Donald McIntosh led all 35 laps of the feature.
Donald McIntosh has had success at 411 Motor Speedway in the past and on Tuesday night the Dawsonville, GA native once again found his way to victory lane at the Seymour, TN track at the end of the Southern Nationals feature race. The driver of the Blount Motorsports entry collected $3,500 as he dominated the event for his first win of 2017 in the Ray Cook-promoted mini-series.
McIntosh was fastest in Group A and overall qualifying as he posted a time of 14.467 seconds around the 3/8 mile clay oval. Vic Hill joined McIntosh in being locked into the feature via time-trials from this group.
Australian David Doherty set the pace in Group B qualifying with a lap of 13.705 seconds. He was joined by David Crabtree as the two drivers locked into the main event from this group.
Riley Hickman beat out Brandon Overton, Craig Vosbergen and Jordan Rodabaugh to win the first heat of the night while Shanon Buckingham bested Ivedent Lloyd, Jr., Billy Ogle, Jr. and Austin Neely in the night’s second preliminary.
It was Steve Casebolt who scored the win in the third heat ahead of Jason Cardwell, Will Roland and Kenny Collins before Chicky Barton won the fourth and final heat race over Jake Knowles, Ryan King and Jeff Neubert.
The initial attempt to start the 35-lap feature got messy as a multi-car pileup on the front straightaway just before the completion of the first lap involved Doherty, Hill, Crabtree, Hickman, Neely and Vosbergen. All but Crabtree were able to continue with varying degrees of damage and the field was reset for another attempt to get the race going.
Once the race got underway, McIntosh used a slide job in turn two to seize the top spot ahead of Doherty, Barton, Hill and Cardwell. Hill, who won the series opener at Wythe(VA) Raceway on Saturday night, began to make his move early as he began working on Barton for the third position at lap 3. He would finally gain the spot on lap 6 but not before McIntosh had begun to pull away from the field.
Vic Hill(1) takes second away from Chicky Barton in the early going
Barton’s slide continued as he was passed by Knowles and Cardwell on lap 8. Further back, Buckingham and Hickman fought over sixth before Hickman eventually grabbed the position.
A lap 9 caution for an incident involving Barton and Vosbergen slowed the pace for the last time in the feature.
Hill then went to work on Doherty for the runner-up spot on lap 14 in hopes of moving closer to McIntosh, who by this point held a lead of almost a full straightaway. Meanwhile, series points leader Overton found himself languishing back in the pack as he worked his way up to seventh on lap 16.
Jake Knowles(66) battles David Doherty late int he feature
Hill was finally able to take second away from Doherty on lap 22, but by that time, McIntosh had checked out on the field. In the closing laps the closest battles on the speedway were between Knowles and Doherty for third and Cardwell and Overton for fifth before McIntosh drove under the checkered flag to claim the win.
Feature Finish: 1. Donald McIntosh, 2. Vic Hill, 3. Jake Knowles, 4. David Doherty, 5. Jason Cardwell, 6. Brandon Overton, 7. Riley Hickman, 8. Shanon Buckingham, 9. Steve Casebolt, 10. Kenny Collins, 11. Will Roland, 12. Ryan King, 13. Craig Vosbergen, 14. Billy Ogle Jr., 15. Ivedent Lloyd Jr., 16. Jeff Neubert, 17. Farrel Skelton, 18. Jason Walker, 19. Chicky Barton, 20. Jordan Rodabaugh, 21. David Crabtree, 22. Austin Neely
McIntosh in victory lane
