The IMCA Sport Modifieds A-Main at Nodak Speedway was set for 20 laps Sunday night.

However, due to the high number of cautions, the race was cut dramatically short.

Despite pole sitter Kevin Eklund’s strong start, Surrey native Tory Mack – who started in eighth position – took the checkered flag after Eklund’s car sputtered with just two laps to go.

Mack’s starting position was far from ideal, but he didn’t seem to mind.

“Starting in the 8 spot means you have some work to do,” Mack said.

In a race eventually cut short to 13 laps, Mack had to get to work quickly.

“Once a race starts, there isn’t much time to fool around,” he said.

However, seven caution flags worked in Mack’s favor, and against the 63 machine of Eklund.

Early on, Eklund had no problem distancing himself from the field.

“I felt really good with my car, and my car was running really well,” Eklund said.

Eklund was the early pace setter, leading the way for the better part of 10 laps.

But after another caution on Lap 9, he noticed something was wrong.

“Once the track started to dry up, my car wasn’t working as well as it had when the track was wet,” Eklund said. “When the caution on Lap 11 happened, I knew it was time to pull it (his car).”

Eklund’s exit set the stage for Mack, and Westhope native Robbie Conway.

“It’s not easy to win, and I’ve had a lot of difficulty racing in Minot,” Mack said.

Once Eklund exited the track, Mack took over first place from Minot’s Matt Lizotte.

Normally, first place is a position for which all drivers strive, but Sunday was an exception for that. Frequent cautions made it difficult for all lap leaders.

“Being out front is pain,” Mack said. “All the starting and stopping, and restarts are terrible because the leader wants to get out and go. All the cautions handicap a driver’s ability to pull away from the pack.”

With 12 laps left, Mack was in fourth place and looking to make a move.

“I was in the low position and decided to go high,” he said. “I ended up passing some cars, so I decided to stay there.”

That decision helped Mack earn a victory over a late-charging Conway.

As the two drivers neared the finish line, Mack was able to keep the edge on Conway and beat him by less than a half second.

“It feels awesome to win,” said Mack, who entered Sunday’s race in a tie for seventh place in the Nodak Speedway point standints. “Every driver’s goal is to win, but it doesn’t always work out that way. This is great, especially since I’ve normally had bad luck here.”

This was the second feature win in as many races for Mack, who also took first in a feature race on Thursday.

Minot native Nathan Burke – one of six Sport Modifieds drivers that failed to finish Sunday’s A-Main – rebounded for victory in IMCA Stocks.

Burke cruised to a comfortable victory over Cody Nelson, finishing more than 1 1/2 seconds ahead of the field. Nelson finished as the runner-up, followed by Brett Woznicki, Billy Preston and Kyler Jeffrey, who respectively rounded out the top 5.

Burke entered Sunday’s races just nine points behind Williston’s Dalton Flory for the points lead. Flory did not finish Sunday’s race.

In IMCA Modifieds, Marlyn Seidler took the checkered flag by 1 1/2 seconds over Robert Hellebust. Minot native Wayne Johnson took third, 2.4 seconds behind Hellebust, while Shawn Anderson and Spencer Wilson – who entered Sunday’s races in second and first place in the track point standings, respectively – finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

The closest race of the night came in INEX Legends, where Donavin Wiest edged Mercer native Tom Wagner by a miniscule two one-thousenths of a second. Points leader and Bismarck native Drew Papke came in a close third, just 0.361 seconds behind Wagner.

Only six Legends cars competed at Nodak Speedway on Sunday.

IMCA Hobby Stocks results were not available at press time, and will be printed in Tuesday’s issue of The Minot Daily News.

IMCA Sport Modifieds

Heat 1: 1, Zach Lutz, 83, 2:38.125. 2, Kevin Eklund, 63, 2:38.830. 3, Andrew Bertsch, 146, 2:42.694. 4, Matt Lizotte, 10, 2:44.291. 5, 7X, Jeff Hooker, 2:52.851. 6, Stan Tomlinson, 11T, 2:53.537. 7, McKenzi Faul, 35, 2:39.793. 8, Chad Strachen, 132, 2:53.070.

Heat 2: 1, Kelly Hendersen, 24, 3:59.950. 2, Robbie Conway, 2, 4:05.346. 3, Dennis Chapman, 40, 4:05.373. 4, Nathan Burke, 97, 4:05.627. 5, Ryan Wolla 7W, 4:06.154. 6, Mike Lemay, 12X, 4:08.836. 7, Shayne Heggen, 22S, 4:09.522.

Heat 3: 1, Marcus Tomlinson, 5T, 4:13.457. 2, Tory Mack, 21M, 4:13.789. 3, Erik Laudenschlager, 4:17.381. 4, Robby Rosselli, 0, 4:20.426. 5, Christian Uhlich, 51U, 4:27.790. 6, Rick Bohlman, 21, 4:38.357. 7, Rick Evosterholm, 77, 4:41.469. DNF, Isaac Sondrol, 12S, 3:00.661.

A-Main: 1, Tory Mack, 21M, 27:20.852. 2, Robbie Conway, 2, 27:21.271. 3, Kelly Hendrickson, 24, 27:22.424. 4, Matt Lizotte, 10, 27:22.274. 5, Erik Laudenschlager, 249, 27:22.769, 6, Ryan Wolla, 7W, 27:23.677. 7, Andrew Bertsch, 146, 27:24.520. 8, Isaac Sondrol, 12S, 27:25.281. 9, Mike Lemay, 12X, 27:25.333. 10, Jeff Hooker, 7X, 27:25.589.

INEX Legends

Heat 1: 1, Donavin Wiest, 19, 2:34.923. 2, Tom Wagner, 10, 2:35.597. 3, Jon Schumann, 01, 2:36.085. 4, Drew Papke, 60, 2:36.404. 5, Larry Medhurst, 33M, 2:38.530. 6, Dallas Maas, 14, 2:36.256.

A-Main: 1, Donavin West, 19, 5:15.255., 2, Tom Wagner, 10, 5:15.257. 3, Drew Papke, 60, 5:15.616. 4, Larry Medhurst, 33M, 5:26.622. 5, Jon Schumann, 01, 5:35.381. DNF, Dallas Maas, 14, 50.801.

IMCA Hobby Stocks

Heat 1: 1, Jakob Kasprowicz, 42K, 5:23.733. 2, Dana Brandt, 9D, 5:25.320. 3, Vance Tomlinson, 3T, 5:26.626. 4, Dennis Breivik, 11B, 5:31.598. 5, Jason Olsen, 8K, 5:34.221. 6, Mackenzie Baker, 10Z, 5:38.245. 7, Gary Goudy Sr., 7, 5:45.167. 8, Christopher Seekings, 54, 5:46.778. DNF, Justin Nichols, 06, 30.042.

Heat 2: 1, Kadi Ruby, 23, 3:05.170. 2, Brent Thompson, 35T 3:06.482. 3, Cody Dignan, 4, 3:06.851. 4, Brandon Beeter, 47, 3:07.291. 5, Nate Joern, 53, 3:10.154. 6, Brock Beeter, 48, 3:10.609. 7, Adam Goff, 30A, 3:10.669. 8, Ben Zietz, 137, 3:14.646. 9, Karen Parachoniak, 22, 3:16.571. 10, Trever Haas, 99, 3:20.795.

IMCA Modifieds

Heat 1: 1, Marlyn Seidler, 7, 5:35.001. 2, Chase Conway, 8, 5:35.904. 3, Robert Hellebust, 9H, 5:36.526. 4, Josh Wolla, 14W, 5:37.033. 5, Jason Wolla, 27W, 5:37.245. 6, Dallas Rice, 72, 5:37.996. 7, Bill Kinden, K21, 5:47.328. DNF, Brent Burckhard, B52, 1:20.578. DNF, Brad Lisafeld, 75L, 33.010.

Heat 2: 1, Wayne Johnson, 4J, 7:42.620. 2, Myles Tomlinson, 15T, 7:44.530. 3, Derrick Lisafeld, 7:45.386. 4, Shawn Anderson, 4, 1A, 7:46.027. 5, Joe Flory, 20, 7:46.186. DNF, Steven Seibel, 56, 5.680. DNF, Rusty Kollman, 1S, 6.368. DNF, Travis Hagen, 14T.

Heat 3: 1, Jerad Thelen, 65, 2:29.870. 2, Jeremy Keller, 11K, 2:30.244. 3, Spencer Wilson, 75, 2:30.754. 4, Eric Sinness, 88, 2:33.216. 5, John Flory, 19, 2:33.479. 6, Steven Pfeifer, 11P, 2:34.990. 7, Aaron Turnbull, 21, 2:35.426. 8, Drew Christianson, 29, 2:38.784. 9, Allan Fetzer, 67F, 2:42.347.

A-Main: 1, Marlyn Seidler, 7, 19:47.889. 2, Robert Hellbust, 9H, 19:49.469 3, Wayne Johnson, 43, 19:50.292. 4, Shawn Anderson, 1A, 19:50.708. 5, Spencer Wilson, 75, 19:50722. 6, Chase Conway, 8, 19:51.053. 7, Aaron Turnbull, 21, 19:51.192. 8, Josh Wolla, 14W, 19:51.599. 9, Steven Pfeifer, 11P, 19:52.136. 10, Drew Christianson, 29, 19:52.598.

IMCA?Stocks

Heat 1: 1, Cody Nelson, 10N, 2:49.794. 2, Michael Vennes, 22V, 2:50.522. 3, Justin Striefel, 4, 2:51.263. 4, Dalton Flory, 20F, 2:51.591. 5, Kyler Jeffrey, 72X, 2:52.425. 6, Billy Preston, 2X, 2:53.053. 7, Austin Daae, 17, 2:53.742. 8, Gary Goudy Jr., O1U, 2:55.927. 9, Kevin Mattox, 99M, 3:01.875.

Heat 2: 1, Chris Ellis, 421, 2:50.062. 2, Jeff Ellis, 192, 2:52.260. 3, Brett Woznicki, 36, 2:52.384. 4, Scott Yale, 2, 2:52,838. 5, Nathan Burke, 97, 2:53.051. 6, Beau Deschamp, 16, 2:54.029. 7, Bob Fugemann, 76, 2:55.258. 8, Ross Cummings, 217, 2:56.779. 9, Dirk Miller, 0, 3:08.386. DNF, Alex Basher, 88, 2:00.047

A-Main: 1, Nathan Burke, 97, 11:40.148. 2, Cody Nelson, 10N, 11:41.694. 3, Brett Woznicki, 36, 11:43.290. 4, Billy Preston, 2X, 11:44.236. 5, Kyler Jeffrey, 72X, 11:44.477. 6, Justin Stiefel, 4, 11:45.587. 7, Bob Fuegmann, 76, 11:47.691. 8, Beau Deschamp, 16, 11:48.876. 9, Scott Yale, 2, 11:50.302. 10, Chris Ellis, 421, 11:50.878.

Jarrod Peterson covers American Legion baseball and general assignments. Follow him on Twitter @13JPeterson.