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BOESPFLUG A ONE-HIT WONDER NO MORE; RECORDS 2ND CAREER WIN IN ELDORA'S #LETSRACETWO

Rossburg, Ohio May 7 ... It's been nearly three years since Chad Boespflug last visited victory lane in USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car competition. On Saturday night, the Hanford, California veteran driver put an end to that drought with an exclamation point, leading all 30 laps to claim his second career series victory and his first on the legendary high banks of Rossburg, Ohio's Eldora Speedway.

From the get-go of the 30-lap feature event, pole-sitter Boespflug showed his prowess on starts, immediately pulling away from outside front row starter Kody Swanson for a quarter-straightaway advantage as the field hit turn three on the opening lap.

At the start, the man on the move was ProSource Fast Qualifier Chris Windom, already seizing the third spot from his sixth starting position by the end of lap one.

However, on lap four, fourth-running Robert Ballou attempted a turn-one slider on Windom for third, but ended up making contact with Windom, sending Windom helicoptering through the air before landing on all fours as Ballou rolled to a stop on the back straightaway and Clauson spun to avoid the carnage. Only Clauson would restart, while Windom and Ballou took home disappointing 22nd and 23rd place finishes, respectively.

As he routinely did throughout the event, Boespflug gapped the field on the restart, building a full-straightaway lead over Swanson just seven laps in. As Boespflug was making his way through lapped traffic, Bacon made a turn three slider on Swanson stick for the second position on the 13th lap as Meseraull tracked down Swanson, swapping the spot back-and-forth with each other until Meseraull lost ground after climbing the wall between turns three and four at the midway point.

After a caution for debris with 13 laps to go closed the interval, Bacon was able to make some headway on Boespflug, closing the distance between the two considerably, to within three car links, before a flat right rear tire on the car of Tony DiMattia brought out the yellow with just nine to go.

The war of attrition continued on the lap 23 restart when Dallas Hewitt, replacing Justin Grant in the Baldwin Bros. Racing machine on this night, made contact with the wall between turns one and two, resulting in a collapsed front end. As Hewitt's car slowed on the highside of turn two without its steering, another car ran over his left front wheel, it sent Hewitt flipping end-over-end at the exit of turn two. Cole Ketcham, with no place to go, plowed into Hewitt, vaulting him into a series of flips.

Boespflug once again was dialed-in on the restart, pulling out to a healthy five car length lead over Bacon and extending his lead during the final stretch to take his first feature victory of the year in his NineEight Motorsports-EZR/Creative Finishing - Midwest Shades/Maxim/Claxton over Bacon, Meseraull, C.J. Leary, Tyler Courtney, Clauson, Swanson, Carson Short, Chase Stockon and Scotty Weir.

For Boespflug, it was an extremely rewarding victory considering his new team with Chuck Eberhardt and Fred Zirzow came together mere months ago.

"Man, this is huge," exclaimed Boespflug. "Over the winter last year, I did some ride-jumping and luckily Chuck, Fred and I were able to team up this year. I had my mind set last year that I kind of wanted to do my own thing. It's extremely hard and costs a lot of money. To get another USAC win, especially here, I kept telling people I didn't want to be a one-hit-wonder. I guess we're not that now."

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's Brady Bacon ran second in his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - Lykins Oil/Triple X/Williams Mopar, staying within striking distance of point leader Meseraull as the series heads into an off-weekend before visiting Indiana's Gas City I-69 Speedway and Brownstown Speedway on back-to-back nights May 20 and 21.

Meseraull's birthday celebration didn't go as well as planned early on in the night after climbing the wheel of Leary and flipping into the catchfence during the second heat race, destroying his ride. Meseraull, of San Jose, California, not only made the backup car work well enough to take third in the feature in his Amati Racing/Marion Underground Construction - Zeller Construction/DRC/Dynotech, he also was able to retain his USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car point lead over Bacon in the latest standings.

"After we tore the car up in the heat race, I'm happy to have the balls to get back on the top (of the racetrack)," Meseraull admitted. "After that, I don't think anybody in their right mind goes out and bangs the fence for 30 laps. Ultimately, I'm not that smart, so I gave it a try. We destroyed the car we qualified with, so we pulled out the backup car. I had no faith in the backup car, but here we are up on the podium."

Fourth-place finisher C.J. Leary of Greenfield, Indiana earned KSE "Hard Charger" of the race honors after storming from 14th to 4th in the feature in his Michael Dutcher Motorsports/Griffin's Propane - Indiana Underground /Maxim/Fisher, finishing off a solid weekend on the high banks that netted him finishes off 2nd and 4th despite a rough start to his Saturday night.

"Thomas (Meseraull) and I got together in the heat race there and we crashed pretty hard," Leary recalled. "Luckily, we were able to pull out a backup car and make it through the B-Main. I think we had something for the leaders there at the end, but we just ran out of laps. The yellows kind of helped us and hurt us at the same time. Every time I seemed to make a pass, the yellow would come out and they'd get their spot back."

Saturday night's contingency award winners included Chris Windom (ProSource Fast Qualifier), Scotty Weir (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Shane Cottle (Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner), Robert Ballou (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Winner), Dallas Hewitt (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner), C.J. Leary (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger) and Dave Darland (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 7, 2016 - Rossburg, Ohio - Eldora Speedway - #Let'sRaceTwo

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Chris Windom, 40, Hery-15.983; 2. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-15.985; 3. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-16.027; 4. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-16.048; 5. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-16.056; 6. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-16.057; 7. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-16.106; 8. Kody Swanson, 63x, DePalma-16.113; 9. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-16.123; 10. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-16.147; 11. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.190; 12. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-16.198; 13. Carson Short, 21, Short-16.204; 14. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-16.204; 15. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-16.218; 16. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-16.363; 17. Aric Gentry, 10, GBR-16.369; 18. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-16.394; 19. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-16.475; 20. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-16.543; 21. Scotty Weir, 18x, Keen-16.546; 22. Matt Westfall, 38, Baumgartner-16.583; 23. Brandon Whited, 15, Whited-16.724; 24. Dallas Hewitt, 5, Baldwin-16.750; 25. Cole Ketcham, 41K, Ketcham-16.881; 26. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-16.980; 27. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-17.410; 28. Riley VanHise, 96, VanHise-17.655.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Weir, 2. Boespflug, 3. C.Short, 4. Windom, 5. Clauson, 6. Gentry, 7. Ketcham. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Cottle, 2. Stockon, 3. Westfall, 4. Cummins, 5. Leary, 6. Meseraull, 7. Mellenberndt. NT

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Simon, 3. DiMattia, 4. Farney, 5. Whited, 6. Goodnight, 7. Bacon. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Hewitt, 2. Darland, 3. Courtney, 4. Swanson, 5. Chapple, 6. VanHise, 7. McGhee. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Clauson, 3. Meseraull, 4. Leary, 5. Ketcham, 6. Whited, 7. Chapple, 8. Gentry, 9. Mellenberndt, 10. McGhee, 11. Goodnight, 12. VanHise. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chad Boespflug, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. C.J. Leary, 5. Tyler Courtney, 6. Bryan Clauson, 7. Kody Swanson, 8. Carson Short, 9. Chase Stockon, 10. Scotty Weir, 11. Brandon Whited, 12. Aaron Farney, 13. Dave Darland, 14. Shane Cottle, 15. Dallas Hewitt, 16. Tony DiMattia, 17. Cole Ketcham, 18. Max McGhee, 19. Kyle Cummins, 20. Matt Westfall, 21. Landon Simon, 22. Chris Windom, 23. Robert Ballou. NT
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**Meseraull and Leary flipped during the second heat. McGhee flipped during the fourth heat. Hewitt and Ketcham fipped on lap 23 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Boespflug.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: C.J. Leary

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Meseraull-590, 2-Bacon-585, 3-Stockon-569, 4-Cummins-512, 5-Darland-507, 6-Leary-506, 7-Boespflug-481, 8-Ballou-463, 9-Clauson-428, 10-McGhee-416.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: May 20 - Gas City (IN) I-69 Speedway - "May Meltdown"

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 6, 2016 - Rossburg, Ohio - Eldora Speedway - #Let'sRaceTwo" - "Don Branson/Jud Larson Classic"

CLAUSON COMES UP CLUTCH;CLAIMS FIRST ELDORA USAC SPRINT VICTORY

Rossburg, Ohio - May 6, 2016 ... Bryan Clauson's continually growing list of accomplishments got a little bit larger after the Noblesville, Indiana driver claimed his first career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature victory at the famed Eldora Speedway in Friday night's "#LetsRaceTwo" / "Don Branson-Jud Larson Classic."

Clauson made the winning pass on C.J. Leary with just four laps to go to earn his 37th career USAC Sprint win, tying the late Sheldon Kinser for eighth on the all-time list.

Among the highlights on Clauson's impressive resume coming into Friday night's event were three career USAC wins (two Silver Crown, one Midget), but nary a Sprint Car triumph. Clauson, the night's ProSource Fast Qualifier, rolled off from the sixth spot in the feature while a pair of drivers looking to earn their first series win, Dallas Hewitt and Leary, occupied the front row.

At the drop of the green, Hewitt jolted out to the lead as the Troy, Ohio native looked to become the first driver with the surname "Hewitt" to pull into victory lane in USAC competition at Eldora since his uncle Jack claimed all four crowns of the "4-Crown Nationals" in 1998.

After a slider for the lead that didn't quite stick one lap earlier, Leary attempted the same move on Hewitt for the lead in turn one once again one lap later, this time pulling it off successfully, and darting off to a substantial advantage as he edged closer to lapped traffic by lap 10.

As Leary threaded the needle on the high side past the backmarkers, Thomas Mesearull, winner of Eldora's most recent USAC Sprint event in September of 2015, began to reel him in at the halfway point as Clauson stayed within striking distance in third.

Meseraull attempted a slider on Leary for the lead with 12 to go, nearly pulling it off, as the trio of Leary, Meseraull and Clauson ran the highline separated from each other by mere car links.

With five to go, Clauson got by Meseraull for the second spot and had his radar locked on Leary for the lead as he split between a gaggle of lapped cars at the flagstand with just a fraction of a hair to spare.

One lap later, Clauson zeroed in right on Leary's tail tank. Clauson dove low in turn three as Leary treaded the high line, pulling off a patented Eldora slide job to take the point with just 4 laps remaining.

Robert Ballou's race came to a halt with three laps to go after tagging the wall and flipping between turns one and two, collecting Jarett Andretti in the process, and resetting the field for one final three-lap dash to the checkered.

On the restart, Clauson jumped out to the advantage, but Leary was able to remain in the hunt with just three car lengths separating the two as they both rode inches from the wall on the thin cushion. Entering turn 4 on lap 28, Clauson nearly threw it away, banging the right rear hard off the wall, shooting sparks into the air, stumbling him a bit, before regaining control which caused Leary to check up ever so slightly and unable to capitalize.

Clauson led the remaining laps to win by a half second over Leary, Meseraull, Hewitt, Brady Bacon, Tyler Courtney, Chad Boespflug, Shane Cottle, Dave Darland and Kody Swanson.

Clauson, who along with his feature victory also claimed the night's KSE "Hard Charger" Award in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors - Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Spike/Stanton Mopar, collected his third USAC National Sprint feature of the season and his eighth overall USAC victory of 2016.

"We've been so close here a number of times and we were close again to giving it away," Clauson admitted. "But after getting through those last few laps, we were finally able to get the monkey off our back. Our car was good, but it was really hard to make enough speed to finish the slider on the guys who were really good. We hit lapped traffic a little bit there and were able to make some moves at the end. The car was flawless! Man, it feels good to win a sprint car race at Eldora!"

C.J. Leary of Greenfield, Indiana nearly avenged his final lap defeat in last May's Eldora USAC Sprint feature, but came up just a few laps short after leading a combined 52 of the last 60 laps in "LetsRaceTwo" openers the last two years with a pair of second place finishes to his credit, including tonight in his Michael Dutcher Motorsports/Griffin's Propane - Indiana Underground/Maxim/Fisher.

"We led a lot of this race again, but you know, I let it go there at the end," Leary said. "I thought we might have had something there for him at the end, but when Bryan made that mistake, we were too close behind to capitalize."

By virtue of his third place finish, San Jose, California's Thomas Meseraull takes over the series point lead in his Amati Racing/Marion Underground Construction - Zeller Construction/DRC/Dynotech.

"I've ran 10th through 18th for like five years before this, so I know what it's like to be getting dusty in the back," Meseraull recalled of his past Eldora visits. "We've been really good here lately and I've got a lot of people to thank for making sure the car's fast."

Friday night's contingency award winners included Bryan Clauson (ProSource Fast Qualifier & KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Dave Darland (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner), Chris Windom (Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner & Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher), Cody Gardner (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Winner) and Shane Cottle (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: May 6, 2016 - Rossburg, Ohio - Eldora Speedway - #LetsRaceTwo" - "Don Branson/Jud Larson Classic"

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-16.611; 2. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-16.805; 3. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-16.867; 4. Scotty Weir, 18x, Keen-16.898; 5. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-17.039; 6. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-17.068; 7. Dallas Hewitt, 16, Hewitt-17.122; 8. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-17.125; 9. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-17.267; 10. Justin Grant, 5, Baldwin-17.303; 11. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-17.420; 12. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-17.547; 13. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-17.575; 14. Kody Swanson, 63x, DePalma-17.646; 15. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-17.661; 16. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-17.677; 17. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-17.719; 18. Chris Windom, 40, Hery-17.823; 19. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-17.879; 20. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-17.952; 21. Carson Short, 21, Short-18.136; 22. Lee Underwood, 24L, Underwood-18.176; 23. Cody Gardner, 46, Gardner-18.186; 24. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-18.189; 25. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-18.263; 26. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-18.395; 27. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-18.621; 28. Riley VanHise, 96, VanHise-18.725; 29. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-18.736; 30. Brandon Whited, 15, Whited-18.760; 31. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-18.811; 32. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-18.981; 33. Aric Gentry, 10, GBR-19.116; 34. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-19.218; 35. Matt Westfall, 38, Baumgartner-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Ballou, 3. C.Short, 4. Clauson, 5. Stockon, 6. Courtney, 7. Farney, 8. Gentry, 9. Jarrett. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Boespflug, 3. Leary, 4. Grant, 5. Swanson, 6. Whited, 7. Underwood, 8. Chapple, 9. Simon. NT

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Gardner, 2. Hewitt, 3. Meseraull, 4. Thomas, 5. McGhee, 6. Cummins, 7. Westfall, 8. Mellenberndt, 9. Coons. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Cottle, 2. Bacon,3. Andretti, 4. Weir, 5. DiMattia, 6. Ketcham, 7. VanHise, 8. Goodnight. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Courtney, 2. Swanson, 3. McGhee, 4. Coons, 5. Farney, 6. DiMattia, 7. Simon, 8. Cummins, 9. Stockon, 10. Whited, 11. Westfall, 12. VanHise, 13. Underwood, 14. Chapple, 15. Goodnight, 16. Gentry, 17. Mellenberndt, 18. Ketcham. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Dallas Hewitt, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Tyler Courtney, 7. Chad Boespflug, 8. Shane Cottle, 9. Dave Darland, 10. Kody Swanson, 11. Max McGhee, 12. Chase Stockon, 13. Chris Windom, 14. Scotty Weir, 15. Kevin Thomas Jr., 16. Kyle Cummins, 17. Justin Grant, 18. Aaron Farney, 19. Carson Short, 20. Jerry Coons Jr., 21. Cody Gardner, 22. Robert Ballou, 23. Jarett Andretti, 24. Tony DiMattia. NT
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**Jarrett flipped during the first heat. Ballou flipped on lap 29 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Hewitt, Laps 4-26 Leary, Laps 27-30 Clauson.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Bryan Clauson

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Meseraull-519, 2-Stockon-515, 3-Bacon-514, 4-Cummins-482, 5-Darland-463, 6-Leary-444. 7-Ballou-429, 8-Boespflug-404, 9-Grant-401, 10-McGhee-386.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: May 7 - Rossburg, OH - Eldora Speedway - #LetsRaceTwo

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: April 23, 2016 - Montpelier, Indiana - Montpelier Motor Speedway

Brady Bacon methodically maneuvered his way from his sixth starting spot and, in a three-lap stretch a third of the way into the 30-lap feature, drove from fourth to first, passing Dave Darland on lap 12 and held off a late charge from Kyle Cummins to take the victory in front of a standing-room only crowd in the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship's debut at Montpelier (Ind.) Motor Speedway Saturday night.

Bacon, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma earned ProSource Fast Qualifying honors in the early going, putting him outside of row three for the feature event. But, it was Darland, from his pole starting position, who quickly established the point at the start with Shane Cottle and Cummins in tow.

By lap five, the freight train of Darland, Cummins and Cottle ran nose-to-tail as they each took to the high side to pull away from the pack. Meanwhile, Bacon went to the bottom, hugging the infield tires as he rapidly reeled in third-running Cottle.

By the tenth lap, Bacon had disposed of Cottle for third, then ran down Cummins for the second spot one lap later before nearly getting by Darland, trailing by about a foot in a dead heat at the start/finish line before claiming the lead just moment later going into turn one on lap 12.

As Bacon blew by the top-three for the lead on the bottom, the trio of Darland, Cummins and Cottle followed suit by heading to the inside line on lap 13 when Cummins got by Darland for second. Cummins moved his car from the bottom to the top and back to the bottom in search of the fast way around as the race crossed the midway point.

An A.J. Hopkins backwards spin on the front-straightaway with 10 to go closed the gap between Bacon in first and second-running Cummins. On the restart, Bacon and Cummins both went to the inside with Cummins hounding Bacon, shadowing his every move, readying himself to pounce on any single slip-up that Bacon might encounter in the closing laps.

With seven laps to go, Cummins was able to get his right front wheel inside of Bacon's left rear in turn two, nearly making contact, but was unable to make it stick, falling back roughly four car-lengths as the two headed into turn three, but a Bret Mellenberndt turn two spin brought out a yellow, providing Cummins with another shot.

After a restart with six to go, Cummins was looking to gain an inch, a yard, anything that would give him an opportunity to gain valuable ground on Bacon at the end, but he was never close enough to mount a serious challenge in the final laps as Bacon never blinked, distancing himself from the fading Cummins and taking the win in his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - Lykins Oil/Triple X/Williams Mopar.

With the victory, Bacon became the sixth different driver to win in the series' first seven races of the 2016 season and, with his 14th career win in the number 69 car, became the all-time winningest driver in USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship "points-paying" races for the venerable Hoffman family team.

"I knew the bottom was a little greasy, so I was trying to drive around it in (turns) one and two; (turns) three and four were good from the start," Bacon, the 2014 series champ, said. "Once it came in in (turns) one and two, I was able to drive by those guys and, from then on, just had to hold on. The car got a little evil right before and after that red (flag), but luckily, I didn't make a mistake big enough for him to get around me. I made some mistakes, but we were able to keep it down on the low line and keep him behind us. We're working hard because we haven't had the start to the season we wanted, so we made some changes to the car and the first race out we won. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going into the summer."

Princeton, Indiana's Kyle Cummins once again put himself in a position to win, but came up just a little short of scoring his initial USAC victory in the Hank Byram/Vincennes University - Tim Mason ReMax/Mach-1/Cummins. In seven series races thus far in the 2016 season, it was his third 2nd place finish and his fifth top-three result, exemplifying how close he is to finally breaking through for that elusive triumph.

"Everything has been consistent with the car," Cummins beamed. "I just have to thank these guys for working on the car. Everybody is working together and it makes my job easy because I can just focus on the racecar. It's been a good start to the year; I'm hopeful we can just keep knocking them off."

Dave Darland, of Lincoln, Indiana, led the first 12 laps of the feature in his Jeff Walker-Curb-Agajanian Racing/Jam-It-In Storage - Hoosier Tire/Maxim/Claxton before relenting the spot to Bacon, ultimately ending up third, which moved him into the top-five of the series point standings.

"It was tough to go from the lead to third after the top was so good," Darland said. "Then, we were a little too tight to run the bottom. We had a good car, but I got into a rut down in turn one a couple times and it shoved the front end. Things didn't go all that well at some points, but to get out of here with a third, we're pretty happy."

Contingency award winners included Brady Bacon (ProSource Fast Qualifier), A.J. Hopkins (Simpson Race Products First Heat), Robert Ballou (Competition Suspension (CSI) Second Heat), C.J. Leary (Benic Enterprises Third Heat & KSE Racing Products "Hard Charger"), Jerry Coons, Jr. (Indy Race Parts Semi), Chad Boespflug (Wilwood Brakes 13th place finisher).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: April 23, 2016 - Montpelier, Indiana - Montpelier Motor Speedway

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-14.199; 2. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-14.209; 3. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-14.255; 4. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-14.284; 5. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-14.297; 6. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Byram-14.330; 7. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-14.367; 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-14.374; 9. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-14.378; 10. Carson Short, 21, Short-14.385; 11. Justin Grant, 5, Baldwin-14.449; 12. Colten Cottle, 1RL, Lambertson-14.465; 13. A.J. Hopkins, 42G, Jackson-14.513; 14. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-14.521; 15. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-14.585; 16. Aaron Farney, 15, Farney-14.588; 17. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-14.642; 18. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-14.645; 19. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-14.712; 20. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-14.715; 21. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-14.772; 22. Cole Ketcham, 41K, Ketcham-14.777; 23. Scotty Weir, 18w, Keen-14.874; 24. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-14.901; 25. Stuart Hanft, 69H, Hanft-15.569.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Hopkins, 2. Farney, 3. Darland, 4. Bacon, 5. C.Short, 6. Stanbrough, 7. Goodnight, 8. Ketcham, 9. Hanft. 2:29.30

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Grant, 3. Meseraull, 4. Chapple, 5. S.Cottle, 6. Weir, 7. Simon, 8. Coons. NT

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Stockon, 3. Boespflug, 4. Cummins, 5. McGhee, 6. C.Cottle, 7. Mellenberndt, 8. Spencer. NT

INDY RACE PARTS SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Coons, 2. Stanbrough, 3. C.Cottle, 4. Goodnight, 5. Ketcham, 6. Simon, 7. Mellenberndt, 8. Spencer, 9. Hanft. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Shane Cottle, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. C.J. Leary, 7. Jerry Coons, Jr., 8. Carson Short, 9. Jon Stanbrough, 10. Justin Grant, 11. Thomas Meseraull, 12. Robert Ballou, 13. Chad Boespflug, 14. Aaron Farney, 15. Max McGhee, 16. Colten Cottle, 17. Cole Ketcham, 18. A.J. Hopkins, 19. Matt Goodnight, 20. Bret Mellenberndt, 21. Landon Simon, 22. Isaac Chapple. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-11 Darland, Laps 12-30 Bacon.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: C.J. Leary (15th to 6th)

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Stockon-476, 2-Cummins-451, 3-Bacon-449, 4-Meseraull-445, 5-Darland-409, 6-Ballou-398, 7-Leary-370, 8-Grant-367, 9-McGhee-343, 10-Boespflug-340.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: May 6 - Rossburg, OH - Eldora Speedway - "#LetsRaceTwo" - "Don Branson/Jud Larson Classic"

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Contact: Richie Murray | richie@usacracing.com

STOCKON DEFENDS HOME TURF; TAKES TRI-STATE'S SPRING SHOWDOWN

It was home-sweet-home for Haubstadt, Indiana resident Chase Stockon as he ran down Thomas Meseraull for the lead on lap 12, and pulled away to capture his first series victory at his backyard track and his seventh career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature victory at a seventh different track after winning Saturday night's "Spring Showdown" at Tri-State Speedway.

On the initial start, outside front row starter C.J Leary jumped to the lead using the cushion to ride around pole sitter Meseraull for the top spot. The action quickly came to a halt for inside second row starter Max McGhee as he saw his night abruptly end after smoke began to pour out from under the hood of the number 17.

On the restart, it took just one lap around the high-banked paperclip for Meseraull to slide up in front of Leary to claim the lead on the second lap. Meanwhile, Stockon got around Leary for second and then set his sights on Meseraull for the lead.

A yellow for the stopped car of Aaron Farney on the sixth lap bunched up the field momentarily, but the frontrunners continued their torrid pace, catching the backmarkers in less than a handful of laps.

Meseraull rode the high line as Stockon worked the middle, inching ever closer to the lead on each corner of every lap. As Meseraull and Stockon negotiated heavy traffic, Stockon staked his claim for the number one spot, getting by Meseraull at the exit of turn four on lap 12.

Just four laps later, Tri-State Speedway fan favorite Kyle Cummins got by Meseraull for second, putting him in position to make a run at Stockon for his first career series win.
Despite a yellow for Isaac Chapple's stopped car with just five laps to go that bunched up the field, on the restart, Cummins was no match for Stockon, who sprinted to a half-straightaway advantage in the final laps to take the checkered flag in his 32-TBI Racing Superior Tank & Trailer - Crescent Electric Supply/DRC/Fisher ahead of Cummins, Carson Short, Chad Boespflug, Leary, Brady Bacon, Robert Ballou, Brady Short, Meseraull and Kent Schmidt.

Stockon's win vaulted him into the series point lead by 14 markers over Meseraull. Similarily, after last season's "Spring Showdown," Stockon held a 15-point lead in the series standings. Stockon, the winner of numerous races at Tri-State Speedway over the past several years outside of USAC competition, was proud to add his name to the list of USAC winners at the southwestern Indiana track.

"It feels great to finally get a USAC win down here with it being so close to home," Stockon said. "I've always loved it (Tri-State Speedway) and have been fortunate enough to win a fair share of races and even some down here, but to get a USAC win feels awesome. This thing was unreal and I don't think I could've driven any harder."

Cummins once again showed his prowess at Tri-State, finishing a distant second in his Hank Byram/Vincennes University - Tim Mason ReMax/Mach-1/Cummins and, as a result, moved into third in the series standings. Cummins is still searching for his first career USAC win after earning his ninth podium finish in the series. Despite another close, but no cigar performance, Cummins is pleased with his performance after running into misfortune during the last couple of races.

"After last night (at Bloomington) and Lawrenceburg, this is a nice turn around," Cummins said. "Chase (Stockon) was a little better and I thought I had a shot on that late restart. I was going to try to slide him and he moved down a lane and I had to chalk it up a little bit just so I didn't take us both out. It was all I could do, but the car is running really well right now. The beginning of the season has started out really well, so if we can keep up these podiums, we'll get a win."

Young Carson Short of Marion, Illinois, earned a career-best third-place finish in his Richard Short/Total Field & Environmental Services - RASS Restoration/DRC/SPEC.

"It feels really good to kick the season off running well," Short said. "I'm hopeful we can keep this little bit of momentum up for the next few months and keep putting together some good finishes."

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: April 16, 2016 - Haubstadt, Indiana - Tri-State Speedway - "Spring Showdown" - co-sanctioned by the Midwest Sprint Car Series

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Byram-13.512; 2. Carson Short, 21, Short-13.570; 3. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.588; 4. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.593; 5. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-13.707; 6. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-13.725; 7. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-13.770; 8. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/Eberhardt/Zirzow-13.839; 9. Kody Swanson, 71p, Phillips-13.925; 10. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.934; 11. Justin Grant, 5, Baldwin-13.959; 12. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-13.959; 13. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-14.063; 14. Kent Schmidt, 5K, Schmidt-14.248; 15. James Lyerla, 11x, Lyerla-14.287; 16. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-14.302; 17. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-14.313; 18. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-14.344; 19. Brandon Morin, 98, Morin-14.895; 20. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-14.477; 21. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-14.556; 22. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-14.687; 23. Jared Chastain, 52c, Chastain-15.699; 24. Jim Shelton, 41, Shelton-16.549; 25. Nevil Algieo, 11A, Algieo-NT (Time of 14.917 disallowed).

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. McGhee, 2. Bacon, 3. Meseraull, 4. Cummins, 5. Darland, 6. Ballou, 7. Morin, 8. Mellenberndt, 9. Algieo. 2:17.42

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Schmidt, 2. Farney, 3. C. Short, 4. Grant, 5. Leary, 6. Morin, 7. Chapple, 8. Chastain. 2:18.75

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Jackson, 3. Simon, 4. Swanson, 5. Goodnight, 6. Lyerla, 7. B. Short, 8. Shelton. 2:17.62

INDY RACE PARTS SEMI: (12 laps) 1. B. Short, 2. Ballou, 3. Chapple, 4. Boespflug, 5. Lyerla, 6. Algieo, 7. Morin, 8. Mellenberndt, 9. Shelton, 10. Chastain. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Carson Short, 4. Chad Boespflug, 5. C.J. Leary, 6. Brady Bacon, 7. Robert Ballou, 8. Brady Short, 9. Thomas Meseraull, 10. Kent Schmidt, 11. Dakota Jackson, 12. Justin Grant, 13. Landon Simon, 14. Dave Darland, 15. James Lyerla, 16. Isaac Chapple, 17. Aaron Farney, 18. Matt Goodnight, 19. Brandon Morin, 20. Kody Swanson, 21. Nevil Algieo, 22. Max McGhee. NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Leary, Laps 2-11 Meseraull, Laps 12-30 Stockon.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Robert Ballou

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Stockon-407; 2-Meseraull-393; 3-Cummins-378; 4-Bacon-368; 5-Ballou-351; 6-Darland-339; 7-Grant-317; 8-Leary-307; 9-McGhee-306; 10-Boespflug-297.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: April 23 - Montpelier (IN) Motor Speedway

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Bryan Clauson knows the red clay of the Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway like the back of his hand, and over the past several seasons, the track has become his personal ATM as he once again found his way to victory lane for the fourth consecutive time in USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car competition at the southern Indiana speed plant.

Clauson, who started 11th, quickly made his way to the front in a race that had a rough beginning for a couple of his competitors up front. After Boespflug led the initial lap from his pole starting position, ProSource fast qualifier and new one-lap track record holder, 6th place-running C.J. Leary, got upside down, bouncing over the turn one banking, resulting in the polar opposite of fortunes from his victory in the "Sumar Classic" USAC Silver Crown race at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track two weekends ago. Despite the tumble, Leary was able to restart.

On the restart, the action lasted until the end of the second lap as Brady Bacon made an attempt for the second spot on Brent Beauchamp. Same as Leary, Beauchamp ended up taking a wild ride over the turn one berm. However, the damage to Beauchamp's machine was enough to end his night on the hook.

On the next restart, Bacon went to the topside to run down Boespflug, taking the lead off of turn two on the third circuit and opening up a wide margin between himself and his nearest contenders.

After trading sliders with Boespflug, Hunter Schuerenberg, in his new ride for Seth Motsinger Motorsports, followed Bacon's lead by running the high line to take the second position from Boespflug on lap nine. On lap 15, Schuerenberg's superb run slipped through his fingers after sliding over the berm in turn four, falling all the way back to the 10th spot.

Meanwhile, Clauson was on a tear, maneuvering his way into the top-four by the midway point, chasing down and stealing the 3rd spot from Boespflug and taking 2nd from Stockon as he began to turn up the heat on Bacon for the lead.

Clauson rim-rode the cushion around the ¼-mile, erasing and evaporating Bacon's lead in a hurry, ultimately nipping him at the line for the lead on lap 19.

Clauson, who initially did not have Bloomington Speedway on his racing agenda for this weekend, had to be pleased of his decision as he was a man on a mission, pulling away from Bacon in the final laps to take his second USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature victory of the year in his Dooling-Hayward/B & H Contractors - Cancer Treatment Centers of America/Spike/Stanton Mopar, beating Bacon, Meseraull, Stockon, Robert Ballou, Dave Darland, Schuerenberg, Jarett Andretti, Brady Short and Max McGhee to the line.

Since taking the controls of the Dooling/Hayward sprinter in late 2015. Clauson has won five of the 11 USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car events he has entered. It was the Noblesville, Indiana driver's sixth USAC feature victory in a USAC-sanctioned event in 2016. Only one other driver has won multiple features in USAC this season: Josh Hodges with two.

Rolling along on a wave of confidence, tonight's KSE Racing Products/B & W Auto Mart Hard Charger, Clauson, feels he has the opportunity to win anytime he pulls into Bloomington.

"This place has always been good to me," Clauson said. "I really feel like we can start about anywhere in this number 63 car and still have a shot to win. We were good on the top tonight and everybody else was working the bottom, which left the top open for me. I knew we were good; I just had to make sure I didn't slip off the edge like last year."
Bacon, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, who led the field with the most laps led, scored a solid second-place finish in his Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green - Lykins Oil/Triple X/Williams Mopar.

"When you're the leader, it's hard to know where to go," Bacon admitted. "The only thing I could've done to hold him (Clauson) off would've been to go to the top earlier than when I did. But, never on Earth did I think that that was the way to go because the top was so slick all day in (turns) three and four. I just never thought it would've come in like it did. We were better tonight, but so was everyone else. The competition is so tough in this deal right now that everybody is pushing, pushing, pushing, and you can't ever stop!"

San Jose, California's Thomas Meseraull extended his point lead to 16 points as the series heads into Saturday night's race at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind. with his third place finish in the Amati Racing/Marion Underground Construction - Zeller Construction/DRC/Dynotech.

"It was kind of unfortunate with a couple guys going over there up on top, but we kind of got everybody going down on the bottom," Meseraull said. "I got into Ballou in turn two and, after that, the left front seemed kind of messed up, but, in the end, it helped us run the bottom."

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: April 15, 2016 - Bloomington, Indiana - Bloomington Speedway

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-10.842; 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-10.863; 3. Carson Short, 21, Short-10.924; 4. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-10.951; 5. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2, Motsinger-10.963; 6. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-11.065; 7. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-11.076; 8. Justin Grant, 5, Baldwin-11.152; 9. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-11.162; 10. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/Eberhardt/Zirzow-11.223; 11. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-11.241; 12. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-11.246; 13. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-11.291; 14. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Byram-11.324; 15. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR/Chapple-11.428; 16. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-11.435; 17. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-11.436; 18. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-11.441; 19. Jeff Bland, Jr., 38, Bland-11.464; 20. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-11.484; 21. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-11.508; 22. Brandon Morin, 98, Morin-11.539; 23. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 2E, Epperson-11.592; 24. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-11.621; 25. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-11.648; 26. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-11.695; 27. Austin Prock, 77, Wingo-11.857; 28. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-11.878; 29. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-11.895; 30. Kent Schmidt, 5K, Schmidt-11.979; 31. Shelby VanGilder, 22v, VanGilder-12.409; 32. Brandon Mattox, 04, Burton-12.678; 33. Kody Swanson, 71p, Phillips/Wolters-NT; 34. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-NT; 35. Ethan Barrow, 15, Barrow-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Beauchamp, 2. Schuerenberg, 3. Leary, 4. B. Short, 5. Andretti, 6. Morin, 7. Mellenberndt, 8. Schmidt. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. Bland, 3. Stockon, 4. Cummins, 5. Ballou, 6. Thomas, 7. Prock, 8. VanGilder. NT

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Meseraull, 2. Stanbrough, 3. Farney, 4. Mattox, 5. Goodnight, 6. Chapple, 7. McGhee, 8. C. Short. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Clauson, 2. Bacon, 3. Cottle, 4. Darland, 5. Grant, 6. Simon, 7. Swanson, 8. DiMattia. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Andretti, 3. C. Short, 4. Simon, 5. Thomas, 6. McGhee, 7. Prock, 8. Swanson, 9. Goodnight, 10. Mellenberndt, 11. Schmidt, 12. VanGilder, 13. Morin, 14. Chapple, 15. Grant, 16. DiMattia. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Dave Darland, 7. Hunter Schuerenberg, 8. Jarett Andretti, 9. Brady Short, 10. Max McGhee, 11. Carson Short, 12. Kody Swanson, 13. Shane Cottle, 14. Chad Boespflug, 15. Justin Grant, 16. Jon Stanbrough, 17. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 18. Kyle Cummins, 19. Aaron Farney, 20. C.J. Leary, 21. Landon Simon, 22. Brandon Mattox, 23. Jeff Bland, Jr., 24. Brent Beauchamp. NT
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**Leary flipped on lap 2 of the feature. Beauchamp flipped on lap 2 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Boespflug, Laps 3-18 Bacon, Laps 19-30 Clauson.

KSE RACING PRODUCTS/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Bryan Clauson

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Meseraull-341, 2-Stockon-325, 3-Bacon-306, 4-Darland-300, 5-Cummins-300, 6-Ballou-296, 7-Clauson-287, 8-Grant-273, 9-McGhee-272, 10-Leary-243.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: April 16 - Haubstadt, IN - Tri-State Speedway - "Sprint Showdown" - co-sanctioned by MSCS