BOONE, Iowa – Donavon Smith came from seemingly nowhere to take the lead on the final restart and score his third IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s stock car victory Sunday afternoon at Boone Speedway.

Smith, who had to race his way into Sunday’s finale via a last chance race earlier in the day, watched as the contenders in front of him fell by the wayside in a topsy turvy feature. In the end, he was there to pick up the pieces.

“I had by far the worst car in that field,” said Smith, who started 25th.

Much of the race was dominated by Jared Siefert, who started on the outside front row for the three-wide start. He was chased and constantly hounded by Jesse Sobbing, who had won the Race of Champions modified feature earlier in the day.

A bevy of cautions gave Sobbing multiple chances to challenge Siefert. A restart with three laps left saw Sobbing manage to get under and pass Siefert for the lead, but a caution moments later negated the pass and put Sobbing back to second.

On the ensuing restart Seifert and Sobbing went right back to battling for the lead, but coming out of turn two and down the backstretch the two made contact. Both cars spun, with Sobbing’s car collecting the car driven by Ricky Thornton Jr.

Seifert was able to keep his car rolling, allowing him to maintain his position at the front of the field since a lap hadn’t been completed. However, it appeared that the left-rear tire on Seifert’s car was going flat following the incident with Sobbing, who was now out of the race.

During the restart Seifert did his best to defend his position, but coming out of turn two he slowed dramatically and blocked the cars of Kyle Vanover and Smith. That opened the door for Buck Schafroth to rocket from fourth to first down the backstretch.

Schafroth took the white flag, but a big piece of a fender in the racing groove forced officials to call for the caution before the final lap could be completed. Under IMCA rules the race had to finish under caution, meaning the field would see another two-lap dash to the checkered flag.

Schafroth brought the field back to the green with Vanover and Smith in pursuit as Seifert retired from the race. Entering turn three Vanover and Smith took Schafroth three-wide for the race lead, with Smith somehow exiting turn four at the front of the field.

With Vanover in his mirror the entire way, Smith led the final lap to claim his third Super Nationals victory in the stock car class. He previously won the Super Nationals stock car crown in 2012 and 2009.

“I didn’t deserve to win that race. I just didn’t deserve it. There are way better cars out there,” said Smith, who earned $5,000 for his victory Sunday afternoon. “We were just going to go out and do a couple of laps. I got it in the groove and I couldn’t pull off so I was like, ‘I better not try it, I’ll get run over.’ So I just kept going.

“Like I said, I didn’t deserve to win that race. But I’ll take it.”

Vanover finished second, with Schafroth settling for third after leading late in the race. Loren Pesicka Jr. was fifth and polesitter Abe Huls took fifth.

Only nine of the 30 starters were running at the end of the feature.

The finish:

Donavon Smith, Kyle Vanover, Buck Schafroth, Loren Pesicka Jr., Abe Huls, Justin Nehring, Mathew West, Blake Peeler, Jeffrey Abbey, Jared Siefert, Ryan Harris, Cayden Carter, Derek Green, Tom Cannon, Jesse Sobbing, Jeff Mueller, Ricky Thornton Jr., Mitch Meier, Damon Murty, Jeffrey Larson, Travis Barker, Jason Rogers, Tommy Fain, Jeremy Christians, Randy Brands, Curt Lund, Michael Jaennette, Ethan Dotson, Kelly Shryock, Devin Smith.

Every night of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals fueled by Casey’s on Sept. 7-13 will be broadcast live via SPEED SPORT TV affiliate IMCA.TV. Check out all of our coverage of the IMCA Speedway Motors Super Nationals on our coverage index page!