 Michael Bixby, Harrisonville
13. (17) 31 Gary Akers, Independence
14. (14) 17k Jeremy Lile, Higginsville
15. (7) 21b Bob Nakoneczny, Warrensburg
16. (11) 27 Jacob Callahan, Warrensburg
17. (8) 53w Dallas White, Centerview
18. (3) 30 Rex Harris, Urbana
DNS - 13m Matt Michaels, Lees Summit

USRA MODIFIEDS

Feature:
1. (1) 20t Tanner Mullens, Goddard, Kan.
2. (6) 1k Tim Karrick, Basehor, Kan.
3. (7) 92 Danny Scrogham, Peculiar
4. (3) 90 Terry Schultz, Sedalia
5. (9) 03 John Allen, Chanute, Kan.
6. (11) 6w Jim Moody, Odesa
7. (4) 26k Kevin Blackburn, Fulton
8. (10) 82 David Wood, Richmond
9. (12) 30 Kirk Dalton, Edgerton, Kan.
10. (5) 9d Dwight Niehoff, Lockwood
11. (13) 85s Tyler Shaw, Mexico
12. (2) 12v Nathan Vaughn, Sedalia
13. (15) 3j Lewis Jackson, Wellsville, Kan.
14. (8) 17k Kyle Westerhold, Blue Springs
15. (14) 96 Danny Barker, Kansas City, Kan.
DNS - 75 Gunner Martin, Sugar Creek