INDIANAPOLIS, IN (October 8, 2018) - 2,232 points later, Riley Kreisel became the youngest champion in POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint League history this year. Concluding the 2018 campaign on Friday night at Jacksonville Speedway, the native of Warsaw, Missouri locked-up the title and clinched his championship dreams by simply signing in for the night. At the ripe age of 18 years, 5 months and 13 days, Kreisel wrote his name into the record books as the youngest champion in league history.
Starting 18 features at 11 unique tracks in four different states, Kreisel finished the year with a 92-point gap separating himself from second-place, Quinton Benson. Taking the points lead following the second event of the season, Kreisel never looked back, holding a firm grasp on the top spot and never relinquishing it.
After beginning the season with a sixth-place finish in the opener at Springfield (MO) Raceway, the Warsaw, Missouri native lit a fire under the No. 90 and reeled off a hot streak. Winning his first-career POWRi Lucas Oil WAR Sprint League feature the following week, Kreisel did so in thrilling fashion as he ran over the cushion and inches off the wall for 25 laps at Lake Ozark (MO) Speedway.
He backed that up with his second-straight triumph the next weekend on Friday, May 4th by hauling from 10th-to-1st at Valley (MO) Speedway. His winning streak was snapped the next night at Lucas Oil (MO) Speedway with a second-place finish, but not without some relentless effort, as Kreisel was there to present a last-lap challenge for the win against Mitchell Moore.
Following a DNF at Lake Ozark and a ninth-place run at Double-X (MO) Speedway at the end of May, the 18-year old young gun reeled off a strand of five-straight top five finishes throughout June and July with a 4th at Valley, 5th at Midway (MO) Speedway, 3rd at Lake Ozark, 5th at Belle-Clair (IL) Speedway and 3rd at St. Francois County (MO) Raceway. In his lone WAR Wildcard appearance, Kreisel tackled the Ultimate Challenge at Southern Iowa (IA) Speedway on August 7th, and he did not disappoint, putting in a hard-charging 10th-to-2nd bid to earn runner-up honors behind Kevin Thomas Jr.
The inaugural WAR Non-Wing Nationals in mid-August at Lake Ozark started with a top-five bid in Friday's opener, but followed with a heartbreaking second DNF in the finale as an incident while battling for second ended his night. His debut at Humboldt (KS) Speedway the following week brought plenty of success, as Kreisel claimed runner-up honors on Friday night and earned his third victory of 2018 in Saturday's finale. Another new track kicked off September as a third-place finish landed him on the podium at Eagle (NE) Raceway.
The eighth edition of the Jesse Hockett/Daniel McMillin Memorial had its fair share of ups and downs for Kreisel as the weekend started strong with a fifth-place bid on his preliminary night. After an exciting and impressive charge that had fans on their feet in Saturday's pole shuffle, Kreisel suffered his third and final DNF of the season when the cushion bit him and sent him into the wall while battling for a podium finish.
All in all, the Weather Tech Renovations, AdvanTec Dyno Service, Triple-X No. 90 finished this year's campaign with 18 feature starts, 3 victories, 13 top-five finishes and 15 top-ten finishes along with four heat race wins. Outside of three DNF's, Kreisel's average finish in the 15 features he completed was a stunning 3.7 average.
Following Kreisel in points and rounding out the top ten was Quinton Benson (-92), Ty Hulsey (-263), Chris Parkinson (-302), Slater Helt (-368), Craig Carroll (-422), Anthony Nicholson (-450), Wyatt Burks (-606), Ryan Kent (-705) and Korey Weyant (-741).
Photo Credit: Danny Clum