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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

CARSON SHORT SCORES FIRST WIN AT TRI-STATE IN USAC's 10,000TH RACE

Haubstadt, Indiana July 16, 2016 -- Carson Short continued the roll of first-time USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car winners into victory lane Saturday night at Tri-State Speedway, becoming the fourth different driver to pick up his initial career series victory in the first six races of the 29th edition of Indiana Sprint Week.

Short, of Marion, Illinois, joined Tyler Courtney (Gas City I-69 Speedway), Kyle Cummins (Kokomo Speedway) and Brent Beauchamp (Bloomington Speedway) as one of the new names to join the USAC record books.

The run of new winners hasn't been seen in the series since five drivers - Hunter Schuerenberg, Jacob Wilson, Brad Sweet, Brady Bacon and David Cardey - triumphed for the first time during a seven-race stretch late in the 2008 season.

On this night, USAC celebrated its 10,000th sanctioned event since its debut in January of 1956. Starting from the pole position for the 30-lap event on this momentous occasion was the 20-year-old Short, unrelated to Thursday night's winner at Lincoln Park Speedway Brady Short.

Short bolted to the lead in the first turn at the start, sliding up in front of fellow front row starter, Jarett Andretti for the race lead on the opening lap.

As Short began to distance himself from second-running Andretti, Tri-State Speedway favorite Cummins was able to sneak by Andretti for the second spot with a move on the inside of turn two.

Cummins began to run down leader Short by the sixth lap, but a turn four tangle involving Tyler Thomas and Jeff Bland, Jr. would help tighten up the gap between first and second, placing Cummins right on Short's tail tank for the restart.

Both Short and Cummins occupied the middle groove on both ends of the racetrack, setting a blistering pace as both entered lapped traffic.

With ten laps remaining, Short would have to weave his way through a bevy of slower traffic with the Haubstadt master, Kyle Cummins hot on his trail as the laps wound down.
With lapped cars running high, low middle and everywhere in between, Short had to be nearly perfect as he worked his way through the nooks and crannies in the back of the field while simultaneously being shadowed and hounded by Cummins.

With just five to go, Short almost saw the race slip through his fingers after getting extremely sideways at the exit of turn four. Short momentarily sliced down on Cummins' inside line, forcing Cummins to back off the throttle, which slowed his momentum as Short regained control and maintained his place atop the leaderboard.

During the final laps, Short hit all of his marks correctly and was able to maneuver around a handful of lapped machines with relative ease to collect not only his first career series victory, but his first ever sprint car win of any kind, in his Indiana Sprint Week debut of 2016 over Cummins and Chase Stockon.

Robert Ballou took KSE Racing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger honors for the second straight night after coming home fourth from his 16th starting position and now trails seventh place finisher Brady Bacon by just 10 points heading into Sunday's ISW finale at the Terre Haute Action Track, a place where he's been victorious in his two most recent USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car starts.

Meanwhile, Andretti tied his career-best series finish of fifth, set at Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania's Grandview Speedway just a little over a month ago.

It's been quite a successful week for the young lions of USAC racing who've responded to the challenge night-in, night-out at racetracks all around the state of Indiana this week in front of packed houses during ISW. Carson Short became the latest to meet the challenge, stepping up to take the Haubstadt round in his Richard Short/Total Field & Environmental Services - RASS Restoration/DRC/SPEC, marking just his second career top-five finish in his 28th career start dating back to his series debut at Tri-State in 2013.

"This is unreal," Short exclaimed. "With about five (laps) to go, I was thinking, 'man, I'm leading this and I know Cummins is down there.' My car started getting better right around half way and on those last five laps, we were really fast. I saw lapped traffic, but they were fast enough to concern me and I think, for sure, played a role in me getting away from Kyle (Cummins) at the end. To beat Kyle makes this even better because he's the best here. The top just wasn't there tonight, so we stuck it on the bottom and Kyle showed me that about half way through, so I owe him one. You can't beat this feeling of winning during Indiana Sprint Week!"

With his second place run on Saturday night, Princeton, Indiana's Cummins tallied his seventh podium finish in 17 series starts this season in his Rock Steady Racing/Vincennes University - Tim Mason ReMax/Mach-1/Cummins. Though Cummins has been known for his close-but-no-cigar moments over the years in USAC competition, after his recent win at Kokomo, Cummins freely admits this second place run doesn't sting as much as it once would have.

"Since I won one already, I'm actually happy to run second tonight," Cummins admitted. "The track stayed tacky from beginning to end, so we were just too tight. I was hoping Carson (Short) would make a mistake or get bottled up in the lapped traffic, but it seemed like every time he did, he picked the right line and would get away. It's been an up and down week for us, but we're happy to run second tonight."

Chase Stockon, of Fort Branch, Indiana, earned his sixth straight Tri-State Speedway top-five finish Saturday night, taking third place at the checkered in his 32-TBI Racing/Superior Tank & Trailer - Dewig Meats/DRC/Fisher.

"We banked on the track blowing off quite a bit and it never really came to us," Stockon said. "We were set up for the end of the race and the track just didn't behave like we thought it would. We just needed it to be about five or 10 laps longer."

Contingency award winners at Tri-State Speedway included Josh Hodges (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Robert Ballou (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner & KSE Racing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger), Thomas Meseraull (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Logan Jarrett (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner), Carson Short (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner) and Brady Short (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 16, 2016 - Haubstadt, Indiana - Tri-State Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week"

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-13.319; 2. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-13.367; 3. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.416; 4. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.462; 5. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.495; 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-13.497; 7. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.510; 8. Carson Short, 21, Short-13.549; 9. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.601; 10. Jon Stanbrough, 66, Amati-13.660; 11. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-13.677; 12. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-13.725; 13. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-13.742; 14. Critter Malone, 7, Seven LLC-13.743; 15. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-13.782; 16. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.785; 17. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-13.793; 18. Thomas Meseraull, 24, LSR-13.812; 19. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.854; 20. Donny Brackett, 4B, Brackett-13.855; 21. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-13.910; 22. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-13.931; 23. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.963; 24. Jeff Bland Jr., 38, Bland-14.066; 25. Tom Harris, 5E, East-14.069; 26. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-14.184; 27. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-14.208; 28. James Lyerla, 11x, Lyerla-14.216; 29. Riley Kreisel, 90, Smith-14.262; 30. Dallas Hewitt, 69R, Pearson-14.273; 31. Kent Schmidt, 5k, Schmidt-14.277; 32. Brandon Morin, 98, Morin-14.305; 33. Brian Karraker, 23k, Karraker-14.377; 34. Daylan Chambers, 4c, Chambers-14.387; 35. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-14.453; 36. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-14.495; 37. Aric Gentry, 10, GBR-14.705; 38. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-14.824; 39. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-15.923.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Courtney, 3. B.Short, 4. Hodges, 5. Bacon, 6. Farney, 7. Hewitt, 8. Ketcham, 9. Harris, 10. Chambers. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Meseraull, 2. Malone, 3. Stanbrough, 4. Boespflug, 5. K.Thomas, 6. Leary, 7. Darland, 8. Schmidt, 9. Mellenberndt, 10. Bell. 2:16.80

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Jarrett, 2. Andretti, 3. Cummins, 4. Jackson, 5. Windom, 6. Chapple, 7. Morin, 8. Mattox, 9. Lyerla. 2:20.56

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. C.Short, 2. Bland, 3. T.Thomas, 4. Stockon, 5. McGhee, 6. Brackett, 7. Kreisel, 8. Karraker, 9. Gentry. NT

C-MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Karraker, 2. Mattox, 3. Morin, 4. Chambers, 5. Bell, 6. Mellenberndt, 7. Ketcham. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. K.Thomas Jr., 2. Bacon, 3. Windom, 4. McGhee, 5. Darland, 6. Farney, 7. Leary, 8. Mattox, 9. Kreisel, 10. Hewitt, 11. Karraker, 12. Schmidt, 13. Chapple, 14. Lyerla, 15. Harris, 16. Chambers, 17. Brackett. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Carson Short, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Jarett Andretti, 6. Critter Malone, 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Chad Boespflug, 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 10. Max McGhee, 11. Josh Hodges, 12. Jon Stanbrough, 13. Brady Short, 14. Logan Jarrett, 15. C.J. Leary, 16. Aaron Farney, 17. Dakota Jackson, 18. Chris Windom, 19. Thomas Meseraull, 20. Jeff Bland Jr., 21. Tyler Thomas, 22. Tyler Courtney, 23. Isaac Chapple, 24. Dave Darland. NT
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**Brackett flipped during the semi.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 C.Short.

KSE/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Robert Ballou (16th to 4th)

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,863, 2-Ballou-1,696, 3-Meseraull-1,652, 4-Stockon-1,650, 5-Darland-1,532, 6-Boespflug-1,496, 7-Leary-1,488, 8-Windom-1,323, 9-McGhee-1,222. 10-Farney-1,028.

NEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Bacon-374, 2-Ballou-364, 3-Courtney-318, 4-K.Thomas Jr.-314, 5-Stockon-307, 6-Windom-296, 7-Andretti-295, 8-Boespflug-292, 9-Cummins-291, 10-Meseraull-246.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 17 - Terre Haute (IN) Action Track - "Indiana Sprint Week" - "Don Smith Classic"

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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

BLOOMINGTON BELONGS TO BEAUCHAMP; BECOMES USAC SPRINTS' 3RD NEW WINNER IN ISW

Bloomington, Indiana July 15, 2016 ..... In a week chock-full of veteran drivers entering USAC victory lane for the first time, Brent Beauchamp became the latest to break through after prevailing in a classic duel with Dave Darland throughout the majority of the 30-lap event during round five of "Indiana Sprint Week" at Bloomington Speedway's 28th annual "Sheldon Kinser Memorial." A race that featured the most lead changes in a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car race in 15 years!

Beauchamp would start third in the 30-lap event, directly behind Dave Darland who began his race from the pole position for the second consecutive night.

As the green flag flew, Darland drew first blood, sliding up in front of outside front row starter Brady Bacon as the 24-car field filed into turn one.

Immediately, Darland gained company as Beauchamp utilized the bottom of the racetrack to pull even with Darland entering turn three, resulting in a dead heat at the line at the conclusion of lap one.

With Beauchamp up on the high line and Darland hugging the infield tires, the two engaged in a side-by-side war lap-after-lap with neither driver able to put more than a half car length's advantage between each other at the flag stand for the first eight laps of the feature.

Though credited with only three "official" lead changes at the start/finish line during the first one-third of the race, Darland and Beauchamp swapped the top spot a dozen times in the first eight laps. Darland's strong suit was on his entry into turns one and three where he was able to pull ahead by a car length midway through the corner while Beauchamp was able to propel himself off the exit of turns two and four to pull even on the inside of Darland down the front and back straightaways.

The two put on a show for the ages, running several identical-looking, side-by-side laps resulting in numerous photo finishes at the line with each successive circuit appearing as if the two were on a high-speed pace lap.

Without either able to break away up front, Beauchamp was able to edge ahead of Darland by mere inches at the scoring loop on lap five, but the lead would be short-lived as Darland fought back to claim the top spot at the stripe on the sixth and seventh laps.
On lap eight, Beauchamp got a titanic run on the bottom that lunged him forward off the exit of turn four and into the lead, putting a five-car-length gap between himself and Darland in the ensuing laps.

After the stoppage of Chase Stockon brought out a caution at the halfway mark, the lap 15 restart saw Darland find his second wind. Just as the topside of the red clay surface appeared to fade, Darland quickly proved there was still something left up top as he clawed his way back on the outside to beat Beauchamp to the line on lap 16 by 14-thousandths of a second.

Meanwhile, Beauchamp drove his machine as straight as an arrow on the bottom, re-taking the lead by a car length on the 17th lap before Darland found another bullet in the chamber, reloading for another run at Beauchamp to reclaim the lead by a car length on laps 18 and 19.

By lap 20, the exit of turn two began to slip away as Darland was still able to pull even alongside Beauchamp between turns one and two, but was unable to find any moisture at the top of the second turn, hindering his forward motion as he faded and Beauchamp raced by on the inside and distanced himself from the rest of the field in the waning laps.

In the last 10 laps, it was all Brent Beauchamp, who pulled away to join Tyler Courtney and Kyle Cummins as the third different driver to claim his first career USAC victory during 2016 ISW over Brady Bacon, who slipped by Darland for second on the final lap. Kevin Thomas, Jr., a 2012 Bloomington ISW winner, was fourth while Thomas Meseraull drove the Landon Simon Racing car to its second straight fifth place finish.

Bloomington Speedway, the only track to host an ISW event in each year of the series' existence dating back to 1988, has now produced six first-time USAC National Sprint Car feature winners during its ISW round over the years: Brad Fox (1997), Cory Kruseman (1999), A.J. Anderson (2001), Brady Short (2006), Kevin Thomas, Jr. (2012) and now Beauchamp.

The spectacular 30-lap affair featured the most lead changes in a USAC National Sprint Car race since Lincoln Park Speedway's "Indiana Sprint Week" feature at Lincoln Park Speedway on July 21, 2001 that also involved Dave Darland. In that event, Jon Stanbrough got by Dave Darland on the final corner of the final lap to take a photo finish victory.

However, this night belonged to Beauchamp, the Avon, Indiana native who came into Friday night's race with only one career top-five finish in USAC National Sprint Car competition - a third at Bloomington's ISW round in 2012. He drove his Jeff Olson/Concrete Connection - Brownsburg Mufflers/Spike/J & D to a 1.85-second victory that was not indicative of the fierce battle that was waged between first-time winner Beauchamp and Darland, the winningest ISW and USAC National Sprint Car driver of all-time.

"I can't put this into words," Beauchamp said. "I said last night that winning a 'Sprint Week' race would be something that I literally would not be able to describe and, to do it here- a place that has eluded me for so long- it's a place I've wanted to win at so bad, but to do it during 'Sprint Week,' it's amazing. I felt like I was running a Kenyon car at the Speedrome when I was down there on the bottom. I just tried to roll it smooth and not get off the tires. I knew Dave was out there and I could sense that if I just hit my marks that I was better and could get away from him. When I got to the lapped cars, I just told myself not to do anything dumb and stuck it on bottom and then went wide coming to the checkered to try and block any sort of run. I am just so excited. This is amazing!"

In "Indiana Sprint Week," every little thing matters. Though he's run spectacularly all week, earlier in the night, during the Indy Race Parts fourth heat, ISW point leader Courtney skated over the turn one cushion and embarked on a wild series of flips over the backside of the banking. Though Courtney returned in a backup car for the semi-feature, he was unable to transfer, thus missing the feature and having to stand on the sidelines to witness his 32-point lead coming into Friday night quickly evaporate.

Courtney's misfortune was all Bacon's gain, as the Broken Arrow, Oklahoma driver's second place finish helped him leapfrog past Courtney to take over the ISW point lead heading into the final two races on Saturday night at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt and Sunday night at the Terre Haute Action Track in his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - Lykins Oil/Triple X/Williams Mopar.

"We caught a break when Hodges went by me and we got a yellow," Bacon admitted. "I calmed down after that and just tried to run the bottom and not make too many mistakes. I thought the top was going to be the place to be, but the bottom was just too good and the top was treacherous. Hats off to the track prep crew, though. To go through 50 cars in the middle of the summer without any prep breaks is fantastic. These last three tracks are three of our best, so we've got some momentum. We had to battle back all week, but tonight, we could get to the front and just sort of hang out, so that was nice. But I padded my bank account a little bit this week, so, hopefully, we can keep it up these last two nights."

It was a valiant effort for Lincoln, Indiana's Darland, who led on four different occasions for a total of nine laps and finished a strong third in his Jeff Walker-Curb-Agajanian Racing/Jam-It-In Storage - Hoosier Tire/Maxim/Claxton.

"We've been decent this year, but we're still learning," Darland acknowledges. "Jeff (Walker) and I are getting better. We were good last night and then tonight, obviously, too. We could get around Brent (Beauchamp) a few times, but the cushion just got so tough to run. I slipped the right rear over the edge a couple times in turn two, and then would just get hung up, so it was difficult. I had to shoot off of it a little early as we got going towards the end. But we were good tonight, so it's a step in the right direction."

Contingency award winners at Bloomington Speedway included Chad Boespflug (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Chris Windom (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Chase Stockon (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Logan Jarrett (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner), Hunter Schuerenberg (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner), Robert Ballou (KSE Racing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger) & A.J. Hopkins (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 15, 2016 - Bloomington, Indiana - Bloomington Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" - "Sheldon Kinser Memorial"

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-10.737; 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-10.846; 3. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-10.858; 4. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-10.961; 5. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-10.974; 6. Thomas Meseraull, 24, LSR-10.981; 7. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-10.986; 8. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-10.988; 9. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-10.988; 10. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-11.005; 11. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-11.005; 12. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-11.026; 13. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-11.038; 14. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-11.043; 15. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-11.046; 16. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-11.061; 17. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-11.062; 18. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-11.074; 19. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-11.085; 20. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-11.085; 21. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-11.087; 22. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-11.124; 23. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-11.129; 24. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-11.136; 25. A.J. Hopkins, 14H, Hopkins-11.144; 26. Jordan Kinser, 70, Hurst-11.158; 27. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-11.161; 28. Justin Grant, 71p, Phillips-11.211; 29. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-11.231; 30. Jeff Bland Jr., 38, Bland-11.247; 31. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-11.267; 32. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-11.270; 33. Cole Smith, 29s, Smith-11.282; 34. Aric Gentry, 10, GBR-11.312; 35. Jon Stanbrough, 66, Amati-11.322; 36. Daylan Chambers, 4c, Chambers-11.329; 37. Kent Schmidt, 5k, Schmidt-11.355; 38. Dickie Gaines, 44, Soudrette-11.417; 39. Nick Bilbee, 17N, Bilbee-11.453; 40. Riley Kreisel, 90, Smith-11.489; 41. Matt McDonald, 5M, McDonald-11.508; 42. Tom Harris, 5E, East-11.661; 43. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-11.688; 44. Nate McMillin, 15J, Johnson-11.790; 45. Chris Babcock, 35, Babcock-11.798; 46. Matt Brannin, 27, Brannin-11.945; 47. Lukas Smith, 61, Smith-11.971; 48. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-12.046.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Mattox, 3. Boespflug, 4. Hopkins, 5. DiMattia, 6. McGhee, 7. Andretti, 8. T.Thomas, 9. C.Smith, 10. Schmidt, 11. McDonald, 12. Babcock. 1:53.43

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Darland, 3. Ballou, 4. B.Short, 5. Bland, 6. Kinser, 7. K.Thomas Jr., 8. Meseraull, 9. Gaines, 10. Harris, 11. Brannin, 12. Gentry. 1:55.18

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Jarrett, 2. Cummins, 3. Beauchamp, 4. Hodges, 5. Mellenberndt, 6. Stanbrough, 7. Williams, 8. Chapple, 9. L.Smith, 10. S.Cottle, 11. Jackson, 12. Bilbee, NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Schuerenberg, 2. Bacon, 3. Coons, 4. Leary, 5. Farney, 6. Grant, 7. Kreisel, 8. McMillin, 9. Chambers, 10. Ketcham, 11. Bell, 12. Courtney. NT

C-MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. C.Smith, 3. Kreisel, 4. Chambers, 5. Gaines, 6. Harris, 7. McMillin, 8. Williams, 9. McDonald, 10. Babcock, 11. L.Smith, 12. Schmidt. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. K.Thomas Jr., 2. Meseraull, 3. T.Thomas, 4. Andretti, 5. Jackson, 6. Kinser, 7. Mellenberndt, 8. C.Smith, 9. Farney, 10. McGhee, 11. Chapple, 12. Kreisel, 13. Chambers, 14. DiMattia, 15. Courtney, 16. Stanbrough, 17. Grant, 18. Bland. 2:35.32

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Brent Beauchamp, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Thomas Meseraull, 6. C.J. Leary, 7. Josh Hodges, 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 9. Jarett Andretti, 10. Robert Ballou, 11. Chad Boespflug, 12. Brady Short, 13. A.J. Hopkins, 14. Chris Windom, 15. Brandon Mattox, 16. Kyle Cummins, 17. Jon Stanbrough, 18. Isaac Chapple, 19. Chase Stockon, 20. Logan Jarrett, 21. Tyler Thomas, 22. Jordan Kinser, 23. Dakota Jackson, 24. Hunter Schuerenberg. NT
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**Jackson flipped during the third heat. Courtney flipped during the fourth heat.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Darland, Lap 5 Beauchamp, Laps 6-7 Darland, Laps 8-15 Beauchamp, Lap 16 Darland, Lap 17 Beauchamp, Laps 18-19 Darland, Laps 20-30 Beauchamp.

KSE/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Robert Ballou (17th to 10th)

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,808, 2-Ballou-1,625, 3-Meseraull-1,619, 4-Stockon-1,578, 5-Darland-1,508, 6-Leary-1,445, 7-Boespflug-1,437, 8-Windom-1,294, 9-McGhee-1,178, 10-Farney-996.

NEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Bacon-317, 2-Ballou-295, 3-Courtney-288, 4-Windom-267, 5-K.Thomas Jr.-263, 6-Coons-239, 7-Stockon-237, 8-Boespflug-233, 9-Andretti-230, 10-Meseraull-215.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 16 - Haubstadt, IN - Tri-State Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week"

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BACK FROM VACATION; SHORT RETURNS TO VICTORY LANE IN ISW NIGHT FOUR AT PUTNAMVILLE

Putnamville, Indiana July 14, 2016 ......After being absent from the first three races of "Indiana Sprint Week," Brady Short made his triumphant return to the seven-race series a memorable one, quickly picking his way through the field one-by-one from his 11th starting position before taking the lead on lap 12 from Dave Darland and pulling away to go virtually unchallenged down the stretch to take the victory Thursday night at Putnamville, Indiana's Lincoln Park Speedway.

Winning an Indiana Sprint Week event is one of the most daunting tasks a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car competitor will face all season, but on Thursday night, Short and the Pottorff number 11p worked in perfect harmony as the Bedford, Indiana driver collected his fifth career ISW victory at a fifth different racetrack exactly 10 years to the day of his very first ISW triumph at Bloomington Speedway in 2006.

Aside from Bloomington and Lincoln Park, Short has also scored ISW wins at Lawrenceburg Speedway in 2008, Brownstown Speedway in 2010 and Tri-State Speedway in 2015, moving him into a tie for eighth on the all-time ISW win list alongside Kevin Briscoe, Tony Elliott and Kevin Thomas.

After a torrential downpour hit Lincoln Park Speedway throughout late Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning, the 5/16-mile dirt oval became "Lake Putnamville" for a period of time. Due to the incredible effort by Joe Spiker and the rest of the LPS crew, the track was in tip-top shape by the time hot laps began and throughout the night, provided a smooth, racy, multiple-lane surface.

Regardless, in this stacked field, Short would have to get his elbows up to reach victory lane on Thursday night from his 11th starting spot. Though, he wouldn't have to come from as far back as he did one year ago when he earned hard charger honors after storming from 22nd to 5th during the feature.

Up front at the beginning of the 30-lap affair were Chase Stockon and Dave Darland. The two battled back-and-forth throughout the first circuit until Stockon lunged ahead for the lead at the exit of turn two on lap two.

However, just moments later as the field funneled into turn three, ISW point leader Tyler Courtney hopped over the right rear tire of Justin Grant while battling for fourth. Courtney slid a lengthy distance over the turn three banking toward the pit exit guardrail before coming to a stop. Courtney would restart from the tail of the field in the 24th position, the very same spot he began his charge from six days earlier during his spectacular come-from-behind victory at Gas City I-69 Speedway.

On the restart, Darland, the winningest driver in the history of "Indiana Sprint Week," engaged in a war for the lead with Stockon. On the third lap, Darland crossed over off the turn four banking, sweeping inside of Stockon, beating him by a bumper in a drag race to the flag stand.

Stockon countered with a slider on Darland at the entrance of one, briefly securing the lead before Darland crossed over to the inside of Stockon once again, driving by him to grab the top spot for good down the back straightway.

Meanwhile, Short's steady, methodical drive through the middle in turns one and two and the bottom in turns three and four put him in the top-three by lap nine. On lap 11, Short worked the low groove to slip by Stockon for second by the length of a wheel at the line. Just one lap later, Short threw his machine toward the bottom of turns one and two to pull even with Darland. The two battled down the back straight with Short outracing Darland to turn three before motoring off with the lead and a stranglehold on the top spot.

Short continued to stretch out his lead by a country mile in the forthcoming laps and, with less than 10 to go, held a half-lap lead over second-running Stockon, who had just gotten by Darland for the runner-up spot one lap prior. However, that substantial lead would be erased after a Zach Daum 360 spin in turn two with five laps remaining that brought out the yellow flag.

For the restart, Stockon was right on the tail of Short, but as soon as the green flag dropped, Short got an excellent jump, quickly distancing himself from the pack. Just one lap, later, though, the yellow flew for ninth-running Brent Beauchamp, who slid to a stop next to an infield tire in turn two.

On what would prove to be the final restart, Short once again shot out of a proverbial cannon, distancing himself from Stockon and the remainder of the field who had no answer for Short at the end. Short put the race on ice, winning by a second and a half over Stockon, Chad Boespflug, Robert Ballou (from 16th) and KSE Racing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger Thomas Meseraull who darted his way from 18th to 5th in his debut for Landon Simon Racing.

Courtney, who restarted from the tail of 24-car field with just one lap complete, fought back through the field to salvage an eighth-place finish and, in turn, maintained his solid 32-point lead in the "Indiana Sprint Week" standings with just three events to go.

Throughout the first four ISW events, the winner has started no better the sixth: Courtney (16th at Gas City), Kyle Cummins (6th at Kokomo), Bryan Clauson (6th at Lawrenceburg) and Short (11th at Lincoln Park), putting the average winners' starting position at 9.75. However, Short attributes his success Thursday night to getting off on the right foot in ProSource Qualifying, which set the tone and put himself in a position to be a contender come feature time in his Cam Pottorff/Sipes Body & Glass - Indiana Stone Works/Maxim/SPEC.

"Qualifying was huge tonight, but I went out early and made the best lap I could to give us a good spot," Short said. "When we took off in the heat race, I knew we were going to be one of the good cars and it was going to be up to me. I tried to give it away a couple times, just because I kept missing my marks and overdriving. I was on vacation last week and decided to come run this second week, so it's pretty special. To come here and beat 50 cars, you have to have a lot of luck. I didn't think we'd even be racing today, so that's a credit to Joe Spiker and his crew because they gave us an awesome race track."

Stockon led the first pair of laps during the feature before fading back, running fourth, in fact, with just 10 to go. But the Fort Branch, Indiana, responded in a strong way, making his way back to the second spot at the checkered in his 32-TBI Racing/Superior Tank & Trailer - Dewig Meats/DRC/Fisher.

"I knew we could rip the bottom pretty well, but I had to go somewhere they weren't," Stockon explained. "I thought the cushion would blow completely off, but we freed it up quite a bit and couldn't quite roll the bottom like we needed to. I could run higher up in it in turn one and diamond it off to make up some decent ground. We just tried to maintain in (turns) three and four, but we never gave up and rallied back for a good finish."

Hanford, California's Boespflug returned with a vengeance Thursday night after struggling last Sunday night at Lawrenceburg and followed up his second place run at Lincoln Park on July 1 with another podium finish, bagging third at the finish in his NineEight Motorsports-EZR/Pac Racing Springs - Schroeder Torsion Bars/Maxim/Claxton.

"I thought I'd have something for them when I found something on the bottom in (turns) one and two, but we just had to hang on there at the end," Boespflug said. Overall, though, it was a good night for us and we'll take this momentum to Bloomington. I haven't ever been great there, so hopefully we can keep these strong runs up."

Meseraull, of San Jose, California, stepped into the Landon Simon Racing/Mount Baker Vapor - Club W/DRC/Rider after he and the Amati Racing team parted ways after Lawrenceburg last Sunday. Meseraull was a rocket during the feature, driving from the outside of row nine into the top-five to earn his best finish of ISW 2016.

"This car was on kill tonight," Meseraull exclaimed. "I struggled at the beginning of the week, obviously, but I'm just stoked to have a good run."

Contingency award winners at Lincoln Park Speedway included Tyler Courtney (ProSource Fast Qualifier & Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Thomas Meseraull (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Brady Short (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner), Robert Ballou (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner), Thomas Meseraull (KSE Racing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger) & Jarett Andretti (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 14, 2016 - Putnamville, Indiana - Lincoln Park Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week"

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-12.670; 2. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-12.697; 3. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-13.040; 4. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-13.053; 5. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-13.054; 6. Justin Grant, 71p, Phillips-13.100; 7. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.142; 8. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-13.154; 9. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-13.267; 10. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-13.303; 11. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-13.320; 12. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.373; 13. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.415; 14. Jon Stanbrough, 66, Amati-13.450; 15. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.458; 16. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-13.485; 17. J.J. Hughes, 76, Hughes-13.500; 18. Thomas Meseraull, 24, LSR-13.505; 19. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-13.571; 20. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.592; 21. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.642; 22. Cole Smith, 29s, Smith-13.678; 23. Casey Shuman, 50x, Barnhill-13.704; 24. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.748; 25. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-13.751; 26. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.761; 27. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-13.874; 28. Shane Cockrum, 24p, Paul-13.912; 29. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-13.916; 30. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.953; 31. Colten Cottle, 1RL, Lambertson-13.959; 32. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-13.960; 33. Tom Harris, 5E, East-13.984; 34. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-14.034; 35. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-14.043; 36. Riley Kreisel, 90, Smith-14.134; 37. Tim Creech, 2c, Creech-14.331; 38. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-13.354; 39. Dickie Gaines, 44, Soudrette-14.426; 40. Lukas Smith, 61, Smith-14.492; 41. Kent Schmidt, 5k, Schmidt-14.495; 42. Nate McMillin, 24x, McMillin-14.599; 43. Daylan Chambers, 4c, Chambers-14.627; 44. Mike Gass, 17G, On The Gass-14.667; 45. A.J. Hopkins, 14H, Hopkins-14.753; 46. Lee Underwood, 24L, Underwood-14.868; 47. Matt Brannin, 27, Brannin-15.031; 48. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-17.996; 49. Jimmy Light, 23, Two-Three-NT; 50. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Courtney, 2. Boespflug, 3. Hughes, 4. K.Thomas, 5. DiMattia, 6. Mattox, 7. Hopkins, 8. Schmidt, 9. Light, 10. Coons, 11. S.Cottle, 12. Harris, 13. Creech. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Meseraull, 2. Beauchamp, 3. Windom, 4. Grant, 5. Stanbrough, 6. Schuerenberg, 7. Farney, 8. C.Smith, 9. Williams, 10. Cummins, 11. Underwood, 12. McMillin. NT

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. B.Short, 2. Bacon, 3. Daum, 4. Stockon, 5. Leary, 6. C.Cottle, 7. Gaines, 8. Shuman, 9. Chambers, 10. Mellenberndt, 11. Ketcham. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Jarrett, 3. Andretti, 4. Darland, 5. Chapple, 6. Cockrum, 7. Hodges, 8. T.Thomas, 9. Gass, 10. Kreisel, 11. L.Smith, 12. McGhee. NT

C-MAIN: (10 laps) 1. C.Cottle, 2. Hopkins, 3. Farney, 4. Hodges, 5. Creech, 6. Williams, 7. Gaines, 8. Mellenberndt, 9. Light, 10. Schmidt, 11. Kreisel, 12. Chambers, 13. Underwood, 14. Gass, 15. Brannin, 16. Chapple, 17. L.Smith. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. T.Thomas, 2. Leary, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. Coons, 5. S.Cottle, 6. Stanbrough, 7. Cockrum, 8. Mattox, 9. McGhee, 10. DiMattia, 11. Hodges, 12. Cummins, 13. Farney, 14. Hopkins, 15. Shuman, 16. C.Cottle, 17. C.Smith. 2:48.67

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Brady Short, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Chad Boespflug, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Thomas Meseraull, 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 7. Shane Cottle, 8. Tyler Courtney, 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 10. Dave Darland, 11. Brady Bacon, 12. Aaron Farney, 13. Jarett Andretti, 14. Tyler Thomas, 15. Brent Beauchamp, 16. C.J. Leary, 17. Justin Grant, 18. Logan Jarrett, 19. Chris Windom, 20. Zach Daum, 21. Isaac Chapple, 22. Hunter Schuerenberg, 23. J.J. Hughes, 24. Jon Stanbrough. NT
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**Light flipped during qualifying. Harris flipped during the first heat. Ketcham flipped during the third heat.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Stockon, Laps 3-11 Darland, Laps 12-30 B.Short.

KSE/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Thomas Meseraull (18th to 5th)

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,734, 2-Ballou-1,576, 3-Meseraull-1,557, 4-Stockon-1,545; 5-Darland-1,437, 6-Boespflug-1,384, 7-Leary-1,382, 8-Windom-1,251, 9-McGhee-1,168, 10-Farney-986.

NEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Courtney-278, 2-Ballou-246, 3-Bacon-243, 4-Windom-224, 5-Stockon-202, 6-K.Thomas Jr.-193, 7-Bryan Clauson-190, 8-Coons-184, 9-S.Cottle-182, 10-Andretti-181.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 15 - Bloomington (IN) Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" - "Sheldon Kinser Memorial"

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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

CLAUSON ON CRUISE CONTROL AT THE BURG; CLAIMS VICTORY IN INDIANA SPRINT WEEK RD. 3

Lawrenceburg, Indiana..July 10, 2016 - Bryan Clauson continued his winning ways Sunday night during the third round of Indiana Sprint Week at Lawrenceburg Speedway, holding off a mid-race challenge from Josh Hodges and snookering the field on a late race restart to earn his 41st career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory, surpassing Gary Bettenhausen for seventh on the all-time list.

Clauson also collected his 111th career USAC-sanctioned feature victory, moving him into the top-five on the all-time list alongside some of the giants of the sport. Clauson now stands behind only Rich Vogler (171), A.J. Foyt (162), Sleepy Tripp (161) and Mel Kenyon (131) in career USAC wins.

Hunter Schuerenberg started the race from the pole position and, just as he did at Gas City two nights prior in the "Sprint Week" opener, shot out to the lead on the opening lap.
ProSource Fast Qualifier Clauson, meanwhile, had already made quick work disposing of Tyler Courtney, Justin Grant and Hodges to move from sixth to third on lap one.

With a single lap in the books, Kyle Wissmiller, who was making his first USAC Sprint Car start exactly eight years to the day of his last feature appearance in 2008, slid to a stop, bringing out the first yellow of the night.

On the ensuing restart, Clauson wasted no time resuming his charge to the front, slipping past April 2015 Lawrenceburg winner Logan Jarrett for second on the bottom off the exit of turn four.

Next on BC's radar was leader Schuerenberg, who saw his lead quickly evaporate as Clauson reeled him in in no-time flat by lap five. The duo drag raced to a dead heat at the flag stand, but Schuerenberg was able to hold steady for the time-being until Clauson was able to jet off the topside of turn four to complete the pass for the lead on lap six.

However, at the same moment, Jarett Andretti found himself turned around on the main straightaway, bringing out the caution.

Due to the lap not being fully completed, Schuerenberg would be reinserted into to the lead with Clauson relegated back to second.

On the restart, Clauson dove low, grabbing the bite off the bottom of the banking to recapturing the lead from Schuerenberg on the sixth circuit. Clauson would secure the spot for good in turn two as he slid up to the top, ripping away Schuerenberg's line and pulling away to a healthy advantage.

Quickly thereafter, Hodges grabbed second as Schuerenberg began to slip into the distance from the front of the pack. Hodges still had a more than half-straightaway deficit to overcome Clauson's lead, but a turn three tangle between April's Lawrenceburg USAC Sprint winner Dave Darland as well as Nick Bilbee and Zach Daum brought the yellow out, thereby erasing the gap and putting Hodges, an April USAC/CRA Sprint Car feature winner at Perris (Calif.) Auto Speedway, squarely behind the rear bumper of Clauson on the restart with 17 laps to go.

After the green flag waved, Hodges was able to hang right along with leader Clauson, chipping away at the interval little-by-little. Clauson ran his machine up top against the wall at both ends of the racetrack while Hodges ran side-by-side with Clauson, pulling even with the leader while utilizing the bottom line between turns three and four and the middle in turns one and two to pose a formidable challenge to Clauson's throne at the front throughout the middle portion of the 30-lap event.

On the 17th lap, Clauson dove to the bottom between turns three and four to see if that suited his liking, but that was short-lived as Clauson migrated back to the topside for lap 18, and each lap thereafter, as he began to gap himself and Hodges, constructing his lead to three seconds as Hodges began to drop.

With eight to go, Friday night Gas City winner Courtney started to come alive during crunch time, sticking a slide job on Schuerenberg for third in turn three and repeating the move on Hodges in turn one for the second spot with five laps remaining.

Third-running Schuerenberg's race came to an abrupt end just three laps from the finish, slowing to a stop in a puff of smoke between turns three and four, which set up one final restart - a rematch between the rapidly-closing Courtney and Clauson for a three-lap shootout.

Clauson quickly thwarted any thoughts Courtney had of repeating his Gas City triumph, blasting away to a substantial advantage heading into turn one on the restart. Nobody was able to mount a serious challenge to Clauson's supremacy during the final three laps as he pulled away for the victory in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors - Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Spike/Stanton Mopar over Courtney, Windom, Leary and Hodges.

Noblesville, Indiana's Clauson moved into the top-five in all-time Indiana Sprint Week wins with his seventh career checkered flag Sunday night at "The Burg" while also capturing his seventh USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory of the 2016 season, already equaling his best single-season win total in the series, which he accomplished during his back-to-back championship years in 2012 and 2013.

"I wanted to catch everybody by surprise on that last restart and it worked," Clauson said. "We were a little tight on the curb, so I didn't know how aggressive to be on it, but we were able to get to the front early on. It's hard sometimes, when you're out front, to know what pace to run, but we held them off. When I saw Hodges on the bottom, I went down there just to feel it out, but felt like it'd take me too long to figure out how to run it. The cushion on both ends on exit was pretty big and, if you hit it wrong, it would throw the nose. I had to be careful, but those guys behind us made me pick up the pace more than what I had been doing up to that point. Our car was good, I just had it on cruise control and tried not to make any mistakes."

Courtney, of Indianapolis, Indiana, not only retained his Indiana Sprint Week point lead with his second place run in his TOPP Motorsports/Maxim/Chevy, but extended it from 2 to 22 points over Brady Bacon and Chris Windom heading into the final four-race stretch of "Sprint Week" at the Terre Haute Action Track on Wednesday, July 13.

"I can't ask for much more, other than to have won the last two nights," Courtney said. "That last restart shows why Bryan (Clauson) is the best because he snookered the whole field. I didn't really know what to do because we're supposed to stay in line but that's the way it goes. We were pretty decent; Bryan was a little better, obviously, but we'll get it tuned up again and probably head to Terre Haute now."

Windom, of Canton, Illinois, took the Baldwin Brothers Racing/Fox Paving - AMSOIL/Maxim/Claxton Mopar to another solid third place run, tying him for second in Indiana Sprint Week points alongside Brady Bacon.

"I didn't need all those cautions at the beginning because we were better on the long run," Windom admitted. "I was trying to make something work on the middle to bottom and I could get those guys off the bottom of four when they'd get bottled up running the top. We fell back to 11th or something at some point, so to charge back up to third is good. We're right there in the hunt for this Sprint Week title, so if we can keep knocking out podiums, we're going to be in good shape."

Contingency award winners at Lawrenceburg Speedway included Bryan Clauson (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Brady Bacon (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Nick Bilbee (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Chris Windom (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner), Jon Stanbrough (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner & Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher) and Kyle Cummins (KSE Racing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 10, 2016 - Lawrenceburg, Indiana - Lawrenceburg Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week"

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-14.166; 2. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-14.179; 3. Justin Grant, 71p, Phillips-14.188; 4. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-14.292; 5. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-14.297; 6. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-14.312; 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-14.363; 8. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-14.375; 9. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-14.432; 10. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-14.444; 11. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-14.447; 12. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-14.463; 13. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-14.470; 14. Shawn Westerfeld, 89, Westerfeld-14.473; 15. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-14.493; 16. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-14.506; 17. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-14.509; 18. Kyle Wissmiller, 3, Simmons-14.516; 19. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-14.516; 20. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-14.530; 21. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-14.619; 22. Nick Bilbee, 17N, Bilbee-14.623; 23. Landon Simon, 24, Simon-14.676; 24. Joss Moffatt, 5J, Moffatt-14.678; 25. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-14.682; 26. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-14.709; 27. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-14.745; 28. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-14.766; 29. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-14.780; 30. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-14.817; 31. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-14.832; 32. Justin Owen, 4JO, Fischesser-14.846; 33. Garrett Abrams, 32A, Abrams-14.897; 34. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-14.953; 35. Dickie Gaines, 44, Soudrette-14.962; 36. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-14.977; 37. Michael Fischesser, 4, Fischesser-14.990; 38. Travis Hery, 21H, Hery-15.147; 39. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-15.254; 40. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-15.509; 41. Steve Thomas, 20, Thomas-16.206; 42. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Schuerenberg, 3. Andretti, 4. Clauson, 5. Ballou, 6. Clouser, 7. Robbins, 8. Goodnight, 9. Abrams, 10. Fischesser, 11. S.Thomas. 2:26.47

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Bilbee, 2. Wissmiller, 3. Courtney, 4. Hodges, 5. Stockon, 6. Westerfeld, 7. Chapple, 8. McGhee, 9. T.Thomas, 10. Hery. 2:28.82

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Daum, 3. Simon, 4. Grant, 5. K.Thomas, 6. Cummins, 7. Ketcham, 8. Meseraull, 9. Boespflug, 10. Gaines. 2:29.10

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Darland, 3. Moffatt, 4. Jarrett, 5. Leary, 6. Mellenberndt, 7. DiMattia, 8. Farney, 9. Owen, 10. Williams. NT

C-MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. Meseraull, 3. Abrams, 4. Gaines, 5. Mellenberndt, 6. Hery, 7. Owen, 8. Fischesser, 9. S.Thomas. 2:39.57

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Ballou, 3. K.Thomas, 4. T.Thomas, 5. Cummins, 6. Stockon, 7. Westerfeld, 8. Ketcham, 9. Clouser, 10. Goodnight, 11. Gaines, 12. Abrams, 13. DiMattia, 14. Chapple, 15. Boespflug, 16. Meseraull, 17. Farney, 18. Robbins. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Tyler Courtney, 3. Chris Windom, 4. C.J. Leary, 5. Josh Hodges, 6. Justin Grant, 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Kyle Cummins, 9. Robert Ballou, 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 11. Jarett Andretti, 12. Chase Stockon, 13. Jon Stanbrough, 14. Zach Daum, 15. Landon Simon, 16. Dave Darland, 17. Tyler Thomas, 18. Thomas Meseraull, 19. Hunter Schuerenberg, 20. Logan Jarrett, 21. Nick Bilbee, 22. Chad Boespflug, 23. Kyle Wissmiller, 24. Joss Moffatt. NT
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**Farney & Williams flipped during the fourth heat.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Schuerenberg, Laps 6-30 Clauson.

KSE/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Kyle Cummins (20th to 8th)

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,694, 2-Ballou-1,507, 3-Meseraull-1,491, 4-Stockon-1,473, 5-Darland-1,389, 6-Leary-1,344, 7-Boespflug-1,311; 8-Windom-1,220, 9-McGhee-1,158, 10-Clauson-962.

NEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Courtney-215, 2-Bacon & Windom-193, 4-Clauson-188, 5-Ballou-177, 6-Cummins-166, 7-Thomas Jr.-142, 8-Andretti-136, 9-Stockon-130, 10-S.Cottle-129.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 13 - Terre Haute (IN) Action Track - "Indiana Sprint Week" - "Don Smith Classic"

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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

CUMMINS CRACKS WIN COLUMN; CAPTURES FIRST USAC SPRINT VICTORY
BY A FOOT OVER BALLOU AT KOKOMO

Kokomo, Indiana July 9, 2016 - Bridesmaid. Perennial runner-up. Call him what you will, but Kyle Cummins certainly cannot be labeled as such any longer. For, on Saturday night at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway, the long wait came to an end for the Princeton, Indiana driver.

After passing Chris Windom for the lead with just nine laps to go, Cummins emerged from late-race turmoil and a massive charge by Robert Ballou on the final corner of the last lap to take the win by a foot in his Rock Steady Racing/ProGlide Bearings - Tim Mason ReMax/Mach-1/Cummins-powered machine, and thereby penning his name into the record books as a USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car winner Saturday on night two of the 29th annual Indiana Sprint Week.

Twenty-four hours after Tyler Courtney pulled a stunner with his victory on Friday night at Gas City, Cummins became the second consecutive new face to emerge in Indiana Sprint Week victory lane, marking the first time since September of 2008 there have been first-time winners in back-to-back USAC National Sprint Car races. Kasey Kahne Racing teammates Brad Sweet and Brady Bacon accomplished the feat in two straight races at Rossburg, Ohio's Eldora Speedway and Winchester (Ind.) Speedway, respectively.

Cummins victory following Courtney's on Friday also was only the second time Indiana Sprint Week has produced two straight first-time USAC National Sprint Car winners. In 1997, Brad Fox (Bloomington) and Bill Rose (Paragon) notched their initial series wins one after the other.

After many close calls and near triumphs throughout the years, Cummins' breakthrough performance came 13 years after his USAC debut at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track in late 2003.

"Finally," Cummins exhaled. "I about teared up when I got out. I'm so tired of second and third; I started sixth and looked at those guys ahead of me and thought, 'man, this is going to be a tough race to win.' I got better and better as the race went on. Once I got around Windom, the infield tire got moved down and I hit the slime and got into him. I hate that it happened because I want to beat them all. That yellow with one to go had me all sorts of nervous. I knew if I slipped up even a little bit, Robert would pounce. Our car would get super tight if I got into the corner straight, so I opened up my entry a little bit. I was too tight to run there at the beginning, so I started making a bigger arc as the race went on. I knew as long as I could keep the arc up, I could catch the moisture on the bottom and I'd be okay."

Chris Windom shot to the lead on the opening lap from his outside front row starting position with pole sitter Kevin Thomas, Jr. running three to four car lengths back throughout much of the first half of the race.

A lap 14 incident involving Tyler Thomas, Max McGhee Thomas Meseraull and Jon Stanbrough in turn two slowed the pace just before the halfway point, setting up a restart with Windom at the point and K. Thomas right on his tail tank.

K. Thomas shadowed Windom through turns one and two on the restart. As the pair headed into turn three, K. Thomas threw a massive slider on Windom for the lead, briefly taking the top spot before Windom clawed back to the lead at the line by a fingernail's length. However, a yellow due to the stopped car of Meseraull in turn three reset the order once again.

On the following lap 14 restart attempt, Windom pulled the front wheels off the ground twice after standing on the throttle leading the pack to the green flag. Windom finally got the power to the ground just past the flag stand, but K. Thomas was ready to pounce, pulling within striking distance of Windom as he drove down the hill off the high side of turn two, splitting between leader Windom and Chase Stockon to take the race lead heading into turn three.

However, Thomas' timing was ill-fated once again as fifth-running Brady Bacon found himself sitting backwards in turn three just after the restart. As the field scattered to miss Bacon, C.J. Leary, Logan Jarrett, Tyler Thomas and Hunter Schuerenberg couldn't avoid the trouble. Schuerenberg received the worst end of the deal, getting upside down after climbing the wall with the right side tires. He was uninjured.

Since the lap wasn't fully completed, K.Thomas lined up behind Windom once again for the ensuing restart.

Once action resumed, second-fastest qualifier and sixth-starting Cummins began his methodical dissection of the front runners. Using the bottom side of the racetrack, Cummins drove by Stockon off the inside of turn two for the third spot on lap 19 and, one lap later, slipped past K. Thomas on the bottom of turn three to steal second.

With eight laps to go, Cummins caught Windom and got the pull off the moisture on the bottom of turn two to propel him by Windom for the lead heading into turn three.

Windom countered midway between turns three and four, crossing over to get underneath Cummins at the exit of turn four. But Cummins got a tad bit sideways at the exit, initiating contact with his left rear tire and Windom's right front, sending Windom sideways and, in turn, setting off a chain-reaction incident that also collected frontrunners Chase Stockon and Bryan Clauson.

In the blink of an eye, the entire complexion of the race had changed with the second, third and fifth-place cars now out of the picture. Yet, Cummins ride wouldn't be free and easy as he now had to fend off 2013 Kokomo "Indiana Sprint Week" winner Kevin Thomas, Jr. and defending "Sprint Week" champ Robert Ballou for the final eight circuits.

Cummins remained dedicated to the low line as did Ballou while K. Thomas stayed true to the top side in the final laps. K. Thomas was able to hang close with Cummins for the lead, engaging in a battle that saw him just one car length behind at the stripe a lap after the restart.

K.Thomas (outside) and Ballou (inside) swarmed Cummins from both sides. The rapidly closing Ballou inched closer and closer on the bottom, peeking his nose inside Cummins for the lead off of turn four at the conclusion of lap 26 and in turn one on the 27th lap, but just wasn't close enough yet to attempt the knockout punch.

A four-car tangle involving Aaron Farney, Leary, Dave Darland and McGhee brought out the night's final yellow, setting up a two-lap shootout to the finish line.

Cummins worked the low-line throughout the 30-lap feature, but Ballou sunk his teeth firmly into the moisture a car length lower than Cummins while K. Thomas put his right rear Hoosier up against the outside wall for the last two laps.

On the final lap, Ballou gave it one last shot, skimming the infield tires with his front wheels as he pitched his machine sideways through the final two corners a car-width underneath leader Cummins.

Ballou got a big bite coming off the last corner in a side-by-side drag race to the checkered flag with Cummins, but Cummins had just enough to eke out the victory by a foot over Ballou while Thomas, Coons (from 22nd) and Bacon rounded out the top-five.

It was yet another solid second place run for Rocklin, California native Ballou, who nearly ripped away the win from Cummins at the end in his Ballou Motorsports/MPHG Promotions - Blakesley Auto/Maxim/Ott.

"I got hit in the helmet with a rock and it shattered my helmet. It felt like it broke my jaw," Ballou explained. "But we salvaged a good run. I had the best car I've ever driven here. We made some last minute changes once we were on the track before the feature and everything we changed was the right decision."

Kevin Thomas, Jr. has been a rocket during his six visits to Kokomo Speedway during the 2016 season in his 4J Motorsports/Franklin Equipment - CEP Concrete/DRC/Chevy, finishing third Saturday night after results of 1st, 1st, 3rd, 2nd and 5th in his five previous visits in non-USAC, weekly competition shows at the ¼-mile oval this year.

"There was a hole in (turns) three and four and, if you hit it wrong on the restarts, it would get the car upset, Thomas said. "Windom did that a few times and protected the bottom, and then I could get some momentum built up and slide him the next time around. I thought that was going to work for a while, but then I went to the bottom and got swarmed. Unfortunately, those guys got collected in that wreck, so we couldn't race it out. But I lived and died by the top and, tonight, it just didn't work out for us."

Contingency award winners at Kokomo Speedway included Tyler Courtney (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Chase Stockon (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Brady Bacon (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Tyler Thomas (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner), Chad Boespflug (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner), Jerry Coons, Jr. (KSE Racing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger) and Logan Jarrett (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 9, 2016 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" - "Tony Elliott Classic"

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-13.069; 2. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.095; 3. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-13.113; 4. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-13.115; 5. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.135; 6. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-13.192; 7. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.210; 8. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-13.213; 9. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-13.225; 10. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.276; 11. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-13.292; 12. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.297; 13. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-13.303; 14. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-13.310; 15. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-13.329; 16. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.336; 17. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-13.355; 18. A.J. Hopkins, 42G, Jackson-13.383; 19. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-13.389; 20. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.400; 21. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-13.404; 22. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.436; 23. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-13.450; 24. Kent Schmidt, 5k, Schmidt-13.513; 25. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-13.517; 26. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.522; 27. Brian Karraker, 23k, Karraker-13.530; 28. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-13.554; 29. Justin Grant, 71p, Phillips-13.582; 30. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-13.589; 31. Colten Cottle, 1RL, Lambertson-13.617; 32. Landon Simon, 24, Simon-13.628; 33. Jeff Bland Jr., 38, Bland-13.633; 34. Tim Creech, 2c, Creech-13.636; 35. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-13.657; 36. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-13.674; 37. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.701; 38. Critter Malone, 7, Seven LLC-13.702; 39. Dickie Gaines, 44, Soudrette-13.724; 40. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-13.727; 41. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.763; 42. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.766; 43. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-13.788; 44. Jimmy Light, 23, Two-Three-13.798; 45. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-13.818; 46. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-14.020; 47. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-14.119.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Meseraull, 3. Leary, 4. Coons, 5. Hodges, 6. Beauchamp, 7. Courtney, 8. Grant, 9. Farney, 10. Bland, 11. Mattox, 12. Spencer. 2:14.91

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Andretti, 3. Ballou, 4. Cummins, 5. Daum, 6. Darland, 7. Malone, 8. McGhee, 9. Goodnight, 10. Robbins, 11. Creech, 12. Hopkins. 2:14.89

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. T.Thomas, 2. Windom, 3. Clauson, 4. Ketcham, 5. C.Cottle, 6. Schuerenberg, 7. Clouser, 8. Karraker, 9. Gaines, 10. Mellenberndt, 11. Hines, 12. Williams. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. S.Cottle, 3. K.Thomas, 4. Jarrett, 5. Stanbrough, 6. DiMattia, 7. Light, 8. Schmidt, 9. Simon, 10. Chapple, 11. Bares. NT

C MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Bland, 2. DiMattia, 3. Farney, 4. Light, 5. Goodnight, 6. Mellenberndt, 7. Gaines, 8. Robbins, 9. Mattox, 10. Chapple, 11. Spencer, 12. Malone, 13. Williams, 14. Creech, 15. Hines. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Darland, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. Courtney, 5. Hodges, 6. Schmidt, 7. McGhee, 8. Clouser, 9. Daum, 10. Farney, 11. Grant, 12. DiMattia, 13. Bland, 14. C.Cottle, 15. Karraker, 16. Goodnight, 17. Light, 18. Beauchamp. 2:47.54

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Chad Boespflug, 7. Tyler Courtney, 8. Jarett Andretti, 9. Chris Windom, 10. Shane Cottle, 11. Thomas Meseraull, 12. Tyler Thomas, 13. Logan Jarrett, 14. Chase Stockon, 15. Dave Darland, 16. Aaron Farney, 17. Max McGhee, 18. C.J. Leary, 19. Bryan Clauson, 20. Kent Schmidt, 21. Hunter Schuerenberg, 22. Jon Stanbrough, 23. Josh Hodges, 24. Cole Ketcham. NT
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**Bares flipped during the fourth heat. Schuerenberg flipped on lap 14 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-21 Windom, Laps 22-30 Cummins.

KSE/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Jerry Coons Jr. (22nd to 4th).

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,626, 2-Meseraull-1,464, 3-Ballou-1,458, 4-Stockon-1,433, 5-Darland-1,351, 6-Boespflug-1,288, 7-Leary-1,279, 8-Windom-1,148, 9-McGhee-1,148, 10-Farney-934.

NEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Courtney-137, 2-Bacon-135, 3-Ballou & Coons-128, 5-Windom-121, 6-S.Cottle-119, 7-Cummins-116, 8-Clauson-109, 9-Boespflug & Thomas Jr.-97.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 10 - Lawrenceburg (IN) Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week"

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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

COMEBACK COURTNEY CHARGES FROM THE TAIL TO COLLECT STUNNING VICTORY
IN GAS CITY INDIANA SPRINT WEEK OPENER

Gas City, Indiana - July 8, 2016 - After an opening lap spin sent him to the 24th and last position on the grid for the restart, the odds certainly did not appear to be in Tyler Courtney's favor.

Passing 23 cars in 30 laps around a ¼-mile track is a tall task for anyone, let alone a driver seeking his first career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car win with the backdrop of an intense Indiana Sprint Week environment present.

However, Courtney was up to the task, methodically picking his way through the field as he tiptoed his way around the infield tires. With eight laps to go, Courtney caught the red-hot Bryan Clauson for the top spot and hung on to score one of the most stunning victories in recent series memory Friday at Gas City I-69 Speedway on opening night of the 29th annual "Indiana Sprint Week."

Already mired deep in the field from his original 16th starting position, Courtney seemed to be a longshot as all eyes from the packed Gas City grandstand were affixed at the head of the pack throughout the first portion of the race.

Two-time Gas City USAC Sprint Car winner Hunter Schuerenberg started from the pole, but by the end of the first lap, three-time 2016 series winner Chad Boespflug had bolted from his fourth starting spot to pull even with Schuerenberg at the flag stand.

But, Tyler Courtney's first lap spin between turns three and four brought about the yellow flag, resulting in a complete restart.

On the ensuing restart, Schuerenberg shot to the front as Boespflug slid into second. At the front of the pack, drivers found the fastest way to be around the top side where Boespflug zeroed in on Schuerenberg in a bid for the lead on the ninth lap before the action slowed with ninth-running Justin Grant stopped in turn two, bringing out the second yellow of the night.

On the lap nine restart, Schuerenberg sprinted to the bottom as Boespflug hit the cushion. Suddenly, Boespflug's car dramatically slowed due to a dzus button falling out of the ignition plate and, in turn, ceasing the engine. Despite the issue, Boespflug would restart from the tail, but would not a play a factor in the race at the front, winding up a disappointing 21st at the finish line.

The next attempt at resuming action saw Clauson slip by Max McGhee for the second position and, one circuit later on lap 10, scooting past Schuerenberg for the lead with authority on the bottom, quickly distancing himself from the rest of the field. On the 11th lap, Brady Bacon was able to dart by Schuerenberg for second at the entrance to turn one.

As soon as it appeared to become a two-man race between the season's winningest driver in the series (Clauson) and the series point leader (Bacon), Bacon slipped off the edge of the racetrack between turns three and four, dropping the 2014 series champion all the way back to seventh.

Meanwhile, the 23c of Courtney began to come into focus as he slowly, but surely, and steadfastly hit his marks on the bottom of the track's surface, knocking off one position after another.

By the midway point, Courtney was running fifth as he got a major run coming off the bottom of turn four. He hit the stripe three-wide with McGhee sandwiched between Windom on the outside and Courtney on the inside, beating them both into turn one.

However, when Courtney got there, Schuerenberg was headed for the same piece of real estate. The two made contact, sending Courtney sideways while popping his car up into the air as it bounced through turn one.

Though the contact knocked Courtney off his saddle for a moment, he hopped back on his horse and was incredibly able to lasso both Schuerenberg and Windom in as the trio stormed down the back straightaway just moments later with Courtney able to blast out in front of both to claim second off of turn four.

From that point forward, Courtney had just one man to beat: Bryan Clauson. Clauson, a six-time series winner this season, has been practically unbeatable when he gets out front this season, but Courtney was able to dig in his heels on the bottom, cutting the interval between him and Clauson by nearly a half a second each lap.

Clauson continued to cement his trust in the high line while Courtney stuck like Loctite to the low line as the two entered lapped traffic. Clauson pushed his machine to the edge, dipping off the turn two edge on multiple occasions as he clung onto the number one position while Courtney continued to sneak up on him. But a yellow for Thomas Meseraull flew after he found himself facing the outside turn four guardrail.

Seven laps to go, Clauson and Courtney had a clear track in front of them. As expected, Clauson took to the low side on the restart in turns one two, defending the line that Courtney had worked to perfection all race long. Yet, as Clauson headed into turn three, he aimed his car to the high side, thus leaving the door open for Courtney to take advantage and claim the lead at the line with eight laps to go.

Clauson refused to relent his high line and fall into line, instead, fighting back to pull side-by-side with Courtney in turn two on lap 24. Clauson was on the ragged edge, literally, as he slipped his right side tires over the turn two berm, biking the car, but still managing to stay on the gas, only losing one position in the process to Windom.

A three-car freight train on the bottom consisting of Courtney, Windom and Shane Cottle ensued while Clauson ripped the high side. Clauson hovered between second and fourth-place each lap, but was unable to reach Courtney, who held off all remaining challenges to pick up his first career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory in one of the most amazing drives seen in the series in years over Clauson, Windom, Cottle and Bacon.

Reminiscent of Terry Pletch's storied charge from 21st to 1st in the 1999 Indiana Sprint Week opener at the Terre Haute Action Track, Courtney's longshot win under trying circumstances is a performance that is sure to go down in 'Sprint Week" lore.

"My grandpa (former Lincoln Park Speedway owner Mike Farrar) was a huge part of starting Indiana Sprint Week when it originated, so to win this is even more special," Courtney said after driving the TOPP Motorsports' Maxim/Chevy to his first career series win.

"I've been close before, but to beat the best guy in Bryan Clauson the way we did, it's just amazing. I'm truly speechless. I couldn't believe he left me the bottom on the restart, but I knew I still had to hit my marks because I've given one away before running the bottom like that. When I got by him, I just started counting down the laps in my head and they couldn't fall quick enough."

Noblesville, Indiana's Clauson saw a rare one slip away from him near the end of the night's 30-lapper. The winner of six series victories in 2016 was able to squeak by Windom for second on the final corner of the final lap in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors - Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Spike/Stanton Mopar.

"I felt like I was as good as him once I got back up to ripping the top, but it was treacherous, so I just tried to stay close," Clauson explained. "If he could've been a little closer, I think we could've maybe got him. But we got out front and maybe just led a little too soon."

2011 Indiana Sprint Week champ Windom, of Canton, Illinois was able to overcome mechanical issues early in the night, but was able to come out of night one of "Sprint Week" with a solid third place effort in his Baldwin Brothers Racing/Fox Paving - AMSOIL/Maxim/Claxton Mopar.

"I couldn't believe when Tyler (Courtney) went by me how slow he was going, but how fast he was at the same time," said a surprised Windom. "With how big the curb up top was getting, I never thought you could slow down that much and still go that well. But once he got by, there was no getting him back. We'll take a podium though. We had to fix a struck throttle and change a rear end too, so we salvaged what we could and ended up alright."

Contingency award winners at Gas City I-69 Speedway included Brady Bacon (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Chase Stockon (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner & Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher), Kyle Robbins (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Tyler Courtney (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner & KSE Racing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger) and Shane Cottle (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 8, 2016 - Gas City, Indiana - Gas City I-69 Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week"

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.175; 2. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-12.340; 3. Cole Smith, 29s, Smith-12.460; 4. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-12.464; 5. Justin Grant, 71p, Phillips-12.487; 6. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-12.488; 7. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-12.532; 8. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-12.535; 9. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-12.598; 10. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-12.602; 11. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-12.621; 12. Colten Cottle, 1RL, Lambertson-12.642; 13. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-12.645; 14. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-12.675; 15. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-12.692; 16. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-12.692; 17. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-12.728; 18. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-12.736; 19. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-12.753; 20. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-12.767; 21. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-12.793; 22. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-12.808; 23. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-12.810; 24. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-12.832; 25. Casey Shuman, 50x, Barnhill-12.844; 26. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-12.847; 27. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-12.869; 28. Landon Simon, 24, Simon-12.873; 29. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-12.884; 30. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-12.893; 31. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-12.898; 32. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-12.901; 33. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-12.915; 34. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-12.917; 35. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-12.932; 36. Dickie Gaines, 44, Soudrette-12.939; 37. Tim Creech, 2c, Creech-12.955; 38. Jimmy Light, 23, Two-Three-12.955; 39. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-12.994; 40. A.J. Hopkins, 42G, Jackson-13.085; 41. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-13.147; 42. Kent Schmidt, 5k, Schmidt-13.180; 43. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.183; 44. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-13.238; 45. Travis Hery, 21H, Hery-13.260; 46. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-13.268; 47. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-13.390.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Schuerenberg, 3. Chapple, 4. Bacon, 5. Shuman, 6. Cummins, 7. Grant, 8. Hines, 9. Clouser, 10. Creech, 11. Andretti, 12. Hery. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Robbins, 2. Coons, 3. Daum, 4. Farney, 5. Windom, 6. Mattox, 7. DiMattia, 8. Williams, 9. Hodges, 10. Light, 11. Schmidt, 12. Mellenberndt. 2:04.27

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Courtney, 2. Clauson, 3. Ballou, 4. Beauchamp, 5. Leary, 6. K.Thomas, 7. Stanbrough, 8. T.Thomas, 9. Darland, 10. Goodnight, 11. Smith, 12. Bares. 2:05.32

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. S.Cottle, 2. McGhee, 3. Meseraull, 4. Boespflug, 5. Jarrett, 6. C.Cottle, 7. Spencer, 8. Gaines, 9. Hopkins, 10. Ketcham, 11. Simon. 2:08.25

C-MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Andretti, 2. Darland, 3. Hodges, 4. Hopkins, 5. T.Thomas, 6. Gaines, 7. Hines, 8. Ketcham, 9. Goodnight, 10. Clouser, 11. Spencer, 12. Creech, 13. Mellenberndt, 14. Schmidt, 15. Hery, 16. Bares, 17. Light. 2:11.66

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. K.Thomas, 2. Windom, 3. Andretti, 4. Grant, 5. Hopkins, 6. Cummins, 7. C.Cottle, 8. Hodges, 9. Jarrett, 10. Smith, 11. Darland, 12. DiMattia, 13. Mattox, 14. Stanbrough, 15. Leary, 16. Shuman, 17. Williams, 18. Simon. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Tyler Courtney, 2. Bryan Clauson, 3. Chris Windom, 4. Shane Cottle, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 7. Max McGhee, 8. Robert Ballou, 9. A.J. Hopkins, 10. Zach Daum, 11. Kyle Robbins, 12. Hunter Schuerenberg, 13. Chase Stockon, 14. Kyle Cummins, 15. Jarett Andretti, 16. Dave Darland, 17. Aaron Farney, 18. C.J. Leary, 19. Brent Beauchamp, 20. Justin Grant, 21. Chad Boespflug, 22. Thomas Meseraull, 23. Kevin Thomas Jr., 24. Isaac Chapple. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-9 Schuerenberg, Laps 10-22 Clauson, Laps 23-30 Courtney.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Tyler Courtney (16th-1st)

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,560, 2-Meseraull-1,416, 3-Stockon-1,388, 4-Ballou-1,385, 5-Darland-1,314, 6-Leary-1,246, 7-Boespflug-1,222, 8-McGhee-=1,119, 9-Windom-1,095, 10-Farney-903.

NEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Courtney-78, 2-Clauson-74, 3-S.Cottle & Bacon-69, 5-Windom-68, 6-Coons-62, 7-McGhee-59, 8-Ballou-55, 9-Daum-54, 10-Robbins-49.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 9 - Kokomo (IN) Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" - "Tony Elliott Classic"

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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

BALLOU GOES WIRE-TO-WIRE IN PUTNAMVILLE'S "BILL GARDNER SPRINTACULAR"

Putnamville, Indiana July 1, 2016 ....... Lincoln Park Speedway has been very kind to Robert Ballou in recent years. Almost two years to the day of the Rocklin, California native's career-turning triumph at the 5/16-mile dirt oval, Ballou once again took his own team to USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory lane at the track Friday night, holding off a late charge by Chad Boespflug to take the 2nd annual "Bill Gardner Sprintacular."

Outside front row starter Ballou rolled off alongside pole-sitter Boespflug at the beginning of the 30-lap event. After battling side-by-side throughout the first circuit, Ballou was able to edge ahead of Boespflug on the outside as he shot off the turn four curb to lead lap one.

As Boespflug shifted back-and-forth from the topside to the lowside and back again in search of the fastest way around, Ballou found the legendary Putnamville cushion to his liking and, by the fifth lap, had already built up a half-straightaway lead over Boespflug in second.

Robert Ballou (WoS file photo)

By the 14th lap, Ballou held the advantage by a country mile as he entered lapped traffic just prior to the halfway point, allowing Boespflug to steadily knife his way back into contention as he closed the gap for the top spot.

With 10 to go, the top-two began to check out on the rest of the field, with Boespflug in hot pursuit of Ballou up top.

Behind them, Thomas Meseraull was beginning to charge, picking off ProSource Fast Qualifier Josh Hodges for sixth on lap 19 and Shane Cottle to move into the top-five on 20th lap. But on the 21st lap, Meseraull slid over the turn four cushion, gliding up and punching the outside wall with the right side of the car with major force, putting an end to his night and providing a damaging blow to his standing in the series points.

The lapped car of Aaron Farney separated leader Ballou and second-running Boespflug on the restart with nine laps to go. Boespflug was able to maneuver around Farney with relative ease and now put himself in a two-car shootout with Ballou and an open track ahead of them.

Boespflug evaporated Ballou's lead as the laps continued to dwindle. As flagman Tom Hansing raised his hand to signify five laps remaining, Ballou's lead was cut down to a mere three car lengths.

Yet, catching is quite different from passing in auto racing, but Boespflug had put himself in prime position to capitalize on any small mistake by Ballou.

On the 28th lap, Ballou's right rear tire hit the turn three cushion with a mighty wallop, knocking him off course just slightly enough to allow Boespflug to put his bumper within inches of the golden #1 on Ballou's tail tank. Ballou didn't panic, though. He simply stood on the throttle and was able to ward off Boespflug's attack and, in fact, was able to give himself a tad bit more breathing room entering the final two laps.

On the last lap, Ballou approached the side-by-side lapped cars of Shane Cockrum (inside) and Bret Mellenberndt (outside) entering the third turn. With Boespflug making one last bid for the win and traffic just out in front of his nose, Ballou navigated the outside without so much as a flinch, putting the Ballou Motorsports/MPHG Promotions - Blakesley Auto/Maxim/Ott in victory lane for the fourth time in 2016, defeating Boespflug, Bacon, Shane Cottle and Dave Darland.

"Everybody has stepped their game up here lately, so having a starting spot up front was big tonight," Ballou admitted. "Putnamville is always tricky and the weather today didn't help, but the water they put on before the feature helped. We've fought some issues with our whole package all year and we've been searching and trying different things. We're trying to dig out of a little bit of a low point right now and this win obviously helps. It's tough to beat Brady (Bacon) and the Hoffmans right now, but getting a win tonight is a good indication that we're moving in the right direction."

Hanford, California's Boespflug finished second in his NineEight Motorsports-EZR/Creative Finishing - Midwest Shades/Maxim/Claxton, coming up just short of duplicating his victory on Independence Day weekend three years ago at Putnamville.

"The track was a little greasy at the start and Robert (Ballou) got a better advantage right away, so that hurt us a little bit," Boespflug said. "We've kind of been up and down this year, so we'll take a second tonight. We had the frame on this car clipped after Susquehanna, so this was a little bit of a test run tonight and it passed pretty well, so we're happy with it heading into 'Indiana Sprint Week.' I think I was better in (turns) three and four than he was and, towards the end, I could kind of slow roll and cheat the cushion a little and I gained some ground there. Once I figured that out, I was thinking the whole time how I was going to get by him. It was going to take a haymaker, but we almost had him."

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's Bacon continued his impressive streak as of late, knocking down his eighth consecutive top-four finish Friday night in his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - Lykins Oil/Triple X/Williams Mopar. In the process, he extended his point lead to a season-high 104 after capitalizing on Meseraull's misfortune.

"We took what we could get tonight," accepted Bacon. "It was a good points night for us, but there wasn't really a lot we could do. I moved up towards the end and got rolling decent, but we were just going the same speed as everybody else, so it was just kind of one of those nights where you soldier home to the finish and just get the best you can."

Contingency award winners at Lincoln Park Speedway included Josh Hodges (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Kevin Thomas, Jr. (Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Jerry Coons, Jr. (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner & Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher), Chad Boespflug (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner), Shane Cockrum (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner) and Chris Windom (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 1, 2016 - Putnamville, Indiana - Lincoln Park Speedway - 2nd Annual "Bill Gardner Sprintacular"

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-12.633; 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.028; 3. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.096; 4. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-13.106; 5. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-13.162; 6. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-13,165; 7. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-13.185; 8. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-13.185; 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-13.225; 10. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-13.273; 11. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.293; 12. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.339; 13. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-13.343; 14. Cole Smith, 29s, Smith-13.345; 15. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-13.367; 16. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.439; 17. Tim Creech, 2c, Creech-13.480; 18. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-13.537; 19. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.561; 20. Shane Cockrum, 24p, Paul-13.591; 21. Casey Shuman, 21k, Krockenberger-13.600; 22. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-13.650; 23. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-13.696; 24. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.717; 25. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.725; 26. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.731; 27. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.755; 28. A.J. Hopkins, 42G, Jackson-13.776; 29. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.790; 30. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-14.388; 31. Shelby VanGilder, 22v, VanGilder-14.761; 32. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-NT;

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. Hodges, 3. Windom, 4. Schuerenberg, 5. Leary, 6. Shuman, 7. Robbins, 8. Creech. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Coons, 2. Ballou, 3. Stockon, 4. Simon, 5. Mellenberndt, 6. Smith, 7. Hines, 8. Mattox. 2:20.53

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. Stanbrough, 3. Bacon, 4. Ketcham, 5. Darland, 6. Farney, 7. McGhee, 8. VanGilder. 2:20.56

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Cockrum, 2. Andretti, 3. Meseraull, 4. Beauchamp, 5. Hopkins, 6. Jarrett, 7. Cottle, 8. Chapple. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Cottle, 3. Jarrett, 4. Darland, 5. Shuman, 6. Farney, 7. Mattox, 8. Smith, 9. Hopkins, 10. Robbins, 11. Mellenberndt, 12. Creech, 13. Hines, 14. McGhee. 3:01.41

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Chad Boespflug, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Shane Cottle, 5. Dave Darland, 6. Chase Stockon, 7. Josh Hodges, 8. Hunter Schuerenberg, 9. Max McGhee, 10. Chris Windom, 11. Kevin Thomas Jr., 12. C.J. Leary, 13. Jerry Coons Jr., 14. Jon Stanbrough, 15. Jarett Andretti, 16. Cole Ketcham, 17. Casey Shuman, 18. Brent Beauchamp, 19. Shane Cockrum, 20. Aaron Farney, 21. Bret Mellenberndt, 22. Thomas Meseraull, 23. Logan Jarrett, 24. Landon Simon, NT
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**Chapple flipped during practice.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Ballou.

KSE HARD CHARGER: Chris Windom (22nd to 10th)

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,491, 2-Meseraull-1,387, 3-Stockon-1,343, 4-Ballou-1,330, 5-Darland-1,283, 6-Leary-1,219, 7-Boespflug-1,191, 8-McGhee-1,060, 9-Windom-1,025, 10-Farney-868.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 8 - Gas City (IN) I-69 Speedway - 29th "Indiana Sprint Week"