By Jim Conaway

BOONE, Iowa — Being in the right place at the right time paid off for Kevin Stoa on the final night of the Speedway Motors IMCA Super Nationals Saturday at Boone Speedway.
Stoa, who has raced sparingly this season after moving from Minnesota to North Carolina where he now works for Chip Ganassi Racing, started 12th in the 40-lap modified finale, but wrestled the lead away from five-time Super Nationals champion John Logue and claimed his second victory in the prestigious event.   
Stoa had a one-car-length advantage over Logue when the two cleared the turn four and flagman Bill Olsen waved the checkered flag.
“I don’t know how we did it,” said Stoa, the 2000 event winner, who was paid $2,008 for his recent triumph. “All I know is that John is a great driver and Mark Noble (who finished third) was right behind us. I knew I had to hit my marks and my line to hold them off. If I did that and they could pass, then they deserved to win it.
“Since I’ve become associated with Chip Ganassi Racing, I’ve been doing the physical workouts for drivers. I think it has made me sharper mentally and helps me drive with a stronger focus. Then we kept making our race car better as the week progressed.”
Polesitter Mark Elliott led the first nine laps until a flurry of sparks from his engine forced him to leave the race on lap six.
Jake Durkin took over and set the pace when Logue slipped past. After Stoa wrestled the lead away from Logue, Logue tried to make a final bid to regain the front-running spot after a race restart with three laps left.
“I just couldn’t get it bite,” Logue said. “We had a good run, but the car had too much banged up sheet metal.”
Earlier in the night, Johnathan Thimmesch held off Noble to win the Harris Auto Racing Ron Efkamp Modified Race of Champions.
In the stock-car ranks, Brian Irvine led all 30 laps.
 “We thought after Wednesday that we had a car to win it,” said the 24-year-old Irvine, who is in his seventh season of racing and whose No. 28 car is a 1997 Chevrolet Monte Carlo. “We kept our basic setup and it worked.”
Kevin Opheim, who finished fourth in the feature, won the division’s Race of Champions.
Harvey Vande Weerd didn’t gain the lead in the Northern SportMods feature until the final lap when race leaders Kevin Sather and Luke Wanninger tangled.
“A lot of what was going on out there was pretty scary and we managed to stay out of it,” said the 33-year-old Vande Weerd, who recorded his sixth feature win in his seventh season of racing. “We didn’t expect to get this one and this is easily the best win of my career.”
In the hobby stocks, Andy Boeckman nosed his way underneath Doug Smith before the two cleared the flagstand to start the 10th of 25 laps and proceeded to claim his fourth Super Nationals title.
 “It was good racing,” said the 28-year-old Boeckman, whose No. 62b is a 1984 Oldsmobile Cutlass with a 355-cubic-inch engine. “I build engines for a lot of different guys, so I had limited seat time going in. We had only raced about 12 times.”
The finishes:
Modifieds
Kevin Stoa, John Logue, Mark Noble, Jay Goosmann, Mike Mullen, Mike Hansen, Brad Pounds, Ronnie Wallace, Randy Havlik, Kelly Lyons, Clay Daly, Troy Taylor, Jay Schmidt, Mike Molle, Benji LaCrosse, Jonathan Snyder, Eric Dailey, Rich Lewerke, Brad Williams, Jake Durbin, Jeremy Mills, Troy Cordes, T.J. Stalker, Scotty Brown, Scott Baker, Shawn Kilgore, Matt Bonine, Johnny Saathoff, Mark Elliott, Sean Jerovetz, J.J. Wise, Jay Noteboom, Todd Shute.
Stock Cars
Brian Irvine, Damon Murty, Larry Portis, Kevin Opheim, Chad Estes, Justin Temeyer, Mike Nichols, Larry Silbaugh, Bryan Trogdon, Mike VanGenderen, Travis Shipman, Donavon Smith, Jeremy Christians, David Smith, Jay Schmidt, Charley Brown, Trent Murphy, Daniel Parker, Rick Mees, Dustin Smith, Ryan Lundy, John Heinz, Mitch Dowhunter, Colton Osborn, Mike Scharn, Rodney Snellenberger, Jamie Colwell, Jason Ward, Travis VanStraten, Shane Manson.
Northern SportMods
Harvey Vande Weerd, Troy Jerovetz, Brett Meyer, Scott Davis, Joe Docekal, Tracy Wassenberg, Austin Lucas, Josh Sherbon, Jeremiah Asher, Geoff Olson, Austin Kaplan, Brock Hess, Kevin Sather, Luke Wanninger, Brian Miller, Fred Leytham, Brian Besaw, Jeff Albright, Max Harder, Matthew Meinecke, Nathan Chodur, Shay Woods, Michael King, Jeremy Embrey, Rick Ringgenberg, Joel Bushore, Kent Croskey.
Hobby Stocks
Andy Boeckman, Doug Smith, Beau Kaplan, Chris Jensen, Rusty Montagne, Chris Luloff, Kyle Timmerman, Robby Marsh, Josh Irvine, Randall Macku, Alan Van Gorp, Travis Prochaska, Randy Hadacek, Randy Roberts, Kyle Robinson, Brandon Pruitt, Justin Hopkins, Rod Manthey, Terry Shaffar, Justin Maschke, Doug McCollough, Shannon Anderson, Kenneth Hansen, Pat Mather, Tim Wilcox, Kenny Loftus, Nyle Godwin, Tim Rupp.