Story By: TYLER ALTMEYER / CJB MOTORSPORTS – CARLISLE, PA – Spencer Bayston’s weekend at the highbanks of Federated Auto Parts Raceway at I-55 in Pevely, Missouri, worked out to be almost perfect, not only concluding the Ironman 55 doubleheader with back-to-back top-ten finishes, but scoring a victory in the process.
The win, the fifth of Bayston’s World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series career, was accomplished in Friday’s preliminary, surviving an elbows-up surface for a $10,000 payday.
Bayston, who started third on Friday’s preliminary grid, took command aboard his CJB Motorsports, TrueTimber Camo, Rothco, JRC Transportation, Nyce Crete and Landis, Ecynbro Trucking, C&S Lawn and Landscape, Kistler Engines, No. 5 sprint car on lap five, sneaking by early race leader and California native, Cole Macedo. From that point forward, it was all Bayston at the front of the field, stretching his lead to just over four seconds. Unfortunately, heavy fence damage on lap 21, the result of heavy contact by a fellow competitor, would deem the race complete.
The Lebanon, Indiana, native would go on to finish sixth in the 55-lap, $20,000-to-win Ironman 55 finale the following evening; Bayston started 11th.
“You start to wonder if you can win again,” Bayston mentioned. “You know, it’s been over a year. We have all the tools. We have great partners. Great members and a phenomenal car owner with Chad Clemens. There are times you start to question yourself. Just to get his out of the way feels really, really good.
“It feels so good,” Bayston added. “I know that’s not the normal, conventional, way to do it, but I was certainly happy for that one to be over. But I was so confident with my car and with what [my CJB Motorsports team] did with it there before the Feature to give me a car that was versatile and could move around through traffic and could battle. I was confident if we ran that one out, I could keep cutting my laps and we’d be in good shape.”