Mogard Takes Lucas Oil Victory, Playoff Drivers Struggle

Published On: October 26th, 2017

2017-10-24 22-18-17_0

Twitchy Race Reports
(CLERMONT, IN)

The Sam Maxwell Customs Truck Series was back in action tonight from the short tracks of the Lucas Oil Speedway for a 125 lap event. This would be Race #1 of the 2nd round of the 2017 Playoffs. The six drivers that advanced were Brad Cross, Michael Atkins Jr., Allan Young, Jim Foose, Jason Stewart, and Devin Serra. There were 30 drivers who made the trip making the 36 max starting field.

At the conclusion of qualifying it was Devin Serra making the first statement grabbing the pole putting the pressure on the other 5 playoff drivers, Ty Hester was 2nd, Kevin Mingus 3rd, Jared Mogard 4th, and Troy Haydt rounded out the top 5.

The race had 10 caution flag periods for 49 laps with 4 different lead changes. Ty Hester led the way on the laps lead board leading 73 laps, Mogard led 34 laps, Troy Haydt led 17 laps and Jordan Harnish led for 1 lap. The race had an unexpected start to it going the first 30 laps green before the first yellow flew. During that first yellow it was Ty Hester cruising to the lead and showed early race dominance. The mid part of the race is where all the yellows started to happen.

Through all the yellows Hester maintained the lead for the first 73 laps of the event. Under a yellow the field would pit and staying out would be the #63 of Troy Haydt as he would take over the top spot and would lead for the next 17 laps.

Haydt fended off the fresh tires for a few restarts. However off a restart both Mogard and Hester would pressure the #63 and going into turn 3. Hester would get into Haydt and spin both Haydt and Hester out. This happened as Mogard was on the top of the race track and was able to cruise on by to take over the lead. This would turn out to be the last lead change as Mogard would hang on to the lead. He would have to deal with a late race restart with roughly 5 laps to go in which he was able to drive away from Harnish to cruise to his 3rd SMC Truck Series Win in 2017 and his 23rd Career ASRS Victory. Jordan Harnish finished 2nd, Jeremy Banning 3rd from his 20th starting spot, Kevin Mingus had a very impressive solid run finishing 4th, and Allan Young was the only playoff driver to have a good night rounding out the top 5 finishing 5th.

We caught up with Mogard and he had this to say on the win “It feels good to get the win in the SMC Truck Series. It’s been awhile and long overdue. We’ve ran decent but been lacking the performances I expect and the team expects out of the #01 Truck. I want to thank my sponsors Twitchy Race Reports, Coffman Racing Graphics, and lastly my team Maxxed Out Motorsports. I have to thank Kris Titus for again letting me be a part of the best team out there. Lastly again want to give a shout out to Titus’s mom Karla who is fighting cancer we are thinking about you and will continue to honor you in any way this team can!!!”

As for the Playoff drivers Allan Young topped the 6 drivers finishing 5th. Michael Atkins Jr. finished a solid 11th staying clean and working through the field as he started 30th on the grid. Devin Serra who was the pole sitter had some issues and was involved in some wrecks in the pack and wound up 12th. Jason Stewart had issues and was involved in a big wreck he ended up 17th. Brad Cross was involved in that wreck and ended up 20th. Lastly Jim Foose again was in mid-race crash finishing 22nd. The points are as they finished Young leads Atkins Jr., Serra, Stewart, Cross, and Foose.

Next week the SMC Truck Series heads to the high flying Texas Motor Speedway for Race #2 of the 2nd Round of the 2017 Playoffs. As always we strongly encourage you to check out the action LIVE from Off Camber TV. They provide top notch broadcast and we hope you check them out!!!!!