Logan Seavey sweeps at I-44

Story By: NICK GRAZIANO – RIVERSIDE, CA – Logan Seavey made tackling the rough track conditions of I-44 Riverside Speedway look easy Saturday night.

While competitors behind him played rodeo, bouncing around the scattered ruts in the track, the Sutter, Calif. native eased his way to the led by lap 12 and cruised to his second win in-a-row at the speedway, during the third night of the 6th annual POWRi Turnpike Challenge.

“Once we got up front, this thing was so good,” Seavey said. “A couple of little mistakes there, bouncing through the holes in (turn) one, but this car is so good.”

Until a caution with two laps to go, Seavey had more than a three second lead over second place, Tyler Thomas. And while Seavey was dominating, his teammate, Christopher Bell, stole the show once again.

Riding the high line, Bell passed eight cars on the first lap of the race, making his way to 14th from 22nd. The Norman, Okla. native then continued to pick off one or two cars every few laps, eventually stalling out at third place.

“It was tough,” Bell said. “The track was really tough. It got rough going into turn one there. It made it interesting. I know a lot of guys were hanging on through there.”

The roughness of the track didn’t make his trek to the front easy, as the ruts in turn one threw him off his line at times, or threw other drivers off their line and hindered his run. But Bell put his full talent on display, wrestling with the steering wheel to place his car exactly where it needed to be every corner.

His 19-position charge to the front, topped his Friday night charge from 14th to 2nd.

Keeping him from another runner-up finish was fellow Oklahoma native, Thomas. His second-place finish was redemption from a disappointing 17th-place finish Friday night.

“It was uncharacteristic of use to run in the back there last night,” Thomas said.

To solve that problem, he brought out his back-up car for Saturday night’s race and found speed once again.

“We’re happy with it,” Thomas said. “My dad did a really good job setting it up tonight.”

Different from Friday night’s race at I-44, the groove widened closer to the wall, giving drivers more options to move around. Thomas said it was surprising how wide the track got, but it was clear from Hot Laps the track was going to be different.

“Obviously turn one was pretty technical all night,” Thomas said. “A lot of guys really struggled through there. We didn’t seem to struggle too bad getting through there, so that got us a couple of positions through the Feature.”

Keith Kunz Motorsports cars have dominated the first three races of the Turnpike Challenge, and will have the chance to claim all four nights of the challenge Sunday night at Port City Raceway in Tulsa, Okla.