Justin Kay makes history sweeping IMCA Deery Bros, Hawkeye Dirt Tour at West Liberty

WEST LIBERTY — The IMCA record book is littered with Justin Kay's name.

The orange No. 15k has won a lot of races over the last handful of years, adding championships to boot. On Tuesday night at West Liberty Raceway, Kay added another line in the history book — a fresh one.

The Wheatland driver became the first driver to sweep IMCA Deery Brothers Summer Series for Late Models and Hawkeye Dirt Tour Modified main events on the same night. His $1,000 win from the front row in Modified and $2,000 victory from 12th starting position in Late Model put him in unique territory.

That it happened at West Liberty is fitting. Kay's record at the 1/2-mile is sterling — and unmatched in the last few years.

'That's pretty cool; to get it done like that is awesome,' Kay said. 'To do this in the same night is so neat, and the only way it could ever happen is the guys at the trailer because I don't have time to pick up a wrench. If it wasn't for Tyson (Gheer), Scotty (Fitzpatrick) and Tyler (Madigan), I wouldn't be close here.'

How he got it done was different in both races, sure, but they had a lot of the same elements.

Kay started outside Todd Shute on the front row of Modified, and while he led all but one lap of the main event, it was far from a walk in the park. The opening dozen laps saw Richie Gustin in Kay's shadow around the top of the racetrack, but after a pair of cautions in the middle of the race, Gustin faded and gave way to Oskaloosa's Cayden Carter and Grundy Center's Joel Rust.

Carter put up the biggest fight, throwing a couple slide jobs on Kay in Turns 1 and 2, clearing him once and leading Lap 20 at the line. But Kay said he was 'married to my line,' in the Modified, and thwarted a late attempt at the lead from Carter and Rust to hold them off.

'Any time you're competitive with Justin Kay at West Liberty, it's a lot of fun,' Carter said. 'We just didn't need that last caution. I think we were fine, I just had to get more aggressive when I did slide him there and protect my line better. He's definitely won a lot of races here, so you can't take anything away from him. We've got to get better.'

Starting 12th at West Liberty almost always is a death sentence on a race win in any class, given the propensity for fields to get strung out. But like his dominance of 2014 and 2015, Kay had very little trouble working his way to the front to collect his fourth Summer Series win of the season and second in a row.

Kay was in second by Lap 14, and by Lap 18 ran down outside pole sitter Jesse Sobbing from a half straightaway back.

The race the pair of them had when Kay caught Sobbing was something Kay described as 'on the edge of out of control.' They swapped the lead on one end or the other for five straight laps, negotiating lapped cars along the way. Ultimately Kay broke away — and walked away — but not after a fierce battle.

'Kay knows his way around here, and I might still be a rookie but it's nice to run up front,' Sobbing said. 'It was a blast. I don't really know Kay, but I've seen him race and he'll race beside you hard. He's going to run door-to-door with you. I wish I could've done it for 40 laps.'

Kay was understandably out of breath after the pair of wins, but his trademark ear-to-ear grin after a win was stuck across his face.

Winning in different ways, yet still having close, clean racing made it all the more rewarding.

'The Modified race was pretty cool; it seemed like there was someone underneath me every lap and I couldn't get away,' Kay said. 'Starting 12th in the Late Model at this place is tough, but timely cautions helped out. Being in the right place at the right time helps a lot.

'Being able to race that hard on that edge and with the lapped cars in between, slicing up and down was so fun.'

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