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| The first shots are from qualifying. Brady Bacon |
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| Dalton Armstrong |
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| Gary Taylor |
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| Two time Belleville champ Jerry Coons Jr |
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| Another double Nats winner, Bryan Clauson |
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| Cody Brewer |
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| Troy DeCaire |
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| CJ Johnson |
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| Jerry Coons Jr in his heat. |
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| Bryan Clauson and Kody Swanson in heat #1. |
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| Darren Hagen (3) and Kyle Larson. |
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| Kyle Larson (67) and Todd Plemons's nose. |
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| Kyle Larson and Brad Kuhn (17). |
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| Troy DeCaire (12), Bob Harr (2), and Jeff Stasa in the semi. |
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| Chris DeShon (51), Chris Coker (middle), and Chett Gehrke. |
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| Rick Montgomery (32) and Doug McCune. |
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| When Dalton (red nose) and Caleb Armstrong got together in the B, this chain reaction followed...... |
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| First, Keith Rauch (27) got sideways trying to miss them and Chett Gehrke got into him........ |
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| Then, Chris DeShon (51) goes high to miss Rauch forcing Troy DeCaire (12) even higher............ |
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| Until about this point, DeCaire thought he was going to squeeze through, but.... |
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| .......he caught the wall and kicked sideways and........... |
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| ........wound up taking this ride. |
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| DeCaire was OK, but the car needed a bunch of work. |
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| Scott Fennell (33) and Doug McCune near the end of the B. |
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| At the start of the feature, Bryan Clauson works by Kyle Larson (67) on his way to the front. |
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| Chris DeShon (51) and Tracy Hines early in the feature. Hines broke shortly after this. |
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| Zach Daum (5) and Caleb Armstrong, |
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| Kyle Larson again, this time with Bobby East. |
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| Bryan Clauson taking the lead from Bobby East on lap 12. |
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| East & Larson again. |
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| Gary Taylor (4) and Jerry Coons Jr. |
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| Brady Bacon (11) and Darren Hagen. |
This was a lot of openers; season opener for USAC and for DCRP AND Tommie Estes Jr's first running the second while working for the first. Got that straight? Dodge City Raceway Park is now "running under the auspices of" USAC and they got the VERY briefly retired Estes to come up & run the track for them. Good choice. This guy knows racing from both sides of the guardrail and he had track and staff in great shape.
The weather was even perfect for night one of the two day show. Thirty seven cars qualified and ran heats. Heat one set the tone for the weekend with Bobby East and Bryan Clauson starting in the middle of the pack. East got out in front early, but Clauson struggled a little to get through traffic. When he did, East had checked out and the race looked to be over until a late yellow bunched 'em up again. East still had to much for Clauson and held on to the win.
The rest of the heats were clean and fast with perhaps the biggest surprise being the showing of CJ Johnson, well known sprint driver from Quinter, Kansas. Darren Hagen had to work for several laps to get by Johnson he finished in 2nd ahead of Brad Kuhn and Kyle Larson!
Second quick qualifier Gary Taylor had trouble in his heat and had to run the semi. Back on pace, he won pretty easily, but the racing was hot behind him. Nearing the end, Caleb and Dalton Anderson touched in turn four, got sideways and started a chain reaction. While they continued, cars trying to miss them bunched up and Tampa, Florida driver Troy DeCaire wound up pinched into the wall and flipped. He was unhurt, but both ends of the car got torn up. Whne I talked to him after the show, he was busy trying to get it put back together for Saturday.
In the feature, Daren Hagen set the pace early leading the first eight laps before Bobby East took over the point. But, Bryan Clauson was lurking just behind and in another three laps he took the lead away from East and never looked back. East held on to second and Brady Bacon, now in the familiar white #11 Wilke-Pak car, finished third.
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