Justin Henderson and Cam Schafer were winners on the weather-delayed first night of the Power Series Nationals at Jackson Motorplex Saturday night.
The event was scheduled for four nights, two each at Jackson and Huset's Speedway in Brandon, but Friday's show was rained out.
There were 49 Midwest Power Series and Midwest Sprint Touring Series teams and 18 Upper Midwest Sprint Car Series non-wing sprint cars on hand on Saturday for the season finale at Jackson Motorplex.
Henderson dominated the $5,000-to-win Midwest Power Series/MSTS main event, which was only slowed by one caution with three laps remaining. Henderson had built a 2.989-second advantage prior to the late-race restart and that didn’t slow him much as he pulled away to win by 1.697 seconds.
"We love those $5,000 checks all day long," he said in Victory Lane. "Take it to the bank. It was a really technical race track. When you’re out front you’re always hearing someone out back of your car. I knew Kaleb (Johnson) had a really good car so when I saw him in second on that restart I was worried."
While Henderson had a comfortable advantage throughout the race and the late restart, the battle to fill the top five ramped up as the race wore on.
Kaleb Johnson maneuvered into the second position on Lap 9 and Brooke Tatnell took third place on Lap 13. Jack Dover climbed to fourth on Lap 21. He then powered around both Tatnell and Johnson on the top in turns three and four on the restart before Johnson regained second place on the ensuing lap.
"Going into the night with 49 cars, to come out with a second-place finish is nothing to hang our heads about," Johnson said. "We’ve been fast all year. We’ll keep digging and luckily we get two nights at Huset’s Speedway coming up."
Brooke Tatnell and Parker Price-Miller each set quick time in their qualifying group.
Brendan Mullen, Henderson, Wade Nygaard, Clint Garner, Ryan Timms and Johnson were heat race winners. Matt Juhl and Jacob Bubak each won a B Main.
Schafer was the Upper Midwest Sprint Car Series non-wing sprint cars winner.
"It’s pretty cool," he said. "I like this place a lot. I screwed up here last year when we were out here. I got off the bottom and let everybody by when it took rubber. I wasn’t going to let that happen twice."
Mike Mueller was second, with Nick DaRonco, Jake Kouba and Brian Roach rounding out the top five. Kouba and Schafer were heat winners.
The Power Series Nationals move to Huset’s Speedway for the final two nights Sunday and Monday.