Ryan Gustin made it clear he’s going to be a challenger for the Week 2 Hell Tour Championship with a dominating performance in his home state of Iowa at Davenport.
Gustin topped Qualifying Group B to begin the night with a time of 13.691 seconds. He started at the front of Heat 3 and took home the win. Gustin started on the pole for the feature and led every single lap except for the second one, where Jake Timm beat him by a nose. Timm would hound Gustin for the next few laps, but his pursuit would be put to a stop after a caution for Christian Hanger on lap 6.
On the next restart, Timm fell to third as Ashton Winger got a monster run on the outside and through the middle of turns 1 and 2. Coming out of turn 2, Winger even got his nose out in front of Gustin, who ripped the lip, coming down the backstretch. However, Gustin’s momentum on the top allowed him to regain the lead going into turn 3 where he dove to the bottom and took away Winger’s line. Gustin then began driving away from the field eventually pulling out to a 1.5 second lead by lap 13.
Gustin continued to keep that gap through much of the middle portion of the race that ran under green. Once he got into lap traffic he extended it even further gapping Winger by 2.3 seconds who found himself in a dog fight with Timm. That lead would be erased with the second and final caution of the night flying on lap 22 for debris. During the caution, Jason Feger, the current Summer Nationals points leader, went to the hot pit after he suffered a right rear flat after making contact with the cushion.
On the ensuing restart, Gustin maintained his lead while Timm worked his way around Winger on the outside. Gustin would check out while Winger and Timm battled hard for the second position with Winger working a groove below the cushion while Timm rolled the bottom. Timm eventually held on for second as Gustin easily cruised to the win.
In victory lane, Gustin said, “We’ve lost a bunch of them here whether that be flat tires or mechanical issues or whatever. It definitely feels good to win here. It’s been a hard fought battle, for sure. We unloaded yesterday and didn’t know what the heck to do. So we went to work today and found a bunch of things that weren’t correct and fixed them and this thing drove right around there tonight.”
“It definitely feels good, anytime you can get in victory lane in your home state. It feels good,” he added. “Traveling all over the country like we do, we don’t win a whole lot of them in Iowa. So definitely feels good.”
Official Finishing Order
- Ryan Gustin
- Jake Timm
- Ashton Winger
- Tyler Erb
- Dennis Erb Jr.
- Kyle Bronson
- Dillon McCowan
- Joseph Joiner
- Michael Leach
- Sam Mars
- Frank Heckenast Jr.
- Trey Mills
- Drake Troutman
- Clay Stuckey
- Tyler Millwood
- Carson Brown
- Mckay Wenger
- Jason Feger
- Mark Whitener
- Derrick Stewart
- Billy Moyer Sr.
- Christian Hanger
The Hell Tour will be at Quincy Raceways tomorrow. It then heads to Lee County Speedway on Thursday. On Friday and Saturday it combines with the World of Outlaws for the two-night St. Louis Firecracker Faceoff at I-55 Federated Auto Parts Raceway Park in Pevely, Missouri. It closes out Week 2 at Lincoln Speedway in Lincoln, Illinois on Sunday, June 22nd.
What do you make of Gustin’s performance at Davenport?
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