Sunday, October 13

Winchester, IN — What looked like no more than a half decent points day for Cole Butcher quickly turned into a Crown Jewel win for the Son of Nova Scotia.

The 53rd annual Winchester 400 at Winchester Speedway was simply a battle of attrition. Between a multi-car pileup, a Majeski-dominant middle segment, and several individual incidents, Lady Luck played quite the role in the ASA STARS National Tour event.

With luck, however, speed plays an equally important part.

Cole Butcher found himself in second position behind his Wilson Motorsports teammate and defending Winchester 400 winner Gio Ruggiero, who blew an engine while leading with 60 laps to go. Butcher then inherited the lead, going on to hold off a late-race charge from the always fast Ty Majeski.

“We really struggled since we offloaded, but my whole crew, Bond Suss, and everyone at Wilson Motorsports stuck behind me and here we are holding this rifle,” said Butcher. “It means a lot because it’s the 53rd running and my normal number is 53. My brother (Jarrett Butcher) was able to clinch his championship up back home in Nova Scotia today, so it’s a good day to be a Butcher.”

The aforementioned Majeski dominated much of the middle segments of the 53rd Winchester 400, lapping almost the entire field. Ultimately though, Majeski had to settle for second after a faulty plug wire halted his momentum for the remainder of the evening.

“We had a plug wire on the hedder. There’s so much g-forces pulling everything to the right, so it would run a little bit, start missing again, run for a bit, start missing again,” said Majeski. “We were on seven cylinders there for the last 150 laps, still almost won. Obviously a dominant car today. Lapped the field at one point. I mean we lapped [Cole Butcher] and he won the race, so disappointed but very proud of the team.”

Another Canadian driver, that being Kyle Steckly, survived the battle of attrition to ultimately round out the podium in third position. Steckly has been no stranger to strong ASA runs in the state of Indiana, having won the Redbud 400 at Anderson earlier this year.

“I think these 400 lap races just fit in our wheelhouse,” said Steckly. “Winchester, this place is a different animal. That’s for sure. It took me some time to learn, but we worked hard all weekend. The Rette Jones Racing guys never gave up.”

Yet another Canadian wheelman in Chase Pinsonneault finished fourth, with polesitter Casey Roderick scoring the fifth position.

“The big one” made its way to Winchester as well, striking on lap 143.

It appeared as though slight contact between Gavan Boschele and Michael Hinde sent Hinde for a spin, collecting several cars in the process. After the crash, only eleven cars out of the twenty-one starters remained.

With the results of today’s event, Chase Burda clinched the ASA/CRA Super Series championship over Billy VanMeter.

ASA STARS 53rd Winchester 400 Results

1. Cole Butcher
2. Ty Majeski
3. Kyle Steckly
4. Chase Pinsonneault
5. Casey Roderick -7 laps
6. Chris Shannon -15 laps
7. Gavan Boschele -34 laps
8. Austin Nason -36 laps
9. Billy VanMeter -40 laps
10. Gio Ruggiero -59 laps
11. Chase Burda -88 laps
12. Albert Francis -198 laps
13. Jonathan Knee -252 laps
14. Michael Hinde -258 laps
15. Jake Garcia -258 laps
16. Logan Bearden -258 laps
17. Dawson Sutton -259 laps
18. Blake Rowe -271 laps
19. Jon Beach -275 laps
20. Stephen Nasse -290 laps
21. Chris Munson -396 laps

Cover photo: Reid Scott/Liberty Racing Review