For the second time in his career, Austin Nason of Roscoe, Illinois, picked up the win in the 200 lap Joe Shear Classic presented by Toyota for the Appalachian Sucker Punch ASA Midwest Tour at Madison International Speedway. He also won the event here in 2018. The veteran driver took the lead on lap 174 and led the rest of the way to pick up the checkered flag. It was his third Midwest Tour win at Madison and his fourth here in a Super Late Model.
Jordan DeVoy and Justin Mondeik brought the field of twenty-three cars to the green flag. Mondeik jumped out to the early lead, but Gabe Sommers quickly moved up to challenge Mondeik for the lead. On lap 3 Sommers worked his way to the inside of Mondeik to take the lead. On lap 5 Jacob Goede moved past Mondeik to take the second spot.
Out front Sommers opened up an eight car length lead over Goede with Mondeik doing everything he could to hold of Penn Sauter. Debris on the track on lap 12 brought out the first caution flag of the day.
Sommers maintained his lead over Goede on the restart on lap 16. On lap 21 Austin Nason moved into fourth and took third one lap later. Nason, who started thirteenth, was now the fastest car on the track and worked his way to the inside of Goede on lap 26 to take second.
Just outside the top five, Ty Majeski and Andrew Morrissey were running side by side for lap after lap just behind Luke Fenhaus who was in sixth. The battle between Majeski and Morrissey allowed Derek Kraus to join the battle. On lap 45 Sommers caught the tail end of the field putting Mitch Haver a lap down. Majeski, who was now running laps at nearly the same pace as Sommers, was able to clear Morrissey on lap 46 and start hunting down Fenhaus.
Sommers was putting a lot of ground between himself and Nason and had built a three second lead by lap 40. Majeski and Kraus both worked their way by Fenhaus on lap 55 to take sixth and seventh respectively.
The second yellow flag came out on lap 64 for the first competition caution. Sommers and Nason paced the field back to the green flag on lap 69 but it was waved off as cars checked up behind the leaders which resulted in some front end damage to Majeski. Sommers continued to lead following the successful restart on lap 74 followed by Nason, Goede, Sauter, and Kraus. On lap 80 Nason appeared to have caught Sommers while Goede had his hands full with Sauter. On lap 83 Ty Fredrikson’s day ended when he pulled his car off the track.
Nason began to slow on lap 85 allowing Goede and Sauter to pass him and eventually Kraus would do the same on lap 91 with defending winner Casey Johnson into the top five on lap 92. Goede had mechanical issues on lap 100 forcing him to the infield pits which allowed Sauter to move up to second. On lap 110 Johnson would head to the pits also with mechanical issues.
The top three remained the same but the man on the move was John DeAngelis Jr., who started twentieth, and was now all the way up to fourth with Morrissey also moving into the top five.
The competition caution came out on lap 120 with all cars pitting except for Morrissey.
Morrissey and Sommers led the field back to green on lap 127, but a multi-car spin coming out of turn two brought out the caution flag and sent Majeski to the pits. Sommers regained the top spot on the restart followed by Morrissey, Sauter, DeAngelis Jr. and Kraus.
Sommers grew his lead out front while Morrissey and Sauter were fighting it out for second with Kraus joining the mix. On lap 145 Sauter found the room to sneak by Morrissey on the inside with Morrissey getting the spot back one lap later. Sauter moved back into second on the next lap on lap 149. On lap 152 Nason worked his way all the way up to fifth and was the fastest car on the track and was closing in on the fourth place car of Morrissey.
Disaster struck for Sommers on lap 157 when his car slowed on the front stretch due to a suspension issue giving the lead to Sauter with Kraus and Nason now second and third. Nason powered his way past Kraus for second on lap 164 and was starting to hunt down Sauter. The caution flag came out on lap 168 when Nick Egan had to take his car to the pits.
The race continued on lap 172 with Nason on the inside and Sauter on the outside in the race back to green. Nason and Sauter stayed side by side with Nason gaining the advantage on lap 174 just before the caution came out when Paul Shafer Jr. and Nick Panitzke spun in turn one.
Nason chose to line up on the outside with Sauter on the inside followed by Fenhaus and Kraus. Nason held the lead by inches over Sauter after the first lap before he cleared him for the lead with Kraus eventually getting by Sauter for second. On lap 187 Fenhaus moved past Sauter for third.
With ten laps to go, Nason had a four car length lead over Kraus and he increased his lead over Kraus to eight car lengths with five laps to go while Fenhaus and Sauter were side by side for third. Nason would lead the rest of the way to pick up the win over Kraus, Fenhaus, Sauter, and Morrissey.
The ASA Midwest Tour will be back at Madison on Friday, July 24th for the Howie Lettow Classic.