Tyler Courtney Blazes to Lucas Oil Win; Comes Up From 9th

Tyler Courtney and team in Victory Lane after winning at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, MO (Photo: High Limit Racing Media)

WHEATLAND, Mo. — High Limit Racing traveled to Lucas Oil Speedway for their first time on Friday to take part in the Diamond Classic, with night one being later on.

Sye Lynch and Corey Day led the 26-car field to the starting line in Turn 4 to kick off the 30-lap race. Upon the drop of the green flag, Lynch and Day drag raced down the front stretch and throughout the first set of turns, but Lynch managed to stay ahead of Day to lead his first ever lap with High Limit Racing.

A couple laps later, Day caught up to Lynch one again and went for the lead. As they headed towards Turn 3, Day went high and was able to cut down in front Lynch taking over first in a slide job to lead Lap 4.

Six laps after that, Day, who had held the lead thus far and was pulling away from the rest of the field, had something break. Day slowed in Turn 4 and coasted a little down the front straight, bringing out a caution and ending his night along with any chance of winning the race.

At the end of Lap 12, Tyler Courtney was working his way towards second place and the man who held it, Brad Sweet. As they raced side-by-side going into Turns 1 and 2, Courtney nearly got together with Sweet as he drifted up high. Luckily, Courtney managed to not hit Sweet, and the two of them were able to duke it out for a few more laps before another caution came out for Justin Peck spinning in Turn 4. Then a red flag came out because Brent Marks got upside-down in Turn 3.

On the restart, Lynch started out good, but as he was coming back around Sweet went high and cut down in front of him to steal away first place. Lynch did not like it at all and went after Sweet to try and reclaim his spot back. He had it for a second going into Turn 3 from a slide job, but Sweet was able to keep it ahead of him to stay in the lead. Courtney, who saw this going on, decided to close in on Lynch as well to try and get second.

Brad Sweet competing at Lucas Oil Speedway in Wheatland, MO (Photo: Kasey Kahne Racing Media)

Brenham Crouch spun out in Turn 4 bringing out a caution just as Courtney, Lynch and Sweet were getting intense for the lead. But this did not stop the action from picking right back up from where it was when the green flag waved again. 

Sweet was able to shoot back out to the lead with Lynch following right behind him on the low side, but this time Courtney was right there just looking for a little mistake from either of them to take their position. That is exactly how Lynch lost second to Courtney.  Lynch went too low and Courtney zoomed right past him.

With five laps to go, Courtney took the high side in an attempt to get away from Lynch’s shots at second, and was able to put some serious distance between himself and Lynch as well as pass Sweet for the lead.

Lynch, now in third, was feeling the pressure from Tanner Thorson in fourth who wanted another podium finish for his season record. Thorson was slowly closing the gap between him and Lynch with each turn of the wheel. But James McFadden was back in fifth, and he wanted a podium finish as well.

McFadden saw that Thorson and Lynch were running the middle and top and decided to go down low. This proved to be a great move for McFadden because not only did he pass Thorson for fourth, but he got Lynch for third as well, gaining access into the top three with one lap to go.

Courtney was able to hang onto first to win night one of the Diamond Classic, as well as an extra $4,500 because of the Durst Dice Roll. Because he started from ninth and a fan rolled the number nine on a pair of dice, he and the fan got to split $9,000.

High Limit Racing continues their Diamond Classic on Saturday night at the same track.