Justin Henderson is having a great season, adding to his records with every feature he races. He’s won five features this year with the Midwest Power Series; no one else has more than one. That is a series record for wins in a season. He’s won the last three features consecutively with the series matching a record set by…Justin Henderson. Tonight’s win at Cedar Lake was the 10th of his career with MPS, which is a record. He’s a legendary driver in the region, and 2020 is a real return to form for the driver from Tea, SD
This win was not without effort, as Brooke Tatnell gave Henderson all he can handle. Justin Henderson started pole along-side James Broty on the front row and took the early race lead on lap 1. After the first two laps were completed, an early caution would fly for Javon Osterman. Osterman was running sixth in his first career start. On the subsequent restart, the caution would fly again for Scott Broty, but during the caution flag laps third-place running Bill Balog would be forced out due to mechanical difficulties. When the green flag flew again, the haymakers came out. Tatnell took the lead on lap 4 with a big slide job in turns three and four. The two would trade the race lead officially and unofficially 3 more times beyond that. Slide jobs were traded like kids on the playground trading football cards.
On lap number eight it was officially Justin Henderson’s lead, and he would not give it up again. Tatnell stayed right on the tail tank of the family-owned Max Motorsports 83 until a lap 22 red flag came out for Derrik Lusk. In the laps leading up to that red, there were some signs of smoke out of the left side of the headers of the Brooke Tatnell 63 car. During the red flag Brooke Tatnell decided that the mechanical issue was too severe and was forced to retire his 360 sprint car. That allowed Kaleb Johnson to move into the runner up position and hard charging Jody Rosenboom to third from 13th. Johnson and Rosenboom would battle for the runner up spot during the last three laps, but Henderson drove off into he distance to extend his series record with win number 10 in his career with Midwest Power Series. Kaleb Johnson held on to second, Rosenboom third, Chris Graf and Josh Schneiderman rounded out the top 5. Joe Beaver came from 20th to seventh to pick up the $150 hard charger award from GRP Motorsports. Kaleb Johnson, James Broty, and Jamey Ogston won $150 for winning heats coming from Broty Racing Engines.
The Midwest Power Series is next in action next weekend at the Huset’s Speedway for the Power Series Nationals on Sept. 18-19.
Full field rundown:
A Feature 1 (25 Laps): 1. 83-Justin Henderson[1]; 2. 22-Kaleb Johnson[4]; 3. 14-Jody Rosenboom[13]; 4. 5T-Mark Toews[16]; 5. 20G-Chris Graf[9]; 6. 49-Josh Schneiderman[14]; 7. 53-Joe Beaver[20]; 8. 50-Chase Viebrock[19]; 9. 5-Javen Ostermann[7]; 10. 36-Jason Tostenson[10]; 11. 33S-Jeremy Schultz[22]; 12. 0-Blake Wondra[21]; 13. 91A-Reed Allex[15]; 14. 03-Jamey Ogston[6]; 15. (DNF) 63-Brooke Tatnell[3]; 16. (DNF) 2-Derrik Lusk[17]; 17. (DNF) 33-James Broty[2]; 18. (DNF) 15C-Carter Chevalier[11]; 19. (DNF) 64-Bill Balog[5]; 20. (DNF) 14R-Sean Rayhall[12]; 21. (DNF) 33B-Scott Broty[8]; 22. (DNF) 7-Harry Hanson[18]