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

THOMAS LEAVES NO DOUBT IN BLOOMINGTON "SHELDON KINSER MEMORIAL" SCORE

By: Richie Murray - USAC Media

Bloomington, Indiana.....July 14, 2017 - Indiana Sprint Week at Bloomington Speedway is pretty much where it began for Kevin Thomas, Jr. five years ago.

Fourteen USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car wins and five Indiana Sprint Week victories later, the Cullman, Alabama native finally made a return visit to Bloomington victory lane, leading the final 28 laps of Friday night's 29th Annual "Sheldon Kinser Memorial" to score his second series victory of the year and vaulting him into the ISW presented by Camping World point lead with two events remaining.

With a full decade under his belt as a mainstay on the USAC Sprint Car scene as well as Bloomington Speedway, the 25-year-old, who made his first Bloomington USAC appearance as a teenager back in 2007, has a fair share of experience on the red, Southern Indiana clay.

"I've run a lot of laps here," Thomas admits. "It's pretty special to come back here and do this again. We run here as much as we can, local shows and with other organizations and, over 10 years here now, it's been a pretty good bit. It's just the number of laps. I'm just really comfortable here."

"Tonight was nice and slick to a big ol' curb," Thomas continued. "We made good decisions. We've been trying some things at local shows to help us out whenever it gets like that here. My crew made all the right calls in the pits and gave me a great racecar. It was pretty nice to drive tonight, especially up there against that treacherous curb. It's hard to keep your concentration for that many laps in a row, but having a car like I had makes it easier. Once you're out front, you have to keep your nose clean and run a smart race, pick off lapped cars whenever you can and try not to make any mistakes, which is hard to do up there. Everything with our package we have right now runs well. It's just a joy to drive."

Thomas would begin the 30-lap event from outside of the second row, and took quick action to get to the front. Coming off the second turn on the opening lap, pole sitter Chad Boespflug spurted away to the lead while Robert Ballou (bottom), Thomas (middle) and Thomas Meseraull (top) battled three-wide for second. Bloomington's tight confines made it a tough proposition for all three to successfully make it to turn three unscathed, and that would prove to be the case.

2017 Sheldon Kinser Memorial winner Kevin Thomas, Jr. (David Nearpass Photo)

Midway down the back straight, Thomas and Meseraull made contact. Meseraull's left front wheel served as a launching pad for Thomas who hopped his right rear tire over Meseraull's wheel, collapsing Meseraull's front end and concluding a night that proved crushing to the San Jose, California's Indiana Sprint Week title hopes, dropping him from second in the standings (13 back) to fifth and 28 out of the lead with just two events remaining.

It was an incident in which Kevin Thomas, Jr. put the full blame squarely on his own shoulders.

"I got a decent start," Thomas recalls. "I rolled the middle and got up beside Thomas. Honestly, it's just a lack of concentration on my part. I caught myself looking at the bottom at Boespflug and I let my right rear slide out a little bit too far and I ran Thomas out of room. That was 100% my fault. He didn't do anything wrong and it's just unfortunate what happened to him. They've been good all week. It's not the way we want to race because he doesn't race like that and I try not to race like that. It's just an unfortunate circumstance for him. He's been good all week and he was good tonight. I just lost concentration on my end."

With the incident occurring on the opening lap, there were still 30 laps to try to retain that focus that is so sorely needed to compete at a winning level. With that situation weighing on his mind, Thomas had to regain his composure and get back to the task at hand.

"When you make contact, then yellow comes out immediately and you see his front end knocked out like that, it's a disheartening because he and I have raced for a long, long time. We don't usually make contact. He's got a wife and kids. He's here to make a living too. To take his night away from him like that is not cool on my part."

When action resumed, many believed the race would be won on the bottom including leader Boespflug, but Kevin Thomas, Jr. had his car set up to run the top and he didn't intend to stray from that notion. Thomas was able to inch a bit closer on the first three circuits as the two ran side-by-side, Boespflug around the infield tires and Thomas riding the ledge.

Boespflug clung to the lead by a car length at the line at the conclusion of lap three, but Thomas made some headway on the following lap and, coming off four, surged ahead of Boespflug as he hung his right-side tires off the front straightaway curb at the start/finish line to secure the point. Boespflug took one more run at Thomas on lap four, attempting a half-slider in turn three to no avail, allowing Thomas to step through the door and slam it shut as he left the rest of the field behind.

By the tenth lap, Thomas had built up a full-straightaway lead with Troy, Ohio's Lee Underwood holding down the second spot in one of the most remarkable drives all week, one lap after he blew by Boespflug on the bottom for the runner-up position. By halfway, lappers were everywhere, suffocating the high and low-lines on each end of the quarter-mile, but Thomas had no intentions of leaving his comfort zone up top.

"I just don't run the bottom," Thomas said without hesitation. "It's just one of those things. If I could run in the top-five on the top and not have to run the bottom, it's probably what I'm going to try to do. I just don't have enough patience to run the bottom. I'm not very good at it. We set up to run the top as much as we can. It's just a comfort level up there for me. I thought about going to the bottom a few times in lapped traffic. I think I tried it one time and I completely missed the bottom. I knew I couldn't do this any longer, so I just stuck it out, tried to get a little bit closer to the lappers, then I just slid them."

Just after halfway, Boespflug found his second wind, discovering his groove on the high-side to sweep past Underwood for second on lap 18 with eyes affixed on catching Thomas in the gridlock of lapped traffic that lie ahead. Still trailing by nearly three seconds, Boespflug would need a caution or something drastic to occur in front of Thomas in the closing laps, and it nearly did.

With six to go, the cars of Max McGhee and C.J. Leary became hooked together rear bumper to front bumper, respectively, right in front of Thomas, which briefly caused a bit of consternation for the race leader. The two eventually were able untangle at the exit of turn four before continuing, but luckily for Thomas, he was able to take evasive action to avoid catastrophe.

"I did see that," Thomas recalls. "It's just one of those deals. You have to look far enough ahead, but you still have to concentrate as much as you can on the cushion you're running. It can bite you just as much as those two beating and banging on each other. Something can happen and you might get into them. It's a little bit of both. You have to concentrate really hard on what the cars are doing in front of you. You have to get your momentum up before you get there, then whenever they make a mistake, just squirt by and get yourself out of the problem. That's really all you can do in that situation."

With no caution coming out for the incident, it became a split-second decision that could've ultimately decided the race. As Boespflug charged at Thomas with a full-head of steam, it was the line Thomas had already established that he believes helped him navigate through the potential hazards as they occurred.

"If you try to wait and go to the bottom, say somebody knocks their front end out, then turns down the track and you get taken out of the lead, that's just one thing you don't want to happen. I feel like the top is the easiest way out of trouble. There's normally so much banking on these tracks that when something happens, it usually ends up going to the bottom. I think you have a little bit more space if something does happen, so I just stick to the top. If something happens, you can drive off the top of the track, especially here since there's no walls. If you can get slowed down and turn underneath it, you've got to stick to the top. You can't open yourself up too much for the guy behind you. It's just a fine line right there, but it's a gamble you have to take."

No such trouble stood in Thomas' path on the final five revolutions around the oval, though he did have to contend with a three-way battle for 16th between Justin Grant, Carson Short and Shane Cottle that formed a Red Rover Wall of sorts with two to go that prevented him from breaking free. The pack would thin out and Thomas would win out, finishing off a dominating performance in his KT Motorsports/Abreu Vineyards - KT Construction Services/DRC/Speedway Chevy over Boespflug, a series-best performance for the unrelated Tyler Thomas, followed by the surprise of ISW - Lee Underwood - who came home a career-best fourth while Robert Ballou rounded out the top-five.

With the victory, Thomas now holds down a five-point advantage in the ISW standings. With two shows remaining, Thomas plans to block out any thoughts on so-called "points racing."

"In the first part of the week, I was actually paying attention to the points," Thomas recalls. "I'd been running (terrible). Tonight, it was another gameplan, a different mindset. We're just here to win now. If you win the race, the points will take care of themselves. As far as that old points racing crap, I'm kind of over it. That's not what I do. Whenever I do, I don't make good decisions and I'm not aggressive. It's just not the way I like to run races. We're just going to go out there to win every race. If we do, we do. If we don't, we don't. If something happens and we get taken out like Meseraull did tonight, that is what it is. It's just the way this week can go. It's a tough week. You want to be in position to capitalize on the opportunities you do have and hope that nothing bad happens to you."

After a tumultuous past month that hadn't seen a top-five finish in the last 30 days, Hanford, California's Chad Boespflug has seemingly gotten back on a track, following up a fourth-place run Monday night at Gas City with a runner-up finish Friday night at Bloomington in his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - PAC Springs/Maxim/Claxton. It's been a turnaround a long-time coming after their confidence was shaken following a string of results that had not lived up to their expectations.

"When things don't go the way you want them to go and the late nights at the shop and the early mornings come and go, things can seem like they're falling apart," Boespflug explains. "(Crewmen) Davey (Jones), Richard (Hoffman) and myself have had to pep talk each other at times to try and get things going. We all believe in each other and that's the key. I think saying what we did to each other lit a fire under our butts and got us going again."

Like many, Boespflug stayed on the bottom early before gravitating to the top where he seemed to pick up speed about halfway through and worked his way back to second.

"I just hung out on the bottom too long," Boespflug laments. "Early on, I thought that was going to be the place. The top cleaned off pretty good for Kevin, so I jumped up there and ran one lap in one corner at the top, then went to the bottom and vice-versa. I kind of jumped around a bunch, but that didn't seem to work, so I just stuck to the top. I was kind of tip-toeing, getting my speed up. Lee (Underwood) got underneath me and I really had to hustle to get back around him. I was getting closer to KT about halfway through, then the rubber came and we were all running the same speed around the top."

Collinsville, Oklahoma's Tyler Thomas' last few weeks revolved around rebuilding a car that had been heavily-damaged in the non-sanctioned "No Way Out 40" at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway a few weeks back. That comes in addition to minor setbacks and missing a few shows that proved a setback to the 21-year-old who first stepped into a USAC Sprint Car at this point one year ago. On Friday night, all the pieces came together for T. Thomas and his Jerry Burton-owned/Jerry Burton Masonry - Johnson's Taxidermy/DRC/Foxco to record a best-career USAC National Sprint Car finish of third.

"It's really special to me, especially to do it in the Jerry Burton car," Thomas beamed. "We've been battling so many small problems that's kept us from qualifying well and getting through our heat race. Plus, we missed a couple nights and, prior to all of this, we had to rebuild the car a couple weeks ago after a crash. We got it together tonight. We qualified really well and got through the heat race and ran up front in the feature tonight. I just tried to be real patient there. I rolled around the bottom - felt like for maybe too long - but once we got up to the top and got around Ballou and Underwood, this car was on a roll.

"We've been battling a lot of different issues all year," Thomas explains. "There's nothing we could've done. It's just been bad luck, really. We were finally able to get everything dialed in tonight. This is by far the best night we've had all year. I never would've dreamed we would've run top-three at Sprint Week this week, but it feels pretty damn cool."

Brownsburg, Indiana driver A.J. Hopkins was released from the hospital early Saturday morning after a frightening semi-feature incident in which he ramped over the right rear wheel of another car, sending him flipping through a fence located between turns one and two where he eventually came to a rest in a parking area, making contact with a couple of pickup trucks along the way.

Contingency award winners Friday at Bloomington Speedway include Carson Short (ProSource Fast Qualifier), C.J. Leary (Simpson Race Products 1st Heat Winner), Robert Ballou (Competition Suspension, Inc. 2nd Heat Winner), Brody Roa (Chalk Stix 3rd Heat Winner), Chad Boespflug (Indy Race Parts 4th Heat Winner), Brady Short (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Josh Hodges (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 14, 2017 - Bloomington, Indiana - Bloomington Speedway - 29th "Sheldon Kinser Memorial" - "Indiana Sprint Week" Presented by Camping World

PROSOURCE/B & W AUTO MART QUALIFYING: 1. Carson Short, 21, RCM-10.842; 2. Ryan Bernal, 17G, On The Gass-11.032; 3. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-11.037; 4. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-11.069; 5. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, KT-11.078; 6. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-11,095; 7. Thomas Meseraull, 5B, Briscoe-11.127; 8. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-11.151; 9. Lee Underwood, 24L, Underwood-11.155; 10. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-11.162; 11. Hunter Schuerenberg, 44, Pace-11.170; 12. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-11.181; 13. Jeff Bland, Jr., 66w, Waltz-11.194; 14. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-11.210; 15. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-11.262; 16. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-11.290; 17. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-11.318; 18. Garrett Aitken, 32A, Aitken-11.326; 19. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-11.326; 20. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-11.357; 21. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-11.367; 22. Kody Swanson, 2E, Epperson-11.372; 23. Brody Roa, 91T, BR-11.386; 24. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-11.482; 25. Justin Grant, 11, McGhee-11.483; 26. Matt McDonald, 5m, McDonald-11.500; 27. A.J. Hopkins, 4J, 4J Motorsports-11.530; 28. Jon Stanbrough, 77, Wingo-11.551; 29. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-11.553; 30. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-11.597; 31. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-11.612; 32. Jerry Coons, Jr., 21K, Krockenberger-11.652; 33. Aaron Farney, 15F, DCT-11.711; 34. Shelby VanGilder, 22v, VanGilder-11.813; 35. Katlynn Leer, 77K, Leer-11.820; 36. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-11.842; 37. Koby Barksdale, 22, Barksdale-11.916; 38. Alec Sipes, 99, Sipes-12.415; 39. Brady Ottinger, 4B, 4J Motorsports-12.630; 40. Tyler Clem, 14c, Clem/TSR-(Time of 11.864 disallowed).

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Leary, 2. K. Thomas, 3. Bland, 4. B. Short, 5. C. Short, 6. Grant, 7. Andretti, 8. Farney, 9. Barksdale, 10. Underwood. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Swanson, 3. Bernal, 4. Hodges, 5. McDonald, 6. Sipes, 7. VanGilder, 8. Aitken, 9. Mattox, 10. Windom. NT

CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Roa, 2. Jackson, 3. Courtney, 4. Meseraull, 5. Beauchamp, 6. Hopkins, 7. McGhee, 8. Leer, 9. Ottinger, 10. Schuerenberg. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. Darland, 3. Cottle, 4. T. Thomas, 5. Stanbrough, 6. Coons, 7. Williams, 8. Clem, 9. Cummins, 10. Stockon. NT

C-MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Coons, 2. Beauchamp, 3. Farney, 4. Williams, 5. Barksdale, 6. Clem, 7. VanGilder, 8. Ottinger, 9. Sipes, 10. Leer. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. McGhee, 2. Schuerenberg, 3. Grant, 4. Underwood, 5. Stockon, 6. Windom, 7. C. Short, 8. Coons, 9. Aitken, 10. Stanbrough, 11. Beauchamp, 12. Mattox, 13. Andretti, 14. Williams, 15. Barksdale, 16. Cummins, 17. Farney, 18. Hopkins. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr. 2. Chad Boespflug, 3. Tyler Thomas, 4. Lee Underwood, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Jeff Bland, Jr., 7. Chris Windom, 8. Tyler Courtney, 9. Chase Stockon, 10. Brady Short, 11. Dave Darland, 12. Hunter Schuerenberg, 13. Josh Hodges, 14. Ryan Bernal, 15. Kody Swanson, 16. Justin Grant, 17. Carson Short, 18. Shane Cottle, 19. Dakota Jackson, 20. C.J. Leary, 21. Jarett Andretti, 22. Brody Roa, 23. Max McGhee, 24. Thomas Meseraull. NT
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**Hopkins flipped through the fence outside turn two during the semi. He was transported to a local hospital for observation.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Boespflug, Laps 3-30 K. Thomas.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Brady Short (22nd-10th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Josh Hodges

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Windom-1,236, 2-Grant-1,229, 3-Boespflug-1,102, 4-Stockon-1,071, 5-K. Thomas-1,053, 6-Courtney-1,025, 7-Leary-944, 8-Brady Bacon-913, 9-Darland-859, 10-Meseraull-816.

NEW INDIANA SPRINT WEEK Presented by Camping World POINTS: 1-K. Thomas-270, 2-Ballou-265, 3-Leary-258, 4-Windom-243, 5-Meseraull-242, 6-Darland-236, 7-Courtney-219, 8-Brady Bacon-203, 9-Boespflug-200, 10-Hodges-187.

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

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

LEARY REIGNS FOR 2ND STRAIGHT NIGHT AT GAS CITY

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Gas City, Indiana………July 10, 2017 – "Once you win one, the floodgates will open and you’ll begin to win a bunch of them.”

That’s the sentiment C.J. Leary had heard time and time again over the past few seasons, much to his chagrin, as he came within a whisker of breaking through on several occasions.

“I’ve heard it my whole career,” Leary admits. ‘Once you get the monkey off your back, the wins will come easier.’ I didn’t believe them. It took me 140 starts to get my first USAC National Sprint Car victory and it took me 28 to get the second one.”

But, it only took one more start to go from win number two to USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory number three on the third Monday night event in Indiana Sprint Week history, blitzing around the outside of Robert Ballou with five laps remaining to win round three of Indiana Sprint Week presented by Camping World at Gas City I-69 Speedway.

Leary, Sunday’s Lawrenceburg winner, became the first driver to win consecutive Indiana Sprint Week features since Bryan Clauson in 2013. Leary’s seen fire and he’s seen rain, but one or the other would have to win over the other on this night.

Lately, the fire has been Leary who has been en fuego since the beginning of ISW while the rain has been, well, it’s usual self lately. Monday night’s makeup was originally intended as the opener prior to being washed away by the elements last Friday. Yet, on this night, each driver was competing in a pair of races: the 30-lap main event and a race versus Mother Nature that saw the program proceed at a rapid pace with a checkered flag that dropped before nightfall, 8:50pm local time to be precise.

Leary began the race from the outside of the front row, yet, early on, an encore performance from the night before did not appear to be in the cards as he dropped from the front row to fifth on the opening lap. But the 21-year-old second generation driver dug into the high side and went to work as Shane Cottle zipped away on the bottom to lead the opening pair of laps.

On the third circuit, Kokomo winner Thomas Meseraull ripped the top around the outside of Cottle to claim the lead exiting turn four. Robert Ballou followed suit, making the same maneuver to get to the runner-up spot off the second turn. Like he did two nights earlier, Meseraull hurried to the front and appeared to be in total control as he built a more than one-second lead ten laps in.

By halfway, the frontrunners had entered traffic where Meseraull leaned on the cush and Ballou tip-toed around the infield tires. The track’s equilibrium was in perfect balance with the top and bottom proving perfectly equal as Meseraull’s and Ballou’s machines rode in unison as if they were bolted down to a carnival carousel on laps 19, 20 and 21. Neither had budged an inch in either direction as the two shadowed one another with Meseraull leading each time at the stripe by a slim margin.

The action would come to a halt with 10 laps remaining as Ryan Bernal’s mount nosed into the outside turn four guardrail with 10 laps remaining, necessitating a yellow and a lap 21 restart with Meseraull at the head of the class and a surging Robert Ballou right on his rear bumper.

However, under caution, third-running Leary made a key adjustment that would ultimately pay large dividends.

“This thing was digging hard on the top,” Leary explains. We were just kind of riding along. I didn’t think we were going to have anything for them at the end really, but when the yellow came out, we adjusted on the shocks after starting off kind of tight. The car finally came to us. We adjusted from there and became a lot better.”

Still mired in third, Leary would still have to find a way around superstar veterans Meseraull and Ballou on the restart, a tall task to ask from anybody. Leary’s first domino fell when Meseraull drifted high at the exit of turn two, falling off the shelf and over the cushion, dropping him out of the lead as Ballou slipped by on the bottom for the lead and Leary was there to strike as well, taking advantage of the fortuitous occurrence to grab second.

Ballou firmly planted his talons on the bottom while Leary took ownership of the top lane, the only place he felt he needed to be down the stretch.

“It was treacherous around the top,” Leary detailed. “I had to hit my marks, but I really had to run it hard to keep the rest of the field behind us. I think I might’ve stumbled a little bit on the top a time or two, but it was so easy to make a mistake and not get the run down the straightaway that we needed. On the bottom, you could tiptoe around the tires and you could get a pretty good spurt off. But, the longer the race went on, the slicker the bottom got. The top pretty much stayed the same.”

Leary took the long way around, but little-by-little, it began to pay off as he shrunk Ballou’s lead down to a sliver and eventually grabbed the top spot with five to go. Meanwhile, Chris Windom had entered the fray and was able to limbo past Ballou between turns one and two with just four to go. It was a rubber match as the two made contact on exit with Windom’s right rear and Ballou’s left front meeting face-to-face. Ballou’s front wheels took a hop as he lost momentum and fell to a distant third momentarily. Windom then used a big drive on the bottom to surge underneath Leary off of four to take the lead at the line.

However, before the completion of the lap, Hunter Schuerenberg and Tyler Thomas made contact back in the pack, sending Thomas into a 360 spin. Though he managed to keep it rolling, by rule, the spin required a yellow, which meant the lineup would revert to the most-recently scored lap, relegating Windom all the way back to third for the restart behind Leary and Ballou.

Ballou wasn’t keen on letting Leary slip away down the final stretch, keeping tabs on the black 30 and getting a drive off the bottom to come within inches of leading the 27th lap despite clipping one of the infield tires exiting four that briefly lifted his front wheels.

Ballou kept at it, though, and was able to take a two car-length advantage over Leary into turn three on lap 28. However, once again, the infield tires proved a nemesis for “The Madman” as Ballou clipped the same tire with the left front, forcing him sideways and his wheels pointing toward the sky. When he came back to the earth on all fours, he clipped a second tire at the exit of four, slowing him down just enough to allow the unfettered Leary to break free by five car-lengths, an advantage he would not surrender in the final two laps to win for the second night in a row aboard the family-owned Leary Racing/Leary Construction – Highsmith Guns/DRC/1-Way Chevy over Ballou, Windom, Chad Boespflug and Brady Bacon.

When It rains, it pours, figuratively speaking, of course. As the race against the rain was defeated, Leary’s confidence is at an all-time high right now after changes in personnel as well as bits and pieces on the car prior to Indiana Sprint Week where he now holds a 13-point lead in the series with four races remaining, picking back up at the Terre Haute Action Track Wednesday following a day off Tuesday.

“(The changes) are really paying off,” Leary said. “My confidence is up and I think it kind of showed tonight. We got her qualified up-front at a track that’s not really one of my better tracks. Last night, people could’ve said it was my best racetrack and blah, blah, blah, but not tonight. To go back-to-back in Indiana Sprint Week is unreal. I don’t think it’s sunk in yet. I really wish we were racing tomorrow. We got the roll going and I don’t want to stop now.”

“We’re going to take it night-by-night and we’re not going to start counting the points until the end,” Leary added. “We can pat ourselves on the back for a little bit Tuesday on our day off, then get prepared for the final four nights and we’ll see where we end up.”

Rocklin, California’s Robert Ballou led five laps on his way to a runner-up result in his Robert Ballou Motorsports/Deaton’s Waterfront Services – Lucas Oil/Don Ott-powered Twister-X chassis, a car that Ballou estimates is around 15 years old, but still gets the job done.

“Unfortunately, if you can’t find your comfort level, you’ve got to try something else,” Ballou explains. “I put these Twister-X cars together from Jimmy Crawford who sent them out here from California. We’re just trying to get things back in line with some old cars. I’ve ran this car before. They’re good cars and I’m comfortable in them. We pulled a car out the first night at Kokomo on Saturday and you just can’t pull a car out and expect to pick back up where you left off. It’s been years since we’ve run it. But I knew if we could put it together in time, it would be good and it’s been pretty good so far.”

On a wild lap scramble for position at the front with four laps to go, Ballou dropped from first to third in one sequence. But a yellow flag fell in his favor moments later, serving as his saving grace and placed him back in position with an opportunity to win on the final restart.

“I got lucky. I got lucky,” Ballou reiterated. “A lot of times things fall in your favor and a lot of times they don’t fall in your favor. Tonight was one that fell in my favor. When the track is slick and you have to drive it off the right front, rotate around the tires and get off the corner, that’s not Robert Ballou. We were a tick off all night. I couldn’t get the thing stuck on the right rear the way I wanted to and to where I feel comfortable. I couldn’t hit my marks as good as I wanted. It got so narrow and tedious that I’d lose the right rear, then I’d have to wait on it. I was holding everybody up, let’s be honest. But it’s racing and C.J. found a way around me.”

“Hats off to the O’Connors,” Ballou praised the family operating the track. “Everything was against them weather-wise, so I have to commend them for taking on the task and doing what they did. But we missed the setup a little bit. We’re inching closer and closer every night. I still feel a little rusty and I feel I haven’t quite caught my stride yet. We’re getting closer and we’re getting the racecar more comfortable. If I’m not comfortable, it’s kind of like what Donny Schatz says along the lines of ‘if the driver isn’t comfortable, it’s over with.’ I just haven’t found that perfect comfort level yet that makes me fast every night. We’re almost there at certain tracks and I believe the rest of this week should show that.”

Chris Windom had an ignition box fall by the wayside prior to his heat race, forcing him to go through the semi to earn a spot in the feature lineup. Windom recovered with a solid third-place run, though it came with a bit of heartache after being caught out by a yellow after taking the lead with four laps remaining. There are no days off for Windom to lick his wounds as he has a test scheduled Tuesday to prepare for his NASCAR Camping World Truck Series debut July 19 at Eldora Speedway before returning to redemption in the Baldwin Brothers Racing/Fox Paving – AMSOIL/DRC/Claxton Mopar sprinter Wednesday at Terre Haute, a place in which he’s won the two most recent times he’s visited.

“It was pretty frustrating knowing we were the best car and had a caution come out soon as we take the lead,” Windom laments. “It was hard to pass and I knew we were dead in the water after that. I’ve got the easy job of driving the car, so I’m always ready to get back in the seat, but my guys definitely need a day off to regroup for the second half of the week.”

Contingency award winners Monday at Gas City I-69 Speedway include Chase Stockon (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Josh Hodges (Simpson Race Products 1st Heat Winner), Aaron Farney (Competition Suspension, Inc. 2nd Heat Winner), Robert Ballou (Chalk Stix 3rd Heat Winner), Kody Swanson (Indy Race Parts 4th Heat Winner), Tyler Courtney (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Jarett Andretti (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 10, 2017 – Gas City, Indiana – Gas City I-69 Speedway – “Indiana Sprint Week” – Presented by Camping World

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-11.837; 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9K, KT-11.925; 3. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-11.930; 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5B, Briscoe-12.014; 5. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-12.032; 6. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-12.057; 7. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-12.138; 8. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-12.144; 9. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-12.158; 10. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-12.183; 11. Brady Bacon, 63, Dooling/Hayward-12.198; 12. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-12.203; 13. Hunter Schuerenberg, 44, Pace-12.208; 14. Justin Grant, 11, McGhee-12.244; 15. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-12.292; 16. Kody Swanson, 2E, Epperson-12.317; 17. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-12.359; 18. Aaron Farney, 15F, DCT-12.429; 19. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-12.435; 20. A.J. Hopkins, 4J, 4J Motorsports-12.458; 21. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-12.462; 22. Tyler Hewitt, 97x, One More Time-12.498; 23. Brody Roa, 91R, BR-12.505; 24. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-12.596; 25. Ryan Bernal, 17GP, Dutcher-12.596; 26. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR/Chapple-12.625; 27. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-12.643; 28. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-12.766; 29. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-12.772; 30. Tyler Clem, 14, Clem/TSR-12.798; 31. Kyle Robbins, 17R, KR-12.907; 32. Ted Hines, 12x, Hines-12.918.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Hodges, 2. Schuerenberg, 3. Leary, 4. Stockon, 5. Westfall, 6. Bernal, 7. Cummins, 8. Goodnight. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Farney, 2. Grant, 3. K. Thomas, 4. Boespflug, 5. Darland, 6. Hewitt, 7. Clem, 8. Chapple. 2:08.22

CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Andretti, 3. Cottle, 4. Roa, 5. Bacon, 6. Courtney, 7. Jarrett, 8. Robbins. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Swanson, 2. Meseraull, 3. Hopkins, 4. T. Thomas, 5. Stanbrough, 6. Short, 7. Hines, 8. Windom. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Darland, 3. Windom, 4. Courtney, 5. Short, 6. Cummins, 7. Bernal, 8. Stanbrough, 9. Hewitt, 10. Chapple, 11. Westfall, 12. Jarrett, 13. Hines, 14. Robbins, 15. Clem. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Chris Windom, 4. Chad Boespflug, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Shane Cottle, 7. Thomas Meseraull, 8. Justin Grant, 9. Chase Stockon, 10. Josh Hodges, 11. Tyler Courtney, 12. Dave Darland, 13. Jarett Andretti, 14. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 15. Kody Swanson, 16. Brady Short, 17. Hunter Schuerenberg, 18. Kyle Cummins, 19. Aaron Farney, 20. Tyler Thomas, 21. Brody Roa, 22. Ryan Bernal, 23. A.J. Hopkins. NT

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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Cottle, Laps 3-20 Meseraull, Laps 21-25 Ballou, Laps 26-30 Leary.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Tyler Courtney (18th to 11th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Jarett Andretti

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Grant-1186, 2-Windom-1173, 3-Boespflug-1017, 4-Stockon-1014, 5-K. Thomas-964, 6-Courtney-960, 7-Bacon-913, 8-Leary-903, 9-Darland-801, 10-Meseraull-778.

NEW INDIANA SPRINT WEEK Presented by Camping World POINTS: 1-Leary-217, 2-Meseraull-204, 3-Bacon-203, 4-Ballou-188, 5-K. Thomas-181, 6-Windom-180, 7-Darland-178, 8-Courtney-154, 9-Hodges-135, 10-Andretti-128.

NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: July 12 – Terre Haute, Indiana – Terre Haute Action Track – “Don Smith Classic” – “Indiana Sprint Week” – Presented by Camping World

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

LEARY LOWERS THE BOOM FOR FIRST ISW WIN AT THE BURG

By: Richie Murray - USAC Media

Lawrenceburg, Indiana.....July 9, 2017 - C.J. Leary will be the first to tell you how difficult it is to win a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature. It requires a number of things to line up accordingly leading up to the event and, throughout the night, it takes a combination of skill and even good fortune to have a good run, let alone a winning performance at night's end.

It took 140 long nights to get the elusive first USAC Sprint win last August, but only 28 to earn his second Sunday night in round two of Indiana Sprint Week presented by Camping World at Lawrenceburg Speedway.

However, the drought seemed more prolonged in Leary's eyes as good fortune seemed to elude him regularly this season. Mired back in eighth in the standings and sans a victory throughout the first half of the season, the team thrashed to find the right combination that would pay dividends for them in the immediate future.

"It's been a real trying season," Leary admits. "All year, if it wasn't for bad luck, we'd have no luck at all. We kept trying different stuff and nothing seemed to be working."

Prior to Sprint Week, however, the Leary's made a few changes to the puzzle pieces that make up the core of the team. There were adjustments made to the shock package and the installation of a new engine, but the biggest change was a switch on the one turning the wrenches. Enter Donnie Gentry as the new crew chief, the very same individual C.J. had in his corner when he drove Shane Wade's No. 66 to his career USAC Sprint win at Kokomo Speedway's "Sprint Car Smackdown" 11 months ago.

"Donnie and I had some chemistry last year when we won at the Smackdown together," Leary recalls. "What he does with the racecar works really well with my style. This is one of my best racetracks and Donnie's got a really good setup for it. The biggest key of the night, though, was qualifying up front and getting track position against the best racecars and the best drivers in the country."

Leary's third-place qualifying time was his best run since Eldora in early May, setting him up for a spot on the outside of row two for the start of the 30-lapper. Initially, though, it was Brady Bacon who held down the position on the opening laps as he rode the rim around the outside of pole-sitter Hunter Schuerenberg in turns one and two.

By lap three, Leary, the 2013 Lawrenceburg track champion, was eager to pounce as he slid Bacon for the point at the entrance to turn one. Bacon quickly counterpunched, ducking low to retake the lead as the two hustled down the back straightaway. But that would only prove to be a momentary maneuver as Leary entered the ring once again, ripping the outside between turns three and four to blast around Bacon for the lead exiting the fourth corner to turn the tables - no microphone needed - from the occurrences at the recent "Eastern Storm" stop at Pennsylvania's Grandview Speedway.

Leary's 2017 misfortunes reached a high-water mark in that June event in which a lapped car disrupted his line entering turn one three laps from the end, thus concluding his bid for victory that night after a stirring late-race drive on the high side to rip the lead away from Bacon.

"I've won eight races here at Lawrenceburg in the past," Leary points out. "We kind of got the set up down and we kind of know what the racetrack's going to do. After the heat race, we just knew it was going back to being classic Lawrenceburg, right against the fence with big sliders. That's right up my alley. Passing Bacon early was key before the track went completely slick and we were all running about the same speed at the end."

The Greenfield, Indiana driver was hellbent on avoiding that situation this time around as he absolutely hammered the field for the next several laps. He continued to wreak havoc on the competition even as he began to encounter lapped traffic, constructing a full-straightaway lead on the high-banked half-mile dirt oval when the night's only caution fell on lap 13 for a loose infield tire that successfully rolled its away from the exit of turn four to the entrance of turn one after being clipped and dislodged by a car.

Leary seemed to be synched in rhythm while the remainder of the field sang the blues, but the 21-year-old who paints water towers for a living with the family business, wasn't too bent out of shape when he saw yellow.

"The yellow actually helped bail me out of heavy lapped traffic," Leary said. "It put me back in the clear air and allowed me to pull away a little bit on the restart. I got a little bit of a lead and was able to ride in traffic, so I didn't have to push it too hard. I think if we would have had another yellow somewhere along the way, it would've been the same result."

Leary's large lead was gone, but so was lapped traffic and so was Leary as he instantly reestablished his full-straightaway, 3.5 second lead with just 10 laps remaining. But, just as things seemed well in hand, lady bad luck was leering in the second turn as Leary worked his way through the back of the field. Previous night's Kokomo fifth-place finisher Kyle Cummins was next on Leary's radar when he bounced hard off the turn two concrete and gathered to remain control just as Leary was clamping down on him to put him a lap down.

"It happened right in front of me," Leary remembers. "I was really worried he was going to chock it down or just come right down in front of me. I was hoping to get by him when he did that, but I had to take an extra lap to get back around him."

Luckily, for both Leary and Cummins, it was a case of "no harm, no foul" and both continued without issue. Thirty laps seem so short on paper, but anything and everything can happen in such a small window of time. Leary was wary of that and he wasn't going to allow that to faze him on this occasion.

"I've led a lot a lot of races, but I've given plenty away," Leary acknowledges. "Three or four or five of them, I can't even remember now. It's been so many. I caught lapped traffic and it was tough because everyone's so fast. I had been leading and hadn't heard anybody or seen anybody. Right there at the end with five to go, I was on Carson Short's tail and I couldn't get around him. Lapped traffic was thick on the top and bottom and I finally just drove it in there, but I wasn't completely sure how hard I had to push the racecar at the end."

Everything seemed well in hand coming off the final corner on the final lap, but there was one last scare for good measure that Leary chalks up to a simple racing deal. Carson Short and Jon Stanbrough were racing for the 16th position heading to the stripe just as Leary came off turn four to take the checkered flag. Short occupied the bottom and Stanbrough the middle right at the line as Leary barely squeezed by on the outside of both between Stanbrough's right side wheels and the wall. Leary and Stanbrough banged wheels, but fortunately for both, crisis was averted and Leary was able to celebrate his second career USAC National Sprint Car victory and his first in Indiana Sprint Week.

"He actually came up higher than I expected him to," Leary said. "I thought he might be able to see me up there because I had been next to him a couple laps in a row. They both went to bottom on the last lap and I figured he knew I was going to be up there. But it's just a racing deal. He didn't mean it by any means. I'm just lucky enough I had a good lead and I was just glad I didn't tear up the racecar because it's really fast this week!"

To Leary, his first series win a year ago was one of the most memorable nights of his career. Yet, winning in the family-owned number 30 is at another level of special significance after he and his dad, Chuck, have sacrificed and endured long days and nights of frustration to finally get the Leary Racing/Leary Construction - Highsmith Guns/DRC/1-Way Chevy to victory lane.

"Winning in Shane Wade's car was awesome, especially because it was my first and it was at the Smackdown, another really competitive event," Leary acknowledges. "Dad and I work our butts off all week, every week just so we can get to the racetrack. My mom and dad, we all come to the track together as a family. Picking up a win here tonight is so special for Dad and I both. Mom couldn't make it here tonight. She stayed at home since she wasn't feeling so hot. But all the time and hard work that goes into these racecars makes it all worthwhile and so rewarding. To pick up an Indiana Sprint Week win means the world to me. We've dreamed of winning these races, and to do it as a family at Lawrenceburg, there's isn't anything more fitting than that."

After a third-place run the night before, Brady Bacon of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma snared a strong runner-up finish after leading the first two laps at Lawrenceburg in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors - Dooling Machine/Spike/Stanton Mopar.

"I finally caught the invert right tonight," a relieved Bacon said. "C.J. was just better than us. No one was going to stop him tonight. I was hoping that, maybe, the top would go away and we'd be able to catch him that way, but it didn't and, sometimes, that's the way it goes. He was just really, really fast tonight."

Cullman, Alabama's Kevin Thomas, Jr. earned KSE Racing Products Hard Charger honors, finishing third from his ninth starting spot in his KT Motorsports/Abreu Vineyards - KT Construction Services/DRC/Speedway Chevy.

"Last night, I kind of got caught behind the eight ball as a driver," Thomas recalls. "I didn't keep up with the track. I think we did a much better job of that tonight. We made the right changes on the racecar. I didn't really prefer to start that far back in the feature, so we had to pass some good cars. It's a long, tough week. To knock off a podium finish this early is good for morale. Things can go so well one night and bad the next. We didn't have the finish we wanted last night, but tonight shows that if everybody works hard and makes a good, fast racecar, you can bounce back and have a night like we did tonight."

Contingency award winners Sunday at Lawrenceburg Speedway include Dave Darland (ProSource Fast Qualifier & Simpson Race Products 1st Heat Winner), Kody Swanson (Competition Suspension, Inc. 2nd Heat Winner), C.J. Leary (Chalk Stix 3rd Heat Winner), Carson Short (Indy Race Parts 4th Heat Winner), Kevin Thomas, Jr. (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Ryan Bernal (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 9, 2017 - Lawrenceburg, Indiana - Lawrenceburg Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" - Presented by Camping World

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-13.854; 2. Thomas Meseraull, 5B, Briscoe-13.927; 3. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-14.009; 4. Justin Grant, 11, McGhee-14.016; 5. Brady Bacon, 63, Dooling/Hayward-14.093; 6. Brody Roa, 91R, BR-14.093; 7. Shawn Westerfeld, 89, Westerfeld-14.157; 8. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.185; 9. Hunter Schuerenberg, 44, Pace-14.191; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9K, KT-14.223; 11. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-14.246; 12. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-14.271; 13. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-14.284; 14. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-14.303; 15. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-14.308; 16. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-14.310; 17. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-14.317; 18. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-14.336; 19. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-14.348; 20. Ryan Bernal, 17GP, Dutcher-14.359; 21. Aaron Farney, 15F, DCT-14.413; 22. Kody Swanson, 2E, Epperson-14.544; 23. Garrett Abrams, 32G, Abrams-14.587; 24. Carson Short, 21, RCM-14.653; 25. Dickie Gaines, 44x, Soudrette-14.654; 26. Nick Bilbee, 17N, Bilbee-14.680; 27. Michael Fischesser, 44s, Fischesser-14.736; 28. Kyle Robbins, 17R, KR-14.744; 29. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR/Chapple-14.798; 30. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-14.841; 31. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-14.917; 32. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-14.967; 33. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-15.108; 34. Ted Hines, 12x, Hines-15.187; 35. J.J. Hughes, 76, Hughes-15.204; 36. Tyler Clem, 14, Clem/TSR-15.291; 37. Joss Moffatt, 5J, Moffatt-15.324; 38. Tom Harris, 5E, Harris-15.388; 39. Ty Tilton, 42T, Tilton-15.538; 40. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-15.621; 41. Chris Olding, 21M, Olding-18.065.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Courtney, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. Bacon, 5. Boespflug, 6. Chapple, 7. Gaines, 8. Mattox, 9. Moffatt, 10. Farney. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Swanson, 2. Meseraull, 3. K. Thomas, 4. B. Short, 5. Cummins, 6. Roa, 7. Bilbee, 8. Stockon, 9. Hines, 10. Harris. 2:26.30

CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Stanbrough, 3. Andretti, 4. Clouser, 5. Westerfeld, 6. Simon, 7. Hughes, 8. Abrams, 9. Fischesser, 10. Tilton. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. C. Short, 2. Hodges, 3. Grant, 4. Windom, 5. Ballou, 6. Bernal, 7. Robbins, 8. Clem, 9. Jarrett, 10. Goodnight. 2:31.10

C-MAIN: (8 laps) 1. Mattox, 2. Simon, 3. Hughes, 4. Harris, 5. Jarrett, 6. Goodnight, 7. Clem, 8. Hines, 9. Moffatt, 10. Olding. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Bernal, 2. Cummins, 3. Ballou, 4. Roa, 5. Farney, 6. Chapple, 7. Bilbee, 8. Boespflug, 9. Westerfeld, 10. Abrams, 11. Harris, 12. Mattox, 13. Fischesser, 14. Hughes, 15. Robbins, 16. Simon, 17. Gaines, 18. Stockon. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 4. Dave Darland, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Chris Windom, 7. Thomas Meseraull, 8. Brody Roa, 9. Brady Short, 10. Jarett Andretti, 11. Josh Hodges, 12. Tyler Courtney, 13. Ryan Bernal, 14. Justin Grant, 15. Hunter Schuerenberg, 16. Jon Stanbrough, 17. Carson Short, 18. Kody Swanson, 19. Chad Boespflug, 20. Aaron Farney, 21. Kyle Cummins, 22. Chase Stockon, 23. Isaac Chapple, 24. Mario Clouser. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Bacon, Laps 3-30 Leary.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Kevin Thomas Jr. (9th to 3rd)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Ryan Bernal

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Grant-1,130, 2-Windom-1,107, 3-Stockon-957, 4-Boespflug-951, 5-Courtney-918, 6-Thomas-918, 7-Bacon-851, 8-Leary-825, 9-Darland-758, 10-Meseraull-716.

NEW INDIANA SPRINT WEEK Presented by Camping World POINTS: 1-Meseraull-142, 2-Bacon-141, 3-Leary-139, 4-Darland & K. Thomas-135, 6-Windom-114, 7-Courtney-112, 8-C. Short-111, 9-Ballou-109, 10-Cummins-93.

NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: July 10 - Gas City, Indiana - Gas City I-69 Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" - Presented by Camping World

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

HAVE CAR, TMEZ WILL TRAVEL TO THE FRONT; WINS ISW OPENER AT KOKOMO

By: Richie Murray - USAC Media

Kokomo, Indiana.....July 8, 2017 - It doesn't seem to matter to Thomas Meseraull one iota which car he's in this season. More than likely, he's going to put it in a position to win.

Thus far in 2017, the San Jose, California driver had already taken the Rick Pollock #21x, SC Racing #9x, SC Racing #00 and the Heffner Racing #27 to top-five finishes with the series. It took two USAC starts for Meseraull to reach victory lane for Heffner at Lincoln Speedway's Eastern Storm stop in June. It took even less time for him to win his first USAC feature aboard Chase Briscoe Racing's No. 5B, which he did Saturday night in the opening round of the 30th Annual Indiana Sprint Week presented by Camping World.

For the high-majority of drivers, the transition to a new team takes some time to jell. There is a familiarity phase to endure in which both driver and crew chief have to discover each other's likes, dislikes and tendencies. There is no waiting room or grace period for Meseraull when he lands a new ride. He immediately puts the car up front, something he's now done for the sixth time in his USAC career.

"I'm fortunate enough that the new cars I've been hopping into lately are top-of-the-line," Meseraull praises. "(The Heffner No. 27) was a brand-new car, had brand-new parts and a fresh motor. Now I get to Chase Briscoe Racing and they built a new car, brand-new motor, rear end, wheels, tires, front end and shocks. I'm actually using the shocks from the 27-car because they felt so good. That makes jumping from one car to the other so much easier. You have to trust the shocks you're running. I got to run those in Pennsylvania. It was a no-brainer. I called (Heffner crew chief) Sean Michael and was like, 'Hey, I need to get those shocks. That car's just sitting there.' When you build brand new stuff, if it's not fast it's you. Obviously, you have to get adapted to it. I mounted my seat the same in both cars. The holes from the 27-car line right up in this 5-car. It almost felt like the same ride."

Minus a turn two, lap one tangle involving Aaron Farney, Josh Hodges and Hunter Schuerenberg, the 30-lap feature went non-stop, green-to-checkered with 2016 Tri-State Indiana Sprint Week winner Carson Short leading the charge on the opening lap after sliding up to the cushion in front of fellow front row starter Ryan Bernal to take the position which he'd hold for the opening nine laps.

Meanwhile, seventh-starting Meseraull was on a tear, picking up three positions on the opening lap and two more on the second circuit to pull to the runner-up spot early in the going.

On the eighth lap, Short found himself slideways at the exit of turn four as Meseraull drew near to the inside. Meseraull dove low, narrowly missing the lead by inches at the line, but set himself up for a big slider on Short for the lead entering turn one.

"He got a little bit hung off four," Meseraull recalls. "You have to capitalize when guys make little mistakes. You have to go for it, but you got to be close enough to go for it and we were."

"If I'm catching you down the straightaway and I'm within a couple car lengths, I'm going to throw a slider, especially when the track's around the top," Meseraull continued. "I saw an opening and just kind of went for it and hoped, at the end of the night, that he wasn't going to be mad at me about it."

"There was a cushion all the way down the straightaway," Short points out. "As soon as I tapped that, it shot me off. (Meseraull) surprised me when he took it in there, but I know T-Mez. He wasn't going to stop. He's coming in there for the win."

Meseraull set a torrid pace as he tried to maneuver his way through gridlock at the tail end of the field, but there was no such luck initially, providing Short a glimmer of hope as he kept Meseraull within earshot.

"I was watching his line," Short explains. "Coming into (turn) three, he would almost slow down more in order to go faster coming off (turn) four. Once I started doing that, I felt like I was able to reel him in. I got hung up behind (a lapped car). We kept, I would say, a five-car length distance between each other. I would love to say that I could've caught him, but I don't really think I could've. I had nothing for that 5-car. It was definitely moving."

In time, Meseraull was able to make some headway as he split between multiple cars, including right through the middle of Kody Swanson and Schuerenberg, with eight laps remaining to achieve a bit of separation from Short as the laps wound down. Mostly, though, Meseraull ripped the top up above the cushion where few souls brave.

"I was running that line in the B-Main," Meseraull recalls. "(Crew Chief) Kevin (Briscoe) said, 'You think we could pull the right rear in and you could still run above the cushion?' I was a little worried about it, but you know, if you're the fastest car in the beginning, not usually are you the fastest car in the end. We took a gamble and pulled the right rear wheel in and just went for it. We were starting a little bit deep and you have to be good if you want to go forward. The car was really on kill tonight."

The Briscoe No. 5 has a long, illustrious history with sprint car racing in Indiana over the past several decades, including five Indiana Sprint Week victories with Chase's grandfather Richard as the team owner between 1990 and 2004. The baton for the No. 5 has been passed down to Chase, a recent USAC Sprint Car driver himself, the reigning ARCA champion and NASCAR Camping World Truck Series frontrunner, who entered his own name onto USAC's win list as a car owner when Meseraull closed the deal down the stretch for a commanding 2.5 second win over Carson Short, Brady Bacon, Tyler Courtney and Kyle Cummins.

Chase's father, Kevin Briscoe, earned all five of those Indiana Sprint Week wins as a driver in the storied No. 5. Now, Kevin is the one masterfully turning the wrenches on the Chase Briscoe Racing/Cunningham - Tex-A-Con Cut Stone/Maxim/Fisher, a talent that Meseraull wholeheartedly admires.

"We've been friends for a long time," Meseraull begins. "I watched Kevin when I first moved to Indiana in 2006. I was on the sidelines just watching Kevin beat people up on the racetrack. He was Mr. Smooth, so good in the slick. He really knew how to get the car tight when it needed to be. He's so good at reading the car. Last weekend, we go down to Haubstadt and he says the car looked tight. I'm like, 'No I think the car's free.' He says, 'Why are you shaking it loose getting it in?' We start going back and forth. He really sees stuff that other guys don't necessariIy see. I feel like that's a big part of tuning the thing in. He really can see what he feels like the car is doing. I can tell him what I think the car is doing. A lot of times, you just don't know on a grand scheme of what the track is or what the car's doing because you're just feeling what's in the moment. He can see if other guys are gaining here or if you're pulling them there. You make the best of both worlds and get the car to where it's a little better on entry in the B because that's where I was losing ground. So, we got the car better on entry and I just did my thing off the corners."

Carson Short's appearances at Kokomo Speedway have been few and far-between, but the Marion, Illinois native looked a like a longtime veteran at the quarter-mile Saturday night, leading eight laps and finishing in the runner-up position in his RCM Motorsports/RASS Restoration/DRC/SPEC.

"It's been three years since we've been here and this is only the third race I've ever run here," Short admitted. "It's good to have a run like this, especially on the first night of Indiana Sprint Week. Everyone one here is good and there's so many with a chance to win. Thomas showed me the line when he passed me. I was trying to run him back down, but he's so good on that rough cushion."

"Hopefully we have enough money to hit the next one," Short stated. "We're a little short on help. I took off work. Hopefully I have a job next week. My crewmembers all have to go back to work. We're a little shorthanded, but we're still going to try to keep going, though."

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's Brady Bacon quietly made up quite a bit of ground in a hurry, using the bottom for much of the event to race to a third-place finish from 11th in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors - Dooling Machine/Spike/Stanton Mopar.

"I was down there in the B and it felt pretty good," Bacon recalls. "I knew it was going to get pretty hard to run. It took probably 10 laps to get everyone spread out to where we could really get to work. Once we passed a guy, we could catch the next guy, but for the first part of the race, it took us a long time to pass each car. The car was really good, but we just couldn't get all the way there from 11th without a caution. It's just one of them deals. We should've made it out of the heat race to get into the invert."

Bacon is running a truly outlaw sprint car schedule this season, competing in several USAC Sprint Car events, a smattering of wing sprint shows and everything in-between without chasing points in any of them. The reigning Indiana Sprint Week champ intends to run just the first half of Indiana Sprint Week, which brings about a different mentality for the two-time USAC National Sprint titlist.

"I can afford to take more risks than I'd usually take," Bacon admits. "When you're not racing for points, you might squeeze a guy here or dive to the top a little earlier if you're running sixth because it doesn't really matter if you're sixth or tenth. But you could make a move that could win you the race whereas you might not make not that type of move if you're running for points. It's less stressful, but we just want to come out here and win every night."

Contingency award winners Saturday at Kokomo Speedway include Kevin Thomas, Jr. (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Jarett Andretti (Simpson Race Products 1st Heat Winner), Kyle Cummins (Competition Suspension, Inc. 2nd Heat Winner), C.J. Leary (Chalk Stix 3rd Heat Winner), Chris Windom (Indy Race Parts 4th Heat Winner), Robert Ballou (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Chase Stockon (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 8, 2017 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" - Presented by Camping World

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9K, KT-13.050; 2. Justin Grant, 11, McGhee-13.064; 3. Thomas Meseraull, 5B, Briscoe-13.138; 4. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-13.173; 5. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.249; 6. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.281; 7. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.313; 8. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-13.325; 9. A.J. Hopkins, 4J, 4J Motorsports-13.333; 10. Brady Bacon, 63, Dooling/Hayward-13.346; 11. Ryan Bernal, 17GP, Dutcher-13.351; 12. Carson Short, 21, RCM-13.355; 13. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR/Chapple-13.391; 14. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.399; 15. Brody Roa, 91R, BR-13.441; 16. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.444; 17. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.458; 18. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-13.480; 19. Shane Cottle, 57 Hazen-13.495; 20. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-13.496; 21. Kody Swanson, 2E, Epperson-13.504; 22. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-13.516; 23. Ted Hines, 12x, Hines-13.526; 24. Shawn Westerfeld, 89, Westerfeld-13.539; 25. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.540; 26. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-13.560; 27. Garrett Aitken, 32A, Aitken-13.561; 28. Aaron Farney, 15F, DCT-13.623; 29. Hunter Schuerenberg, 44, Pace-13.635; 30. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-13.641; 31. Colten Cottle, 1RL, RL-13.695; 32. Cole Ketcham, 41, Ketcham-13.728; 33. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.757; 34. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-13.757; 35. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.770; 36. Landon Simon, 24, Simon-13.814; 37. Corey Smith, 66s, CS-13.817; 38. Koby Barksdale, 22, Barksdale-13.838; 39. Tom Harris, 5E, Harris-13.886; 40. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.892; 41. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.915; 42. Dickie Gaines, 44x, Soudrette-13.966; 43. Tyler Hewitt, 97x, One More Time-13.995; 44. Tyler Clem, 14. Clem/TSR-14.032; 45. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-14.095.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Andretti, 2. K. Thomas, 3. Chapple, 4. Swanson, 5. Robbins, 6. Stanbrough, 7. Smith, 8. Spencer, 9. Stockon, 10. Hopkins, 11. Goodnight. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Cummins, 2. Hodges, 3. Beauchamp, 4. B. Short, 5. Bacon, 6. Grant, 7. Clouser, 8. T. Thomas, 9. Gaines, 10. Barksdale, 11. Jarrett. 2:12.40

CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Bernal, 3. Ballou, 4. Roa, 5. Hines, 6. Hewitt, 7. Harris, 8. Aitken, 9. Meseraull, 10. S. Cottle, 11. C. Cottle. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Windom, 2. C. Short, 3. Boespflug, 4. Courtney, 5. Darland, 6. Farney, 7. Simon, 8. Mattox, 9. Ketcham, 10. Clem, 11. Westerfeld. 2:14.00

C MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Barksdale, 2. Mattox, 3. Ketcham, 4. Hewitt, 5. Harris, 6. Clouser, 7. Smith, 8. Clem, 9. Gaines, 10. Simon., 11. Spencer. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Meseraull, 2. Bacon, 3. Darland, 4. Hopkins, 5. Farney, 6. Stockon, 7. Harris, 8. Jarrett, 9. Schuerenberg, 10. Aitken, 11. Hewitt, 12. T.Thomas, 13. Robbins, 14. Mattox, 15. Hines, 16. Barksdale, 17. Grant, 18. C. Cottle. 19. Ketcham. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Thomas Meseraull, 2. Carson Short, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Tyler Courtney, 5. Kyle Cummins, 6. Dave Darland, 7. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 8. C.J. Leary, 9. Chris Windom, 10. Robert Ballou, 11. Ryan Bernal. 12. A.J. Hopkins, 13. Chase Stockon, 14. Brady Short, 15. Chad Boespflug, 16. Aaron Farney, 17. Josh Hodges, 18. Jarett Andretti, 19. Kody Swanson, 20. Hunter Schuerenberg, 21. Justin Grant, 22. Brody Roa, 23. Isaac Chapple, 24. Brent Beauchamp. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-8 C. Short, Laps 9-30 Meseraull.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Robert Ballou (22nd to 10th)

WILWOOD BRAKES 13TH PLACE FINISHER: Chase Stockon

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Grant-1,086, 2-Windom-1,047, 3-Stockon-934, 4-Boespflug-926, 5-Courtney-872, 6-K. Thomas-848, 7-Bacon-777, 8-Leary-743, 9-Darland-683, 10-Meseraull-652.

NEW INDIANA SPRINT WEEK Presented by Camping World POINTS: 1-Meseraull-78, 2-C. Short-74, 3-Bacon & Cummins-67, 5-Courtney-66, 6-K. Thomas Jr.-65, 7-Darland-60, 8-Leary-57, 9-Windom-54, 10-Ballou-49.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 9 - Lawrenceburg (IN) Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" - Presented by Camping World