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DuQUOIN USAC SILVER CROWN RACE RESULTS
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The United States Auto Club.
Du Quoin, Illinois...Shane Cockrum backed up his "Ted Horn 100" win from last year on the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds "Magic Mile" with a convincing victory on Sunday night. The local Benton, Illinois driver again pleased the partisan crowd as he led the final 33 laps on his way to a 4.474-second victory in the Hardy Boys Motorsports - Financial Transportation Services #71 Maxim/Chevy.
"It's so great to get another one in front of the hometown crowd. Half my town is here, including our mayor, so it's cool for me and for the series and Du Quoin. The Hampshire and DePalma bunch have set the bar in this series, and if you can beat them, you know you've got a good program. To race them for the win and pass the 63 for the lead is just a testament to the team we have and a car owner who is always happy but never satisfied, always wanting to find ways to be better. They told me we had a big lead, so I tried to just maintain and save some there towards the end, but when they go from saying 'straightaway lead' to all of a sudden 'half straightaway, it was time to kick it back on," Cockrum said.
After taking his sixth ProSource "Fast Qualifier Award" of the year, Kody Swanson led at the start from the pole, as Cockrum ducked under front-row starter Aaron Pierce off turn-four to take the second spot. That started a three-car breakaway battle that consumed the first sixty laps of the race.
Justin Grant and Levi Jones settled into early top-five spots, while Steve Buckwalter became the first major casualty on lap twelve, when he pulled off the race track while running 13th.
Dave Darland took the eleventh spot at lap ten, but he fell out of the race on lap 19, just before the first caution of the race for Joey Moughan, who stopped at the entrance to turn-three on lap 22. On this restart, Brian Tyler and Jerry Coons, Jr. were the cars on the move, as they took the eighth and ninth spots, respectively.
While Swanson led, Cockrum and Pierce pushed him for the entirety of the first half of the race, resulting in a blistering pace and some torrid racing between Cockrum and Pierce for second. Pierce took second back on lap 34 and was all over the lead, but Swanson continued to hold him off.
Seventh-running Tyler went up in smoke on lap 37 to bring out the second caution, setting up a restart with forty laps in the books. Coons again grabbed a spot on the restart, and Chris Windom came down the hill in turn-four to sneak under Jones for the fifth spot.
Pierce continued his aggressive display as he stormed the corners in an effort to make a run on Swanson. He made contact with the outside concrete on both ends during this stretch, and Cockrum even had a run-in with the outside wall on lap 45. Neither were losing any ground to Swanson.
On lap 58, Cockrum cut under Pierce to take second down the frontstretch and immediately started to pressure Swanson for the lead. He had a big run down the backstretch on lap 61, diving to the inside to slide up with the lead in turn-three, but behind the leaders, Pierce finally made too much contact with the outside wall. He pancaked against it and spun around, drawing a caution flag. Under yellow, Jones' car started to pop and crack, and he came to a stop on the frontstretch. His race was done.
The restart came with 33 laps to go, and Cockrum wasted no time making a bid for the lead. He got a run down the frontstretch and buried it into turn-one, sliding up in front of Swanson with the lead. Swanson crossed back under him off turn-two, but Cockrum held him off to lead lap 68. As Casey Shuman took sixth from Coons on lap 71, Cockrum's lead was visibly growing.
By lap 83, Cockrum's lead grew to nearly eight seconds as he began to negotiate slower cars. Windom had moved to the third spot on lap 82 and stayed with Swanson as they began to carve into that massive lead inside the final twenty laps. With six laps to go, the lead was down to 2.716 seconds for Cockrum, but he cleared two more lapped cars to give himself some breathing room. He pulled away over the final five laps with his second win of the season as the battle for second heated up.
With less than five laps to go, Windom used traffic to make his move on Swanson for second. The right-rear tire finally gave out on Windom as they rolled to the checkered, but he held on for second in the Fred Gormly - RPM Auto Enterprise #98 Maxim/Mopar.
"That was literally all we had to give there. I ran a really patient race early, just got in line for a while. It was actually kinda tough to pass with the way it was, so it just took a while to get past each car. I picked it up close to the end, and I think we were good enough at the end, but he'd just built such a big gap on us. Rob Hart brought a great car once again, and we're beating on the door of getting another one. I didn't think I'd ever pass the 63 for anything but the lead, but that's a car you have to beat to win these races, and obviously Cockrum is in that group now, too," Windom said.
Swanson lengthened his Silver Crown Championship with another strong podium finish aboard the DePalma Motorsports - Radio Hospital #63 Maxim/Hampshire.
"I was definitely concerned we were going too fast, too early. Running that high and that hard, fuel mileage was a concern very early. They were running really hard behind us, so we had to go faster just to stay in front. I just couldn't keep the pace that he was, but towards the end, I don't think I could have done what he was doing anyway. No shame in that. No complaints, but a good night to run third. I started to feel us catching him when he hit traffic, and I was giving it all I could. A couple of those cars cost us that momentum and eventually the second spot, but how can you complain about the great year we've had and another night towards the big prize we want. This place bit us last year, and we finished with about two gallons left tonight, so we gave ourselves a good night and can try to win Eldora back in Ohio next," Swanson said.
Grant finished another strong run in the Chris Carli Motorsports - Finish Line Racing Equipment #8 Beast/Chevy to come home fourth, and Shuman slipped past Cottle to notch his first-career Silver Crown top-five in the Randy & Patty Bateman - Chance's Chassis Repair #55 Beast/Chevy.
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USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES RACE RESULTS: September 6, 2015 - Du Quoin, Illinois - Du Quoin State Fairgrounds - "Ted Horn 100"
QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-30.784; 2. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-31.040; 3. Justin Grant, 8, Carli-31.098; 4. Jacob Wilson, 07, Wilson-31.103; 5. Shane Cockrum, 71, Hardy-31.165; 6. A.J. Fike, 3, RFMS-31.450; 7. Chris Windom, 98, RPM/Gormly-31.597; 8. Casey Shuman, 55, Bateman-31.701; 9. Levi Jones, 57, Rogers-31.718; 10. Dave Darland, 19, Longworth-31.795; 11. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-31.795; 12. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-31.801; 13. Brian Tyler, 7, Classy Chassis-32.100; 14. Chris Fetter, 88, Fetter-32.144; 15. Steve Buckwalter, 53, SET-32.225; 16. Rickey Hood, 56, Foxco-32.279; 17. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-32.303; 18. Richie Tobias, 117, Tobias-32.450; 19. Austin Nemire, 91, Hemelgarn-32.460; 20. Steven Russell, 41, McQuinn-33.084; 21. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-33.725; 22. Terry James, 23, Satterthwaite-33.844; 23. Joey Moughan, 29, Moughan-33.911; 24. J.C. Bland, 5, Bland-34.029; 25. Danny Long, 44, Long-34.765; 26. Charles Davis Jr., 21, Swanson-NT; 27. Jackie Burke, 86, Burke-NT; 28. Kenny Gentry, 18, Gentry-NT; 29. Terry Babb, 00, Babb-NT; 30. Chris Urish, 77, Urish-NT; 31. Brady Bacon, 48, Martens-NT.
FEATURE: (100 Laps) 1. Shane Cockrum, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Kody Swanson, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Casey Shuman, 6. Shane Cottle, 7. A.J. Fike, 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 9. David Byrne, 10. Rickey Hood, 11. Chris Urish, 12. Austin Nemire, 13. Steven Russell, 14. Chris Fetter, 15. Richie Tobias, 16. Patrick Lawson, 17. Terry James, 18. J.C. Bland, 19. Levi Jones, 20. Aaron Pierce, 21. Brian Tyler, 22. Joey Moughan, 23. Dave Darland, 24. Steve Buckwalter, 25. Danny Long, 26. Kenny Gentry, 27. Charles Davis Jr., 28. Jacob Wilson, 29. Jackie Burke, 30. Terry Babb. 1:07:37.02
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-67 Swanson, Laps 68-100 Cockrum.
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1-Swanson-500, 2-Coons-400, 3-Fike-355, 4-Pierce-312, 5-Windom-297, 6-Byrne-271, 7-C.J. Leary-264, 8-Nemire-262, 9-Cockrum-255, 10-Wilson-223.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN RACE: September 26 - Rossburg, OH - Eldora Speedway - "34th 4-Crown Nationals"
DARLAND REIGNS SUPREME, WINS THIRD STRAIGHT KOKOMO “SPRINT CAR SMACKDOWN”
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
Kokomo, Indiana...For the third straight year, "The People's Champ" Dave Darland parked the Phillips/Curb-Agajanian - Trench Shoring #71P DRC/Foxco in victory lane at Kokomo Speedway after a dominant performance to win "Sprint Car Smackdown IV." The all-time wins leader in AMSOIL National Sprint Car history took the lead on lap seven and ran away with his 57th career triumph at his home track.
"I love this track, I love these fans, and I really love winning the Smackdown. It doesn't get any better than this. My Phillips team gave me a great car again, and I couldn't be happier to get them another one. The O'Connors gave us a good race track, and I have to thank them for all their hard work and putting on such a great event. It's an unbelievable feeling to do it again. I'm thankful for all the people who help this small team keep getting it done. I went after them fast tonight, and I knew I just needed to be smooth and limit mistakes once I got out front. It got tough a few times coming up on traffic where it got difficult to see the cushion perfectly, but we kept it up on the fence and finished it off," Darland said.
Brady Bacon won the night's B&W Auto Mart "King of the Hill" to earn the pole position for the 40-lap, $10,000-to-win main event, but Chase Stockon shot to the early lead from outside the front-row. On lap three, Bacon's hopes for a win were dashed when he got into the fence, flattening his tire and eventually bringing out a yellow on lap five. He restarted at the tail.
Things got busy up front after the restart, with both Kyle Cummins and Darland assaulting Stockon for the lead as Thomas Meseraull held the fourth spot. The lead trio flashed three-wide, with Cummins on the bottom slipping to the lead by inches on lap six over Darland, who was on the extreme high side.
Darland nailed the top through turns one and two, breaking free from Cummins and opening up his advantage that he would never relinquish. Stockon retook second from Cummins on lap 15 and opened up some breathing room.
Behind the front four, it was all-out war from fifth through tenth between 16th-starting Shane Cottle, Tyler Courtney, Jon Stanbrough, Kevin Thomas Jr., Justin Grant, and Chris Windom, who destroyed his primary car in hot laps and had to utilize a back-up car. Brady Short joined that fray after starting 17th and made it a seven-car scrap just before the inevitable contact among the group brought out a caution on lap 23 as Courtney got turned around in turn-three. He restarted at the tail. Meseraull also pulled off under that yellow with driveline issues, ending his fourth-place run.
Cottle, Windom, and Stanbrough continued their fight for fourth until another caution five laps later, this time for debris. Stockon used that restart to look underneath Darland, nearing drawing even before Darland gained his momentum and pulled away. Stockon and Cummins restarted their battle for second with five laps to go, this time turning it into a torrid affair as Cummins pulled slidejobs on Stockon only to be crossed back over for the position.
Darland was flawless as he ran right next to the Kokomo concrete, opening up a 2.542-second advantage at the checkers over Stockon, who cleared Cummins again off the final corner to take the second spot in the Superior Tank & Trailer - Crescent Electric Supply #32 DRC/Fisher and close Robert Ballou's National Sprint Car point lead to 24 markers.
"I couldn't be much happier. This place is so tough and I'm still not totally in love with it, but we've made great strides. That last restart, I thought we maybe had something for him, but he got his momentum up and my groove kinda went away some. Kyle and I had a heck of a battle for second, and we've raced together for a lot of years, so it's fun to throw it down like that in the last few laps for second at Smackdown. We've struggled at times here, but this week was a big momentum builder for us," Stockon said.
Cummins finished off an impressive performance after winning the event's "Rookie of the Year" award last season, filling out the podium in this edition aboard the Rock Steady Racing - Vincennes University #3R Mach-1/Cummins.
"I like this place a lot and love coming up here for this event. It felt like a lot of races we've had down at Haubstadt with Chase and me battling through the middle. Towards the end, I felt like like I was losing ground through the bottom and middle, so I got up top and was better than him at the end, just couldn't clear him. We came up short there, but it was a good weekend and we made a little money. It's been a tough season for us, but this feels pretty good," Cummins said.
Windom's high-side exploits carried him to a fourth-place finish, earning the Weld Racing "Smackdown Badass" award for his efforts in the Rick Pollock - Bates Commodities #21x Maxim/Advanced. Thomas, Jr., who earlier took down one of four Competition Suspension (CSI) qualifying heat races to start the night, came home fifth from 12th in the Bakken Concrete - Griffin's Propane #17RW Maxim/Fisher.
Brady Short capped his incredible come-from-behind week with an eighth-place run, earning the night's Elliott's Custom Trailers "Hard Charger Award" presented by Maxim Chassis. He also made it a resounding victory in the battle for the Speedway Motors "Passing Master Award," as he advanced a total of 62 positions cumulatively in every race over the three nights.
Other CSI heat race winners who also picked up Hoosier right-rear tires included Jerry Coons, Jr., Courtney, and Grant. Short and Max McGhee also earned Hoosier tires as the top-two finishers in the B Main. Ryan Bernal stormed back after going to the tail to claim the final transfer, earning the American Racing Ministries "Perseverance Award."
Kyle Robbins was the lowest point earner to make the feature, earning the Simpson Racing "Hard Work Award" presented by Pace Performance Coatings, good for a free helmet. Ted Hines not only won the Impact Racing prize for being the first non-transfer from the B Main, but he also took $200 from Lil Moe's Pizzeria. Hines was also the Spire Sports + Entertainment "Smackdown Rookie of the Year" award. Josh Spencer took the Simpson Racing prize for being the second non-transfer.
The SST Motorsports team was awarded the DRC Chassis "Hard Luck Award" after their tough weekend was cut short. The "Bill Gardner True Grit Award" from Lincoln Park Speedway went to the driver displaying the most persistence despite many obstacles, and that went to Justin Grant. The Frolic Bar & Grill "Best Appearing Car and Crew" went to Robert Bell.
Rod End Supply awarded certificates to all participants on Saturday who were not locked into the feature. Indy Race Parts contributed certificates that went to Aaron Farney, Brandon Mattox, and Jarett Andretti.
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AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 28, 2015 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown IV"
FIRST QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Jerry Coons, Jr. (#10E Edison), 2. C.J. Leary (#30 Leary), 3. Scotty Weir (#5 Baldwin), 4. Brian Karraker (#29 Jarrett), 5. Travis Hery (#21H Hery), 6. Brandon Mattox (#28 Mattox), 7. Joe Bares (#19 Test), 8. Lee Dakus (#75 Dakus).
SECOND QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Tyler Courtney (#23e Eberhardt), 2. Chad Boespflug (#66 Amati), 3. Hunter Schuerenberg (#2E Epperson), 4. Brady Short (#11p Pottorff), 5. Dustin Smith (#77 Smith), 6. Chris Gurley (#12G Team Automotive).
THIRD QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Justin Grant (#40 Hery), 2. Tracy Hines (#4 THR), 3. Max McGhee (#17 McGhee), 4. Ryan Bernal (#11 Walker), 5. Kody Swanson (#32M Marshall), 6. Josh Spencer (#66J Spencer), 7. Robert Bell (#71 Bell).
FOURTH QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (#17RW Dutcher), 2. Shane Cottle (#57 Hazen), 3. Jarett Andretti (#18 Andretti), 4. Aaron Farney (#15F Farney), 5. Kyle Robbins (#17R Robbins), 6. Colten Cottle (#42 Jackson), 7. Ted Hines (#12H Hines).
"KING OF THE HILL" 2-CAR SHOOTOUTS: (3 laps each) Round 1: Chase Stockon (#32 32/TBI) defeated Robert Ballou (#12 Ballou); Kyle Cummins (#3R Byram) defeated Jon Stanbrough (#81 Stanbrough); Brady Bacon (#69 Dynamics) defeated Thomas Meseraull (#29x Dawkins); Dave Darland (#71P Phillips/Curb-Agajanian) won by default over Chris Windom (#21x Pollock) - Windom did not start. Round 2: Stockon defeated Cummins and Bacon defeated Darland; Final Round: Bacon defeated Stockon.
SEMI: (15 laps) 1. Short, 2. McGhee, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. Weir, 5. Robbins, 6. Bernal, 7. Ted Hines, 8. Spencer, 9. Swanson, 10. Harris, 11. Bell, 12. C.Cottle, 13. Hery, 14. Bares, 15. Smith, 16. Mattox, 17. Andretti, 18. Farney, 19. Karraker, 20. Gurley. NT
FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Dave Darland, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Chris Windom, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. Jon Stanbrough, 7. Justin Grant, 8. Brady Short, 9. C.J. Leary, 10. Tracy Hines, 11. Shane Cottle, 12. Chad Boespflug, 13. Ryan Bernal, 14. Brady Bacon, 15. Robert Ballou, 16. Tyler Courtney, 17. Scotty Weir, 18. Jerry Coons Jr., 19. Max McGhee, 20. Thomas Meseraull, 21. Hunter Schuerenberg, 22. Kyle Robbins. NT
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**Windom flipped during practice. Farney flipped during the semi. Hery flipped during the semi.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Stockon, Lap 6 Cummins,Laps 7-40 Darland.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Ballou-1,706, 2-Stockon-1,682, 3-Darland-1,654, 4-Bacon-1,557, 5-Stanbrough-1,465, 6-Thomas-1,344, 7-Windom-1,205, 8-Leary-1,151, 9-Tracy Hines-1,104, 10-Grant-1,039.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: September 18 - Terre Haute (IN) Action Track - "Jim Hurtubise Classic"
KOKOMO AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT RACE RESULTS – August 28
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
Kokomo, Indiana.......It was an excited victory lane on Friday night at Kokomo Speedway as Chase Stockon held off Dave Darland to win the night's "Sprint Car Smackdown IV" preliminary 30-lapper, scoring his first career win at the Hoosier speedway. The Elizabethtown, Indiana driver made it two wins on the season in the season aboard the Superior Tank & Trailer - Crescent Electric Supply #32 DRC/Fisher.
Wednesday's winner Chris Windom took the lead at the outset over polesitter Tracy Hines, but Stockon cut inside Hines for second on lap two. Justin Grant was working the high side and took fifth on lap two, but as he looked underneath Scotty Weir for fourth on lap four, the two made contact. Grant ended up in the wall on the backstretch with a broken front end and collected Chad Boespflug, who restarted.
Windom led Stockon, Hines, Weir, and ProSource "Fast Qualifier" Dave Darland, who cleared Weir for the fourth spot on a fast surface just before a caution on lap ten. That set up a long green-flag stretch, with Stockon trying to keep pace with Windom, while Darland drove by Hines on the restart for third.
Behind the lead trio, a few drivers coming from a back were the show. Hunter Schuerenberg carved in his line up above the cushion, finally taking fifth at the halfway point after starting 13th. AMSOIL National Sprint Car point leader Robert Ballou, who broke an axle in qualifying before coming from 18th to transfer out of the semi-feature, tried to protect his point lead with a spirited drive from the back.
Then, there was Brady Short, who had to scratch his primary car after an issue in qualifying. He came from 17th in the Semi-Feature to finish third and transfer to the night's 30-lap feature. He hit the top-ten with ten laps to go and was still digging.
As Windom hit lapped traffic, the charging trio of Stockon, Darland, and Schuerenberg began to chew on his lead. With five laps to go, Windom was mired in traffic and seeing his lead dissipate quickly. On lap 28, Windom charged up on a lapped car and clipped the rear end of it, kicking him sideways and drawing a yellow flag, although Windom was able to right it and continue on in fourth-place. Due to the inadvertent yellow, Windom was put in line there and the race resumed with three laps to go.
Windom slid past Schuerenberg on the restart, but Schuerenberg wasn't done. He charged the turn-three cushion on the next lap just as he had been doing all night, but this time it bit him. He bounced and flipped over, ending his spectacular run. He was unhurt.
With just two laps to go, Darland nailed the restart to look underneath Stockon for the lead. Stockon hammered the turn-two cushion and flashed past Darland to retain his lead, but a spin at the back of the pack gave Darland one final shot.
This time, Stockon got a jump to pull away and complete the win by .655-seconds, celebrating the big triumph with a backwards victory lap. It was Stockon's sixth-career win, tying him for 63rd all-time.
"To hold off Dave at his palace for my first win here, that's a pretty awesome thing. This place is so, so hard. You don't get a fluke wins here. That was all she had. I ran that thing as hard as I possibly could those last two laps. Luckily, we had the car good enough to stay up front and capitalize on Chris' misfortune. We've been fast here two years ago, and now we're better than we've ever been with Matt Hummel's Factory Kahne shocks, DRC chassis, and Fisher engines. (Crew chief) D.J. (Ott) and I are on the same page right now, and hopefully we can carry it into tomorrow," Stockon said.
Darland rebounded from a tough opening night of "Smackdown" to come home second in the Phillips/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports - Trench Shoring #71P DRC/Foxco.
"It makes me feel good when somebody like Chase appreciates the win because he knows how tough it is to beat me here. We had a nice improvement from last night. The race track was really good tonight and more to my liking. I had a couple runs at Chase, especially on that last restart, but the yellow came out. He got a better restart the second time, and congratulations to him. He always does a good job," Darland said.
Windom finished it off third in the Rick Pollock - Bates Commodities #21x Maxim/Advanced, narrowly missing out on his second win of the week.
"I only have to be mad at myself tonight. I beat myself. Rick Pollock gave me another great race car. I tried to slide one lapped car in one and two, but he went back by me, so I tried to get him in three and four and clipped another car. It was my own fault, just being impatient. I'd like to think we can put it back up front and give ourselves to win the big one tomorrow night," Windom said.
Hines ended up fourth in his The Carolina Nut Company - MPHG Promotions #4 DRC/Stanton Chevy, and Jon Stanbrough rounded out the top-five in the MP Environmental Services - AED Motorsports Products #81 Spike/J&D.
Short's amazing run ended up sixth to earn him the Crume-Evans Insurance "Hard Charger Award" presented by Maxim Chassis.
Stockon, Brady Bacon, Windom, Kyle Cummins, Stanbrough, Darland, Thomas Meseraull, and Ballou were the top-eight point earners over the two nights, locking themselves into tomorrow's B&W Auto Mart "King of the Hill."
Ryan Bernal won Hinchman Indy Heat 1, Stockon won STIDA.com Heat 2, Cummins won Race Track Engineering Heat 3, and Shane Cottle won Claxton Engines Heat 4.
Hunter Schuerenberg charged back to a transfer spot in the Semi-Feature after having to go to the tail, again earning the night's American Racing Ministries "Perseverance Award." Ballou won the night's Pace Performance Coatings "Hard Work Award" as the slowest qualifier to make the feature. Chris Gurley won the Arizona Sport Shirts prize as the first non-transfer from the Semi-Feature.
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AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: August 28, 2015 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown IV"
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-12.642; 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32/TBI-12.725; 3. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 17RW, Dutcher-12.892; 4. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-12.912; 5. Scotty Weir, 5, Baldwin-12.991; 6. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.040; 7. Chad Boespflug 66, Amati-13.110; 8. Chris Windom, 21x, Pollock-13.120; 9. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.185; 10. Chris Gurley, 12G, Team Automotive-13.209; 11. Tracy Hines, 4, THR-13.212; 12. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.248; 13. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.281; 14. Thomas Meseraull, 29x, Dawkins-13.288; 15. Tyler Courtney, 23e, Eberhardt-13.301; 16. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-13.337; 17. Ryan Bernal, 11, Walker-13.347; 18. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.413; 19. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Byram-13.415; 20. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.447; 21. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.466; 22. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.532; 23. Cole Ketcham, 41K, SST-13.557; 24. Parker Price-Miller, 9p, Ronk-13.611; 25. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.631; 26. Jerry Coons, Jr., 10E, Edison-13.654; 27. Brian Karraker, 29, Jarrett-13.683; 28. Kody Swanson, 32M, Marshall-13.831; 29. Joe Bares, 19, Test-13.833; 30. Ted Hines, 12x, Hines-13.913; 31. Travis Hery, 21H, Hery-13.939; 32. Dustin Smith, 77, Smith-13.969; 33. Tom Harris, 5E, East-14.001; 34. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-14.007; 35. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-14.035; 36. Frank Flud, 41, SST-14.140; 37. Dallas Hewitt, 16, Pearson-14.406; 38. Colten Cottle, 42, Jackson-14.559; 39. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-14.880; 40. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-15.020; 41. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Bernal, 2. Robbins, 3. Weir, 4. McGhee, 5. Andretti, 6. Ballou, 7. Farney, 8. Darland, 9. Harris, 10. Hewitt, 11. Bares. 2:17.28
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Leary, 3. Meseraull, 4. Coons, 5. Mattox, 6. Stanbrough, 7. Gurley, 8. Spencer, 9. Ted Hines, 10. C. Cottle. 2:15.54
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Cummins, 2. Tracy Hines, 3. Courtney, 4. Boespflug, 5. Thomas, 6. Karraker, 7. Hery, 8. DiMattia, 9. Bell, 10. Ketcham. NT
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. S. Cottle, 2. Bacon, 3. Windom, 4. Grant, 5. Schuerenberg, 6. Short, 7. Swanson, 8. Price-Miller, 9. Smith, 10. Flud. 2:16.11
QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Short, 2. Ballou, 3. Spencer, 4. Hewitt, 5. C. Cottle, 6. DiMattia, 7. Bell. 2:21.14
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Stanbrough, 3. Short, 4. Andretti, 5. Ballou, 6. Schuerenberg, 7. Gurley, 8. Thomas, 9. Mattox, 10. Farney, 11. Swanson, 12. Spencer, 13. Smith, 14. Hery, 15. Harris, 16. Price-Miller, 17. Ted Hines, 18. Hewitt, 19. Karraker, 20. Bares. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Dave Darland, 3. Chris Windom, 4. Tracy Hines, 5. Jon Stanbrough, 6. Brady Short, 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Thomas Meseraull, 9. Robert Ballou, 10. Kyle Cummins, 11. Jarett Andretti, 12. Tyler Courtney, 13. C.J. Leary, 14. Shane Cottle, 15. Scotty Weir, 16. Jerry Coons, Jr. 17. Max McGhee, 18. Chad Boespflug, 19. Brian Karraker, 20. Hunter Schuerenberg, 21. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 22. Kyle Robbins, 23. Ryan Bernal, 24. Justin Grant. NT
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**Ballou flipped during qualifying. Ketcham flipped during the third heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-27 Windom, Laps 28-30 Stockon.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Ballou-1,683; 2-Stockon-1,625; 3-Darland-1,594; 4-Bacon-1,532; 5-Stanbrough-1,420; 6-Thomas-1,296; 7-Windom-1,154; 8-Leary-1,115; 9-Hines-1,071; 10-Grant-998.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: August 29 - Kokomo (IN) Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown IV"
KOKOMO AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT RACE RESULTS – August 27
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
Kokomo, Indiana...Robert Ballou continued his dream season and started off "Sprint Car Smackdown IV" in fine shape as he captured Thursday night's 30-lap feature at Kokomo Speedway. The Rocklin, California driver made it nine wins for the year, a mark only reached eleven previous times in USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car history.
Chase Stockon out-gunned polesitter Tyler Courtney to take the early lead, with Brady Bacon joining them before a red flag appeared on lap two. It came out just two laps later as seventh-running C.J. Leary caught the gnarly turn-one cushion and barrel-rolled into turn-two. He was unhurt.
Stockon held the lead as Courtney took second and left Bacon, who was having issues negotiating the curb himself. He dropped spots to ProSource "Fast Qualifier" Kyle Cummins and Ballou. On lap eight, Courtney jumped to the high side in turns one and two, but it bit him. He snapped sideways and nearly saved it before catching the wall and flopping over, collecting sixth-running Kevin Thomas, Jr. in the process. Courtney walked away, and Thomas restarted at the tail.
While things were fairly calm up front, the show was being put on by Thursday's winner Chris Windom and provisional starter Brady Short. They stormed through the field, with Short using the lower half of the track while Windom ventured above the cushion to run all the way up to sixth. Bacon and Jerry Coons, Jr. raced for fourth as Stockon continued to hold command at the front of the field. Ballou took second with ten to go and caught a caution with nine laps to go.
Ballou stalked Stockon and ran his fastest lap of the race on lap 24, as they came to the line side-by-side for the lead with Stockon .010 seconds ahead. Ballou swept underneath him through turns one and two with the lead and began to put distance between himself and Stockon. Windom had taken fifth but then bicycled violently on the cushion and dropped two spots. Short took advantage, sticking his nose in the battle for a top-five.
National point leader Ballou was flawless in the closing laps, taking a .957-second win in the Blakesley Auto - TwisterX #12 Maxim/Ott.
"I know there's a lot of people up here who don't want me to win, but we gotta keep racking these wins up if I'm gonna catch Dave Darland on the all-time win list. It was a challenge for us early, but I knew if I could get through some laps, we would be in good shape. If I wasn't so fat, maybe we wouldn't have that issue. You gotta bide your time in some races, and tonight we just had to get closer to the end. I got off the bottom once and it was a mistake, but I went back down and we were good there. The track definitely threw us a curveball tonight, but they got it racy and we made the most of it," Ballou said.
Stockon capped a fine night that moved him back up to second in points with the Superior Tank & Trailer - Crescent Electric Supply #32 DRC/Fisher.
"To win up here is really difficult, and we were close tonight. It's really frustrating to lead all that way and have him go by us late, but he's going good right now. We could run up and kiss the top in one and two, but that dried up some on us, and it blew off pretty good through three and four. We just got too free towards the end. He kept his car stuck down low, and we couldn't quite do that. We're getting there, but need to fine-tune it to get a win here," Stockon said.
Bacon came home third in the Hoffman Auto Racing - Mean Green #69 Triple X/Williams Mopar. "This place keeps you on your toes, and obviously tonight was a little different than you usually see here. I thought I had it going pretty good up top early, but then as it slicked up getting to it and the curb got bigger, I just got too tight on it and almost crashed a few times. The track moved around quite a bit, and you had to keep up with it. The top wasn't the fastest place to be tonight and we didn't get it tight enough, but we got a good solid finish out of it," Bacon said. Cummins came home fourth in the Rock Steady Racing - Vincennes University #3R Mach-1/Cummins, and Short's run from 24th ended up fifth in the Pottorff Logging - Sipe's Body & Glass #11P Maxim/Spec. Windom's drive from 17th to 7th earned him the TeamVWAudi.com "Hard Charger Award" presented by Maxim Chassis. In the night's Competition Suspension (CSI) Heat Races, Dave Darland won Hinchman Indy Heat 1, Scotty Weir won STIDA.com Heat 2, Windom won Loudpedal Productions Heat 3, and Jarett Andretti won Racers Storage Heat 4. In the night's Semi-Feature, Hunter Schuerenberg won the American Racing Ministries "Perseverance Award" as the last transfer. Max McGhee took the night's Pace Performance Coatings "Hard Work Award" as the slowest qualifier to make the night's feature. Shane Cottle took the Arizona Sport Shirts prize as the first non-transfer.
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AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: August 27, 2015 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown IV"
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Byram-13.269; 2. Chad Boespflug 66, Amati-13.272; 3. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 17RW, Dutcher-13.331; 4. Tracy Hines, 4, THR-13.342; 5. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.369; 6. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.417; 7. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.424; 8. Chase Stockon, 32, 32/TBI-13.427; 9. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-13.510; 10. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.521; 11. Tyler Courtney, 23E, Eberhardt-13.530; 12. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-13.541; 13. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-13.546; 14. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-13.556; 15. Cole Ketcham, 41K, SST-13.578; 16. Thomas Meseraull, 29, Dawkins-13.579; 17. Casey Shuman, 2X, Barnhill-13.584; 18. Scotty Weir, 5, Baldwin-13.591; 19. Chris Windom, 21X, Pollock-13.660; 20. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.675; 21. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-13.704; 22. Brian Karraker, 23, Karraker-13.740; 23. Kody Swanson, 32m, Marshall-13.761; 24. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.766; 25. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.774; 26. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.777; 27. Travis Hery, 21H, Hery-13.845; 28. Ryan Bernal, 11, Walker-13.868; 29. Parker Price-Miller, 9p, Ronk-13.919; 30. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.942; 31. Dallas Hewitt, 16, Pearson-13.969; 32. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-13.982; 33. Chris Gurley, 12G, Team Automotive-13.994; 34. Ted Hines, 12H, Hines-14.026; 35. Dustin Smith, 77, Smith-14.065; 36. Tom Harris, 5E, East-14.134; 37. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-14.189; 38. Colten Cottle, 42, Jackson-14.250; 39. Frank Flud, 41, SST-14.381; 40. Joe Bares 19, Test Motorsports-14.539; 41. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-14.594; 42. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-14.676; 43. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-14.797; 44. Chris Phillips, 1G, Gormly-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Ballou, 3. McGhee, 4. Shuman, 5. Coons, 6. Gurley, 7. Farney, 8. Cummins, 9. Spencer, 10. Price-Miller, 11. Simon. NT
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Weir, 2. Grant, 3. Bacon, 4. Karraker, 5. Boespflug, 6. S.Cottle, 7. Stanbrough, 8. Robbins, 9. Ted Hines, 10. DiMattia, 11. C.Cottle. NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Thomas, 3. Courtney, 4. Leary, 5. Ketcham, 6. Swanson, 7. Hery, 8. Hewitt, 9. Smith, 10. Flud, 11. Bell. 2:16.98
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Andretti, 2. Mattox, 3. Stockon, 4. Meseraull, 5. Short, 6. Bernal, 7. Tracy Hines, 8. Schuerenberg, 9. Harris, 10. Bares. 2:18.63
C MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Smith, 2. Ted Hines, 3. Spencer, 4, Bares, 5. Flud, 6. Bell, 7. DiMattia, 8. Farney. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. Cummins, 3. Tracy Hines, 4. Coons, 5. Stanbrough, 6. Schuerenberg, 7. S.Cottle, 8. Short, 9. Ketcham, 10. Bernal, 11. Robbins, 12. Swanson, 13. Price-Miller, 14. Spencer, 15. Hery, 16. Gurley, 17. Smith, 18. Hewitt, 19. Bares, 20. Ted Hines. 2:45.70
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Robert Ballou., 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Kyle Cummins, 5. Brady Short, 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 7. Chris Windom, 8. Thomas Meseraull, 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 10. Scotty Weir, 11. Jon Stanbrough, 12. Chad Boespflug, 13. Justin Grant, 14. Dave Darland, 15. Max McGhee, 16. Aaron Farney, 17. Hunter Schuerenberg, 18. Jarett Andretti, 19. Brandon Mattox, 20. Casey Shuman, 21. Tyler Courtney, 22. C.J. Leary, 23. Brian Karraker, 24. Tracy Hines. NT
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**Phillips flipped during qualifying. Karraker flipped on lap 2 of the feature. Leary flipped on lap 5 of the feature. Courtney flipped on lap 8 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: 1-24 Stockon, Laps 25-30 Ballou.
NEW AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Ballou-1,646, 2-Stockon-1,553; 3-Darland-1,527; 4-Bacon-1,483, 5-Stanbrough-1,368; 6-Thomas-1,279; 7-Windom-1,094, 8-Leary-1,081, 9-Tracy Hines-1,013, 10-Grant-976.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: August 28 - Kokomo (IN) Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown IV"
WINDOM ENDS DROUGHT WITH POSTPONED KOKOMO FEATURE WIN
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
Kokomo, Indiana...It had been since September of 2013 since Chris Windom had won on the AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship tour, but the Canton, Illinois driver ended that slump as he held off Dave Darland for victory in Wednesday night's 30-lap Feature event postponed from the July 11th "Indiana Sprint Week" event. The race precedes "Sprint Car Smackdown IV" weekend at Kokomo Speedway, with three more nights ahead culminating with Saturday's $10,000-to-win main event.
Windom took the lead from outside the front-row as polesitter Darland kept pace and set up a race-long battle for the lead. A lap-three yellow prefaced a long green-flag that put the leaders in traffic just before halfway. Darland finally darted inside Windom on lap 16 through turns three and four as Windom was stuck behind cars racing two-wide. As they came to the stripe, Darland moved low and crossed just .067 seconds behind Windom at the line.
A big move to the inside netted Darland the lead on lap 17, but as they came around to complete the lap, Kevin Thomas, Jr. spun around after colliding with Brady Bacon in a battle for third. With the race reverting back to lap 16, Windom reinherited the lead.
Darland wasted no time going at Windom, using the low-side of turn-one to draw underneath him, but Windom's momentum on the high side kept the lead. Behind them, 15th-starting Chase Stockon and 17th-starting Robert Ballou were the two cars on the move, as Stockon powered inside the top-five on lap nineteen, while Ballou was up to eighth at the same time.
With less than ten to go, another yellow gave Darland a restart to attack Windom, and he again drove to the bottom of turn-one, sliding all the way up just as Windom rocketed by on the cushion. Stockon moved past Scotty Weir for fourth and Ballou took seventh with five laps to go.
The final caution of the night appeared with three laps to go as sixth-running Max McGhee slowed off turn-four. This time, Windom nailed the restart, completing the final three laps without issue to post a .848-second victory in the Rick Pollock - Bates Commodities #21x Maxim/Advanced. It was his tenth-career National Sprint Car win, tying him with Tony Stewart for 44th all-time.
"This is definitely one of my favorite tracks in the world, and to hold off Dave Darland here is a tall task. I thought on the restarts we'd be okay, but he was good at trying to get past me through one and two. He threw everything at us, and we just had to work hard to hold him off. Rick Pollock basically built a brand new car for this event and has worked hard for this week, so hopefully we can keep it going and make a run at it Saturday night," Windom said.
Darland crossed second in the Phillips/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports - Trench Shoring #71P DRC/Foxco.
"It seems like I've gotten screwed by the yellows right as I take the lead, and it's starting to make me mad. It's definitely getting old. Chris was fast, and we just about had him there before the yellow and on the restarts, but we weren't quite good enough toward the end to have something for him. The O'Connors did a great job with the track tonight, and it'll be even better the rest of the weekend," Darland said.
Bacon held off Stockon for fourth in the Hoffman Auto Racing - Mean Green #69 Triple X/Williams Mopar.
"The track is obviously a little wetter than normal for the feature, but we made the most of it to get to third. I thought we might have something when we got into traffic, but the yellow stopped that, and those guys are just too fast out front to get them without a major mistake. Chase was coming good on the bottom at the end, but held him off through the last restart, and hopefully we can keep this thing on the podium all weekend," Bacon said.
Stockon's fine run netted eleven positions as he wound up fourth in the Superior Tank & Trailer - Crescent Electric Supply #32 DRC/Fisher, and Ballou came forward twelve spots to retain his series point lead in the Blakesley Auto - TwisterX #12 Maxim/Ott.
Justin Grant set ProSource "Fast Time" back on July 11th before being involved in a heat-race incident, ending his run for the program.
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AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 26, 2015 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" Make-up Event from July 11th
QUALIFYING: (Held July 11) 1. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-12.805; 2. Tyler Courtney, 23E, Eberhardt-12.933; 3. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.946; 4. Chad Boespflug 66, Amati-12.973; 5. Thomas Meseraull, 18X, Keen-13.021; 6. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.024; 7. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.035; 8. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 17RW, Dutcher-13.056; 9. Scotty Weir, 11, Walker-13.111; 10. Chris Windom, 21X, Pollock-13.144; 11. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-13.151; 12. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.165; 13. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-13.211; 14. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.250 ;15. Tracy Hines, 4, THR-13.276; 16. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-13.287; 17. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-13.309; 18. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.338; 19. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.339; 20 .Chase Stockon, 32, 32/TBI-13.369; 21. C.J. Leary, 5, Baldwin-13.403; 22. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-13.404; 23. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.464; 24. Cole Ketcham, 41K, Ketcham-13.551; 25. Casey Shuman, 2X, Barnhill-13.559; 26. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Byram-13.585; 27. Lee Dakus, 75, Dakus-13.590; 28. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-13.609; 29. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-13.644; 30. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.681; 31. Bill Rose, 6, Rose-13.714; 32. Brian Karraker, 23, Karraker-13.765; 33. Stuart Hanft, 69H, Hanft-13.767; 34. Travis Hery, 21H, Hery-13.802; 35. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.850; 36. Colten Cottle, 42E, Jackson-13.852; 37. Jake Swanson, 92, Sertich-13.870; 38. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-14.018; 39. Todd Gnat, 51, Gnat-14.048; 40. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-14.104; 41. Nathan Moore, 48, Moore-14.125; 42. Tom Harris, 5E, East-14.229; 43. Jamie Frederickson, 3W, Sweat-14.309; 44. Tyler Hewitt, 97x, Hewitt-14.399; 45. Steve Thomas, 20, Thomas-14.554; 46. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-15.253.
FIRST HEAT: (Held July 11) (10 laps) 1. Short, 2. Shuman, 3. Weir, 4. Jackson, 5. J.Swanson, 6. Hanft, 7. Moore, 8. S.Thomas, 9. Leary, 10. Meseraull. 11. Grant, 12. Simon. NT
SECOND HEAT: (Held July 11) (10 laps) 1. Schuerenberg, 2. Stanbrough, 3. Windom, 4. Farney, 5. S.Cottle, 6. Cummins, 7. Andretti, 8. DiMattia, 9. Harris, 10. Hery, 11. Bell, 12. Courtney. 2:15.58
THIRD HEAT: (Held July 11) (10 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Bacon, 3. Ballou, 4. Hines, 5. McGhee, 6. Robbins, 7. Dakus, 8. Rose, 9. Goodnight, 10. Gnat, 11. Frederickson. 2:11.92
FOURTH HEAT: (Held July 11) (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Hodges, 3. Boespflug. 4. K.Thomas, 5. Jarrett, 6. Coons, 7. Karraker, 8. Spencer, 9. C.Cottle, 10. T.Hewitt. 2:13.32
QUALIFYING RACE: (Held July 11) (10 laps) 1. Hery, 2. C.Cottle, 3. J.Swanson, 4. Spencer, 5. Goodnight, 6. Frederickson, 7. S.Thomas, 8. Bell, 9. Gnat, 10. Harris, 11. T.Hewitt, 12. DiMattia, 13. Moore. NT
SEMI: (12 laps - First 2 laps completed on July 11) 1. Courtney, 2. Simon, 3. McGhee, 4. Andretti, 5. Cottle, 6. Cummins, 7. Ketcham, 8. Meseraull, 9. Spencer, 10. Robbins. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Dave Darland, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Scotty Weir, 7. Aaron Farney, 8. Brady Short, 9. Tracy Hines, 10. Shane Cottle, 11. Tyler Courtney, 12. Jon Stanbrough, 13. Jarett Andretti, 14. Max McGhee, 15. Chad Boespflug, 16. Kyle Cummins, 17. Cole Ketcham, 18. Casey Shuman, 19. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 20. Landon Simon, 21. Hunter Schuerenberg, 22. Brian Karraker (Jackson #3), 23. C.J. Leary (Leary #30). NT ----------------------------
July 11: Grant, Leary and Meseraull flipped during the first heat. Moore flipped during the qualifying race. Harris flipped during the qualifying race. August 26: Robbins flipped during the semi.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Windom.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Ballou-1,577; 2-Darland-1,494; 3-Stockon-1,489; 4-Bacon-1,422; 5-Stanbrough-1,336; 6-Thomas-1,232; 7-Leary-1,063; 8-Windom-1,044; 9-Hines-995; 10-Farney-944.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: August 27 - Kokomo (IN) Speedway - "Sprint Car Smackdown IV"
SPRINGFIELD USAC SILVER CROWN RACE RESULTS
Posted by: | Comments- The United States Auto Club.
USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES RACE RESULTS: August 22, 2015 - Springfield, Illinois - Illinois State Fairgrounds - "Tony Bettenhausen 100"
Springfield, Illinois.......Kody Swanson joined exclusive company on Saturday afternoon at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, as he became the seventh driver to go back-to-back in the "Tony Bettenhausen 100" with a spirited drive from 16th to a dominant win. It was the third win of the season for the defending series champion, which puts him at 11 career wins to tie Bobby East for 8th on the all-time list.
"Driving for a team like this with a crew chief like Bob Hampshire, I get to hear a lot of Jack Hewitt stories and what they were able to do back in the day. Today felt a little like that, coming from so far back and still being able to get it done. I've never thought of myself in regard to being with a group like the guys who have gone back-to-back in this race, or even the group of guys on the all-time win list, but it's been so much fun and we're just gonna enjoy this ride," Swanson said.
Swanson took ProSource "Fast Time" for the day, but was relegated to the 16th starting spot after using a push start to make his qualifying attempt. That gave Justin Grant, who was easily the most entertaining in hot laps and qualifying, the pole for the race. Shane Cockrum took the early lead from outside the front row, though.
Cockrum led two-time race winner A.J. Fike in the early laps, as Swanson already was into the top-ten on lap three. Chris Windom moved past Grant for third on lap five, and by lap eleven he passed Fike for the second spot. Terry Babb brought out the first caution on lap 14.
Swanson was seventh on that restart, as Windom assaulted Cockrum for the lead for a long stretch of green-flag racing. By lap 22, Swanson moved past Grant for fifth and reeled in the battle for third between Fike and Cottle. Windom started looking to the outside of Cockrum for the lead, crossing just .035-seconds behind on lap 24. A moment later, Swanson completed passes of both Cottle and Fike to take over third.
On lap 26, Windom again looked to the outside of Cockrum, this time trailing by just .027-seconds at the line, as early charger Steve Buckwalter poked inside the top-ten after starting 15th. On lap 30, ninth-starting Levi Jones entered the top-five as Fike started to free-fall through the feel with issues.
On lap 41, Windom finally completed the move for the lead on Cockrum, and he immediately stretched out his advantage as Swanson appeared to be saving his equipment in third. Windom's advantage was 4.687-seconds at halfway,as Swanson overtook Cockrum in traffic for second ahead of Cottle, Jones, and surging Buckwalter.
Windom's lead was drying up quickly, as Swanson had it down to 1.5 seconds by the end of lap 53. On lap 54, Jones took fourth from Cottle, as Jacob Wilson continued his fine run up into the sixth spot. Swanson wasted no time once he caught Windom, roaring past with the lead as they entered turn-one on lap 58. Just three laps later, the second caution of the day appeared for Brian Tyler and Steven Russell tangling in turn-four.
Windom tried to hang with Swanson on the restart with 35 laps to go, while Cottle worked past Jones and Cockrum into the third spot. Wilson tried to come along as well, going to the outside in turn-three on lap 68 only to get up into the marbles and pound the concrete, ending his day.
With 27 to go, the green flag flew again, and Jones quickly ducked to fourth under Cockrum, who was starting to fade. A lap later, Buckwalter came along, as well, to complete the top-five. An all-day tire-shake for Grant finally came to an end on lap 75, when he shredded a right-rear tire and stopped. He changed that tire but lost three laps in the process.
The final 21 laps went green, and Windom appeared to be slowing a bit, as Cottle slipped to second on lap 84. Cottle ripped off a quick lap, but Jones had also moved by Windom and tracked him down for second on lap 88. Jones bit into Swanson's lead for a few laps, but he leveled off as Swanson finished the final ten miles without issue en route to a 3.124-second victory in the DePalma Motorsports - Radio Hospital #63 Maxim/Hampshire.
"My team never gives up, and even when a freak thing sets us back, they battle and do everything they can. And when we know we're starting that far back, there's no doubt in us. I was teammates with Brian Tyler, and my predecessor in this car Jack Hewitt, could come from way back and win it. I'm nowhere near their caliber, but this car was good enough to get it done from back there. I told them that it was our turn to put on a show, and I knew we could do it. It's so cool what we've been able to accomplish in such a great series with events like this one. I had to be patient with those front two cars, and when it came time to go, we went," Swanson said.
Former two-time series champion Jones finished second in only his second race of the year aboard the Jack Rogers Realtors - Country Financial #57 Beast/Mopar.
"It sure does feel good to have that 63 in sight. You come here to win, but it's a good sign to get that close. I screwed up letting Cottle back by me and that cost me some time, but we just didn't get in as straight and smooth as the 63. It's not bad for just my dad and me, and a few guys who have supported me my whole career. We came up a little short, but it's hard to be upset about that very long. I'll be pumped up for Du Quoin and all the challenges it presents. We'll get her ready for that and try to get it done," Jones said.
Cottle completed the top-three with a great drive aboard the Curtis Williams - QS Components #81 Maxim/Williams Chevy.
"We managed the race pretty well, and right when we broke free and got to second, it was starting to run out of fuel. We had some sort of issue there with the pick-up about 20 to go, but I definitely felt fast enough to challenge him. I thought I had saved all I could, and it would have been fun to see what we truly had. It's really exciting to be this close in just a few races and with the tear the 63 has been on, but we'll go to my favorite track down at Du Quoin and see what we've got," Cottle said.
Jerry Coons, Jr. capped off a fine run with a fourth-place finish aboard the Nolen Racing - Columbus Container #20 Eagle/Chevy, and Buckwalter rounded out the top-five in the SET Racing - Heroes West Sports Grill #53 Beast/Chevy.
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-30.532; 2. Justin Grant, 8, Carli-30.616; 3. Shane Cockrum, 71, Hardy-31.002; 4. A.J. Fike, 3, RFMS-31.074; 5. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-31.156; 6. Jacob Wilson, 07, Wilson-31.167; 7. Chris Windom, 98, RPM/Gormly-31.176; 8. Brady Bacon, 48, Martens-31.243; 9. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-31.459; 10. Levi Jones, 57, Rogers-31.540; 11. Dave Darland, 19, Longworth-31.672; 12. Rickey Hood, 56, Foxco-31.818; 13. Casey Shuman, 55, Bateman-31.886; 14. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary/6R-31.965; 15. Brian Tyler, 7, Classy Chassis-31.970; 16. Steve Buckwalter, 53, SET-32.033; 17. Chase Stockon, 14, McQuinn-32.069; 18. Chris Urish, 77, Urish-32.131; 19. Steven Russell, 41, McQuinn-32.170; 20. Randy Hannagan, 21, Swanson-32.181; 21. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-32.326; 22. Joey Moughan, 29, Moughan-32.410; 23. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-32.510; 24. Jackie Burke, 86, Burke-32.534; 25. Terry Babb, 00, Babb-32.547; 26. Austin Nemire, 91, Hemelgarn-32.672; 27. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-32.858; 28. Rex Norris III, 16, Norris-33.173; 29. Tad Roach, 84, Spivey-33.650; 30. Terry James, 23, Satterthwaite-34.060; 31. Danny Long, 44, Long-34.558; 32. Chris Fetter, 88, Fetter-NT; 33. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-NT.
FEATURE: (100 Laps) 1. Kody Swanson, 2. Levi Jones, 3. Shane Cottle, 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 5. Steve Buckwalter, 6. C.J. Leary, 7. Casey Shuman, 8. Shane Cockrum, 9. Rickey Hood, 10. Chris Windom, 11. David Byrne, 12. Chase Stockon, 13. Austin Nemire, 14. Chris Urish, 15. Randy Hannagan, 16. A.J. Fike, 17. Justin Grant, 18. Terry James, 19. Jacob Wilson, 20. Rex Norris III, 21. Steven Russell, 22. Brian Tyler, 23. Brady Bacon, 24. Tad Roach, 25. Jackie Burke, 26. Russ Gamester, 27. Dave Darland, 28. Danny Long, 29. Joey Moughan, 30. Terry Babb, 31. Patrick Lawson, 32. Chris Fetter. NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-40 Cockrum, Laps 41-57 Windom, Laps 58-100 Swanson.
NEW USAC SILVER CROWN SERIES POINT STANDINGS: 1-Swanson-440, 2-Coons-361, 3-Fike-313, 4-Pierce-299, 5-Leary-264, 6-Wndom-240, 7-Byrne-235, 8-Nemire-233, 9-Wilson-218, 10-Norris-217.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN RACE: September 6 - DuQuoin (IL) State Fairgrounds - "Ted Horn 100"
SUSQUEHANNA SPEEDWAY PARK MIDGETS RAINED OUT
Posted by: | CommentsNewberrytown, PA........Tonight's final event of the 2015 USAC Pennsylvania Tour for Honda National Midgets and ARDC Midgets at Susquehanna Speedway Park has been cancelled due to rain. Rico Abreu, winner of Tuesday's race at Spring Run and Wednesday's race at New Oxford is third in the new standings behind Kevin Thomas Jr. and Tracy Hines. The series now moves on to the September 4-5 7th Annual "Gold Crown Midget Nationals" at Tri-City Speedway in Granite City, Ill.
