.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com

PERFECT SUNSHINE NIGHT FOR COURTNEY IN MOBERLY'S USAC RETURN

By: Richie Murray - USAC Media

Moberly, Missouri.....July 30, 2017 - Over the course of 140-plus years of Major League Baseball, there've been 23 different pitchers who've thrown a perfect game. The perfect 300 bowling game is celebrated as one of the highest achievements in all of sport. A few times per year, you'll hear of an NFL quarterback who scored a perfect 158.3 rating.

Less heralded is the perfect race. There's so many variables, obstacles and outside influences in auto racing that can play interference on each corner and each lap, it's nearly impossible to accomplish. Plus, in auto racing, there are no points systems or judges to determine what a "perfect" score is.

In a 30-lap USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car race, perfection is an expectation. On Sunday night in the series' first trip to Randolph County Raceway since 1989, Tyler Courtney was just about as perfect as you can be, staving off pressure from Brady Bacon down the stretch to win his third series feature of the year.

"Racing with the guys we race with night-in and night-out, you've got to be perfect for 30 laps," Courtney explained. "I was able to minimize mistakes tonight. When you're on the pole, you're the guy being chased. You have to put that in the back of your mind and go out and run your race and put 30 laps together."

It was a treacherous beginning at the front as pole sitter Courtney gained the initial advantage running the high line. Inside second row starter Chris Windom pulled into second and dove to the bottom in turn three, momentarily holding onto a one car length lead when his orange No. 5 biked on entry, then landed on all fours before digging in on the left rear and barrel-rolling three-and-a-half times over the concrete wall. Fortunately, Windom was able to climb from the car and walk away from the scene uninjured, but the incident certainly proved detrimental to his championship hopes with a 20th place result.

When racing resumed, Courtney headed for the bottom in turns one and two while Leary manhandled the top. Conversely, in turns three and four, Courtney aimed for the top as Leary followed suit. While it was in the original plans to run different lines on each end of the track, Courtney acknowledged that Windom's incident confirmed his notion to run up against the wall in turns three and four.

"That was my original plan and I stuck to it for as long as I could until I felt like I had to change," Courtney admitted. "Once I saw the start of Chris's flip, I knew there had to be something evil down there. All night, the top of (turns) three and four had been really fast and we were able to carry our momentum. One and two was kind of a crap shoot. You had to move around a little bit and I knew the bottom was going to be good for a while with the kind of moisture that was down there. I ran down there in one and two for a while and saw Brady (Bacon) challenge me in (turns) three and four, so I changed it up and went to the top in one and two and was able to pull away from him a bit"

As Courtney maintained a roughly eight-car-length advantage by the fifth lap, second-running Leary tested the waters on the bottom of turn three himself when setting up a slider on Courtney for the lead. Similarly to Windom, Leary biked, but was able to gather it up and continue on. That opened the door for Saturday night Lakeside winner Brady Bacon to pounce and he momentarily grabbed second from Leary at the line. Leary regained his grip and hit the top once again in turns one and two to race back around Bacon to regain the second spot.

As the leaders worked their way through lapped traffic on the 11th lap, Leary got hung up behind a lapper and dove low into turn three to get by, but Bacon saw an opening and was able to do the Limbo Rock even lower than Leary to take second. Though, unlike a few others, Bacon's maneuver against the inside wall of turn three looked smooth as silk, but it wasn't as easy as he made it look.

"The car was tightened up to run the top of the racetrack, but the way the transition of the banking is down on the bottom, it would slam you right into that banking and it would upset your car," Bacon explained.

Following a restart just prior to the halfway mark, Bacon was able to take a peek underneath Courtney for the race lead heading into turn three, to no avail. Courtney took note and altered his game plan.

"I made a couple of adjustments on the shocks and moved my line to the top of one and two and started doing a little diamond move," Courtney detailed. "Once I felt like there wasn't any pressure, I still kept doing what I was doing and had to really pay attention to the noises around me. You always have to be looking ahead of you, though. There was a lot of lapped traffic tonight, but it's how these races go. You're racing against professional racecar drivers like Brady who run 100 races a year in every type of car. He sees a lot night-in, night-out."

Down the stretch, Courtney and Bacon encountered numerous lapped cars, but each time, the pair escaped without issue. With two laps remaining, though, 13th running Rob Caho, Jr. was running the leaders' preferred line up top. With Bacon on the chase, any slip up would be costly and Courtney had to be wary. In a fast-paced race, you have to make on-the-fly decisions and Courtney was prepared.

"The closing rate is really fast here," Courtney explained. "I knew he was going to be running the top. I just backed my entry up a little bit and had to make sure I wasn't going to run over the top of him coming off the corner. I just set myself up to slide him or go to the bottom in one and two and was able to clear him for the last time. You always take a deep breath once you get by a lapped car because you know the guy behind you has to deal with him next and you can get back to racing your own race."

Courtney, using the lapped car as a buffer between he and Bacon, used the opportunity to escape from the pressure and close out his fourth USAC National win in 2017 at a track he was visiting for the first time in his career (Sprint: I-80 Speedway in Nebraska & Randolph County Raceway in Missouri. Midget: Montpelier (Ind.) Motor Speedway & the Illinois State Fairgrounds Multi-Purpose Arena). Brady Bacon took second ahead of Justin Grant, Robert Ballou and Kevin Thomas, Jr.

That statistic emphasizes that Courtney, of Indianapolis, Indiana, is a quick study and one who is able to adapt to changing situations. After the track rework between qualifying and the heats, new lines opened up and Courtney took notice.

"It's very similar to Lawrenceburg and I-80 too, so it didn't take too long to adapt," Courtney compared. "This place is a high-speed momentum place. It changed a lot from the beginning to the end. We weren't even touching the bottom at the beginning of the night. Having to adapt to run the bottom, it's just something that's part of the job. You have to figure out when to do it and when not to do it. Tonight, we made the right moves at the right time."

Bacon, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma had two successful nights in the heartland in his Dooling-Hayward Motorsports/B & H Contractors - Dooling Machine/Spike/Stanton Mopar, finishing first and second in two USAC Sprint Car appearances this weekend.

"He was a little better than us," Bacon acknowledged. "We got close that one time, but we just didn't have a lot of grip on exit. We blistered our tires pretty early and it just wasn't our night. A couple times, we could get a good run and other times, not as much. Tyler never made a mistake, even when we got to him. That's how you win races. That's how we won last night."

Ione, California's Justin Grant extended his point lead to 79 over Windom with a third-place finish in his Sam McGhee Motorsports/ProGlide Bearings - Mike McGhee & Associates/Maxim/Foxco. But, at first, the point lead didn't cross his mind as he saw his fellow competitor and friend exit the racetrack.

"My biggest worry was that Chris was hurt," Grant said. "Sailing out of this place, you don't know what's on the other side of those banks. (Crew Chief) Sam (McGhee) ran out on the track under that red flag to work on the car and I asked, 'Is he all right.' Sam said, 'I don't know.' I said 'Well, go down and check on him.' Sam came back and said he was okay and that made me feel a whole lot better."

Once Grant found out about Windom's well-being, he admits that he couldn't help but think about the points race and how he could capitalize.

"It's definitely in the back of your mind," Grant stated. "You never want to see a guy turn over, especially since Chris is a buddy of mine. You hate that for him, but at the same time, it's a good time to capitalize on points. We wanted to win but when you get an opportunity like that to gain a bunch of points, you try not to throw it away. I wanted to make sure I didn't make any mistakes that would cost us a bunch. I felt like we did a good job to take advantage of that."

Contingency award winners Sunday at Randolph County Raceway include Justin Grant (ProSource Fast Qualifier & Simpson Race Products 1st Heat Winner), Kevin Thomas, Jr. (Competition Suspension, Inc. 2nd Heat Winner), Brady Bacon (Chalk Stix/Indy Race Parts 3rd Heat Winner), Riley Kreisel (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Rob Caho, Jr. (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 30, 2017 - Moberly, Missouri - Randolph County Raceway

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 11, McGhee-16.721; 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-16.898; 3. Brady Bacon, 63, Dooling/Hayward-16.914; 4. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-16.994; 5. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-17.021; 6. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-17.164; 7. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-17.176; 8. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, KT-17.300; 9. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-17.307; 10. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-17.431; 11. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-17.789; 12. Wyatt Burks, 11w, Rumsey-17.928; 13. Katlynn Leer, 77K, Leer-18.526; 14. Michael Moore, 21m, M3 Racing-18.695; 15. Riley Kreisel, 90, Smith-19.028; 16. Patrick Budde, 90x, Budde-19.046; 17. Steve Thomas, 20, Thomas-19.232; 18. Warren Johnson, 42, Johnson-19.271; 19. Rob Caho, Jr., 78, Caho-19.500; 20. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-19.582.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Grant, 2. Ballou, 3. Windom, 4. Boespflug, 5. Caho, 6. Leer, 7. Budde. 2:22.22

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. K. Thomas, 2. Stockon, 3. Hodges, 4. Leary, 5. S. Thomas, 6. Moore, 7. Bell. 2:21.64

CHALK STIX/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Kreisel, 3. Courtney, 4. Andretti, 5. Burks, 6. Johnson. 2:23.12

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Tyler Courtney, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 6. Chad Boespflug, 7. Chase Stockon, 8. Josh Hodges, 9. Riley Kreisel, 10. Jarett Andretti, 11. C.J. Leary, 12. Wyatt Burks, 13. Rob Caho, Jr., 14. Patrick Budde, 15. Steve Thomas, 16. Robert Bell, 17. Katlynn Leer, 18. Michael Moore, 19. Warren Johnson, 20. Chris Windom. NT
----------------------------
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Courtney.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Riley Kreisel (15th to 9th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Rob Caho, Jr.

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Grant-1518, 2-Windom-1439, 3-Boespflug-1341, 4-K. Thomas-1325, 5-Courtney-1309, 6-Stockon-1297, 7-Leary-1130, 8-Bacon-1070, 9-Ballou-971, 10-Andretti-955.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: August 23-26 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown VI"

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com

BACON TURNS IN K.C. MASTERPIECE AT LAKESIDE

By: Richie Murray - USAC Media

Kansas City, Kansas.....July 30, 2017 - One of the statistics bandied about in the week leading up to Saturday night's USAC return to Lakeside Speedway was the fact that the most accomplished drivers in the sport, more often than not, seem to rise to the occasion when the venerable club visits the Kansas City, Kansas oval.

Coming into the event, 13 of the 17 drivers who had won USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car features at the old Lakeside Speedway half-mile and the newer Lakeside Speedway 4/10-mile were either USAC National champions or National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductees.

One of those names absent from the list entering the Saturday night was Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's Brady Bacon. The two-time USAC National Sprint Car champ came within a lap of stamping his initials on that list in 2016. One year later, though, redemption was on his mind as he led all 30 laps to score his first triumph at Lakeside.

On the start, Bacon jumped ahead from the pole while third-place starter, young Riley Kreisel stepped into second. Right off the bat, though, a campfire broke out underneath the hood of Bacon's ride as a trail of smoke clouded the sky behind him. No harm, no foul, though, as it was merely a little overflow spilling out of the oil tank. Bacon glanced down at the oil pressure gage and reassured that everything was perfectly fine from his vantage point.

As Bacon stretched his lead up front, series point leader Justin Grant had pedaled his way to second past Kreisel midway down the back straightaway on lap 12 and began to race his way toward Bacon, who had just begun to enter the toils of negotiating lapped traffic.

Bacon split between the lappers down low, around the outside and anywhere he could go to escape the net Grant had begun to cast. Grant chiseled away at the lead as the gap between he and leader Bacon sunk down to the closest margin it had been all race.

Suddenly, third-running Kreisel emerged from the exit of turn four on the 18th lap with a flat right front tire, ending a superb run for the young Missouri driver who had wowed the crowd with his dazzling, rim-riding performance through the first half of the event.

While the news for Kreisel and, to an extent, Grant, was sour times, Bacon was pleased with how the circumstances played out for himself as the seas were now parted and lapped traffic would no longer play a factor in the immediate future.

"We just got caught in a bad spot a couple times with the lapped cars," Bacon explains. "A couple laps like that and they can really reel you in pretty fast. If we had reached an open track again, I think we would have been okay and probably pulled away, but it just kind of slowed everything down briefly."

When racing resumed with 13 laps remaining, Bacon consistently clung to the top line as Grant searched low (turns 1 and 2), high (turns 3 and 4) and anywhere in between, but was unable to make up any significant ground.

"We got to where we weren't catching him," Grant remembers. "I started searching the racetrack trying to find something, anything that I could make work to get back to him. Running second is good and all, but you want to win these things. We were really good before the caution. We really fought air pressure under yellows and reds after that. The tires would get so low that when coming back to green, the frame rails were in the dirt and we'd start bucking around, which allowed Brady got away from us."

Bacon's momentum would be unheeded down the stretch and, after taking the white flag, appeared headed for certain victory. However, two-time Lakeside winner Robert Ballou had arrived in third and was engaged with Grant for the runner-up spot. The two made contact coming off turn four with Ballou and Grant making slight contact, scuffing each other as if they were competing in the chariot race from Ben Hur. Grant got squirrelly as he passed underneath the flagstand. Grant dove to the bottom of turn one while Ballou hopped onto the first turn cushion, which bounced him into the air and sent him into a series of pirouettes against the concrete wall. He was okay, but his race and a bid for a third Lakeside win in as many years was over.

Under the red flag period, Bacon and Grant were amongst those pondering changes to be made. In the end, however, both made the decision to enter the final standoff playing the cards they had been dealt.

"I knew we were pretty well set," a confident Bacon stated. "I knew we were going to lose a little tire pressure and didn't want to tighten it up any because I knew the air was going to tighten us up anyway. I just tried to not make any mistakes on the last restart. I slipped a little bit off two on the first lap of the restart, but was able to keep it underneath me to get a decent run through turns three and four and get our speed back up."

Grant was in a similar position, ultimately deciding to stand pat.

"I wanted to work on the shocks and tighten the thing up a little bit before the air pressure built up again on the restart," Grant said. "But, I was afraid to do it with the tires being so low when we went back green. I was fighting the car as it was, but it probably would have been better off if I'd have tightened the car up with the shocks a little bit and just hung on for the first lap of the restart. I was timid about doing it. I didn't want to turn the thing over on the restart!"

For the green-white-checkered two-lap sprint to the finish, Bacon knew what he had, but racing up front for the full duration of the event doesn't allow a driver to see what his fellow competitors running behind him have up their respective sleeves.

"It's definitely not ideal," Bacon admits. "It felt like a really long race being up front. The whole time, you really don't know what's going on behind you and what everyone else is doing, but we were pretty good on the restarts, so I felt that as long as I didn't stumble, or slip the tires, we'd be alright."

Bacon held true to form, running the middle to top groove to gap Grant behind him, who was unable to make up any ground and was never close enough to set up a final move on him for the win. Bacon sealed the deal with his 19th career series win (26th all-time) just a tick under a second over Grant, Chris Windom, Chase Stockon and Tyler Courtney.

Bacon admitted that he anticipated the track getting hard and slick after his hot lap session to begin the night. But, as time wore on, the track continually got faster and faster with new one-lap and eight-lap track records being established in the preliminary events. Bacon's car remained mostly tight from start-to-finish after attempts to free it up, but ultimately, the car was performing its best at the end.

"I was a little nervous at the beginning of the race," Bacon admits. "We were really tight, but as it turned out, everyone else was pretty tight too. We were better at the end. I felt I had to keep my tires underneath me. You can lose a lot of speed if you start spinning them. I guess our hard gamble of being a little too tight early paid off in the end."

Twenty-four hours after competing in a pavement 100-lap USAC Silver Crown race 736 miles away in Toledo, Ohio, Grant was behind the wheel of a completely different animal at Lakeside. As the only driver in USAC to have full-time rides in each of its three national divisions, Grant has found out just how rigorous it truly is, but the Ione, California native has found a way to adapt.

"We've been on the road a lot this year," Grant acknowledges. "I'm running a lot heavier schedule than I'm used to. I'm starting to settle in and get used to it now. I've been leaning on some people that have run heavy schedules like this before and getting advice on what I need to be doing to keep myself sharp. Earlier in the year, I think I was starting to get a little worn down just with all the travelling and being away from home and everything, but I feel good now and I'm loving it. I think part of its adapting and part of it is just making sure that when you have a moment to rest or a moment of quiet time, you take it. That's what I've been told to do, so that's what I do and it's been helping a lot."

Along with Grant, Chris Windom of Canton, Illinois was the only other driver to successfully tackle the challenge of the Toledo/Lakeside double. Though admittedly a bit sore after a physically-demanding two-day stretch, Windom collected a pair of third-place finishes in two settings that were nearly polar opposites of each other.

"Those two cars are completely different animals," Windom, Lakeside's KSE Racing Product Hard Charger, pointed out. "Tonight was fast right up on the wall and it was a tough track to pass on. If you missed a slide job or didn't clear a guy, you'd lose a lot of momentum. I think we were about a third-place car, which is where we ended up. I'll take it, especially coming from ninth."

Contingency award winners Saturday at Lakeside Speedway include Chase Stockon (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Kevin Thomas, Jr. (Simpson Race Products 1st Heat Winner), Justin Grant (Competition Suspension, Inc. 2nd Heat Winner), Robert Ballou (Chalk Stix/Indy Race Parts 3rd Heat Winner), Chris Windom (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Patrick Budde (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

-----------------------------

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 30, 2017 - Kansas City, Kansas - Lakeside Speedway

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-16.438 (New Track Record); 2. Justin Grant, 11, McGhee-16.597; 3. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.751; 4. Riley Kreisel, 90, Smith-16.809; 5. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-16.851; 6. Brady Bacon, 63, Dooling/Hayward-16.851; 7. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, KT-16.994; 8. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-17.049; 9. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-17.161; 10. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-17.168; 11. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-17.239; 12. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-17.444; 13. Ryan Kitchen, 21, Kitchen-17.654; 14. Brandon Stevenson, 0, Stevenson-17.657; 15. Rob Caho, Jr., 78, Caho-17.898; 16. Steve Thomas, 20, Thomas-18.025; 17. Patrick Budde, 90x, Budde-18.462; 18. Terry Richards, 18R, Richards-18.843; 19. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-18.866; 20. Mike Sosebee, 50LP, Sosebee-NT; 21. Chris Morgan, 81A, Goams-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. K. Thomas, 2. Stockon, 3. Courtney, 4. Kreisel, 5. Kitchen, 6. S. Thomas, 7. Bell. 2:17.79

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Grant, 2. Leary, 3. Andretti, 4. Boespflug, 5. Stevenson, 6. Budde. 2:17.84

CHALK STIX/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Bacon, 3. Windom, 4. Hodges, 5. Caho, 6. Richards. 2:17.20 (New Track Record)

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Chris Windom, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Tyler Courtney, 6. C.J. Leary, 7. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 8. Josh Hodges, 9. Jarett Andretti, 10. Chad Boespflug, 11. Brandon Stevenson, 12. Robert Ballou, 13. Patrick Budde, 14. Rob Caho, Jr., 15. Terry Richards, 16. Robert Bell, 17. Steve Thomas, 18. Riley Kreisel, 19. Mike Sosebee, 20. Ryan Kitchen. NT
----------------------------
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Bacon

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Chris Windom (9th to 3rd)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Patrick Budde

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Grant-1440, 2-Windom-1407, 3-Boespflug-1281, 4-K. Thomas-1259, 5-Stockon-1233, 6-Courtney-1232, 7-Leary-1082, 8-Bacon-991, 9-Dave Darland-937, 10-Thomas Meseraull-932.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 30 - Moberly, Missouri - Randolph County Raceway

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com

Robert Ballou (Left) won the Indiana Sprint Week finale at Lincoln Park Speedway while Kevin Thomas, Jr. (right) captured his first ISW title. (David Nearpass Photos)

By: Richie Murray - USAC Media

Putnamville, Indiana.....July 16, 2017 - Separated by just 23 points entering Sunday night's Indiana Sprint Week presented by Camping World feature at Lincoln Park Speedway, Kevin Thomas, Jr. and Robert Ballou each knew what was on the line.

Win the race and the points will take care of themselves is the motto you'll often hear, but as the race wore on, the two ISW title contenders would find themselves on two separate paths: Ballou with a stranglehold up front and Thomas attempting to overcome a tumultuous beginning that, at one point, had him teetering on the edge of squandering the title.

Ballou maintained his presence at the front for all but the first lap to score his second USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victory of the season while Thomas, having to finish eighth or better, thrived in the final eight-lap stretch to finish a hard-fought fifth to win the ISW points title, a feat he came so close to accomplishing in 2013 when he led the standings entering the final race of the series before seeing it slip away, something he wasn't going to let happen this time around despite a turbulent road to get there.

"Right before the feature, I knew it was 23 points going in," Thomas said. "It does put a little pressure on you, but I normally like pressure. You don't want to think about points, but at the end of the day, no matter who you are, it's in the back of your head when it's Indiana Sprint Week. This is such a historical week. Everybody wants to win it."

Thomas did what he needed to do early in the night, gaining a coveted six-point bonus for recording ProSource/B & W Auto Mart Fast Qualifying time, which put him on the outside of row three for the 30-lap feature with the six-car invert. On the other hand, that set up his nearest combatant, Robert Ballou, on the pole position, though he wouldn't escape to the point without a fight. On the opening lap, Ballou stuck to the bottom while Chad Boesplfug ripped around the top off turn two to grab the lead momentarily. Ballou fought back on the bottom, hopping his way off the fourth turn and pulling the wheels off the ground, just missing the lead by a small margin as the two crossed the stripe. Ballou stayed true to the bottom on lap two, but this time, much, much smoother as he gunned it off four to blast by Boespflug for the lead.

"We set up to run the curb," Ballou said. "But when I stuck the bottom at the start, it seemed pretty good down there. Chad got around me right away and for some reason, I was able to stick the entry really well which is something I couldn't do all week. I think if we had this setup at Gas City, we would've been a hell of a lot better."

A little further back, things weren't going as pristine for Thomas. On lap nine, Thomas stumbled on the turn two curb, dropping him from sixth to eighth, the furthest back he could run with Ballou leading in order to maintain his slim point lead, which stood at two with a third of the race completed. Thomas was fully aware of the situation as the pressure mounted and the laps clicked away.

"It does put a little pressure on you," Thomas admits. "I normally like pressure, but right there at the start, I got a good jump and I kind of got shuffled around. From there, I just made some bad driving mistakes. I jumped the cushion a few times, then I got flustered. I got a run on Kyle Cummins, jumped his right rear going down the backstretch and almost turned it over. I made a lot of dumb mistakes, to be honest. I knocked my floor pan off and the gas pedal wouldn't even go all the way down. It was touching the brake; I couldn't even use the brakes!"

By the halfway point, last year's Lincoln Park ISW feature winner Brady Short put on a patented charge to the front as he moved into second from his tenth starting spot and began applying pressure to Ballou for the race lead just prior to a yellow for Josh Hodges with ten to go. Thomas remained mired in seventh with a five-point buffer as the caution briefly silenced the beehive of competitors that surrounded him.

On the lap 21 restart, Ballou darted away from Short while Thomas picked up a much-needed spot as he raced into sixth past C.J. Leary. Two laps later, Leary's successful ISW that included a pair of wins, ended with a tumble in the rough in turn three to end his night. The Greenfield, Indiana driver walked away from the incident. Bernal was also involved, but would restart from the tail, practically eliminating multiple contenders who were in the midst of a battle in the trenches with Thomas for positions sixth, seventh and eighth.

But a late red flag period can, at times, make a profound impact on the race whether it knocks a driver off his rhythm or, conversely, allows them to exhale and regroup. Perhaps, it allows teams to make adjustments on the car that can go one of two ways. This time around, it brought about different initial reactions between Ballou and Thomas.

"I was worried to be honest with you," Ballou admits. "We had issues where my tires would get too low. They build up a bunch of heat and, when they cool off, they lose a pound or two. When the bleeder bleeds off to a certain poundage, they cool off and lose more air and its harder for them to build back up when they get too low. I was trying to spin them as much as I could, but nothing helps really. It's tough."

On the other hand, the red flag was a welcome sight through the eyes of Thomas.

"Normally I don't like stoppages like that. This time I did," Thomas explains. "I made a few shock adjustments because I was pretty tight out there for where I was having to run. I just really wasn't running a great enough race to be able to run the cushion the way I'd normally want to. I had to make a few adjustments to be able to rotate on the bottom and to not get myself tight. I knew I had to go get going and I knew I had to do something. I just had to keep myself calm and get back to doing what I wanted to do and pass some race cars. Sometimes you like to see the red, sometimes you don't. This time, I did. I had time to gather my thoughts and had to make a few decisions."

As the green fell for the restart with eight laps to go, Ballou was unsure of what to expect in regards to how his car would react.

"I was biting my tongue when I headed into turn one on the restart," Ballou details. "You aren't sure if you're going to tip over, if it's going to toss the nose or what's going to happen. It's a guessing game and I hoped I entered the corner just right. It was tricky, but that's what makes racing racing."

It worked out for Ballou as he was able to distance himself from Short who wound up losing his spot on the restart to Tyler Courtney, who slalomed through turn two to the runner-up spot on the bottom. Yet, he remained a second behind Ballou as the laps waned until a yellow with three to go for the turned around car of Tyler Thomas put a halt to the action. Kevin Thomas, Jr., meanwhile, had found a happy place and resided comfortably in fifth as he settled into a groove after a hectic beginning.

Ballou had yet another solid restart on lap 28, keeping Courtney and Boespflug at bay as those two tussled for the runner-up spot a second behind as he finished off the final three laps handily in his Robert Ballou Motorsports/Deaton's Waterfront Services - Lucas Oil/Twister-X/Ott ahead of Courtney, Boespflug, Short and Kevin Thomas, Jr., who stamped his name in the record books as the champ of the 30th edition of Indiana Sprint Week.

Thomas earned a custom-cut Bridgeport Rocker courtesy of John Youngs and a $5000 dollar award amongst his prizes for the title run that concluded with what he calls "the ugliest fifth-place of (his) racing career." Yet, they don't award points for style in this form of racing. Just results. That result was good enough for an 11-point victory in the most rigorous stretch of the USAC National Sprint Car season.

"It's just a relief to be able to win this thing," Thomas exhaled. It's a lot of hard work not only from myself and my family, but the guys back at the shop. Both of them have day jobs and they are as hard-working and passionate about the team as hard as anybody I've ever seen. Like Saturday night at Haubstadt, we ran second and I think they were as mad, if not madder, than I was. That's what I like to see. It's an intense week and you have to be intense about it."

Over a seven-race stretch, one position here and one position there can make all the difference in a title run. With qualifying, heat races and even the semi-feature offering points toward the final tally, each and every time a driver hits the track, it means something. It's something Thomas took advantage of this time around.

Sunday night's Indiana Sprint Week (presented by Camping World)
feature winner Robert Ballou of Rocklin, California.(Gene Crucean Photo)

"You can't let one little point or one position get away from you because it can be a matter of one, two or three spots in the end," Thomas points out. "Robert and I have raced together for a long time. He's a past Indiana Sprint Week champion and, to be able to do what we did and beat those guys, it's truly remarkable."

It was the Indiana Sprint Week round at Lincoln Park in 2014 where Ballou turned the corner to his string of modern-day success that we have become accustomed to. Yet, the Rocklin, California native and 2015 USAC National Sprint Car champion admits he still struggles here despite the success that also includes a July victory in 2016.

"I struggle here," Ballou acknowledges. "I like my racecar to be tight and you can't have a tight racecar here. I came from winged sprint cars originally. I still like to be straight and fast. That's why I go so well on the big joints. This is one of the first tracks I was able to figure out and was able to run well at consistently. You have to be careful on the curb and you have to tiptoe around the bottom."

Ballou's Indiana Sprint Week certainly had its bright spots with a runner-up result at Gas City and concluded with his first USAC win in over two months in the ISW finale. But, Ballou admits it's still a struggle at times as he and the team attempt to return to the consistency that had become so commonplace over the last three years.

"We changed everything," Ballou said. "We were changing a gear when they blew the eight-minute horn. We never give up. We tried to throw the kitchen sink at it. We're just trying to get our program back together. We've just been a tick off every single night. We're close, but we just got to keep putting one foot in font of the other and we'll get there."

Contingency award winners Sunday night at Lincoln Park Speedway include Kevin Thomas, Jr. (ProSource/B & W Auto Mart Fast Qualifier), Chris Windom (Simpson Race Products 1st Heat Winner), Josh Hodges (Competition Suspension, Inc. 2nd Heat Winner), Robert Ballou (Chalk Stix 3rd Heat Winner), Chase Stockon (Indy Race Parts Semi-Feature Winner), Josh Hodges (KSE Racing Products/B & W Auto Mart Hard Charger) and Ryan Bernal (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: July 16, 2017 - Putnamville, Indiana - Lincoln Park Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" - Presented by Camping World

PROSOURCE/B & W AUTO MART QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, KT-12.594; 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-12.628; 3. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-12.638; 4. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-12.643; 5. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-12.662; 6. Aaron Farney, 15F, DCT-12.675; 7. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-12.774; 8. Justin Grant, 11, McGhee-12.790; 9. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.814; 10. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-12.849; 11. Ryan Bernal, 17GP, Dutcher-12.886; 12. Kody Swanson, 2E, Epperson-12.909; 13. Jerry Coons Jr., 21K, Krockenberger-12.928; 14. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-12.966; 15. Thomas Meseraull, 5B, Briscoe-12.995; 16. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.013; 17. Dave Darland, 17x, Dutcher-13.065; 18. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.081; 19. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-13.106; 20. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.163; 21. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-13.181; 22. Jon Stanbrough, 77, Wingo-13.220; 23. Nate McMillin, 24m, McMillin-13.372; 24. Joe B. Miller, 51B, Miller-13.545; 25. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Windom, 2. B.Short, 3. Coons, 4. Boespflug, 5. K.Thomas Jr., 6. T.Thomas, 7. Cummins, 8. Stanbrough. 2:10.33

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Hodges, 2. Darland (#17x), 3. Bernal, 4. Courtney, 5. Andretti, 6. Stockon, 7. Grant, 8. McMillin. 2:11.08

CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Leary, 3. Meseraull, 4. Beauchamp, 5. Farney, 6. Swanson, 7. Robbins, 8. Miller. NT

INDY RACE PARTS SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Cummins, 3. Swanson, 4. Grant, 5. T.Thomas, 6. Stanbrough, 7. McMillin, 8. Robbins, 9. Miller. 2:45.90

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Tyler Courtney, 3. Chad Boespflug, 4. Brady Short, 5. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 6. Justin Grant, 7. Josh Hodges, 8. Aaron Farney, 9. Chris Windom, 10. Dave Darland, 11. Thomas Meseraull, 12. Chase Stockon, 13. Ryan Bernal, 14. Jerry Coons Jr., 15. Jarett Andretti, 16. Tyler Thomas, 17. Kody Swanson, 18. Nate McMillin, 19. Kyle Cummins, 20. C.J. Leary, 21. Jon Stanbrough, 22. Brent Beauchamp. NT
----------------------------
**Leary flipped on lap 23 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Boespflug, Laps 2-30 Ballou.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Josh Hodges (14th-7th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Ryan Bernal

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Grant-1,360, 2-Windom-1,337, 3-Boespflug-1,233, 4-K.Thomas Jr.-1,199, 5-Courtney-1,168, 6-Stockon-1,159, 7-Leary-1,018, 8-Darland-938, 9-Meseraull-932, 10-Brady Bacon-913.

FINAL INDIANA SPRINT WEEK Presented by Camping World POINTS: 1-K.Thomas Jr.-416, 2-Ballou-405, 3-Courtney-362, 4-Meseraull-358, 5-Windom-344, 6-Leary-332, 7-Boespflug-331, 8-Darland-315, 9-B.Short-293, 10-Grant-289.

NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: July 29 - Kansas City, Kansas - Lakeside Speedway

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

Contact: Richie Murray - USAC Media / richie@usacracing.com

CUMMINS' LAST LAP, LAST CORNER MOVE NETS SPECTACULAR HAUBSTADT ISW VICTORY

By: Richie Murray - USAC Media

Haubstadt, Indiana....July 15, 2017 - As soon as the yellow light switched on for the final caution period of the evening, Kyle Cummins devised a plan.

It was a plan born out of necessity that Cummins felt served as his best bet to compete for a victory in the closing laps of Saturday night's penultimate Indiana Sprint Week presented by Camping World round at Tri-State Speedway.

Kevin Thomas, Jr. seemingly had the event stowed away for safe-keeping after leading the first 27 circuits of the 30-lap event, but a double-dose of yellow flags in the final laps would turn the tide for Cummins of nearby Princeton, Indiana.

Following a yellow for a Donny Brackett spin between turns three and four with three to go, Cummins hatched his plan after deciphering that he had no way of passing Thomas had he maintained his line on the bottom. This time around, Cummins had full intentions of executing his plan of attack, but decided at the last instant to abort the mission.

"I knew on that one yellow (on lap 28), I was going to the top," Cummins remembered. "I looked up there and thought the bottom looked so much better. As soon as we took the green, I went in there on the bottom and I felt like it was already too late."

Cummins would soon receive a reprieve when tenth-running Dave Darland's car went up in smoke as Thomas rounded turns three and four and was seemingly headed home to take the checkered. The plan was renewed and Cummins wasn't going to let this second chance slip away.

"As soon as it went yellow, I knew 100 percent what I was going to do," Cummins exclaimed. "It was so much better up top. The bottom was good, but once everyone was running it, it started getting slick and you really had to chock it up getting in. We got the car to where, once I loosened it up a little bit to be able to get in a little harder on the top, that thing came around there and man, was it good!"

After serving as Thomas' shadow throughout the entire duration of the event prior to the final caution, Cummins decided the lower portion of the track was not among the options if a win was in the cards. On the green-white-checkered restart, Cummins went topside while Thomas remained tried-and-true to the bottom.

Cummins' first shot was fired when he diamonded off of turn two and used a huge run to dive to the bottom of turn three on the white flag lap. Thomas anticipated Cummins' presence and snubbed him from the lead, diving to the bottom simultaneously with Cummins to protect his spot for the time being.

On the final lap, Cummins came off turn two like a Concorde on takeoff, staying to the outside of Thomas rather than diving to the inside this time around. Thomas slid up the track from the entrance of turn three to the exit of four, allowing Cummins to counterpunch underneath. Lines changed, wheels banged, a smoke signal lifting into the sky off Cummins' right rear rubber in a drag race off four to the finish line where Cummins swiftly prevailed for a spectacular single car-length victory in his Rock Steady Racing/ProGlide Bearings/Mach-1/Cummins for his third career USAC National Sprint Car victory and his second ISW win in as many seasons.

"As soon as it went yellow, I'm like, 'okay this is perfect,'" Cummins explained. "I was too tight to run the top, but I decided I was going to run the top and forget about the bottom, so I adjusted my shocks to only run the top. On lap 29, I found out it was way faster to run the top. However, he was up in the way, so I tried to dive him and I had to let off going into three or we would've collided. That set me up for the next lap. I went up to the top and he didn't come out as far, allowing me to get around him on the outside. Going into (turn) three, I had my mind set to run all the way around the top. When I saw him, I figured we were going to run into each other coming out of four, so I tried to diamond her down. He got on her and got a little tight. It let me get down, get the power to the ground and get to the checkered flag first."

Cullman, Alabama's Thomas led the first 29 and three-quarters of a lap before surrendering the position to Cummins, but wasn't able to finish off the one that paid the most in his KT Motorsports/Abreu Vineyards - KT Construction Services/DRC/Speedway Chevy.

"On the last restart, I saw Kyle peek underneath me," Thomas recalls. "He's always good here and he's going to find a way that's faster. That's exactly what he did. He waited until the last lap, got a good run off (turns) one and two to pull alongside me going down the backstretch. I probably dove into turn three a little too hard. I didn't necessarily miss my marks, but I maybe could've slowed down a bit more to make my corner a little shorter and not load the right rear so much to where it lifted the front wheels off the ground. That's just the way it goes sometimes. When you give a driver like Kyle that many opportunities, he's going to find the sweet spot and he did."

Although the spectacular highlight-reel, last corner, last lap pass for the win is certainly the moment of the night everyone will remember, the most crucial pass of the night may very well have occurred in the second heat when sixth-quickest qualifier Cummins snagged the fourth and final transfer spot from Critter Malone in the second heat race. Without that pass, Cummins would've been relegated to a feature starting spot outside of the fourth row instead of the outside front row position he would begin from due to the inversion of the fastest six qualifiers to transfer through each of the heat races.

"Track position is crucial, especially when it goes green for a long stretch like that," Cummins said. "We would've been starting a few rows back. We might've gotten there, but without having a yellow, most likely, we wouldn't have been able to catch him. There might've been lapped cars between us too at some point, so that was really important to get that spot."

Despite becoming the most synonymous name in sprint car racing at Tri-State Speedway over the past several years due to his mounting success, surprisingly, he and the team found the early-going to be a struggle to even be able to contend for a transfer spot.

"This thing was like driving a modified," Cummins remembers. "I couldn't get her turned. It was pushing and I was doing all I could do to get into fourth there. On the white flag, I really didn't think I was going to get him. I went in there and it looked like he got tight, just like I did. It's Sprint Week, so I had to drift up. The difference between starting on the front row and starting seventh is a big deal. That was probably the biggest move to put us in position to win.

Following a top-five run at Kokomo on the opening night of Indiana Sprint Week last Saturday, Cummins has had a tumultuous time obtaining the results they expected with finishes of 21st at Lawrenceburg, 18th at Gas City and a DNQ the previous night at Bloomington serving as the lead-in to his epic Haubstadt performance Saturday night, where he feels right at home.

"It seems like even when we're not all that good, we've still got a chance here," Cummins said. "I've raced here enough to where I can manipulate the car or, at least, get it to be competitive. This is my motor. It doesn't run nearly as hot. I knew I could run the whole race and be on the gas hard and not have to worry about it overheating. At Kokomo, we were good, but we had a little problem right before the feature and made a little mistake. At Lawrenceburg, we just had a rough go of it and got into the wall. We didn't know at the time that it bent the rear end. At Gas City, we weren't that good. In Terre haute hot laps, I was terrible. At Bloomington, we were awful. After last night, we all looked at each other and threw everything we had at it. It just wasn't working. We pulled the rear-end out today and it was bent pretty good. We put a new rear-end on and it brought the car back to life. I wish we would've found out about it earlier and it might've turned out to have been a lot better week for us overall."

The sight of Kyle Cummins and Hank Byram's Rock Steady No. 3R hasn't been as prevalent this year as much as it had been during the 2015 and 2016 seasons, only making a smattering of series start in 2017 due to mechanical issues. Cummins was set on running his own No. 3c when time allowed, but an 11th hour agreement between Cummins and Byram pit the dynamic duo back together for ISW and their victory at Haubstadt.

"(Car owner) Hank (Byram) only has his one motor," Cummins explained. "It got hot here in the spring race. The heads were so old, they were giving up. He had to take a break and he actually still hasn't gotten his motor back. I was jumping back and forth between Rick Pollock's car and my own car. I knew I was going to get my motor, so I figured if I was going to get my own motor, I was going to run my own car. We ran down here and won the first night. I was going to run Sprint Week, but I didn't have the equipment, didn't have the time and didn't have any spares. I just had the car I had. Hank offered me a deal where I'd put my motor in his car and we'd make it a bit easier on both of us. I felt comfortable in the car and I knew we'd be pretty good, so we decided to get back together."

"I don't know how much more we'll run," Cummins added. "It depends when he gets his motor back. We haven't raced much, once a month it seems, which makes it tough coming off a year like we had last year. I felt at the beginning of the year that we were battling issues here and there. Now we're throwing different motors in and changing stuff around. This car had to be clipped and redone. We finally got this car running pretty good and ready to finish out the season."

Meanwhile, with his second-place run, Thomas extended his Indiana Sprint Week point lead to 21 heading into the final series event Sunday, July 16 at Lincoln Park Speedway in Putnamville, Indiana. Though Thomas gained a little bit of breathing room with the uptick in the point differential between he and Robert Ballou, it's certainly not enough for him to breathe easily and

"You just have to be aggressive," Thomas mandates. "You can't points race in this deal because, at the end of the day, you'll get beat. It's just like what happened tonight. I raced defensively instead of offensively and I got beat. That's just something you can't do in racing. Some people are capable of point racing, but I'm not. Sunday at Putnamville, we're going to be aggressive and be the fastest in everything we're in tomorrow. Hopefully it works out. If it does, it does. If it doesn't, it doesn't."

Meanwhile, just behind the leaders, a battle for the third-spot was nearly as furious with Indianapolis, Indiana's Tyler Courtney nabbing the spot from new USAC National Sprint Car point leader Justin Grant on the final lap in his TOPP Motorsports/TOPP Performance Race Parts - Custom Pump & Controls/Maxim/Claxton.

"We were really good at about the halfway point," Courtney said. "We got to fourth and that put us in position to run down Justin at the end. I just wasn't able to clear him in traffic. Luckily, we got a yellow toward the end and I was able to run it as hard as I could on the top those last couple of laps, then get him there coming to the checkered. We ran second down here at the end of last year, but we kind of struggled in the spring. To run third at a track we're notoriously bad at is like a win for us."

Contingency award winners Saturday at Tri-State Speedway include Justin Grant (ProSource Fast Qualifier & Simpson Race Products 1st Heat Winner), Josh Hodges (Competition Suspension, Inc. 2nd Heat Winner), Jarett Andretti (Chalk Stix 3rd Heat Winner), Kevin Thomas, Jr. (Indy Race Parts 4th Heat Winner), Carson Short (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Brady Short (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 15, 2017 - Haubstadt, Indiana - Tri-State Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" Presented by Camping World

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 11, McGhee-13.362; 2. Thomas Meseraull, 5B, Briscoe-13.474; 3. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-13.562; 4. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, KT-13.712; 5. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-13.771; 6. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.788; 7. Ryan Bernal, 17GP, Dutcher-13.791; 8. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-13.838; 9. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-13.859; 10. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.860; 11. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.891; 12. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.898; 13. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-13.918; 14. Critter Malone, 7, Seven-13.945; 15. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-14.008; 16. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-14.021; 17. Kent Schmidt, 5K, Schmidt-14.036; 18. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-14.049; 19. Garrett Aitken, 32A, Aitken-14.051; 20. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-14.075; 21. Carson Short, 21, RCM-14.084; 22. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-14.102; 23. Brian Karraker, 23, Karraker-14.128; 24. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-14.138; 25. Brody Roa, 91R, BR-14.138; 26. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-14.351; 27. Aaron Farney, 15F, DCT-14.369; 28. Koby Barksdale, 22, Barksdale-14.409; 29. Stephen Schnapf, 61m, Edwards-14.417; 30. Donny Brackett, 4B, Brackett-14.421; 31. Brian Wallace, 27, Wallace-14.491; 32. Tyler Clem, 14c, Clem/TSR-14.518; 33. Katlynn Leer, 77K, Leer-15.030; 34. Alec Sipes, 99, Sipes-16.000; 35. Ted Hines, 12x, Hines-16.143.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Grant, 2. C. Short, 3. Roa, 4. Courtney, 5. Darland, 6. T. Thomas, 7. Schnapf, 8. Schmidt, 9. Leer. 2:16.90

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Hodges, 2. B. Short, 3. Meseraull, 4. Cummins, 5. Malone, 6. Stanbrough, 7. Mattox, 8. Brackett, 9. Sipes. 2:16.72

CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Andretti, 2. Ballou, 3. Boespflug, 4. Bernal, 5. Karraker, 6. Farney, 7. Aitken, 8. Wallace, 9. Hines. 2:17.29

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. K. Thomas, 2. Stockon, 3. Windom, 4. Jackson, 5. Leary, 6. Gentry, 7. Barksdale, 8. Clem. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Stanbrough, 3. Brackett, 4. Leary, 5. Karraker, 6. Schnapf, 7. T. Thomas, 8. Wallace, 9. Farney, 10. Clem, 11. Aitken, 12. Schmidt, 13. Gentry, 14. Mattox, 15. Malone, 16. Hines, 17. Barksdale, 18. Sipes. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 3. Tyler Courtney, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Thomas Meseraull, 6. Robert Ballou, 7. Jarett Andretti, 8. Chad Boespflug, 9. Ryan Bernal, 10. Carson Short, 11. Chris Windom, 12. C.J. Leary, 13. Brady Short, 14. Brody Roa, 15. Chase Stockon, 16. Jon Stanbrough, 17. Brian Karraker, 18. Josh Hodges, 19. Aaron Farney, 20. Donny Brackett, 21. Dave Darland, 22. Dakota Jackson, 23. Stephen Schnapf. NT
----------------------------
**Clem flipped during heat 4.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-29 K. Thomas, Lap 30 Cummins.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Carson Short (16th to 10th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Brady Short

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Grant-1304, 2-Windom-1283, 3-Boespflug-1161, 4-K. Thomas-1131, 5-Stockon-1111, 6-Courtney-1094, 7-Leary-984, 8-Brady Bacon-913, 9-Darland-888, 10-Meseraull-885.

NEW INDIANA SPRINT WEEK Presented by Camping World POINTS: 1-K. Thomas-348, 2-Ballou-327, 3-Meseraull-311, 4-Leary-298, 5-Windom-290, 6-Courtney-288, 7-Darland-265, 8-Boespflug-259, 9-Grant-233, 10-B. Short-225.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 16 - Putnamville, IN - Lincoln Park Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" - Presented by Camping World