WHEATLAND, MO. – Saturday night saw a pair of first-time Lucas Oil Speedway feature winners celebrate in victory lane, along with two veterans who are leading their championship chases.

Kevin Salter made his first appearance of the season a winning one, holding off track points leader Derek Brown to capture the O’Reilly Auto Parts Street Stocks feature. The Batesville, Ark., driver beat Brown by a car length in the headliner of the Big Adventure RV Weekly Racing Series.

Meanwhile, 20-year-old Tucker Cox held on to beat Kaeden Cornell by a car length as well in the Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Model feature in another thrilling finish.

Also earning feature wins as KOLR 10, KOZL 27 and Ozarks Fox Presented Ozarks Food Harvest Night at the Races were two points leaders – Robbie Reed (Pitts Homes USRA Modifieds) and Kris Jackson (Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mods).

Salter’s official winning margin was .126 seconds as he picked up $750 and denied Brown a sixth victory of the season. Salter said it was the third time he had raced at Lucas Oil Speedway over the years.

“It sure is nice to come up here and race. We always enjoy it,” Salter said. “I’m just proud to win one here at such as nice track.”

By lap seven, it became a two-car breakaway as Brown, who started up front, and  Salter, who started third, opened a 2.5-second gap over third-place James Flood.

The race remained green for an extended period and Salter kept pressuring Brown from behind before making an outside pass out of turn four for the lead to complete lap 18.

Two laps later, the race’s second caution set up a five-lap sprint as Salter and Brown were followed by Flood, Brian Brown and Johnny Coats.

Salter repelled numerous challenges from Brown the rest of the way, including one more push in the final turn of the final lap as Brown worked the low side.

“Derek runs great everywhere he goes,” Salter said. “I’ve run against him and Tim (Derek Brown’s Dad Tim Brown) quite a bit over the years. I knew it was going to be tough. He was running a good line around the bottom.

“I knew I could never get under him. I just took a chance and started rolling a little higher and found a little bit of traction in one and two that helped us roll around the outside. I was fortunate to find it.”

Brown finished second for the fourth time to go with his five feature wins. Flood wound up third with Brian Brown fourth and Coats in fifth.

Cox earned his first Lucas Oil Speedway feature victory, leading all the way to take home the Warsaw Auto Marine & RV ULMA Late Model trophy.

“It’s awesome,” Cox said. “Last week I was pretty frustrated. I was ready to part it for a couple of weeks. I felt like we could have won the last two or three weeks, but everything fell our way tonight and it was awesome.”

Cox started on the pole and sprinted to a 1.3-second lead over third-starting Kaeden Cornell by lap 10. Cornell sliced into the lead over the next five laps with Dustin Walker also working his way into contention.

A caution for Dalton Imhoff’s spin with three laps to go set up an exciting finish with those three restarting nose-to-tail. But Cox held on by a car length – or .190 seconds – to beat Cornell with Walker third and points leader Cole Henson in fourth.

“I seen Kaeden roll to the outside of me there, right before that caution,” Cox said. “I got by that lapped car and I knew I was gonna have to do something. He was coming on the outside.”

Reed earns third USRA Mod win: Season points leader Robbie Reed of Mexico, Missouri, took command midway through the race and went on to grab his third Pitts Homes USRA Modified victory of the season.

Reed finished .928 seconds in front of runner-up Chase Domer to cement his points lead. Reed also has three second-place finishes on the season.

“It was a nice track,” Reed said of the slick condition. “It’s always fun coming down here and running.”

Reed and Kirk started on the front row and it was Reed getting the jump and leading the first four laps before Kirk made an outside pass to claim the lead to complete lap five.

Taking advantage of a restart following the race’s third caution, Reed regained the lead with an inside pass of Kirk in turn two on lap nine. One lap later, Domer worked past Kirk to move into the runner-up position.

Reed had opened a 1.5-second lead by lap 14 when another caution bunched the field with Domer in second, Tracy Wolf third and Paden Phillips in fourth.

Reed had a flawless restart and cruised from there with Domer about six car lengths behind at the finish. Tracy Wolf started eighth and finished third, with Phillips fourth and Rusty Skaggs, who started 10th, wound up fifth.

Reigning USRA B-Mod national champion Jackson strengthened his hold on the track points lead with a flag-to-flag victory in the Ozark Golf Cars USRA B-Mod main event. It was his second win in 2020 at Lucas Oil Speedway.

“We’ve got our new car rolling pretty good now,” Jackson said after putting his month-old Rage-chassis car in victory lane. “We were fighting some gremlins. A lot of people do when they put something new together. It likes these smooth, slick surfaces.

“This is the best race track, in my personal opinion, that I’ve been on all year. This is awesome. May hat’s off to these guys who put in a lot of hard work.”

Jackson was laying a whipping on the field, opening a 4.3-second lead over JC Morton with just three laps remaining. But a caution wiped that margin away and forced Jackson to work for the win, via a three-lap shootout in front of Morton, Eric Turner and Andy Bryant.

It proved no problem for Jackson as he handled the restart by protecting the bottom groove. Jackson wound up 2.3-seconds in front of Morton, with Turner, Bryant and pole-starting Bryce Gotschall rounding out the top five.