Gustin tops MARS DIRTcar Series at Springfield, scores first :Late Model win

Ryan Gustin sat on the outside pole of the MARS DIRTcar Series John Kuntz Memorial Saturday at the Springfield Raceway in Springfield, Mo. On the race's second attempt going green, he jumped out front and never looked back to earn his first ever dirt late model win.

"It's awesome man," exclaimed Gustin. "To be able to win our first late model race is a great feeling."

He wasn't without challenges though as he had to hold off runner-up Terry Phillips on several occasions.

"I gotta thank TP for giving me room there. He probably could have let 'er go, but he didn't."

A 29-lap green flag run made up the majority of Saturday's race and lapped traffic was thick for the front-runners.

"I was actually glad to see one of the later yellows," Gustin admitted.

The win for Gustin came as he has less than ten dirt late model starts in his career.

One of the key moments of the feature came on a lap-32 restart. Gustin had previously fired deep in turn 4 on the restarts. On the lap 32 green flag, he fired as he entered turn 3 and pulled several car lengths on Phillips. He talked about the approach following the race.

"I figured they were going to be expecting me to fire late. I fired as early as I could, and cut it back down and caught that little bit of moisture."

Phillips was also quick to credit Gustin for the move.

"He got smart there," Phillips said. "He started early which had me in the marbles there cause we had to go around a hole. Pretty smart thinking on his end. He's a hell of a racer."

The night was good for Phillips and resulted in another second-place finish at Springfield.

"It wasn't a bad run," commented Phillips. "New dirt on the track, all the rain and stuff, it just got to where you couldn't pass. It was a pretty good race though."

Jesse Stovall, Brantlee Gotschall and Jason Bodenhamer rounded out the top 5 in an interesting night at the races. Early in the event, Mike Berger had trouble entering turn one, in the first heat, and got into the fence. The accident paused activities for approximately 45 minutes as officials tended to those close by. No serious injuries were reported on either side of the fence. Brad Looney got together with Shawn Knuckles on a restart late and ended up turning over in the middle of turns one and two. It marked the first time in his 24 year career he went wheels up in a race car.

Gustin is planning to return to USMTS action next Thursday, Friday and Saturday, May 16-18, as a trio of Missouri races are scheduled at Valley Speedway, LA Raceway and West Plains Motor Speedway. He is then set to debut a new Mullins Racing Engines powerplant in his Rocket Chassis at the Show Me 100 in Wheatland, Mo., on Memorial Day Weekend.

Results - MARS Late Models

"A" Feature (40 laps): 1. Ryan Gustin, 2. Terry Phillips, 3. Jesse Stovall, 4. Brantlee Gotschall, 5. Jason Bodenhamer, 6. Eric Turner, 7. Justin Wells, 8. Mark Dotson, 9. Shawn Knuckles, 10. Brandon McCormick, 11. Patrick Johnson, 12. Justin Asplin, 13. Cole Wells, 14. Tony Jackson Jr., 15. Dustin Walker, 16. Leroy Johnson, 17. Darrell Mooneyham, 18. Chuck Comer, 19. Chance Bishop, 20. Brad Looney, 21. Matt Brookshire, 22. Brandon Morton.

Heat race winners: Phillips, Stovall, Gustin, Jackson.
"B" feature winner: Bodenhamer.