By Dick Jordan
Damion Gardner of Concord, Calif. resumes his pursuit of the 2010 AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car championship this week in three back-to-back races in Indiana.
Gas City I-69 Speedway hosts Friday night’s race, while Lawrenceburg Speedway is Saturday night’s venue. Sunday night’s race occurs at the Kokomo Speedway. All three tracks are involved in the “Indiana Sprint Week” spectacular, slated in July at seven Indiana tracks.
Gardner has kicked off the 1010 campaign with four wins in five starts in his Pace Lightning/Ramona Oil Eagle/Shaver. No driver has ever won five of the first six, although Gardner would certainly like to make it seven of the first eight with a “sweep” this week.
None of Gardner’s previous eight USAC National wins have come at any of the three tracks, so he’ll be trying to add all three venues to his list this week.
Gardner’s point lead over Jerry Coons Jr. stands at 49 points, while defending series champion Levi Jones is third, only 28 behind Coons. Jones won the last Sprint race at Gas City, while Coons won a Midget race there last year. Both Coons and Jones have won at Lawrenceburg, while neither has won at Kokomo.
These three races will be pivotal in the early battle for USAC Sprint car supremacy.
USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT SERIES POINT STANDINGS
1-Damion Gardner-324; 2-Jerry Coons Jr.-275; 3-Levi Jones-247; 4-Bryan Clauson-237; 5-Henry Clarke-232; 6-Robert Ballou-232; 7-Tracy Hines-229; 8-Dave Darland-202; 9-Chris Windom-192; 10-Shane Hmiel-145.