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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

LEARY’S LONG WAIT IS OVER; WINS SMACKDOWN NIGHT TWO AT KOKOMO

Kokomo, Indiana August 26, 2016 - Patience is a virtue and, over the last five seasons, no one has exhibited that more than C.J. Leary.

After watching five other drivers notch their first series victories this season, it was C.J.’s turn Friday night as he held off multiple mid-race challenges, then cruised his way to victory lane for his first career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory on night two of “Sprint Car Smackdown V” at Kokomo Speedway.

In what was his 140th career series start, Leary led all 30 laps from the pole at Kokomo, but it was not nearly as easy as the box score would indicate. Leary had to hold off Thomas Meseraull and Tyler Courtney on a heavy, lightning-quick racetrack assisted by persistent rain throughout the evening.

Alongside his initial Silver Crown victory back in April at Terre Haute, Greenfield, Indiana’s Leary became the first driver since Kyle Larson in 2011 to win both his first career USAC Silver Crown and National Sprint Car victories in the same season.

“I can’t even put this into words right now,” Leary said after taking the Amati Racing/Marion Underground Construction – Zeller Construction/DRC/Dynotech to BC’s victory lane. “I’ve been so close; I can finally say ‘I parked it.’ Bryan (Clauson) took a lot of wins away from me, but I can say it definitely made me better. Donnie and Cody (Gentry) had this thing on a rail. I got to thank Shane (Wade) for putting me in this car. This is unreal.”

“When I caught lapped traffic, it got real hard seeing the cushion getting into (turn) one,” Leary added. “There was a real fine line hitting the cushion just right. When I was by myself, the car was awesome. The racetrack was legendary tonight; it hasn’t been like this in a while! Hats off to the track crew for working their butts off to let us race tonight and to you fans for sticking it out.”

Michael Dutcher Motorsports’ pilot Meseraull began the 30-lap feature from the pole position with Amati Racing’s Leary alongside. Just one month ago, the two drivers were in the other’s current ride before swapping teams just after the conclusion of “Indiana Sprint Week.”

Meseraull beat Leary into turn one from the inside at the start, but Leary was able to use the high line to rocket off the turn two cushion to grab the lead, quickly distancing himself from Meseraull in the opening stages.

On the ninth lap, Gas City “Indiana Sprint Week” winner Courtney entered the fray, applying pressure to Meseraull for the second spot as the two followed Leary into the treacherous land of lapped traffic.

While negotiating backmarkers on the 13th lap, Meseraull stumbled on the turn two cushion, pulling the wheels off the ground briefly and opening the door for Courtney who darted alongside Meseraull, nearly making contact with each other as the two raced down the back straightaway. However, Meseraull was able to withstand the bullet to retain the second spot for the meantime.

Race leader Leary bounced off the thick turn two cushion on lap 15, forcing Meseraull, following just behind, to get on the binders, thus allowing Courtney to capitalize and grab second from Meseraull exiting turn two.

Meseraull dove to the bottom in turn one just after passing underneath flagman Tom Hansing’s crossed flags indicating the halfway mark of the 30-lap feature as Leary went topside and Courtney played the role as the meat in a three-car sandwich in the middle. Leary would prevail off of turn two as the leader while Meseraull slotted back into second and Courtney slid to third on the back straight.

Leary again ricocheted off the turn two cushion one lap later. Meseraull cut underneath Leary exiting turn two, making contact with his right front tire and Leary’s left rear which sent Meseraull’s car on four-wheel drift sideways down the back straightaway. Courtney stood on the throttle, wheel-standing his way past Meseraull for second entering turn three, then beat him in a race back to the flagstand by a single car-length to take the position.

Moments later, seventh-running Chase Stockon encountered trouble as he slowed to a crawl around the quarter-mile speedway, bringing about the yellow flag and forcing a restart on with just 13 laps to go.

As Courtney bounced across the bottom of turn one on the lap 18 restart, it allowed Meseraull to get a run on Courtney that eventually garnered him the second spot coming out of turn four.

Courtney refused to cower, though, as he fought back to the outside of Meseraull entering turn one, but Courtney snagged the cushion with the right rear, snapping him hard right toward the wall and forcing him off the gas which dropped him back two positions. Yet, Courtney would get a reprieve when the yellow flag fell for a turn one tangle between Cole Ketcham and Tyler Hewitt.

Under the caution, second-running Meseraull’s left rear tire was nearly completely flat, but he would remain on the track with the wounded rubber for the final 13 circuits. Leary spurted out front as the green flag flew, ringing the topside as Meseraull worked the middle and Courtney took to the bottom.

Leary began to put his stamp on this night in the ensuing laps, building up a nearly two second lead over Meseraull and Courtney by the time Hunter Schuerenberg’s machine went up in smoke with six laps remaining.

But the caution would fail to deter Leary - the 2015 Kokomo Speedway Sprint Car track champion - as he would once again pull away from the field, extending his lead lap-after-lap during his final six trips around the oval to finally earn that coveted USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature winner trophy, defeating Meseraull, Courtney, Shane Cottle and Chad Boespflug at the finish.

San Jose, California’s Thomas Meseraull took the Michael Dutcher Motorsports/Griffin’s Propane – Indiana Underground/Maxim/Fisher on its best run of the season Friday night, earning a second place finish as well as picking up the most combined points on Thursday and Friday of “Smackdown” to lock himself into Saturday night’s A-Main.

“We had a fast car,” Meseraull said. “With about 15 laps to go, we had a tire go down or I felt like we could’ve won. It feels good to run second. We are locked in for tomorrow and that’s the money night.”

Like Leary and Meseraull, Indianapolis, Indiana’s Courtney also finds himself locked into Saturday night’s feature after collecting third in his TOPP Motorsports/Maxim/Chevy.

“We were just a little tight on the short runs there,” Courtney recalled. “We had a good 15-lap run right there when we got into lapped traffic. We were in the right place at the right time a couple times, but the yellows just came out at the wrong time, but it’s a part of it. It’s pretty cool to see another guy get his first win this year at a place like this. We’re going to try to stop him from getting his second one tomorrow night and we’ll try to park it here for BC. My thoughts and prayers are still with the Clausons. They’ve done a lot for me in my career. I definitely would not be standing here right now if it weren’t for Bryan Clauson. I’m going to miss that guy a lot; I can’t say enough about him. And thank you to the O’Connors for giving us a great racetrack after what looking like it was going to be a rainout. We don’t have to do two shows tomorrow and we can just focus on tomorrow night for the “Smackdown” for 10 grand to win.”

Contingency award winners Friday night at Kokomo Speedway included Chad Boespflug (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Zach Daum (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Thomas Meseraull (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Winner), Dave Darland (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Winner), Hunter Schuerenberg (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner), Robert Ballou (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Kyle Cummins (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 26, 2016 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown V" (Night Two)

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-13.109; 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.158; 3. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-13.210; 4. Justin Grant, 17, McGhee-13.215; 5. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.222; 6. Cole Ketcham, 41K, Ketcham-13.248; 7. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.290; 8. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.309; 9. C.J. Leary, 66, Amati-13.379; 10. Thomas Meseraull, 17GP, Dutcher-13.386; 11. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-13.406; 12. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.425; 13. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-13.445; 14. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.467; 15. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.472; 16. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.498; 17. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-13.507; 18. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-13.512; 19. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-13.514; 20. Tyler Hewitt, 97x, One More Time-13.579; 21. Brian Karraker, 23K, Karraker-13.581; 22. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.613; 23. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-13.628; 24. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-13.653; 25. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-13.685; 26. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.757; 27. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.765; 28. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-13.769; 29. Tim Creech, 2c, Creech-13.775; 30. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-13.821; 31. Corey Smith, 66s, Smith-13.886; 32. Joss Moffatt, 5J, Moffatt-13.893; 33. Colten Cottle, 1RL, Lambertson-13.934; 34. Dustin Smith, 77, Gagliardi-13.992; 35. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-14.007; 36. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-14.131; 37. Mike Martin, 16, Martin-14.192; 38. Conner Donelson, 42, Donelson-14.196; 39. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-14.440; 40. Chad Wilson, 14, Wilson-14.618; 41. Shawn Miller, 14x, Miller-15.499; 42. Randy Johns, 27J, Johns-19.663; 43. Clinton Boyles, 2, Boyles-NT; 44. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Daum, 2. Leary, 3. Boespflug, 4. Karraker, 5. Simon, 6. C. Cottle, 7. Jarrett. 8. Martin, 9. Creech, 10. Miller, 11. Coons. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Meseraull, 2. Stockon, 3. Cummins, 4. Westfall, 5. Ketcham, 6. Farney, 7. Robbins, 8. Spencer, 9. D. Smith. 2:14.91

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Ballou, 3. Andretti, 4. Courtney, 5. K. Thomas, 6. Stanbrough, 7. Mattox, 8. T. Thomas, 9. Bares, 10. C. Smith. 2:16.35

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Schuerenberg, 2. Bacon, 3. Grant, 4. T. Hewitt, 5. Windom, 6. S. Cottle, 7. Chapple, 8. Goodnight, 9. Moffatt, 10. Wilson. 2:15.62

C-MAIN: (10 laps) 1. C. Cottle, 2. T. Thomas, 3. D. Smith, 4. Goodnight, 5. Martin, 6. Bares, 7. Moffatt, 8. Wilson, 9. Miller. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Jarrett, 2. Windom, 3. S. Cottle, 4. Stanbrough, 5. Ketcham, 6. K. Thomas, 7. T. Thomas, 8. Simon, 9. Robbins, 10. Farney, 11. Mattox, 12. C. Cottle, 13. Goodnight, 14. D. Smith, 15. Creech, 16. Chapple, 17. Spencer. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Thomas Meseraull, 3. Tyler Courtney, 4. Shane Cottle, 5. Chad Boespflug, 6. Chris Windom, 7. Jarett Andretti, 8. Justin Grant, 9. Logan Jarrett, 10. Robert Ballou, 11. Brady Bacon, 12. Jon Stanbrough, 13. Kyle Cummins, 14. Zach Daum, 15. Dave Darland, 16. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 17. Hunter Schuerenberg, 18. Cole Ketcham, 19. Tyler Hewitt, 20. Chase Stockon, 21. Brian Karraker, 22. Matt Westfall. NT

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**Coons flipped during the first heat.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Leary.

KSE HARD CHARGER: Robert Ballou (20th to 10th)

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1-Bacon-2,043, 2-Ballou-1,884, 3-Stockon & Meseraull-1,828, 5-Darland-1,687, 6-Boespflug-1,658, 7-Leary-1,656, 8-Windom-1,516, 9-Max McGhee-1,264, 10-Farney-1,122.

NEW “SPRINT CAR SMACKDOWN V” STANDINGS: 1-Meseraull-311, 2-Grant-308, 3-Windom-307, 4-Leary-305, 5-Boespflug-303, 6-Courtney-301, 7-K. Thomas-287, 8-Stockon-287, 9-Ballou-285, 10-Darland-283.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 27 - Kokomo (IN) Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown V"

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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

KEVIN THOMAS, JR. LAYS THE SMACKDOWN ON NIGHT ONE AT KOKOMO

Kokomo, Indiana August 25, 2016 - Kevin Thomas, Jr. stormed out of the gates on the opening lap and never looked back as he completely dominated all 30 laps to win Thursday night's "Sprint Car Smackdown V" USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship opener at Kokomo Speedway.

The victory was an emotional one for the Cullman, Alabama native as he became the first driver to roll onto the newly-redesigned victory lane adorned with the late Bryan Clauson's "BC" logo and, underneath, the words "Parked It" - a phrase that had become synonymous with Clauson throughout his legendary career.

"Winning tonight means everything," Thomas said in victory lane alongside his 4J Motorsports/Franklin Equipment - CEP Concrete/DRC/Chevy. "We'd come to this place and race for five dollars and this was a lot of people's 'place of worship,' not even just Bryan's. But it's special to pull into victory lane and see his name there. It's hard to hold the emotions back, but there's no real need to. Every time we showed up here, you knew you had to beat him and that was something that pushed all of us to strive for greatness here. I learned from him and studied what he did here, so it's special. I'm just glad we could 'park it.' As for the rest of our weekend, I'm really confident. We've raced here a lot this year, so we've seen about every different track condition that could present itself. That's definitely beneficial, I feel like, so I feel like if we stay out of trouble, we're going to have a good shot at winning this whole deal."

When the green flag dropped, Thomas shot out of a cannon from his pole starting position, sliding up in front of outside front row starter Chase Stockon into turn one to grab the lead and quickly distanced himself from the rest of the field.

On the third lap, tenth-running Cole Ketcham slowed to a creep down the front straightaway, creating a hairy moment in the middle of pack. Series point leader Brady Bacon and Jerry Coons, Jr. narrowly avoided catastrophe as they made contact with the rear of Ketcham's slowing machine. Bacon and Coons would continue on while Ketcham's night would come to a close.

On the lap three restart, Thomas once again affixed his no. 4J to the top of the leaderboard, but a fierce battle behind him commenced with Dave Darland and Stockon slugging it out for second.

Darland drove it deep into turn three, sliding right across the nose of Stockon with mere inches to spare in turn four, briefly taking the spot, but Stockon was able to counter, turning underneath Darland to beat the four-time track champ to the flag stand to reclaim second.

Darland followed in pursuit of Stockon into turn one as Chris Windom entered the fray on the bottom. Darland used a big run off the cushion at the top of turn two to split between Windom and Stockon down the back straight to grab second and began to set his sights on Thomas, who used the battle behind him to his advantage, extending his lead to one-and-a-half second by lap five.

By the tenth lap, Thomas' lead over Darland was a full-straightaway, while Windom and Stockon duked it out in a classic duel for third. Lap-after-lap, Windom and Stockon exchanged sliders as they sliced and diced their way past each other throughout much of the middle stages of the 30-lapper.

A yellow for the stopped car of Logan Jarrett erased Thomas' advantage, but on the restart, Thomas would have the lapped car of Aaron Farney as a buffer between himself and second-running Darland when racing resumed.

Not that Thomas needed the extra help on this particular night, but he would accept it nonetheless, as he pulled away once again on the restart to break away from the pack.

With eight laps to go, Windom began to flex his muscle, sliding past Darland on the bottom of turn four, then beating him in a drag race down the front straightaway to secure the second position. Yet, Windom still found himself over one second back of Thomas with just a handful of laps remaining as he used the bottom to chase down the leader up on the cush.

In the final laps, Windom was able to chip away at the gap between he and Thomas slowly and surely down low, but it would not be enough to run down Thomas as he dominated the contest for all 30 laps to take his second series win of 2016 (Brownstown, Ind.), his 11th career series win and second USAC victory at Kokomo Speedway (2013) over Windom, Darland, Stockon and Justin Grant.

Chris Windom of Canton, Illinois, a two-time Kokomo USAC winner and "Smackdown" preliminary night winner back in the event's inaugural year of 2012, made a solid charge to second at the checkered after a furious battle between himself and Stockon throughout much of the race in his Baldwin Brothers Racing/Fox Paving - AMSOIL/Maxim/Claxton Mopar.

"I raced Chase (Stockon) hard, but clean, which was a lot of fun," Windom sail. "I think I just raced too hard for too long, though, which hurts because I think we had the best car. By the time we got to a position to track down KT, it was just too late. We'll take it from eighth tonight and we'll just have to try and qualify a little better to give us a better starting spot."

Kokomo Speedway legend Dave Darland of Lincoln, Indiana knocked out his eighth top-five series finish of the 2016 season, rounding out the podium in third in his Jeff Walker-Curb-Agajanian Racing/Jam-It-In Storage - Hoosier Tire/Maxim/Claxton.

"We were better early in the race than we were late," Darland acknowledged. "I should've made some adjustments in the car, but I didn't. I didn't keep up with the track the way I should have, but the track was great. My guys have been teasing me all summer about not running the top enough, so I finally had enough and said 'I'm going up there.' We'll take this third, though, and try to just be a couple better tomorrow and Saturday."

Contingency award winners Thursday night at Kokomo Speedway included Thomas Meseraull (ProSource Fast Qualifier), C.J. Leary (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Jon Stanbrough (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Winner & KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Tyler Thomas (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Winner), Hunter Schuerenberg (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner) and Chad Boespflug (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 25, 2016 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown V" (Night One)

PROSOURCE QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Thomas Meseraull, 17GP, Dutcher-13.205; 2. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-13.240; 3. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-13.263; 4. Justin Grant, 17, McGhee-13.265; 5. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-13.270; 6. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.304; 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-13.338; 8. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.343; 9. C.J. Leary, 66, Amati-13.353; 10. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.381; 11. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-13.388; 12. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-13.417; 13. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-13.421; 14. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.455; 15. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.489; 16. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.523; 17. Tyler Hewitt, 97x, One More Time-13.567; 18. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-13.593; 19. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-13.613; 20. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-13.624; 21. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-13.633; 22. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.636; 23. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.639; 24. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.664; 25. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-13.665; 26. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.673; 27. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.698; 28. Dustin Smith, 77, Smith-13.745; 29. Colten Cottle, 1RL, Lambertson-13.758; 30. Clinton Boyles, 2, Boyles-13.762; 31. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-13.788; 32. Casey Shuman, 50x, Barnhill-13.817; 33. Tim Creech, 2c, Creech-13.861; 34. Brian Karraker, 23k, Karraker-13.866; 35. Mike Martin, 16, Martin-13.924; 36. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-13.935; 37. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.998; 38. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-14.137; 39. Stuart Brubaker, 35, Brubaker-14.186; 40. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-14.222; 41. Corey Smith, 66s, Smith-14.225; 42. Chad Wilson, 14, Wilson-14.281; 43. Conner Donelson, 42, Donelson-14.429; 44. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-14.965; 45. Shawn Miller, 14x, Miller-15.226.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Hewitt, 3. Courtney, 4. Darland, 5. Meseraull, 6. Daum, 7. C.Cottle, 8. Simon, 9. Goodnight, 10. Creech, 11. C.Smith, 12. Miller. 2:17.08

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Coons, 3. Stockon, 4. Ballou, 5. Bacon, 6. Farney, 7. Boyles, 8. S.Cottle, 9. Karraker, 10. Westfall, 11. Wilson. NT

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. T.Thomas, 2. Boespflug, 3. Andretti, 4. K.Thomas, 5. Jarrett, 6. Cummins, 7. Clouser, 8. Chapple, 9. Martin, 10. Donelson, 11. Brubaker. 2:16.46

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Schuerenberg, 2. Ketcham, 3. Grant, 4. Windom, 5. Mattox, 6. Bares, 7. Robbins, 8. D.Smith, 9. Spencer, 10. Bell, 11. Shuman. 2:15.00

C MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Karraker, 2. Chapple, 3. Spencer, 4. C.Smith, 5. Goodnight, 6. Martin, 7. Bares, 8. Donelson, 9. Brubaker, 10. Creech, 11. Westfall, 12. Wilson, 13. Miller, 14. Bell. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Meseraull, 3. Cummins, 4. Daum, 5. Jarrett, 6. C.Cottle, 7. Farney, 8. Karraker, 9. Boyles, 10. Chapple, 11. D.Smith, 12. Mattox, 13. Spencer, 14. Robbins, 15. Clouser, 16. S.Cottle, 17. Simon, 18. C.Smith. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Chris Windom, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Robert Ballou, 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Thomas Meseraull, 9. Tyler Courtney, 10. C.J. Leary, 11. Tyler Thomas, 12. Jon Stanbrough, 13. Chad Boespflug, 14. Kyle Cummins, 15. Jerry Coons Jr., 16. Hunter Schuerenberg, 17. Jarett Andretti, 18. Tyler Hewitt, 19. Colten Cottle, 20. Aaron Farney, 21. Logan Jarrett, 22. Isaac Chapple, 23. Zach Daum, 24. Cole Ketcham. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: 1-30 K.Thomas.

KSE HARD CHARGER: Jon Stanbrough (19th-12th)

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS: 1-Bacon-1,995, 2-Ballou-1,834, 3-Stockon-1,793, 4-Meseraull-1,753, 5-Darland-1,646, 6-Boespflug-1,588, 7-Leary-1,579, 8-Windom-1,458, 9-Max McGhee-1,264, 10-Farney-1,112.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 26 - Kokomo (IN) Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown V"

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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

BOESPFLUG FINISHES DREAM WEEKEND WITH 50K PAYDAY AT BADLANDS' "ROCK AND ROLL GOLD CUP"

Brandon, South Dakota August 21, 2016 -As if his $10,000 win in Saturday's preliminary feature wasn't enough, it only proved to be the warm-up act for the biggest victory of Chad Boespflug's racing career after he swept the weekend's USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car "Special Events" at Badlands Motor Speedway with an encore performance in Sunday night's inaugural "Rock and Roll Gold Cup" that netted him a hefty $50,000 payday.

Without USAC points on the line in this weekend's highly-anticipated event at Badlands, each driver had a one-track-mind on possessing the substantial winner's share at the end of the night.

That fact was evident from the get-go as one of the great big-money racers, Dave Darland, jumped out front from the pole position ahead of outside front-row starter Thomas Meseraull into turn one. Meseraull would fight back on the outside exiting two, pulling side-by-side next to Darland halfway down the back straightway with the two making slight wheel-to-wheel contact just prior to the entry to turn three.

By the second lap, fourth-starting Chad Boespflug made his presence felt for the second straight night, blitzing the inside of the racetrack past Meseraull for second in turn two, then setting sail for leader Darland.

On lap five, Boespflug slid smoothly past Darland for the lead between turns one and two, then rocketed down the back straight to quickly open up a wide gap between himself and the rest of the field, extending his lead to more than two seconds over Darland in the ensuing laps.

Meanwhile, a scramble for second ensued between a number of drivers including Darland, Meseraull, Justin Grant, Bud Kaeding, Ryan Bernal and Chase Stockon.

Meseraull was able to blast past Darland one lap later for second, although, by that point, Boespflug had expanded his lead to nearly a half-straightaway as he closed in on the tail end of the field.

With Meseraull on the chase, Boespflug narrowly averted calamity on lap 20. Encircled by lapped traffic as he worked his way down the front straightaway, Boespflug headed to the topside to dispose of Dylan Peterson in turn one just moments before Peterson lost control, sliding sideways to a stop in the middle of turn one and, in turn, collecting Matt Goodnight. Bret Mellenberndt was next in line with nowhere to go, punching his left front wheel into Goodnight's left rear, breaking the front end on Mellenberndt's machine as he slid backward up the banking between turns one and two.

In the incident, fifth-running Bernal ramped over the left rear of fourth-running Stockon as they threaded the needle between Goodnight, Mellenberndt and the outside concrete. Both Bernal and Stockon were able to continue without a hitch.

The yellow gave Boespflug a clear track ahead and a chance to catch his breath, but it placed second-running Meseraull right beside him on the lap 20 double-file restart.

However, Boespflug's patience would be tested as lap 20 seemed to last an eternity as back-to-back cautions on the attempted restart involving Dylan Peterson, whose front end was broken after another car ran over his left front wheel, and Chris Windom, who was turned around after contact with Robert Ballou, stopped the flow of action with just 16 laps left.

Boespflug's restarts during the stretch had been replayed ad nauseam when yellow-after-yellow fell, but the Hanford, California native was up to the task when it counted, shooting out to the advantage over Meseraull when action resumed while Grant was able to slide by Meseraull for second.

The top-two of Boespflug and Grant began to open it up as Bud Kaeding climbed his way to the third spot when Darland, running eighth, found himself turned around and pointed toward the inside back straightaway wall at the exit of turn two.

On the ensuing restart, Kaeding continued to row his way to the front on the inside berm, grabbing the second position from Grant as he chopped the interval between himself and leader Boespflug to mere car lengths.

Meseraull, who just a handful of laps earlier was challenging Boespflug for the lead, broke a Jacob's Ladder, which sent him dropping back through the field. On lap 26, while running sixth, Meseraull slapped the wall at the exit of turn four.

As Meseraull's machine rolled slowly and helplessly down the front straightaway, Aaron Farney ramped Meseraull's right rear wheel, but was miraculously able to keep the car from getting upside down after receiving a bit of air time.

However, much of the middle-pack in the field rapidly approached Meseraull's car, including Darland, Landon Simon, Rob Caho, Jr., Goodnight and Mike Martin, who all plowed in. Caho and Goodnight saw their nights conclude upside down while Martin somersaulted over the stacked-up cars, landing just inside the infield pit area at the turn one wall opening. All drivers involved would walk away uninjured.

With 10 to go, the double-file restart put Boespflug on the pole alongside Bud Kaeding. Kaeding, who had made his charge to the front on the bottom, was now relegated to the top. Kaeding had intentions to get to the bottom as soon as he could after the green flag waved, falling in line behind Boespflug low into turn one.

Boespflug swapped lines on each end of the 3/8-mile dirt oval, hitting the bottom in turns one and two and the cushion in turns three and four as he began to distance himself from the field.

On the 29th lap, Grant glided by Bud Kaeding for the second spot and began shadowing Boespflug's every move during the final six laps, but was never able to make much headway as Boespflug operated the racetrack with precision, flawlessly steering his way to victory lane for the second consecutive night at Badlands to take the largest payday of his career in the highest-paying USAC Sprint Car race since the 2005 "Mopar Thunder" at Rossburg, Ohio's Eldora Speedway, a race won by Rob Chaney.

Following Boespflug to the finish line were Grant, Kaeding, Bernal and Stockon.

Boespflug's two-night run in his NineEight Motorsports-EZR/AMSOIL - Creative Finishing - Midwest Shades/Maxim/Claxton at Badlands pocketed him $60,000, allowing him to bask in the riches of the highest-paying USAC race of the season and the highest-paying auto racing event in the history of the state of South Dakota.

"This is awesome," Boespflug exclaimed. "To sweep the weekend is unbelievable. I knew it was going to be tough just because we had so many good guys here, but hats off to my crew. They busted their butts for me. I knew I was good on the bottom in turns one and two and (crew chief) Davey (Jones) told me under that last red that all I needed to do was just pick my line. I felt like we were really good everywhere, so I stuck with what I felt in the seat. I knew we needed to get a good restart, so I honed in on nailing turn four coming back to the green. We lost a little ground through the middle part of the race, but by the end, I could really stay on the cushion and rotate the corner well. I'm just so happy. I think we'll probably stay tonight now and have a little celebration."

Ione, California's Justin Grant followed up Saturday night's impressive third-place debut in the no. 17 with a runner-up finish on Sunday night in the Sam McGhee Motorsports/Brown & Miller Racing Solutions - Mike McGhee & Associates/Maxim/Foxco.
"I got to the front and, once again, the double-file restarts killed us," Grant admitted. "I kept getting shuffled back and then I'd make my way forward, and then we'd have a yellow again. It just seemed like we kept taking one step forward and then two backwards. I was right there on Chad (Boespflug) probably three or four times and then we'd have a red or something. It was just frustrating because I think that should be us with that big check. Thanks to the McGhee family for letting me run their car, especially Sam for putting in so much work to make it bad fast and capable of winning."

Bud Kaeding, of Campbell, California, was briefly in contention for his first USAC Sprint Car victory since a Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track triumph in 2012, but had to settle for a solid third-place-run in his Kevin Rudeen/Hagar Reality - Lunstra Motorsports/KPC/Shaver.

"On that last restart, we would've obviously preferred to be on the bottom," Kaeding said. "All my good starts throughout the race were down there. I honestly just let him go on that last one just so I could tuck down behind him. I thought he was going to go to the top in turn one, but Davey Jones had been watching me and kind of told Chad where he needed to be, so he took my line away in turn one. That cost us a couple spots, but we got going again and got to third. We'll take a third, though. I haven't run a USAC (National Sprint Car) race in probably three or four years, so it feels good to be competitive with these guys with a team and car that aren't normally running non-wing. It was a good time and a great event; I just feel bad for the people who didn't come out."

Contingency award winners Sunday night at Badlands Motor Speedway included Dustin Smith (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Mark Dobmeier (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR "SPECIAL EVENT" RACE RESULTS: August 21, 2016 - Brandon, South Dakota - Badlands Motor Speedway - "Rock and Roll Gold Cup" Championship Night

FEATURE SCRAMBLE: (12 laps) 1. Dave Darland (#11 Walker/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Thomas Meseraull (#17GP Dutcher), 3. Ryan Bernal (#56 Phulps), 4. Chad Boespflug (#98E NineEight/EZR), 5. Justin Grant (#17 McGhee), 6. Bud Kaeding (#26 Rudeen), 7. Aaron Farney (#15F Farney), 8. Chase Stockon (#32 TBI), 9. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (#4J 4J Motorsports), 10. Brady Short (#11p Pottorff). NT

SEMI: (15 laps) 1. Landon Simon (#24 LSR), 2. Tim Kaeding (#3 Lunstra), 3. Dylan Peterson (#25 Peterson), 4. Aaron Reutzel (#87 Reutzel), 5. Justin Jacobsma (#10 Jacobsma), 6. Chuck McGillivray (#101 McGillivray), 7. Clinton Bruns (#7 Bruns), 8. Doug Martens (#51 Martens), 9. Rob Sharits (#14 Davis), 10. Donovan Peterson (#11xs Metal Worx). NT

FEATURE: (35 laps) 1. Chad Boespflug, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Bud Kaeding, 4. Ryan Bernal, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Dustin Smith (#77 Smith), 7. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 8. Brady Short, 9. Scotty Weir (#39w Goodnight), 10. Robert Ballou (#1 Ballou), 11. Dave Darland, 12. Aaron Farney, 13. Mark Dobmeier (#13 Grinch), 14. Alex Schriever (#0 Davis), 15. Landon Simon, 16. Thomas Meseraull, 17. Chris Windom (#11w Walker/Curb-Agajanian), 18. Matt Goodnight (#39 Goodnight), 19. Rob Caho, Jr. (#78 Caho), 20. Mike Martin (#16 Martin), 21. Bret Mellenberndt (#97 Mellenberndt), 22. Dylan Peterson, 23. Tim Kaeding, 24. Aaron Reutzel. NT
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**Goodnight, Caho and Martin flipped on lap 26 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Darland, Laps 5-35 Boespflug.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Dustin Smith (13th to 6th)

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 24 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Bryan Clauson Celebration of Life" - "Special Event"

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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

BOESPFLUG THE BADLANDS MASTER ON NIGHT ONE OF ROCK AND ROLL GOLD CUP

Brandon, South Dakota August 20, 2016 -Chad Boespflug had no intentions of running second Saturday night. In fact, he skipped running second altogether after using a swift maneuver to double-dip on a restart with nine laps remaining, moving from third to first in one fell swoop before speeding away to victory and a nice $10,000 paycheck in a rare USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car, non-points "Special Event" on the preliminary night of the inaugural "Rock and Roll Gold Cup" at Badlands Motor Speedway.

Chase Stockon led much of the early-going, dominating in the opening laps from his outside front row starting position. Just a bit past halfway through the 25-lap feature, Justin Grant, who just 24 hours earlier had won in his debut in the Sam McGhee number 17 during a weekly show at Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway, began dramatically cutting into Stockon's advantage.

Meanwhile, fifth-starting Boespflug had worked his way up to third, using an inside turn four pass to rip the position from Thomas Meseraull on the 13th lap and began to forge ahead toward Stockon and Grant, running one-two.

A Mike Martin turn four spin with nine laps left set up a double-file restart with Stockon and Grant occupying the front row. Heading into turn one, Stockon and Grant nearly touched wheels, allowing Boespflug to capitalize, grabbing second from Grant after starting on the inside of row two for the restart.

However, the move would be all for naught after Landon Simon went for a wild ride down the back straightaway on the first lap of the restart, getting upside down to bring out the feature's first red flag. Simon would walk away from the scene uninjured.

On the ensuing double-file restart attempt, Stockon and Grant once again hit the cushion entering turn one, but Boespflug was able to quickly slip past Grant for second, then utilized a massive run off of turn two to shoot past Stockon on the inside for the lead as the field hit the back straightaway.

Stockon fought back from the punch, using the inside lane to pull side-by-side with Boespflug off of turn four. Boespflug got a bid sideways on the high-side exit, nearly making contact with Stockon as the two raced to the flag stand with Boespflug able to secure the spot.

Boespflug was a jet in the forthcoming laps, opening up a comfortable lead over Stockon and Grant. Yet those comfortable leads would quickly disappear after a pair of red flags in the final laps stifled his get-away.

With five laps to go, Brady Bacon's challenging night came to an end after pushing up into the turn two wall and bouncing the right rear tire off the concrete, resulting in the series point leader barrel-rolling his self-owned machine a handful of times atop the turn two cushion. Though his race for the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship would be unharmed due to this weekend's events not counting toward the season title, his attempt at pulling off the double on Sunday night - winning both the winged sprint car and the USAC Sprint Car features for a $125,000 total prize - took a significant blow.

On the restart, Boespflug instantly pulled away from the field once again, setting him up for an easy cruise to victory. But, just as Boespflug saw the white in the air from the flagstand, the flag would be switched out for the red as South Dakota's own Bret Mellenberndt found himself upside down up against the wall between turns one and two, surrounded by a pair of Goodnight cars driven by Matt Goodnight and Scotty Weir. All drivers were uninjured.

On the single-file, green-white-checkered restart on lap 24, Boespflug once again got a nice jump, but Stockon was able to hang within close range.

As Boespflug and Stockon passed under the white flag, Stockon gave it one last shot, throwing his number 32 hard on the bottom into turn one, briefly pulling alongside the inside of Boespflug as the pair hit turn two. But, with the momentum in Boespflug's favor up top, Stockon was unable to make the move stick as Boespflug pulled away on the back straight, navigating the final two corners to perfection to claim his fourth USAC Sprint Car victory of the 2016 season over Stockon, Grant, Meseraull and Brady Short.

Hanford, California's Boespflug led the final nine laps in his NineEight Motorsports-EZR/AMSOIL - Creative Finishing - Midwest Shades/Maxim/Claxton to take the victory in USAC's seventh ever visit to the state of South Dakota and the first since a 1996 USAC National Midget race won by Kenny Irwin, Jr. at Badlands back when it was known as Huset's Speedway

"I just wanted to hit my marks on that last restart," Boespflug said. "Our car was great, but I just had to make sure I didn't get over the cushion. I may have left the door open for Chase when I slid myself going down the backstretch, but I gave it all I had. I couldn't push the pedal down any further than I did coming off of turn two on that last restart. We fine-tuned it under the open red, but we were awesome before then. We timed it perfectly being in second with five to go and getting a single file restart. That helped us a lot. We weren't even sure if we wanted to come out here, but I'm pretty glad we did."

Fort Branch, Indiana's Stockon led the first 16 circuits before yielding to Boespflug in his 32-TBI Racing/Superior Tank & Trailer - Crescent Electric Supply/DRC/Fisher. Despite the runner-up position in the feature, Stockon leads the point standings by six markers over Boespflug in the USAC portion of the "Rock and Roll Gold Cup" heading into Sunday's $50,000-to-win finale.

"On the restarts, I chose the bottom because I didn't want to leave myself vulnerable going into turn one," Stockon affirmed. "Being the leader, I kind of felt like a sitting duck, but I tried to make the best decision possible just to keep those guys behind me. I think ultimately, though, Chad was better than us and we got to him on that restart and just got pinched into turn one., which, when you're racing for this much money, that's just the way it goes. We started second, ran second. We're locked in for tomorrow, so we're where we want to be at. We had to run the cushion and that's not usually my forte, so we'll take second tonight."

Grant, of Ione, California, didn't sit behind the wheel of the Sam McGhee Motorsports/Brown & Miller Racing Solutions - Mike McGhee & Associates/Maxim/Foxco until Friday, just one night prior to the opening USAC event at Badlands. However, after a last lap, last corner victory at Bloomington, the decision was made by the team to make the long road trip from southern Indiana to South Dakota - a decision they sure didn't regret.

"Sam (McGhee) gave me an awesome car," Grant exclaimed. "We should've won; we just needed things to play out differently. The double-file restarts hurt because we had to start on the outside most of the time. Chad could get under us and I had to fight him for a lap or two, but by the time I would get to Chase, the yellow would come back out and I'd have to start over. We just never really got a good green flag run to work Chase over and when he would bobble, it seemed like I was always stuck under his left rear, which would open the door back up for Chad. But we had a great car and we're locked in. I'm really looking forward to tomorrow (Sunday)."

Contingency award winners at Badlands Motor Speedway included Kevin Thomas, Jr. (ProSource Fast Qualifier & Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Chase Stockon (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Thomas Meseraull (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner), Justin Grant (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner), Robert Ballou (KSE Racing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger) and Dustin Smith (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR "SPECIAL EVENT" RACE RESULTS: August 20, 2016 - Brandon, South Dakota - Badlands Motor Speedway - "Rock and Roll Gold Cup" Preliminary Night

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-12.711; 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-12.732; 3. Thomas Meseraull, 17GP, Dutcher-12.745; 4. Justin Grant, 17, McGhee-12.780; 5. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-12.836; 6. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-12.863; 7. Bud Kaeding, 26, Rudeen-12.898; 8. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-12.944; 9. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-12.950; 10. Scotty Weir, 39w, Goodnight-13.028; 11. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-13.038; 12. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-13.040; 13. Ryan Bernal, 56, Phulps-13.046; 14. C.J. Leary, 66, Amati-13.056; 15. Chris Windom, 11w, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-13.058; 16. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.088; 17. Alex Schriever, 0, Davis-13.114; 18. Mike Martin, 16, Martin-13.121; 19. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-13.139; 20. Dustin Smith, 77, Smith-13.164; 21. Rob Caho, Jr., 78, Caho-13.185; 22. Mark Dobmeier, 13, Grinch-13.389; 23. Tim Kaeding, 3, Lunstra-13.439; 24. Aaron Reutzel, 87, Reutzel-13.601; 25. Dylan Peterson, 25, Peterson-13.602; 26. Donovan Peterson, 11xs, Metal Worx-13.857; 27. Clinton Bruns, 7, Bruns-13.858; 28. Chuck McGillivray, 101, McGillivray-13.957; 29. Doug Martens, 51, Martens-13.960; 30. Justin Jacobsma, 10, Jacobsma-14.043; 31. Rob Sharits, 14, Davis-14.472; 32. Brady Bacon, 99, Bacon-NT; 33. Leon DeBoer, 2, DeBoer-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. Boespflug, 3. Bernal, 4. Mellenberndt, 5. Dobmeier, 6. Martin, 7. Jacobsma, 8. Donovan Peterson. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Darland, 3. Weir, 4. Windom, 5. Ballou, 6. T. Kaeding, 7. Bruns, 8. Sharits. NT

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Meseraull, 2. B. Kaeding, 3. Simon, 4. Smith, 5. Goodnight, 6. Reutzel, 7. McGillivray. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Grant, 2. Farney, 3. Short, 4. Schriever, 5. Caho, 6. Dylan Peterson, 7. Martens. NT

SEMI: (15 laps) 1. Dobmeier, 2. T. Kaeding, 3. Dylan Peterson, 4. Bacon, 5. Reutzel, 6. Bruns, 7. McGillivray, 8. Donovan Peterson, 9. Jacobsma, 10. Sharits, 11. Martens. NT

FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Chad Boespflug, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Brady Short, 6. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 7. Ryan Bernal, 8. Robert Ballou, 9. Dave Darland, 10. Chris Windom, 11. Bud Kaeding, 12. Aaron Farney, 13. Dustin Smith, 14. Mark Dobmeier, 15. Rob Caho, Jr., 16. Tim Kaeding, 17. Mike Martin, 18. Matt Goodnight, 19. Alex Schriever, 20. Scotty Weir, 21. Bret Mellenberndt, 22. Brady Bacon, 23. Dylan Peterson, 24. Landon Simon. NT
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**Leary flipped during qualifying. Simon flipped on lap 17 of the feature. Bacon flipped on lap 21 of the feature. Mellenberndt flipped on lap 24 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-16 Stockon, Laps 17-25 Boespflug.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Robert Ballou (18th to 8th)

NEW USAC BADLANDS "ROCK AND ROLL GOLD CUP" POINTS: 1-Stockon-493, 2-Boespflug-487, 3-Grant-484, 4-Meseraull-481, 5-Thomas-475, 6-Short-448, 7-Darland-445, 8-Bernal-436, 9-B. Kaeding-433, 10-Farney-426.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: August 21 - Brandon, South Dakota - Badlands Motor Speedway - "Rock and Roll Gold Cup"