WHEATLAND, Mo. Racelong leader and apparent winner Dustin Sorensens post-race trip to the tech building left Cade Dillard the big winner as the three-night USMTS King of America XIV opened Thursday night at Lucas Oil Speedway.

Dillard was elevated from runner-up at the checkered flag to the $3,000 Summit USMTS Modified feature winner after Sorensens car was disqualified in post-game inspection for a technical violation.

The duo waged an epic battle in the 30-lap feature, especially on a restart with seven laps remaining. Dillard, trying to chase down and pass Sorensen, threw a big slide job in turn three only to see Sorensen cross back over.

Sorensen was able to gradually pull away from there for an apparent victory by 1.7 seconds. But about a half-hour later, it was Dillard who was crowned the night one winner.

Terry Phillips, who pressured Dillard in the final few laps, officially wound up in second with Keith Foss third, Tanner Mullens fourth and Rodney Sanders fifth. Sanders, the USMTS national points leader, rallied from a 15th-starting position.

Dillard said the battle with Sorensen was fun, even though he came up a bit short on the race track.

Its a blast, Dillard said. Luckily the track was that racy. Dustin had a good car and congrats to him. Well take a second. Theres a lot of stacked cars here. Thats how good our car is. Well just keep tweaking on it and get better.

Eighth-starting Kris Jackson worked his way toward the front and passed racelong leader Aaron Marrant on lap 15 to capture the Clear Creek Golf Cars USRA B-Mod main event.

Marrant finished two seconds behind Jackson to settle for second. Jon Sheets was third with Tyler Kidwell fourth and Chad Clancy fifth.

Derek Green took over the lead on lap six and held it the rest of the way, finishing 4.3 seconds in front of Jeffrey Abbey in the OReilly Auto Parts USRA Stock Cars 20-lap feature.

The finish:

Feature (30 laps): 1. 97-Cade Dillard[3]; 2. 75-Terry Phillips[1]; 3. 95-Keith Foss[10]; 4. 02-Tanner Mullens[5]; 5. 20-Rodney Sanders[15]; 6. 15W-Alex Williamson[4]; 7. 91-Joe Duvall[11]; 8. 25-Joe Chisholm[13]; 9. 71S-Dustin Strand[8]; 10. 712-Trevor Hughes[16]; 11. 65-Tyler Davis[18]; 12. 12-Jason Hughes[6]; 13. 15-Kale Westover[22]; 14. 2SS-Mark Smith[7]; 15. 24C-Jim Chisholm[19]; 16. 8-Kyle Strickler[25]; 17. 38C-Jason Pursley[20]; 18. 4W-Tyler Wolff[12]; 19. 90W-Ryan Wetzstein[23]; 20. 21-Jacob Bleess[14]; 21. 88-Chad Wheeler[21]; 22. 21K-Kyle Brown[27]; 23. 3B-Nic Bidinger[9]; 24. 5-Reece Solander[17]; 25. 88S-Nathan Smith[28]; 26. 22H-Dustin Hodges[24]; 27. 29-Keith Hammett[29]; 28. 58X-Gary Christian[26]; 29. (DQ) 19-Dustin Sorensen[2]