By Brian Liskai
CHILLICOTHE, OH (6-18-11) – After experiencing little
mechanical issues over the past few O’Reilly Auto Parts All Star Circuit of
Champion events, George Fisher went to work on his Ti22 Performance sprint
car. The result? A dominating performance by his driver Dale Blaney on the
second night of the 29th Annual Ohio Sprint Speedweek at KC Raceway.
Blaney led all 30 laps Saturday to take his 79th career All Star win as he
continues to work toward his fourth All Star championship and a possible
fifth Ohio Sprint Speedweek title.
“I love this place…George likes it…I mean it’s kind of his home track.
We always run pretty good here. The way the track was tonight you could
race all over it,” said Blaney. “We’ve been qualifying really well but we
haven’t been finishing off things. Tonight the car was really, really good
from qualifying on and I tried to limit my mistakes to a few tonight. If we
can continue to do that we will be in good shape.”
“The traffic went pretty good for us. I tried to be aggressive because that
83 car (Tim Shaffer) is awful, awful fast, especially the last half of the
race he gets really fast and you know he’ll be there at the end. I was just
trying to put as many lapped cars between us and it worked out pretty
good,” added Blaney.
Shaffer, who opened speedweek with a win on Friday, would race into second
on lap nine, but caution flags and lapped cars would prevent him from
getting to Blaney.
“It wasn’t meant to be tonight. Dale and George and those guys did a great
job. We couldn’t get the breaks tonight. It’s been a tough year already and
hopefully during speedweek we can make up some ground,” said Shaffer beside
his Aaron Call/Janet Holbrook owned machine sponsored by Kistler Engines.
Cole Duncan would take third on the third lap and that’s where he would
finish, as the cautions prevented him from challenging the top two.
“We had motor trouble yesterday and Charlie Fisher helped us out today and
we got that thing running pretty good. We were pretty good on the long
runs…we were good early but there were too many lapped cars there at the
end,” said Duncan beside his Bobby Labonte Racing, Wolfden Carbon Fiber
Products, Motorcity Auto Transport backed #22. “We put this car together
last week…we crashed here last Saturday so we put a new car together and
it seems to be pretty good.”
Blaney and Kyle Sauder would lead the field to the green with David Gravel,
Shaffer, Duncan and Cap Henry in tow. Duncan would move into third on lap
three and immediately challenged Sauder for the runner-up spot as Blaney
pulled away. “The Low Rider” would hit lapped traffic by lap 7 as Sauder
continued to battle Duncan and now Shaffer. Shaffer would drive by both
Duncan and Sauder into second on lap 9. Meanwhile there was a great battle
for third between Sauder, Duncan, Henry, Gravel and Randy Hannagan.
The caution would fly on lap 13 for a Sheldon Haudenschild/Rob Chaney
tangle on the back stretch. Blaney would have four lapped cars between
himself and Shaffer who had a lapped machine separating him and Duncan.
With a clear track, Blaney would pull away as Shaffer struggled with the
lapped cars. Duncan, Sauder, Hannagan and Henry would continue to wage a
tremendous battle for third that would last until lap 28 when Travis Philo
flipped hard in turn three with fifth place running Cap Henry spinning to
avoid the crash.
With a green-white-checkered to finish the race – coupled with a clear
track – Blaney would power away to the win over Shaffer, Duncah, Hannagan
and Gravel. While the race for third was a dandy, the fans were also
treated to NASCAR star Tony Stewart charging from 24th – last – to a
seventh place finish.
KC Raceway – 6/18/2011
Qualifying – Kistler Engines
1. 89G-David Gravel, 11.713; 2. 7K-Kyle Sauder, 11.803; 3. 22-Cole Duncan,
11.835; 4. 4X-Kasey Kahne, 11.877; 5. 2-Dale Blaney, 11.907; 6. 5R-Byron
Reed, 11.908; 7. 83-Tim Shaffer, 11.909; 8. O4-Cap Henry, 11.915; 9.
22H-Randy Hannagan, 11.924; 10. D4-Danny Holtgraver, 11.932; 11. 1-Stevie
Smith, 11.989; 12. 27-Daryn Pittman, 11.990; 13. 22J-Jimmy Stinson, 12.012;
14. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild, 12.037; 15. 41J-Jason Johnson, 12.046; 16.
35R-Ronnie Blair, 12.059; 17. 4-Danny Smith, 12.089; 18. 45-Rob Chaney,
12.119; 19. 51X-Aaron Higgins, 12.133; 20. OO-Jim Nier, 12.135; 21.
W20-Greg Wilson, 12.150; 22. 5T-Travis Philo, 12.204; 23. 49-Brad Sweet,
12.261; 24. 80-Spud Gustin, 12.295; 25. 97-Dean Jacobs, 12.315; 26. 11N-Ed
Neumeister, 12.319; 27. 4K-Kody Kinser, 12.366; 28. 14-Tony Stewart,
12.383; 29. 1Z-Jessica Zemken, 12.388; 30. 3-Pete Miller III, 12.396; 31.
53-Phil Gressman, 12.414; 32. 60C-Kory Crabtree, 12.427; 33. 51-Brad
Bowman, 12.441; 34. 11D-Bryce Dickson, 12.456; 35. O-Chris Andres, 12.515;
36. 40-Mark Imler, 12.546; 37. 3J-Kevin Lee, 12.606; 38. O6-Brandy Bower,
12.678; 39. 35-Wes McGlumphy, 12.892; 40. 41-Randy Fink, 12.915; 41.
96AU-Bruce White, 13.029; 42. 9J-Jesse McCreary, 13.259; 43. 3F-Rick
Fraley, 13.660; 44. X-Jeb Lowder, 14.568; 45. A79-John Shewbrooks, 16.505;
46. 22D-Josh Davis, 99.999; 47. 6Z-Zach Ames, 99.999
Heat 1 – Kears Speed Shop (8 Laps – Top 5 Transfer)
1. 45-Rob Chaney; 2. 5T-Travis Philo; 3. 22H-Randy Hannagan; 4. 2-Dale
Blaney; 5. 89G-David Gravel; 6. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild; 7. 22J-Jimmy
Stinson; 8. 3J-Kevin Lee; 9. 1Z-Jessica Zemken; 10. 51-Brad Bowman; 11.
96AU-Bruce White; 12. A79-John Shewbrooks
Heat 2 – All Pro Heads (8 Laps – Top 5 Transfer)
1. 49-Brad Sweet; 2. 7K-Kyle Sauder; 3. 41J-Jason Johnson; 4. 51X-Aaron
Higgins; 5. D4-Danny Holtgraver; 6. 5R-Byron Reed; 7. 11D-Bryce Dickson; 8.
11N-Ed Neumeister; 9. O6-Brandy Bower; 10. 3-Pete Miller III; 11. 9J-Jesse
McCreary; 12. 22D-Josh Davis
Heat 3 – MSD Ignition (8 Laps – Top 5 Transfer)
1. OO-Jim Nier; 2. 1-Stevie Smith; 3. 83-Tim Shaffer; 4. 35R-Ronnie Blair;
5. 22-Cole Duncan; 6. 4K-Kody Kinser; 7. 53-Phil Gressman; 8. O-Chris
Andres; 9. 80-Spud Gustin; 10. 6Z-Zach Ames; 11. 35-Wes McGlumphy; 12.
3F-Rick Fraley
Heat 4 – Kinsler Fuel Injection (8 Laps – Top 5 Transfer)
1. W20-Greg Wilson; 2. 97-Dean Jacobs; 3. 27-Daryn Pittman; 4. 4-Danny
Smith; 5. O4-Cap Henry; 6. 14-Tony Stewart; 7. 4X-Kasey Kahne; 8. 40-Mark
Imler; 9. 60C-Kory Crabtree; 10. 41-Randy Fink; 11. X-Jeb Lowder
C-Main – C Sponsor (10 Laps – Top 2 Transfer to B Main)
1. 35-Wes McGlumphy; 2. 6Z-Zach Ames; 3. 96AU-Bruce White; 4. 41-Randy
Fink; 5. 9J-Jesse McCreary; 6. 3F-Rick Fraley; 7. X-Jeb Lowder; 8. A79-John
Shewbrooks
B-Main –
University of Northwestern Ohio (12 Laps – Top 4 Transfer to A Main)
1. 5R-Byron Reed; 2. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild; 3. 4X-Kasey Kahne; 4. 14-Tony
Stewart; 5. 4K-Kody Kinser; 6. 1Z-Jessica Zemken; 7. 53-Phil Gressman; 8.
11N-Ed Neumeister; 9. 3J-Kevin Lee; 10. 80-Spud Gustin; 11. 51-Brad Bowman;
12. 11D-Bryce Dickson; 13. 35-Wes McGlumphy; 14. O6-Brandy Bower; 15.
22J-Jimmy Stinson; 16. O-Chris Andres; 17. 40-Mark Imler; 18. 3-Pete Miller
III; 19. 6Z-Zach Ames; 20. 60C-Kory Crabtree
Dash- Outerwear’s Performance Products (6 Laps, finishing order determined
first 6 starting positions of A-feature)
1. 2-Dale Blaney; 2. 7K-Kyle Sauder 3. 89G-David Gravel; 4. 83- Tim
Shaffer; 5. 22 Cole Duncan; 6. 04-Cap Henry
A-Main – O’Reilly Auto Parts (30 Laps) [#]-Starting Position
1. 2-Dale Blaney[1]; 2. 83-Tim Shaffer[4]; 3. 22-Cole Duncan[5]; 4.
22H-Randy Hannagan[7]; 5. 89G-David Gravel[3]; 6. 7K-Kyle Sauder[2]; 7.
14-Tony Stewart[24]; 8. 4-Danny Smith[16]; 9. 5R-Byron Reed[12]; 10.
W20-Greg Wilson[20]; 11. 1-Stevie Smith[9]; 12. 27-Daryn Pittman[10]; 13.
O4-Cap Henry[6]; 14. OO-Jim Nier[19]; 15. D4-Danny Holtgraver[8]; 16.
41J-Jason Johnson[14]; 17. 49-Brad Sweet[22]; 18. 51X-Aaron Higgins[18];
19. 4X-Kasey Kahne[11]; 20. 35R-Ronnie Blair[15]; 21. 5T-Travis Philo[21];
22. 97-Dean Jacobs[23]; 23. 93-Sheldon Haudenschild[13]; 24. 45-Rob
Chaney[17]