By Lonnie Wheatley
PONTOON BEACH, Ill. (August 27, 2010) – Jerrod Hull took full advantage of every little opportunity that presented itself in Friday night’s Lucas Oil ASCS presented by K&N Filters National debut at Tri-City Speedway to pull off a stunning upset victory from the 19th starting position.
The Sikeston, MO, shoe steered clear of some opening lap carnage, snuck by some battling contenders on the low side in the middle portion of the race and then took the lead away from Brian Brown on the 21st circuit before checking out in the final rounds of the 30-lapper for the $6,000 victory, his second career ASCS National triumph and first since a Benton, MO, win on July 4, 1996.
“I’m not believing this at all, I won one of these races back in ’95 or something, a long time ago,” Hull explained in victory lane. “We’ve tried a lot of times, this is by far my biggest win.”
While Hull gridded the feature field inside the tenth row after advancing from “B” Main action, he picked up ten spots before a lap was completed when front row starters Danny Wood and Matt Covington tangled and flipped entering turn one, collecting the likes of leading title contenders Jason Johnson and Shane Stewart along with Gary Wright, Justyn Cox, Dustin Barks, Tim Crawley, Ricky Logan and more.
When the mess was cleared and the field reset, Hull restarted in ninth as only Wood, Covington and Barks were unable to make the call for the restart.
“It was close, I drove it in there and seen ‘em piling up and we were able to get it slowed down,” Hull explained of the crash. “I was amazed we restarted ninth. That’s pretty cool we won it from ninth though, they didn’t just give it to us.”
With Hull working forward from the fifth row aboard the Heartland Trailer Manufacturing No. 12 Maxim instead of the tenth row on the second start, Brian Brown led the way to the green flag after originally starting in sixth and gunned into the early lead ahead of Darren Long.
While Brown apparently cruised out front over the first half of the race, the action in his wake was intense with wild sliders for position in virtually every corner amongst Long, Dustin Morgan, Kyle Hirst and Brady Bacon among others.
While all that was going on, Hull found some rubber on the low side of the track and began working forward, getting between the battling duo of Hirst and Bacon for fourth by the midway point. Hirst and Hull slid past Long for second and third by the 19th lap and then quickly closed the gap on Brown, who had been struggling with a sticking throttle throughout while out front.
Hull raced past both Hirst and then Brown for the lead on the 21st lap, one round before the yellow flag flew for Long, who spun to a stop in turn one with a cut tire after battling among the top positions throughout.
After Brown stopped with race-ending woes three rounds later, Hull checked out over the final six circuits to snare the victory with a full straightaway advantage over 13th-starter Hirst, who posted a Lucas Oil ASCS National career-best finish of second aboard Gary Perkins’ Shark-powered GP Development No. 6 A.R.T.
“We’ll take it,” the Loomis, CA, shoe that ranks as the leading Brodix Rookie of the Year contender commented afterward. “That start got us a lot of spots and then I found the rubber before the guys up front did, but ol’ Jerrod Hull found it way lower than I did and got by us all.”
Fifteenth-starter Zach Chappell worked forward over the final circuits to claim the show position aboard David Chappell’s Wesmar-powered Legend’s Bar-B-Que No. 50z Maxim, while three-time series champion Tim Crawley rebounded from the opening lap melee to claim fourth in Mike Ward’s McCarver-powered Boater Sports No. 88 Maxim.
Brady Bacon rounded out the top five in Mike and Megan Eubank’s Wesmar-powered Tel-Star Communications No. 99 Triple-X, with Jonathan Cornell crossing the stripe in seventh.
Reigning series champion Shane Stewart recovered from the opening lap incident and then a lap eight spin in turn four to finish seventh, with Dustin Morgan, current Lucas Oil ASCS National points leader Jason Johnson and Gary Wright completing the top ten.
Brown, Long, Wood and Crawley topped heat race action for the 38-car field, with Adam Jones and Mark Shirshekan winning the twin “B” Mains.
Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters
Tri-City Speedway Results:
Heat Races (Top 16 in Passing Points to “A” Main; Balance to 2 “B” Mains):
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 21-Brian Brown, 2. 95-Matt Covington, 3. 6-Kyle Hirst, 4. 10a-Ricky Logan, 5. 21T-Eric Todd, 6. 44-Jon Corbin, 7. 18x-Mike Hess, 8. 84-Ben Wagoner, 9. 11c-Dakota Carroll. DNS: 53-Jack Dover.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 3g-Darren Long, 2. 93-Dustin Morgan, 3. 41-Jason Johnson, 4. 50z-Zach Chappell, 5. 3-Mark Shirshekan, 6. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 7. 71-Channin Tankersley, 8. 14-Randy Martin, 9. 5-Jerod Roller, 10. 51j-Ryan Jamison.
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 94-Danny Wood, 2. 9x-Gary Wright, 3. 99-Brady Bacon, 4. 28-Jonathan Cornell, 5. 12-Jerrod Hull, 6. 1a-Adam Jones, 7. 72-Curtis Boyer, 8. 5m-Miranda Arnold, 9. 57c-Kyle Chady.
Heat Four (8 Laps): 1. 88-Tim Crawley, 2. 57-Shane Stewart, 3. 5h-Justyn Cox, 4. 22-Dustin Barks, 5. 88k-J. Kinder, 6. 89g-David Gravel, 7. 35-Matt Sherrell, 8. 165-Haley Arnold, 9. 75-Tyler Blank.
“B” Mains (Top 3 From Each Advance to “A” Main):
First “B” Feature (10 Laps): 1. 1a-Adam Jones, 2. 12-Jerrod Hull, 3. 89g-David Gravel, 4. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 5. 71-Channin Tankersley, 6. 14-Randy Martin, 7. 35-Matt Sherrell, 8. 5m-Miranda Arnold, 9. 11c-Dakota Carroll, 10. 51j-Ryan Jamison, 11. 5-Jerod Roller.
Second “B” Feature (10 Laps): 1. 3-Mark Shirshekan, 2. 44-Jon Corbin, 3. 88k-J. Kinder, 4. 84-Ben Wagoner, 5. 75-Tyler Blank, 6. 18x-Mike Hess, 7. 72-Curtis Boyer, 8. 165-Haley Arnold, 9. 21T-Eric Todd, 10. 57c-Kyle Chady, 11. 53-Jack Dover.
Tri-City Speedway “A” Main:
“A” Feature (30 Laps): 1. 12-Jerrod Hull, 2. 6-Kyle Hirst, 3. 50z-Zach Chappell, 4. 88-Tim Crawley, 5. 99-Brady Bacon, 6. 28-Jonathan Cornell, 7. 57-Shane Stewart, 8. 93-Dustin Morgan, 9. 41-Jason Johnson, 10. 9x-Gary Wright, 11. 3-Mark Shirshekan, 12. 89g-David Gravel, 13. 5h-Justyn Cox, 14. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 15. 10a-Ricky Logan, 16. 88k-J. Kinder, 17. 1a-Adam Jones, 18. 72-Curtis Boyer, 19. 21-Brian Brown, 20. 44-Jon Corbin, 21. 3g-Darren Long, 22. 53-Jack Dover, 23. 94-Danny Wood, 24. 95-Matt Covington, 25. 22-Dustin Barks.
Lap Leaders: Brian Brown 1-20, Jerrod Hull 21-30.
Note: Tony Bruce, Jr., used his mid-season bonus full-point provisional to start the main event; it was Bruce’s final provisional of the year. Jack Dover used his first provisional of the year to start the main event; he still has a mid-season bonus full-point provisional and two partial-points provisionals remaining. Curtis Boyer utilized a WOW provisional to start the main event.
Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters Points (Top 20): 1. Jason Johnson 2,146, 2. Shane Stewart 2,085, 3. Brady Bacon 2,067, 4. Jack Dover 1,970, 5. Zach Chappell 1,930, 6. Tim Crawley 1,899, 7. Tony Bruce, Jr. 1,874, 8. Kyle Hirst 1,859, 9. Danny Wood 1,810, 10. Ricky Logan 1,743, 11. Matt Covington 1,693, 12. Dustin Morgan 1,536, 13. Darren Long 1,520, 14. Channin Tankersley 1,482, 15. Justyn Cox 1,448, 16. Austen Wheatley 1,344, 17. Gary Wright 1,209, 18. Travis Rilat 1,152, 19. Andrew Marshala 823, 20. Brian Brown 752.