On July 16th, Johnny Scott took command on lap two of the 16th annual CMH Diamond Nationals Presented by Summit Racing Equipment and never gave up the lead – even as four-time race winner Jimmy Owens made a frantic late charge.

It was enough to make Scott plenty anxious, with Owens closing in and with lapped traffic to navigate on the final circuit around Lucas Oil Speedway on Saturday night.

But Scott, of Las Cruces, New Mexico, held on to beat Owens by .678 seconds in a caution-free 50 laps that clicked past in just 14 minutes, 32 seconds.

Scott, a one-time nationally renowned Modified ace, earned $15,000 and a diamond ring for the biggest victory of his Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and Lucas Oil MLRA career.

“It’s a heck of a night,” Scott said in victory lane. “I’ve been trying so hard to win these Lucas Oil races. It just feels good to get one.”

Brandon Sheppard rallied late to finish third with Mark Burgtorf fourth in his first appearance at Lucas Oil Speedway. Strickler slipped over the last two laps and finished fifth in the quickest Diamond Nationals in terms of elapsed time.

Scott earned an MLRA Spring Nationals feature win at Lucas Oil Speedway and the Tribute to Don and Billie Gibson during Memorial Day Weekend, a preliminary to the Show-Me 100. The Diamond Nationals triumph marked his fifth Lucas Oil MLRA victory of the season and gave him back the series points lead.

It did get a little nerve-wracking near the end as Owens, who’s also a four-time Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series champ, made it interesting.

“My stick guy was telling me they were coming,” Scott said of the final two laps. “I knew they were right there. It worked out for us, that’s all I can say. I just have to thank all my crew. Without them none of this would be possible, and my sponsors.

“Everybody at Longhorn (chassis) and my brother (Stormy), without them none of this would be possible. They help me a ton on this car. I’m just glad we could put it all together.”

Third-starting Owens, of Newport, Tennessee, got a great run at the start and had the lead after one lap, but it was Scott moving from fifth to first by lap two. He would lead Owens as the duo entered lapped traffic until Kyle Strickler slipped past Owens and into the runner-up spot on lap 22.

From there, Scott’s lead peaked at 2.09 seconds by lap 35 as the leaders continued to work slower traffic. Scott had a difficult time for several laps getting past his brother, Stormy, along with Logan Martin and Tyler Erb and that allowed Strickler and Owens to gain ground.

Owens regained second by lap 45 and continued to cut into the margin, trying to work the high side as Scott maintained his line and said tried to stay consistent.

“We were just moving around,” Owens said. “The bottom was so dominant the whole race. It’s usually not like that. We were just trying to get around lapped cars. I just got up about three or four laps too late.

“I had the opportunity to win the race. I just slipped up off the bottom and let Johnny get by me. I knew he was going to be tough to beat. He’s been good here the last several times he’s been here. Hats off to those guys. They deserve a good win.”

Sheppard called his third-place run solid with his car finding its best footing near the end.

“It (the track) slowed down there at the end and we were able to move out on the race track some. It was a solid night for us. Obviously we wanted to win, but the car was really good and we had a solid night. Hopefully we can carry some of this momentum into the next couple of weeks.”

Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series points leader Tim McCreadie finished sixth.

Johnny Scott had the fast overall qualifying lap in time trials – which started about an hour later than planned due to a late-afternoon rain shower – at 14.762 seconds in Group A. Spencer Hughes had fast time in Group B at 15.059.

A total of 35 Late Models entered the Diamond Nationals, one more than in 2021. Hudson O’Neal, who won the first two legs of the weekend tour at I-70 Speedway and Tri-City Speedway, wound up 11th after starting 18th.

Johnson rolls to USRA Modified victory: Matt Johnson of Adrian captured his second Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modified feature win of the Lucas Oil Speedway season in five attempts, leading all 20 laps. He finished 3.2 seconds in front of Dustin Hodges.

Johnson started on the pole and immediately grabbed command, running off to a four-second lead over Hodges nine laps into the event. But a caution wiped out that big margin and bunched the field for a restart.

Once again, Johnson exerted his dominance and drove off to win by nearly a straightaway margin as the final 11 laps went without a caution. Along with his two wins, Johnson has three other top-four finishes at the speedway this season.

Hodges edged Robbie Reed, track champ in 2019 and 2020, for second. Reigning points champ and 2022 championship leader Dillon McCowan wound up fourth and Nic Bidinger was fifth.

“This track is amazing right now,” Johnson said. “I’m blessed to have my family with me tonight and I couldn’t be happier.

“I was worired about my tires sealing over and I tried not to run too hard. But hats off to Scott Bailey Racing Engines and Tommy McCoy has this MB Customs on a rail.”

USRA Stock Cars win to Willie: Dean Willie earned his second O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars feature win of the season, holding off William Garner by one car length.

Willie, of Warresnburg, started fifth and he took over the lead from Rodney Schweitzer coming off turn two on lap four. But Schweitzer used the inside groove to regain the top spot the next time around.

The order stayed that way until they flipped positions again on lap 13 as Willie edged by and William Garner was right behind the top two.

Garner advanced into second on lap 16 and pressured Willie the rest of the way, but could not get by. Willie prevailed by .341 seconds. It was Garner’s second straight runner-up feature finish.

“We were just a little bit tight tonight,” Willie said of the car, “but we figured out enough to make it happen. Somebody was there on me and got me plumb sideways on that last lap. That’s racing. It made it fun. We were tight at the end and causing me to be higher on corner exit than I wanted to be.”

Schweitzer finished third with Ed Griggs fourth and Robert White taking fifth.

LUCAS OIL SPEEDWAY UNOFFICIAL RESULTS (July 16, 2022)
16th annual CMH Diamond Nationals Presented by Summit Racing Equipment
Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series/Lucas Oil MLRA
A Feature – 1. 1ST-Johnny Scott[5]; 2. 20-Jimmy Owens[3]; 3. 1-Brandon Sheppard[7]; 4. 7B-Mark Burgtorf[9]; 5. 8-Kyle Strickler[1]; 6. 39-Tim McCreadie[11]; 7. 58-Garrett Alberson[13]; 8. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[4]; 9. 11-Spencer Hughes[2]; 10. 18D-Daulton Wilson[15]; 11. 71-Hudson O’Neal[18]; 12. 1S-Jeremy Shaw[6]; 13. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[12]; 14. 1T-Tyler Erb[19]; 15. 25-Chad Simpson[17]; 16. 36-Logan Martin[8]; 17. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[22]; 18. 7-Ross Robinson[23]; 19. 2S-Stormy Scott[20]; 20. 10G-Garrett Smith[10]; 21. 22H-Daniel Hilsabeck[14]; 22. 10-Jacob Magee[26]; 23. 78S-Steve Stultz[25]; 24. 7H-Brett Hansen[24]; 25. 93-Mason Oberkramer[16]; 26. 15L-Payton Looney[21]

Fast Shafts B Main 1 – 1. 25-Chad Simpson[1]; 2. 1T-Tyler Erb[3]; 3. 15L-Payton Looney[5]; 4. 50K-Kayden Clatt[8]; 5. 7H-Brett Hansen[7]; 6. 78S-Steve Stultz[10]; 7. 14M-Reid Millard[9]; 8. 22M-Steve McDowell[4]; 9. 65-Jon Binning[2]; 10. (DNS) 96-Dalton Imhoff

UNOH B Main 2 – 1. 71-Hudson O’Neal[1]; 2. 2S-Stormy Scott[3]; 3. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[2]; 4. 7-Ross Robinson[4]; 5. 7W-Cole Wells[5]; 6. 10-Jacob Magee[7]; 7. 3-Brennon Willard[8]; 8. 49-Justin Wells[6]; 9. (DNS) 80-Rich Dawson

Penske Shocks Heat 1 – 1. 8-Kyle Strickler[4]; 2. 1ST-Johnny Scott[1]; 3. 7B-Mark Burgtorf[3]; 4. 58-Garrett Alberson[8]; 5. 25-Chad Simpson[2]; 6. 1T-Tyler Erb[7]; 7. 15L-Payton Looney[5]; 8. 7H-Brett Hansen[6]; 9. 14M-Reid Millard[9]

Summit Racing Equipment Heat 2 – 1. 20-Jimmy Owens[1]; 2. 1-Brandon Sheppard[3]; 3. 39-Tim McCreadie[5]; 4. 18D-Daulton Wilson[2]; 5. 65-Jon Binning[7]; 6. 22M-Steve McDowell[9]; 7. (DNF) 50K-Kayden Clatt[6]; 8. (DNF) 96-Dalton Imhoff[4]; 9. (DNF) 78S-Steve Stultz[8]

Simpson Race Products Heat 3 – 1. 11-Spencer Hughes[1]; 2. 1S-Jeremy Shaw[2]; 3. 10G-Garrett Smith[3]; 4. 22H-Daniel Hilsabeck[4]; 5. 71-Hudson O’Neal[6]; 6. 2S-Stormy Scott[5]; 7. 7W-Cole Wells[7]; 8. 10-Jacob Magee[8]; 9. 80-Rich Dawson[9]
Ohlins Shocks Heat 4 – 1. 46-Earl Pearson Jr[2]; 2. 36-Logan Martin[1]; 3. 20RT-Ricky Thornton Jr[5]; 4. 93-Mason Oberkramer[3]; 5. 15V-Kolby Vandenbergh[4]; 6. 7-Ross Robinson[7]; 7. 49-Justin Wells[6]; 8. 3-Brennon Willard[8]

Cedar Creek Beef Jerky USRA Modifieds
A Feature – 1. 1X-Matt Johnson[1]; 2. 22H-Dustin Hodges[3]; 3. 5-Robbie Reed[2]; 4. 8-Dillon McCowan[5]; 5. 3B-Nic Bidinger[4]; 6. 38C-Jason Pursley[8]; 7. 20JR-Todd Shute[21]; 8. 96-Cody Brill[12]; 9. 4R-Jared Russell[13]; 10. 89-Tate Cole[9]; 11. 55H-AJ Hoff[14]; 12. 88-Jimmy Dowell[10]; 13. 23-Lucas Dobbs[15]; 14. 98-Jeff Cutshaw[17]; 15. 24D-Jesse Dill[6]; 16. 73-Jay Arnold[20]; 17. 73B-Mickey Burrell[18]; 18. 11JR-Randal Schiffelbein Jr[7]; 19. (DNF) 28C-Thomas Creech[16]; 20. (DNS) 16S-Eric Turner; 21. (DNS) 21TW-Tracy Wolf

Heat 1 – 1. 1X-Matt Johnson[4]; 2. 3B-Nic Bidinger[3]; 3. 24D-Jesse Dill[2]; 4. 11JR-Randal Schiffelbein Jr[6]; 5. 88-Jimmy Dowell[1]; 6. 96-Cody Brill[8]; 7. 55H-AJ Hoff[9]; 8. 23-Lucas Dobbs[5]; 9. 98-Jeff Cutshaw[7]; 10. 73-Jay Arnold[10]

Heat 2 – 1. 22H-Dustin Hodges[1]; 2. 5-Robbie Reed[5]; 3. 8-Dillon McCowan[4]; 4. 38C-Jason Pursley[6]; 5. 16S-Eric Turner[3]; 6. 89-Tate Cole[9]; 7. 4R-Jared Russell[11]; 8. 28C-Thomas Creech[7]; 9. 73B-Mickey Burrell[8]; 10. 21TW-Tracy Wolf[2]; 11. 20JR-Todd Shute[10]

O’Reilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars
A Feature – 1. 68-Dean Wille[5]; 2. 7-William Garner[2]; 3. 74-Rodney Schweizer[1]; 4. 47-Ed Griggs[4]; 5. 5-Robert White[7]; 6. 41-Bryan White[8]; 7. 8M-James McMillin[11]; 8. 7D-Doug Keller[9]; 9. 11-Waylon Dimmitt[6]; 10. 3C-Chad Staus[14]; 11. 2-Zeb Keepper[12]; 12. 83-James Ellis[17]; 13. 12-Christopher Sawyer[10]; 14. 2C-Colton Bourland[16]; 15. 0F-Mason Beck[3]; 16. 111-Jason Newman[18]; 17. (DNF) 13-Lyle Dietrich[15]; 18. (DNF) 21P-Darren Phillips[13]; 19. (DNF) 91J-Jaylen Wettengel[20]; 20. (DNS) 5K-Steve Herrick

Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 1 – 1. 7-William Garner[1]; 2. 47-Ed Griggs[2]; 3. 11-Waylon Dimmitt[4]; 4. 5-Robert White[7]; 5. 41-Bryan White[9]; 6. 2-Zeb Keepper[6]; 7. 21P-Darren Phillips[3]; 8. 13-Lyle Dietrich[10]; 9. 83-James Ellis[5]; 10. 111-Jason Newman[8]

Bill Roberts Chevrolet Heat 2 – 1. 74-Rodney Schweizer[2]; 2. 0F-Mason Beck[4]; 3. 68-Dean Wille[5]; 4. 12-Christopher Sawyer[1]; 5. 7D-Doug Keller[9]; 6. 8M-James McMillin[8]; 7. 3C-Chad Staus[3]; 8. 2C-Colton Bourland[7]; 9. (DNF) 91J-Jaylen Wettengel[10]

Photo: GS Stanek Racing Photography