Big Gains in Whynot

With both cars in the race, lots was learned during the trip to Meridian.

MERIDIAN - Mullinax Racing traveled down to Mississippi on the weekend of October 22nd to compete in the 28th Annual Fall Classic at Whynot Motorsports Park in the 604 Crate class. This marked Caden's first ever trip to The House of Hook, while it was Maddux's first time since 2016.

After unloading at the track Thursday Maddux and Caden quickly hit the track to learn how to get around the tricky 1/3rd mile dirt track. After spending the first session getting used to the track both cars seemed to pick up speed after the next three hot lap sessions.

By the end of the night the two cars had picked up speed with Maddux never dropping out of the top three on track in any individual session. With practice done it was time for qualifying and heat races the next day where the boys would compete in a 54 car field.

On Friday Maddux went out 25th in Group A and went fastest on his second lap with a 14.0 which was good enough for 10th in his group. Caden went out for qualifying with a new setup and struggled to a 14.4 second lap that would place him 19th in his group.

Maddux was to start 4th in the first heat race and would send his car harder than ever into each corner to come out in 3rd, clinching a 13th place start in Saturday's $2500 to win feature. Caden started 7th in the sixth heat race of the day where a new setup allowed him to charge forward and nearly finish 4th on the last lap but had to settle with 5th.

Saturday was the big day and Caden was not yet locked in as he would have to start 2nd in the last B-Main where the top two advance. When the green flag dropped Caden started out strong by keeping his position and running away from the rest of the pack; he took advantage of this by finishing what he started in 2nd and filling in the final and 26th spot in that night's feature event.

The feature didn't come around until 12:50am but the Mullinax brothers were primed and ready. At this point in the night the track was more dry-slick than it had been at any point in the weekend which made sure that this would be a challenge for not only Maddux and Caden but everyone on track.

The first 19 laps of the feature saw single file racing with Tyler Erb taking a strong lead and Maddux dropping to 14th and Caden slowly moving forward. When the first caution came out, a slow car on track, the field stacked back up double file and it things got more interesting for the team.

On the green Maddux struggled for grip and fell back to 17th while Caden moved up in the field within striking distance of Maddux. A second yellow came shortly after and the field stacked once more.

Two quick yellows later and it was lap 25 with Maddux 17th and Caden 20th and the green flag dropped one last time. This time Maddux rolled the middle of the race track, picking off cars that were fighting for the bottom, all the way up to 10th, and Caden moved up one more spot.

On the last lap a slip up by Maddux let one car by and he would end up 11th with Caden in a strong 19th. Tyler Erb won the race going away, with no one having a serious challenge for him.

Overall this was a fantastic weekend for the Mullinax bunch, with lots learned. This race was one of the biggest shows that either driver has made and defiantly the largest show where Mullinax Racing got both cars in.