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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

STOCKON SEALS THE WIN, BACON THE CHAMP AT TERRE HAUTE ISW FINALE

Terre Haute, Indiana .July 17, 2016 - Chase Stockon became the seventh different winner on the seventh night of the 29th annual "Indiana Sprint Week" finale Sunday night at the Terre Haute Action Track. Yet, it was fourth place finisher Brady Bacon who, despite going winless throughout the seven races, used a string of consistent finishes to accumulate enough points to claim his first ISW crown.

Bacon's finishes of 5th, 5th, 7th, 11th, 2nd and 7th in the first six ISW races put him in the catbird seat coming into Sunday night's "Don Smith Classic" feature. The Broken Arrow, Oklahoma driver held a 15-point advantage over defending ISW champ Robert Ballou.

Due to their solid qualifying efforts earlier in the evening, both Bacon and Ballou were in an enviable position at the start of the 30-lap main event. Ballou would roll off third with Bacon directly behind him on the inside of row three.

Ballou was more than a formidable challenge to Bacon evidenced by his prowess on the half-mile dirt oval, picking up victories in the two most recent USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car visits to the "Action Track" at the Wabash Valley Fairgrounds.

But Bacon's mission was clear. Finish in the top-five and the ISW title was all his.

At the start, pole-sitter Chase Stockon gallantly streamed to the lead into turn one, sliding up to the high side as outside front row starter Tyler Courtney skated sideways in the middle of the corner, yet was able to maintain the position as the field shot down the back straightway.

On lap two, the red flag flew for the night's only incident involving Englishman Tom Harris, who took a nasty-looking tumble between turns three and four. He was uninjured.

On the ensuing restart, Courtney took a run at Stockon for the lead on the bottom of turn one, but was denied, forcing him to fall back into line in the second position at the exit of turn two.

One lap later, third-running Ballou attempted a similar move on Courtney, shooting to the inside guardrail in turn three for second, but wasn't able to make it stick as Courtney motored away to hold steady in the runner-up spot.

Meanwhile, Stockon was gone, checking out on the field for a half-straightaway lead by lap six as the drivers throughout the pack settled into a groove on the high, wide and handsome cushion.

With each position in the top-ten paying three points for every spot gained, points were of utmost importance and Ballou needed his share. Ballou began to erase the separation that was wedged between himself and second-running Courtney on lap 13 as he shadowed "Sunshine" up against the concrete.

As the two battled for their own supremacy, leader Stockon was now within an arm's reach of Courtney and Ballou as he became hung up on lapped cars on the 14th circuit. Now nose-to-tail and running one, two, three, Stockon felt the pressure intensify as he worked to overtake the lapped car of previous night's Haubstadt winner Carson Short.
Two laps later, with Courtney and Ballou just a few footsteps behind, Stockon was able to gain some much-needed breathing room as he slid Short to create a little separation for himself just past the halfway point.

With 11 laps to go, Ballou tried a colossal slider on Courtney for second in turn one. Ballou drifted his way toward the topside in a classic, patented Terre Haute slide job, appearing to pinch Courtney just a tad enough to slow him up. But Courtney never lifted, instead, throttling his way off the exit of turn two while crop dusting western Indiana soil into the Vigo County Fair midway to remain in second.

However, three laps later, Ballou gave it another shot. This time, he made the move on Courtney stick, slipping past the Gas City ISW winner for second. One lap later, with six to go, Bryan Clauson smoked by Courtney for the second position as well, but his stay in the top-three would be short-lived after his right rear tire blew out on lap 25, bringing out the night's final caution and setting up a final six-lap dash for glory.

Stockon, Ballou and Courtney marched single-file at speed up against the cushion, right up next to the wall, on the restart with ISW point leader Brady Bacon behind in a distant fourth, holding stable and unwavering in his steadfast resolve.

Shortly thereafter, Stockon and Ballou broke away from Courtney, creating a two-man, two-car race for the race win.

Three to go, Ballou was closer to Stockon than he'd been all race, prompting Ballou to toss a short-slider at Stockon in turn one that came up short, but Ballou refused to be fazed, staying right with Stockon two to three links back in second.

Though Stockon was just within Ballou's grasp during the final laps, Ballou was never quite close enough to mount a serious challenge to make the winning move. As Stockon gassed his machine sideways off of the final corner with the checkered flag in clean sight, the Fort Branch, Indiana driver had the victory in the bag, his second win at the track in USAC competition and first since 2012, followed to the line by Ballou and Courtney.

Stockon was the seventh driver to win a feature during the unprecedented, historic seven night ISW of 2016, a feat that hasn't been accomplished since 2001.

Bacon's fourth place run was the centerpiece at the end of the night after he was able to garner enough valuable points to pocket the ISW title by nine markers over Ballou. In the process, it marked the ninth time the ISW champ won the series without a feature victory, joining Randy Kinser (1988), Gary Trammell (1990), Bob Kinser (1991), Tony Elliott (1999), Levi Jones (2004, 2008 & 2012) and Robert Ballou (2015).

Bacon's title staked the claim for the traditional hand-crafted Bridgeport Rocker that is awarded annually to the ISW champions by longtime supporters John and Terri Youngs of Vincennes, Ind. as well as the $5000 top prize.

"This means a lot," Bacon said proudly after driving the Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - Lykins Oil/Triple X/Williams Mopar to the ISW title. "Anytime you can put an accomplishment like this on your resume, that's pretty special. I'm glad to get another one for the Hoffman's. This is a lot more intense place to end it than some of the other places. We're usually good here and these guys gave me a good enough car that I could make up for some of my mistakes earlier in the week and a good enough car to keep it up front every night.

"You never know what's going to happen at this place," Bacon continued after delivering the Hoffman Auto Racing team its first ISW championship since Dave Darland's one-point victory for the team in 1998. "When Bryan (Clauson) passed me, I was a little nervous, but I thought we were still good enough to get in line and not make any mistakes. I don't think any team had the "Sprint Week" we were wanting, but we got the best of everybody else. The experience of the team helps in that situation because they know not to get too down on themselves. If you can only run 7th or 11th some night, they know to just take what we can get and move on to the next one."

Fort Branch, Indiana's Stockon led wire-to-wire on his way to victory in his 32-TBI Racing/Superior Tank & Trailer - Dewig Meats/DRC/Fisher. The win was an emotional one for Stockon whose career was aided by the financial help supplied by the race's namesake: Terre Haute businessman, sponsor and Action Track promoter, Don Smith.

"This is pretty awesome," Stockon exclaimed. "This is the 'Don Smith Classic' and I've wanted to win this one really bad. Once I knew nobody was going to get to me coming to the checkered, I was about in tears. Don Smith has been a big part of my career with First Financial Bank. They helped us out a lot and I think this win means more than any I've ever had. Getting through lapped traffic was tricky, trying to slide across the track and get to the top as quick as possible. I knew Robert would be back there because this is his kind of race track and he's proven time and time again that's he's the car to beat here. I just drove every lap as hard as I could and hoped the car would hang on."

Ballou, of Rocklin, California, finished second in the feature and second in the final ISW points in his Ballou Motorsports/MPHG Promotions - Blakesley Auto/Maxim/Ott. Many competitors would be satisfied with that result, but for the 2015 USAC National Sprint and ISW titlist, his 2016 ISW experience was a disappointment.

"We just didn't have a very good 'Sprint Week,' Ballou said bluntly. "You have to put complete nights together to win championships and the Hoffmans deserve this the most because they did that the best. We've been off all week and I'm not really sure why. Chase (Stockon) was really good and Tyler Courtney was too. Both of those guys did a great job. I'm happy for the Stockons, but we just missed it a little bit tonight. We were too tight and had to settle for second."

Indianapolis, Indiana's Courtney rebounded from two consecutive less-than-stellar nights at Bloomington and Haubstadt after a hot start to his "Sprint Week" to earn a respectable third-place finish in both the race as well as the ISW standings in his TOPP Motorsports/Maxim/Chevy.

'Hats off to my guys," Courtney said. "I tore up that car at Bloomington and all we had up top was our wing car that we run. It had a non-wing front axle in it, but we pulled it out and struggled through the rest of the night. Then, we worked all day in the hot sun at Haubstadt just to get it ready, but they worked their tails off to make this the best non-wing car possible. A third tonight is one of the only things I could do to repay them for all their hard work."

Contingency award winners at the Terre Haute Action Track included Bryan Clauson (ProSource Fast Qualifier & Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Brady Bacon (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Tyler Courtney (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner), Thomas Meseraull (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner), Jerry Coons, Jr. (KSE Racing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger) and Dave Darland (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 17, 2016 - Terre Haute, Indiana - Terre Haute Action Track - "Indiana Sprint Week" - "Don Smith Classic"

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-21.051; 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-21.077; 3. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-21.131; 4. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-21.192; 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-21.206; 6. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-21.244; 7. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-21.398; 8. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-21.430; 9. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-21.448; 10. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-21.487; 11. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-21.503; 12. Thomas Meseraull, 24, LSR-21.558; 13. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-21.714; 14. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-21.819; 15. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-21.940; 16. Riley Kreisel, 90, Smith-22.031; 17. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-22.065; 18. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-22.067; 19. Jon Stanbrough, 66, Amati-22.085; 20. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-22.138; 21. Carson Short, 21, Short-22.192; 22. Bill Rose, 6R, Rose-22.212; 23. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-22.670; 24. Tom Harris, 5E, East-22.672; 25. Chris Phillips, 6p, Phillips-22.758; 26. Mitch Wissmiller, 1w, Wissmiller-22.920; 27. J.J. Hughes, 76, Hughes-23.035; 28. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-23.667; 29. Steve Thomas, 20, Thomas-23.724; 30. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-25.021; 31. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-NT; 32. Daylan Chambers, 4c, Chambers-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Clauson, 2. Leary, 3. Darland, 4. C.Short, 5. K.Thomas Jr., 6. Mattox, 7. Phillips, 8. S.Thomas. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Ballou, 3. T.Thomas, 4. Boespflug, 5. McGhee, 6. M.Wissmiller, 7. Rose, 8. Bell. NT

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Courtney, 2. Mellenberndt, 3. Stanbrough, 4. Andretti, 5. Hughes, 6. Chapple, 7. Windom, 8. Farney. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Meseraull, 2. Coons, 3. Jarrett, 4. Stockon, 5. Kreisel, 6. Harris. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Farney, 3. Harris, 4. K.Thomas, 5. Kreisel, 6. McGhee, 7. M.Wissmiller, 8. Mattox, 9. Hughes, 10. Rose, 11. Phillips, 12. S.Thomas, 13. Bell. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Tyler Courtney, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Aaron Farney, 6. Chris Windom, 7. Logan Jarrett, 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 9. Bryan Clauson, 10. C.J. Leary, 11. Max McGhee, 12. Chad Boespflug, 13. Dave Darland, 14. Thomas Meseraull, 15. Jon Stanbrough, 16. Carson Short, 17. Riley Kreisel, 18. Jarett Andretti, 19. Tyler Thomas, 20. Bret Mellenberndt, 21. Kevin Thomas Jr., 22. Tom Harris. NT
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**Harris flipped on lap 2 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Stockon.

KSE/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Jerry Coons Jr. (18th-8th)

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,939, 2-Ballou-1,769, 3-Stockon-1,725, 4-Meseraull-1,695, 5-Darland-1,575, 6-Boespflug-1,540, 7-Leary-1,528, 8-Windom-1,386, 9-McGhee-1,264, 10-Farney-1,089.

FINAL USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Bacon-448, 2-Ballou-439, 3-Courtney-390, 4-Stockon-382, 5-Windom-359, 6-K.Thomas Jr.-340, 7-Boespflug-336, 8-Andretti-327, 9-Coons-295, 10-Kyle Cummins-291.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: July 29-30 - Granite City, IL - Tri-City Speedway

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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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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

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"