Scott Lagasse celebrates his victory in the ARCA RE/MAX Kansas Lottery 50 Grand. Lagasse won the race Friday at Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kan.

Kansas City, Kan. ? There was a look of relief on the face of Dustin Boney following the ARCA RE/MAX Kansas Lottery $150 Grand at Kansas Speedway on Friday.

After having to wait through a two-hour rain delay, Boney, a resident of Tonganoxie, competed in his first ARCA event.

“It’s an experience, definitely different from what we usually do,” Boney said. “I’m used to dirt modified racing. This is definitely taking it to the next level.”

Boney didn’t make much noise in the field of 41 from his qualifying spot at 30. He finished in that same position, eight laps behind winner Scott Lagasse.

“Our finish wasn’t real great. We obviously hoped for better, but we’re just a local team, under-funded, under-equipped,” Boney said. “Our goal was to come out and qualify for the race, and we did that on our own, and we completed all the laps without getting in a wreck – until the last lap a guy drives through us, but that’s beside the point. We made a huge stepping stone today and completed a lot of our goals that we came out here to do.”

Although Boney said he didn’t receive many requests for tickets to the race, some supporters still came out to watch him.

“I would say we probably had a couple hundred people in the grandstands, and they all came out and anticipated a little more than probably what we finished up,” the Tongie native said. “But everybody knew it was the first time.”

The decision to race against better competition was due to his success in dirt modified racing on the local scene.

“We’ve done exceptionally well. In our ’04 and ’05 seasons, you could say we pretty much dominated the Kansas City area,” Boney said. “We won the most races at Lakeside Speedway locally here in Kansas City, and the only person that’s won more races out there in a single season is Clint Bowyer, so that’s a pretty good name to be up to when it comes to dirt level.”

Boney mentioned that Bowyer still takes time out from competing in the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series to return to race some dirt tracks.

“He struggles a little bit when he comes back,” Boney said. “He races those cars five or six times a year, so he struggles a little bit. But yet he can come back, and he can win immediately. Usually, we find each other sometime during the night on the race track.”

Boney said there was discussion of him racing a few more ARCA events this season, including the two dirt-course races on the ARCA schedule.

But for now, he will head right back to dirt modified racing, starting today at Central Missouri Speedway in Warrensburg, Mo.

“We’re going back to ‘home,’ back to what we know,” Boney said. “We can go and win probably : not finish seven or eight laps down. But that’s part of it. It’s a whole new ball game, and we’re learning.”