20TH TO 1ST: MIRACULOUS MASSINGILL CHARGES TO MONTPELIER WIN

Montpelier, Indiana (August 26, 2023)………Electrical issues in his heat race forced Bryce Massingill to start near the tail end of the field during Saturday night’s USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget feature at Indiana’s Montpelier Motor Speedway.

Yet, as it turned out, it still couldn’t keep the Troy, Ohio native away from victory lane.

Massingill blitzed through the field from the outside of row 10, then raced into the lead past Jakeb Boxell with two laps remaining with Massingill beating Boxell to the line by a margin of 0.156 sec.

For Massingill, the comeback victory was major two-fold.  His series-leading sixth victory of the season pushed him back into the point lead by 35 points following Zach Wigal’s engine issues on lap four while he was leading.

Matt Lux (Manilla, Ind.) led the opening lap from the pole position before Wigal took over from two through four.  Jakeb Boxell then went topside from his eighth starting position to the lead in just five laps.

On a mission, Boxell opened his lead nearly a full straightaway by midrace.  Massingill, using a starkly different path on the bottom, reached fifth by lap eight and landed inside the top-three by the 12th circuit.

Jakeb Boxell (Zanesville, Ind.) collected a runner-up finish with Luke Hall (Ludlow Falls, Ohio) third, Stratton Briggs (Anna, Ohio) fourth and Tyler Nelson (Olathe, Kan.) fifth.

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USAC MIDWEST THUNDER SPEED2 MIDGET RACE RESULTS: August 26, 2023 – Montpelier Motor Speedway – Montpelier, Indiana

FIRST VMS MOTORSPORTS QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Ian Creager, 36, Creager-15.542; 2. Tate Martz, 34, GMB-15.591; 3. Stratton Briggs, 21, Fedorczyk-15.696; 4. Gunnar Lucius, 22, Lucius-15.722; 5. Cale Coons, 11T, Taylor-15.778; 6. Cole Morgan, 7m, Morgan-16.486; 7. Thomas Bigelow, 2B, Bigelow-17.596; 8. Keith Ousley, 14, Ousley-18.745.

SECOND VMS MOTORSPORTS QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Jakeb Boxell, 44JB, Boxell/Merkler-15.501; 2. Zach Wigal, 18, Wigal-15.538; 3. Matt Lux, 5KB, Wells-15.595; 4. Bryce Massingill, 35, Massingill-15.711; 5. Luke Lemons, 33L, Lemons-15.973; 6. Chett Gehrke, 93, Gehrke-16.116; 7. Abby Hohlbein, 11H, Hohlbein-16.347; 8. Brayden Schwartz, 55s, Schwartz-16.449.

THIRD VMS MOTORSPORTS QUALIFYING GROUP: 1. Tyler Nelson, 10, Nelson-15.732; 2. Michael Magic, 5m Magic-15.756; 3. Luke Hall, 74, Heitmeyer-16.174; 4. Logan Prickett, 37, Prickett-16.213; 5. Ryan Moran, 01, Moran-16.378; 6. Carl Peterson, 49p, Peterson-16.511; 7. Blake Adams, 44, Adams-16.952; 8. Casey Meyer, 9, Meyer-17.633.

FIRSH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Tyler Nelson (4), 2. Michael Magic (3), 3. Luke Hall (2), 4. Ryan Moran (5), 5. Logan Prickett (1), 6. Carl Peterson (6), 7. Blake Adams (7), 8. Casey Meyer (8). NT

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Matt Lux (2), 2. Zach Wigal (3), 3. Jakeb Boxell (4), 4. Abby Hohlbein (7), 5. Chett Gehrke (6), 6. Luke Lemons (5), 7. Bryce Massingill (1), 8. Brayden Schwartz (8). NT

THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Stratton Briggs (2), 2. Tate Martz (3), 3. Ian Creager (4), 4. Cale Coons (5), 5. Gunnar Lucius (1), 6. Cole Morgan (6), 7. Keith Ousley (8), 8. Thomas Bigelow (7). NT

FEATURE: (20 laps) 1. Bryce Massingill (20), 2. Jakeb Boxell (8), 3. Luke Hall (7), 4. Stratton Briggs (5), 5. Tyler Nelson (2), 6. Gunnar Lucius (15), 7. Matt Lux (1), 8. Michael Magic (4), 9. Abby Hohlbein (11), 10. Luke Lemons (17), 11. Ian Creager (9), 12. Chett Gehrke (14), 13. Tate Martz (6), 14. Cale Coons (12), 15. Carl Peterson (16), 16. Ryan Moran (10), 17. Blake Adams (19), 18. Cole Morgan (18), 19. Logan Prickett (13), 20. Brayden Schwartz (23), 21. Casey Meyer (22), 22. Zach Wigal (3), 23. Thomas Bigelow (24), 24. Keith Ousley (21). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Matt Lux, Laps 2-4 Zach Wigal, Laps 5-18 Jakeb Boxell, Laps 19-20 Bryce Massingill.

USAC MIDWEST THUNDER SPEED2 MIDGET POINTS: 1-Bryce Massingill-984, 2-Zach Wigal-949, 3-Stratton Briggs-935, 4-Ian Creager-906, 5-Matt Lux-894, 6-Gunnar Lucius-860, 7-Abby Hohlbein-773, 8-Jakeb Boxell-753, 9-Josh Yenser-581, 10-Alex Watson-530.

NEXT USAC MIDWEST THUNDER SPEED2 MIDGET RACE: September 15, 2023 – Circle City Raceway – Indianapolis, Indiana

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

VMS Motorsports Fast Qualifier: Jakeb Boxell

Performance Electronics First Heat Winner: Tyler Nelson

U.S. Lawns Second Heat Winner: Matt Lux

Stiefel’s Home & Auto Third Heat: Stratton Briggs

Performance Powder Coating Hard Charger: Bryce Massingill (20th to 1st)

Rosewood Machine & Tool Precision Move of the Race: Jakeb Boxell

HARF/DARF Hard Luck: Zach Wigal

Impact Racing Lucky Racer: Carl Peterson