Chadwick Scores Impressive Victory At Sunset Speedway

Banks, Oregon...June 17...Kellen Chadwick won his third Wild West Shoot Out IMCA Modified Main Event in five starts in the 35 lap race at Sunset Speedway Friday night. Chadwick came into the night as the point leader in the series and did nothing to hurt that as he started on the pole and led all 35 laps for the impressive victory aboard his Pro Motorsports/Antioch Muffler sponsored Rage Chassis. That was Kellen's third $1,000 victory this week as he competes for the lion's share of the $3,500 point fund for the series championship. NASCAR veteran Kenny Schrader picked up a $600 second place finish aboard his Federated Auto Parts Modified.

Only Bricen James of the incoming Top 5 point runners missed the Main Event as Chadwick, 2014 champion Alex Stanford, Collen Winebarger and Mark Wauge made the show. Chadwick and Schrader shared the front row, and Chadwick raced into the early lead. Within about ten laps, Chadwick already had a straightaway advantage over Schrader as Rob Ireland ran third. Mark Carroll and Stanford were fourth and fifth at the lap ten mark as Tripp Gaylord and John Campos ran right behind Stanford in a good battle. Carroll moved by Stanford for fifth on lap 11, and the first yellow didn't come until lap 18 for debris on the track. Chadwick continued to lead Schrader on the restart as Carroll moved into third. Schrader was enjoying a good battle with Carroll for second. Another yellow flag flew for debris on lap 26, and Wauge tangled with B.J. Wild for a lap 28 caution flag. There was a bit of contact with Schrader and Chadwick on the restart, but Chadwick continued to lead Schrader and Carroll. T. Gaylord made a late move around Carroll for third. There was no stopping Chadwick as he drove to a well earned victory. Schrader settled for second ahead of T. Gaylord, Carroll and Ryan Scott Gaylord.

Chadwick was a bit concerned about the initial start. "I was a little bit worried about what Ken would do, " he admitted. "I knew it was gonna be hard to get around Kenny."

That didn't turn out to be a problem for the second generation racer as he had the lead by the time they exited the first turn. However, there was another concern on his mind. "As small as this track is, I was a little worried about what it would be like in traffic, " Kellen explained. "There's not a lot of room out there, so I was worried how that would be. You don't want to be seeing a bunch of yellow flags in a race, but they came out at the right time for me."

Kellen hasn't been to Elma in a while, though he had one of his biggest wins up there earlier in his career. He knows what he's hoping for. "I don't know what the track is gonna be like, " said Chadwick. "I hope it's gonna be slick and black, because that's what we've been good on all week."

As for Schrader, he knew early on that this wasn't gonna be his race without some bad luck for Chadwick. "We weren't even in the same zip code, " joked Kenny, who spent the day before giving kids rides in his race car. "He was way faster than me. We did some changes, and they didn't work. I still think we made the right call."

The deciding race for the series championship will take place tomorrow night at Greys Harbor Speedway in Elma, Washington.