Matt kingsbury gets first win at chicago

Tonight Lionheart racing series makes stop 3 on the season at the 1.5 mile Chicagoland Speedway. Matt Kingsbury took the pole for the 2nd time of the season and led the field to green in what would turn out to be an action-packed race. 

Matt took off with the lead and Korey Connor goes flipping on lap 1 but the green flag stayed out. Trevor Malone tried for the lead early and takes the lead on the outside on lap 7. The first caution flew on lap 9 when Ian Adams hit the wall in turn 4 collecting Jason Robarge. 

The field comes down to pit road with Matt winning the race but Ray Kingsbury stayed out to assume the lead. Matt took the lead from Ray quickly as Ray started to fade on older tires. After a few laps Korey hit the wall again bringing out a caution this time on lap 20. 

Joe Hassert skips the pits to lead a lap and leads the field to green with Tony Lurcock in 2nd. Joe tried to run away from the field, but Tony kept him within reach where they would run in order until the 3rd caution hit when Bradley Walters hit the wall in turn 4 on lap 30 collecting Vern Wigant. The leaders would stay out and Joe would keep the lead. The race goes back green with Joe catching the field with their collective pants down getting out to a big lead but Tony was able to reel him back in but kept it conservative settling into 2nd. The race was just couldnt gain any momentum with another caution when Matt got into Daniel Benefield in turn two and Daniel couldn't save it collecting multiple cars. 

Dan Geren stays out this time with the leaders pitting and takes his first lead of the race. Austin Espitee took over the lead with a pass on lap 47 and the top 5 spots were occupied by the teammates of Last Lap Motorsports. The field finally got some green laps going but Daniel Benefield spun to bring out another caution. 

Pit strategy was key with the leaders coming down the pit lane and Chris Lanini taking the lead with Jorge Anzaldo following in the fuel strategy game. The front of the field would stay pretty calm with Chris in the lead but chaos would be king in the middle of the pack with cars weaving and going 3 wide in places and yet another caution would hit as Michael Gray clips points leader Jesse Vincent in turn 4 on lap 68. The leaders stay out once more as Chris tries to hang on with the older tires and hoping to save enough fuel to finish with Austin Espitee breathing down his neck. The 7th caution came out quick with Daniel rear ending Bradley Walters on the restart. This gave Chris enough fuel to finish the race if he could hang on to the lead. 

Chris takes the field to the final restart of the night on lap 79 with Austin and Matt in tow. Austin tried to find room to make the pass for the lead, but Matt takes control and would find room to pass both of them with Chris unable to hold on with worn tires and Matt would take the win with the final caution coming out bringing the race to end when Drew Motz slides through the grass and back up the track collecting multiple cars. Austin Espitee takes home 2nd and Ray Kingsbury rounding off the podium for a Team LLM sweep. 

Race Stats
8 cautions- 30 laps
8 lead changes 

Rick Music takes the points lead from Jesse Vincent by 1 point. Ray Kingsbury is 13 points back. Next week is an off week and we return with the first road race of the season at Infineon Raceway on 2-4.