From USAC, photo from Keenan Wright
Damion Gardner came from his 15th starting position and passed Dave Darland with three laps remaining to win the 30 lap USAC National/CRA feature during the “Las Vegas Super Sprint Classic” Thursday night.
Darland lead the field to the green with Robert Ballou on the outside of row one and these two ran side by side the first portion of the nights sprint car finale. During this time Damion Gardner had rocketed from his 8th row starting spot and was on a mission. As the laps counted down Gardner had taken to the high side and was marching to the front.
After a yellow for Levi Jones with five to go, Gardner had moved to 3rd behind Darland and Chris Windom. When the green appeared again Gardner made quick work of the two cars in front of him and went on to cap a stellar drive over Darland, Windom, Tracy Hines and Jerry Coons Jr.
AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL & CRA SPRINT RACE RESULTS: February 25, 2010 – Las Vegas, Nevada – Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track – “Las Vegas Super Sprint Classic”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Jerry Coons Jr., 69, Hoffman-19.191; 2. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-19.358; 3. Chad Boat, 30, Boat-19.430; 4. Henry Clarke, 67, Kunz-19.710; 5. Greg Bragg, 92, Sertich-19.918; 6. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-20.038; 7. Ricky Williams, 11w, Williams-20.132; 8. Johnny Herrera, 45x, Herrera-20.144; 9. Casey Shuman, 4G, Cook-20.165; 10. Brett Burdette, 17B, Burdette-20.237; 11. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-20.259; 12. Dave Darland, 67k, Kunz-20.262; 13. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart/Curb Agajanian-20.509; 14. Brad Sweet, 49, Kahne-20.517; 15. Cody Kershaw, 38, Crossno-20.602; 16. Austin Williams, 2, Jory-20.752; 17. Danny Sheridan, 18, Kittle-20.972; 18. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-21.060; 19. Bud Kaeding, 29, BK-21.075; 20. Cody Williams, 44, Jory-21.125; 21. Kyle Cummins, 4u, Wild Ride-21.167; 22. Blake Miller, 7, M-M-21.266; 23. Bryan Clauson, 2B, RWB-21.341; 24. Rusty Carlile, 51, Carlile-21.464; 25. Mike Spencer, 50, Chaffin-21.491; 26. Keith Bloom, 27, Kaeding-21.580; 27. Cory
Kruseman, 21k, Kruseman-21.731; 28. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-21.763; 29. Shane Hmiel, 17, 56 Inc.-21.778; 30. Brad Loyet, 05, Loyet-21.859; 31. Seth Wilson, 1x, Wilson-21.993; 32. Austin Mero, 71k, Kruseman-22.100; 33. Mathew Shedarowich, 9, Shedarowich-22.410; 34. Jimmy Crawford, 11x, Crawford-22.510.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Jones, 2. Spencer, 3. Hmiel, 4. Sheridan, 5. Shuman, 6. Bragg, 7. Coons, 8. Cummins, 9. Shedarowich. NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Gardner, 2. Sweet, 3. Windom, 4. Miller, 5. Hines, 6. Burdette, 7. Bloom, 8. Crawford. NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Clauson, 2. Ballou, 3. Kaeding, 4. Boat, 5. Kruseman, 6. Wilson, 7. Kershaw, 8. Ricky Williams. NT
FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Herrera, 3. Clarke, 4. Mellenberndt, 5. A.Williams, 6. C.Williams, 7. Mero, 8. Carlile. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Coons, 2. Shuman, 3. Hines, 4. Wilson, 5. Ricky Williams, 6. Burdette, 7. Mero, 8. Kruseman, 9. Crawford, 10. Bloom, 11. Cummins, 12. Bragg, 13. C.Williams, 14. Shedarowich, 15. A.Williams. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Damion Gardner, 2. Dave Darland, 3. Chris Windom, 4. Tracy Hines, 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 6. Seth Wilson, 7. Bryan Clauson, 8. Johnny Herrera, 9. Henry Clarke, 10. Robert Ballou, 11. Mike Spencer, 12. Casey Shuman, 13. Brad Sweet, 14. Blake Miller, 15. Bud Kaeding, 16. Chad Boat, 17. Shane Hmiel, 18. Danny Sheridan, 19. Bret Mellenberndt, 20. Cory Kruseman, 21. Brett Burdette, 22. Cody Williams, 23. Levi Jones, 24. Ricky Willliams. NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Darland, Laps 2-7 Ballou, Laps 8-27 Darland, Laps 28-30 Gardner.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Gardner-259;2-Coons-225;3-Clauson-221; 4-Jones-193; 5-Darland-188; 6-Ballou-188; 7-Clarke-172; 8-Hines-171; 9-Windom-131; 10-Brady Short-122.
NEW AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT POINTS: 1-Coons-124; 2-Gardner-122; 3-Clauson-103; 4-Kaeding-97; 5-Hines-96; 6-Ballou-96 7-Clarke-90; 8-Jones-89; 9-Darland-87; 10-Windom-86.
NEXT AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: February 27 – Perris (CA) Auto Speedway – “Sokola Classic”
NEXT AMSOIL USAC/CRA SPRINT RACE: February 27 – Perris (CA) Auto Speedway – “Sokola Classic”