From Lonnie Wheatley
ELDON, Mo. (June 26, 2010) – Zach Chappell picked off his second Lucas Oil ASCS presented by K&N Filters triumph of the season by racing to victory lane in Saturday night’s Daniel McMillin / Jesse Hockett Memorial atop the 1/3-mile Lake Ozark Speedway dirt oval.
Chappell charged into the lead just past the midway point in the 30-lapper and held off a host of challengers over the remaining distance for the $6,000 victory aboard David Chappell’s Wesmar-powered Legends Bar-B-Que No. 50z Maxim.
“I got excited there at the end and didn’t know how hard to go, so I just went a hundred percent all the way,” the Talala, OK, racer commented after his ninth career ASCS National victory.
He needed every bit of it, as the likes of Jack Dover, Shane Stewart and Brady Bacon, all from deep in the field, along with Tim Crawley were hot on his heels in the race’s closing stages.
A final caution that set up a six-lap dash to the stripe gave Chappell clear track and he took full advantage, blasting the cushion in turns one and two and working the low side of three and four to secure the victory by a pair of car-lengths over sixth-row starter Dover.
“I just held it flat down to the floor down there (in one and two), that’s the best way to do it with a tall cushion, I learned that from our very good friend,” Chappell explained. “We had a good car at the bottom down here (turns three and four), it was just our night.”
Chappell, the 2001 ASCS National champion, gridded the feature field inside the third row and was up to third on the opening circuit behind pole starter Ricky Logan and third-starter Danny Wood after the first start was waved off for Cody Baker’s turn four flip.
With Logan pacing the opening circuits, Chappell took second from Wood by the time the caution flew after six rounds for Sherman Davis’ disabled mount in turn two.
Chappell slipped to third soon after though, as ninth-starter Sean McClelland raced into second. Chappell battled back into second on the eleventh round with McClelland’s strong run ending early when he pulled to the infield a few laps later.
As traffic came into play, Chappell turned up the heat on Logan and edged into the lead as the pair raced off turn four to complete the 17th round.
The action was just picking up at that stage, as 13th-starter Brady Bacon moved into a challenging second position on the 20th round with eleventh-starter Dover and 17th-starter Shane Stewart joining the lead mix along with Tim Crawley, who rebounded from nearly dumping his mount in turns three and four in the early rounds.
With Chappell holding a tenuous lead over that frothing pack of challengers, the red lights flickered with 23 laps in the books for Dustin Morgan’s turn one tumble.
After one last caution a lap later, Chappell led the way in front of Stewart, Dover, Bacon and Crawley.
Chappell hit his marks over the final half-dozen laps to stay out front, with Dover taking quick advantage of a Stewart miscue in turns one and two on the lap 25 restart to snare the runner-up position aboard the Shaver-powered 3D Auto Transport No. 53 Eagle.
Stewart earned Hard Charger honors by advancing 14 positions to claim third aboard Paul Silva’s Wesmar-powered Rock Star Energy Drink No. 57 A.R.T., with Crawley crossing the stripe fourth in Mike Ward’s McCarver-powered Boater Sports No. 88 Maxim.
After surging from 13th to second in Mike and Megan Eubanks’ Wesmar-powered Tel-Star Communications No. 99 Triple-X, Bacon slipped to fifth in the final circuits but still escaped the night with a ten-point advantage over Jason Johnson in the $60,000 Lucas Oil ASCS National championship chase.
Gary Wright rallied from 18th to sixth in the frenzied feature event, with three-time McMillin Memorial winner Jason Johnson in seventh.
Tony Bruce, Jr., was eighth, with Danny Wood and leading Brodix Rookie of the Year contender Kyle Hirst completing the top ten. After leading the initial 16 rounds, Logan slipped to 15th at the finish.
Logan, Crawley, Chappell, McClelland, Travis Rilat and Dover topped heat race action for the 52-car field, with Stewart, Wright and Matt Covington winning the 12-lap “B” Mains.
Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters
Daniel McMillin / Jesse Hockett Memorial
Lake Ozark Speedway Results:
Heat Races (Top 16 in Passing Points to “A” Main; Balance to 3 “B” Mains):
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 10a-Ricky Logan, 2. 94-Danny Wood, 3. 1m-Jim Moughan, 4. 17-Channin Tankersley, 5. 9-Jon Corbin, 6. 3p-Rusty Potter, 7. 1x-Brad Ryun, 8. 4-Evan Martin, 9. 165-Haley Arnold.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 88-Tim Crawley, 2. 41-Jason Johnson, 3. 19-Mitchell Moore, 4. 21T-Eric Todd, 5. 85-Forrest Sutherland, 6. 27-Mark Finnell, 7. 15-Jeff Wingate, 8. 93w-Taylor Walton, 9. 65m-T.J. Muths.
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 50z-Zach Chappell, 2. 99-Brady Bacon, 3. 88k-J. Kinder, 4. 44w-Austen Wheatley, 5. 9x-Gary Wright, 6. 29x-Rusty Quick, 7. 3g-Darren Long, 8. 72x-Curtis Boyer, 9. 11c-Dakota Carroll.
Heat Four (8 Laps): 1. 1-Sean McClelland, 2. 14k-Kyle Bellm, 3. 72-Sherman Davis, 4. 1a-Adam Jones, 5. 95-Matt Covington, 6. 10-Mike Trent, 7. A12-Tommy Worley, Jr., 8. 22-Dustin Barks, 9. 17k-Kyle Carpenter.
Heat Five (8 Laps): 1. 29-Travis Rilat, 2. 6-Kyle Hirst, 3. 86-Josh Fisher, 4. 33-Austin Alumbaugh, 5. 57-Shane Stewart, 6. 3-Mark Shirshekan, 7. 14-Randy Martin, 8. 38-Cody Baker.
Heat Six (8 Laps): 1. 53-Jack Dover, 2. 93-Dustin Morgan, 3. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 4. 28-Jonathan Cornell, 5. 75-Tyler Blank, 6. 5h-Justyn Cox, 7. 04-Kirby Hagans, 8. 87a-Andrew Marshala.
“B” Mains (Top 2 From Each Advance to “A” Main):
First “B” Feature (12 Laps): 1. 57-Shane Stewart, 2. 86-Josh Fisher, 3. 6-Kyle Hirst, 4. 88k-J. Kinder, 5. 33-Austin Alumbaugh, 6. 72x-Curtis Boyer, 7. 22-Dustin Barks, 8. 04-Kirby Hagans, 9. 29x-Rusty Quick, 10. 15-Jeff Wingate, 11. 165-Haley Arnold, 12. 3-Mark Shirshekan.
Second “B” Feature (12 Laps): 1. 9x-Gary Wright, 2. 28-Jonathan Cornell, 3. 75-Tyler Blank, 4. 38-Cody Baker, 5. A12-Tommy Worley, Jr., 6. 3p-Rusty Potter, 7. 1x-Brad Ryun, 8. 27-Mark Finnell, 9. 85-Forrest Sutherland, 10. 11c-Dakota Carroll, 11. 87a-Andrew Marshala, 12. 10-Mike Trent.
Third “B” Feature (12 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington, 2. 9-Jon Corbin, 3. 3g-Darren Long, 4. 17-Channin Tankersley, 5. 5h-Justyn Cox, 6. 1a-Adam Jones, 7. 17k-Kyle Carpenter, 8. 65m-T.J. Muths, 9. 93w-Taylor Walton, 10. 44w-Austen Wheatley, 11. 14-Randy Martin, 12. 4-Evan Martin.
Daniel McMillin / Jesse Hockett Memorial “A” Main Event:
“A” Feature (30 Laps): 1. 50z-Zach Chappell, 2. 53-Jack Dover, 3. 57-Shane Stewart, 4. 88-Tim Crawley, 5. 99-Brady Bacon, 6. 9x-Gary Wright, 7. 41-Jason Johnson, 8. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 9. 94-Danny Wood, 10. 6-Kyle Hirst, 11. 95-Matt Covington, 12. 86-Josh Fisher, 13. 28-Jonathan Cornell, 14. 29-Travis Rilat, 15. 10a-Ricky Logan, 16. 3g-Darren Long, 17. 1m-Jim Moughan, 18. 21T-Eric Todd, 19. 14k-Kyle Bellm, 20. 75-Tyler Blank, 21. 93-Dustin Morgan, 22. 9-Jon Corbin, 23. 19-Mitchell Moore, 24. 1-Sean McClelland, 25. 72-Sherman Davis, 26. 38-Cody Baker.
Lap Leaders: Ricky Logan 1-16, Zach Chappell 17-30.
Note: Kyle Hirst and Darren Long both utilized their first provisional of the year to start the “A” Main. Tyler Blank utilized a Winged Outlaw Warriors provisional, while Cody Baker used a promoter’s option to start the main event.
Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters Points (Top 20): 1. Brady Bacon 1,138, 2. Jason Johnson 1,128, 3. Shane Stewart 1,073, 4. Tony Bruce, Jr. 1,053, 5. Jack Dover 1,042, 6. (tie) Tim Crawley and Zach Chappell 1,036, 8. Danny Wood 1,027, 9. Kyle Hirst 970, 10. Matt Covington 934, 11. Travis Rilat 916, 12. Gary Wright 911, 13. Ricky Logan 864, 14. Darren Long 806, 15. Dustin Morgan 776, 16. Austen Wheatley 746, 17. Justyn Cox 732, 18. Channin Tankersley 719, 19. Andrew Marshala 628, 20. Johnny Herrera 501.