IMCA Stock Car win shocks ex-street stocker Domagala

Modified, Results, Sport Compact, Stock Car

Rookie Hunter Domagala won the first weekly IMCA Sunoco Stock Car feature held at Dacotah Speedway on Friday night. (Photo by Layn Mudder)

By Becca Pelkey

MANDAN, N.D. (May 10, 2024) – A driver with admittedly low expectations for his rookie IMCA Sunoco Stock Car season was a feature winner in his first start in the new division.

Hunter Domagala won the first weekly feature for the Stock Cars at Dacotah Speedway, taking advantage of a late-race caution and miscues by the two cars running ahead of him following the ensuing restart.

“We had very little expectations. I’m kind of shocked we won,” said Domagala, the WISSOTA Street Stock champion the last four years that class ran at Mandan. “There’s a whole new learning curve with this class and I told my crew we were going to try to learn something new every night. Our end of the year goal was to win once, with all the competition, a whole new car (a 2022 Medieval by DeVilbiss) and a whole new set of rules.”

Nineteen cars were entered Friday and Domagala started seventh and finished fourth in his heat.

After a complete restart in the main event, pole sitter Mark Dahl pulled away from the field when the green flag waved. The battle was on for second place between Scott Gartner and Jaden Christ.

As they raced side by side, it allowed Domagala to reel in second and third. Domagala picked off Christ for third and challenged Gartner for second. As Gartner and Domagala raced for second, they slowly started to close in on leader Dahl.

A late-race caution with four laps to go regrouped the field. On the restart, Dahl drifted up the track in corner one, taking Gartner with him, which allowed Domagala to slip by on the bottom.

Another caution would reset the field once more and on the final restart, Domagala had his hands full with a speedy Adam Goff. When the checkered flag waved, Domagala held on to win with Adam Goff, who started 10th, a close second. Gartner rebounded to finish third. 

Jeremy Keller was the Friesen Performance IMCA Modified winner and defending track champion Krys Yost picked up where he left off last season by parking his Mach-1 IMCA Sport Compact in victory lane. 

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