Sorensen DQed, Dillard Inherits Wheatland Mod Win

Cade Dillard in action at Lucas Oil Speedway. (GSS Media photo)

WHEATLAND, Mo. – Race-long leader and apparent winner Dustin Sorensen’s trip to the tech building left Cade Dillard the big winner as the three-night USMTS King of America XIV opened Thursday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.

Dillard, of Robeline, La., was elevated from runner-up at the checkered flag to the $3,000 Summit USMTS modified feature winner after Sorensen's car was disqualified in post-race inspection for a technical violation.

The duo waged an epic battle in the 30-lap feature, particularly on a restart with seven laps remaining. Dillard, trying to chase down and pass Sorensen, threw a big slide job in turn three only to see Sorensen cross back over.

Sorensen was able to gradually pull away from there for a seeming victory by 1.7 seconds. Roughly a half-hour later, however, it was Dillard who was crowned the night one winner.

Terry Phillips, who pressured Dillard in the final few laps, officially wound up in second, with Keith Foss third, Tanner Mullens fourth, and Rodney Sanders fifth. Sanders, the USMTS national points leader, rallied from the 15th starting position.

Dillard said the battle with Sorensen was fun, even though he came up a bit short on the racetrack.

“It’s a blast,” Dillard said. “Luckily the track was that racy. Dustin had a good car and you hate to see how it ended up. We’ll take it. There’s a lot of stacked cars here. That’s how good our car is. We’ll just keep tweaking on it and get better."

Round two is set for Friday night, with $5,000 going to the winner, before a top prize of $20,000 is at stake in Saturday night’s finale.

In other action, eighth-starting Kris Jackson worked his way toward the front and passed race-long leader Aaron Marrant on lap 15 to capture the Clear Creek Golf Cars USRA B-Mod victory.

Jackson give a shout-out in victory lane to sponsor and engine builder Jim Ruble, who celebrated his 86th birthday on Thursday.

Marrant started up front and set the pace, but Jackson – buoyed by a lap-11 caution – closed in and caught Marrant before making the winning pass on the inside with five to go and earning the $1,000 winner’s check.

Marrant finished two seconds behind Jackson to settle for runner-up honors. Jon Sheets was third, with Tyler Kidwell fourth and Chad Clancy fifth.

Derek Green took over the lead on lap six of 20 in the O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Car main and held it the rest of the way, finishing 4.3 seconds in front of Jeffrey Abbey.

Abbey held off Brandon Hare for third, with Pat Graham capturing fourth and Jaylen Wettengel fifth.

“I figured with Abbey in front of me, ‘Ah, he’s gone,” the fourth-starting Green said of the early going. “This is kind of his type of racetrack. To be able to get by him and get the win is pretty awesome.”

The finish:

USMTS A Feature (30 laps): 1. 97-Cade Dillard [3]; 2. 75-Terry Phillips [1]; 3. 95-Keith Foss [10]; 4. 02-Tanner Mullens [5]; 5. 20-Rodney Sanders [15]; 6. 15W-Alex Williamson [4]; 7. 91-Joe Duvall [11]; 8. 25-Joe Chisholm [13]; 9. 71S-Dustin Strand [8]; 10. 712-Trevor Hughes [16]; 11. 65-Tyler Davis [18]; 12. 12-Jason Hughes [6]; 13. 15-Kale Westover [22]; 14. 2SS-Mark Smith [7]; 15. 24C-Jim Chisholm [19]; 16. 8-Kyle Strickler [25]; 17. 38C-Jason Pursley [20]; 18. 4W-Tyler Wolff [12]; 19. 90W-Ryan Wetzstein [23]; 20. 21-Jacob Bleess [14]; 21. 88-Chad Wheeler [21]; 22. 21K-Kyle Brown [27]; 23. 3B-Nic Bidinger [9]; 24. 5-Reece Solander [17]; 25. 88S-Nathan Smith [28]; 26. 22H-Dustin Hodges [24]; 27. 29-Keith Hammett [29]; 28. 58X-Gary Christian [26]; DQ: 19-Dustin Sorensen [2].