WEST SALEM – With 10 laps remaining, Jacob Goede was unsure if he could catch leader Adam Degenhardt.
“He was out there some distance away and I was like, ‘Man, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to get there,'” Goede said.
Not only did Goede catch Degenhardt, but the Carver driver made the pass for the lead with three laps remaining in Saturday night’s 25-lap NASCAR Kwik Trip Late Model feature at La Crosse Fairgrounds Speedway.
“I started to see that I was gaining ground and he was getting closer. That was good for me, my car was still turning well,” Goede said. “After two or three laps, I thought, ‘OK, I’m going to get there.’”
Goede took his third win in five races this season and extended his points lead to 33. The victory came on the same night he set the fastest qualifying time (19.573 seconds) for the first time this season.
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On the other hand, a spin by Prior Lake’s Adam Bendzick in the six-of-six race nearly took him and several of the championship contenders down. Goede has a lot of momentum, but he said there is no room to rest on his past results.
“I feel very good about the car and about our season in general,” Goede said. “(The fastest qualifying time) was a step in the right direction. We just have to take it week by week and that’s all you can do. I’ve been in these points races for many years and anything can happen. I could break something, crash, whatever.”
After winning his qualifying race, Coon Valley’s Degenhardt started on the outside of the front row and took the lead from Bryan Wrolstad. Degenhardt had built a huge lead over Steve and Mike Carlson before a yellow flag bunched up the field just before the halfway point of the race.
Degenhardt managed to take a good lead on the restart, but soon began to have problems in the corners.
“We were up front in the first race,” Degenhardt said. “We had built up enough of a lead and I started to take it easy. I probably ended up hurting myself because once we got that yellow the car got really tight and I just couldn’t get the speed or keep the speed through the corner where I needed to be able to compete with Jacob.”
Goede passed the Carlsons with 10 laps to go, and now had to chase Degenhardt from a final stretch. With four laps remaining, the No. 72 had reached Degenhardt’s rear bumper and passed him in turns three and four with three laps remaining.
Degenhardt finished second for his fourth top-five finish in five races.
“What a race from where we started tonight,” Degenhardt said. “I’m happy (with the car). It’s a 1996 model, so it’s nothing new or flashy. “I know him pretty well and he knows me pretty well.”
Bangor’s Skylar Holzhausen overcame frustrations in practice and made her way through the field to take third place. Holzhausen overtook Bendzick to take second place in the points standings.
“The car wasn’t good at all all day,” Holzhausen said. “We had an old tire and I think we were struggling with it. We made a couple of decent tweaks before the feature that made it a lot better so we could at least get it this far. He probably had a good enough car for second place but ran out of time. It was a good night.”
West Salem’s Steve Carlson finished fourth while Mike Carlson rounded out the top five.
After his near miss in the sprint race, Bendzick bounced back in the feature race and finished in sixth place. New Market’s Billy Mohn finished seventh after winning that sprint race.
After battling mechanical issues for weeks that forced him to miss the final Late Model race on June 8, West Salem’s Nick Clements redeemed himself with a ninth-place finish.
West Salem’s Tom Luethe spun entering the first turn on lap 12, bringing out the only caution of the race. Luethe dropped from eighth place at the time of the spin to 13th at the finish.
La Crescent’s Ryan Brown, who began his racing career in iRacing, earned his first win at the Fairgrounds in an elimination race. Brown finished 15th in the feature race.
NASCAR Kwik Trip Late Models will be available through July 13 for Pischke Motors Kids Night.
James Krause can be reached by email at James.KrauseJr@lee.net or on Twitter @jkrausepro.
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