Drivers with Greene County connections at Super Nationals

By SUE RIEDER
sports@beeherald.com

Several drivers with Greene County connections raced in the Super Nationals held at Boone Speedway last week. Most  states were represented at the event which has been held in Boone for many years.  Casey General Stores, which opened their first store in Boone, Iowa in 1959 and has its corporate headquarters in Ankeny, is a major sponsor for the event.

Winner of the Stock Car feature event and the Race of Champions last weekend was Devin Smith of Lake City. Although Smith is not from Greene County, his wife Brooke grew up here and will be remembered as Brooke Wanniger, daughter of Joe and Jill Wanniger. The Wanniger family is quite involve in racing. Joe, who is the owner of Joe’s Body Shop, sponsors several drivers including his son Luke who has been racing for several years.

Devin won 10 of his 44 races this year and had 23 top five finishes. He previously competed at the Super Nationals in the Hobby Stock division, but was a rookie in the Stock Car division this year. It is quite rare that a driver can win the event during his rookie season. Smith, who is one of six brothers who races, qualified for the Race of Champions event by winning track championships at the Clay County Fair and the Fairmont Raceway in Fairmont, Minnesota. He has amassed enough points to be leading the nation in the Rookie Stock Car Division.  

Michael Murphy from Jefferson and Brian Miller from Grand Junction were two of the 30 racers who qualified for the Sport Mod championship race at the Super Nationals. Murphy finished 17th and Miller was 12th. Trent Murphy from Scranton was one of 30 drivers that qualfied for the Stock Car feature event and finished 10th. Others from Greene County who participated in the trials, but did not race in the feature events were Robert Stofer from Jefferson, Cody Gustoff from Scranton, and Aaron Rudolph from Grand Junction.