Winter has a firm grip on the United States, and race fans don’t want to sit outside for up to six hours with temperatures hovering around or below the freezing mark. So what do they do? Move indoors, of course. Shannon Babb won Thursday's opening night of the Gateway Dirt Nationals on the 0.2-mile, temporary course built inside the The Dome At America’s Center in downtown St. Louis.

Night 2 Recap: Let's Hear It For The Boys

Open Wheel cars have made a quite few laps inside the dome. However, this marked only the second time that the longer-bodied Late Models attempted to traverse the tight confines, and there were some question about how they would fare. Those questions might not yet be answered.

There is an old adage that says races are not won on the first lap, but that generally applies to 500-mile events associated with NASCAR. On Thursday night, the third-starting Babb took advantage of a mistake by pole-sitter Don O’Neal and rocketed to the lead. Babb would never look back.

Only 11 cars started the 20-lap, A-Main for the first of three nights of racing and the grid was set by a random pill draw. 

What a battle for the lead between Shannon Babb and Don O'Neal.#DirtInDecember pic.twitter.com/Mu6da6RRps

— Dirt Late Model Nation (@DLMNation) December 15, 2017

Babb expected the race would be a follow-the-leader affair but assumed he would race in the tracks of O’Neal. A heavy track that was not worked in well enough proved to be the pole-sitter’s undoing — or at least that was now O’Neal felt after the race. When he gassed his car on the green flag, O’Neal pushed high in turn four coming back to the first-lap green. That allowed Babb to get past both him and outside pole-sitter Billy Moyer Sr.

O’Neal recovered and finished second. Moyer remained in third for entirety of the race and finished there. Darrell Lanigan started and finished fourth in a race that didn't have a lot of passing. There wasn’t a lot of passing going on.

The only driver able to make his way through the field was Rusty Schlenk, who charged up from ninth to fifth.

Finishing Order 
1. Shannon Babb
2. Don O’Neal
3. Billy Moyer Sr.
4. Darrell Lanigan
5. Rusty Schlenk
6. Bobby Pierce
7. Jonathan Davenport
8. Brandon Sheppard
9. Dennis Erb Jr.
10. Justin Kay
11. Scott Bloomquist