Levi Jones Takes Kokomo Sprint Week Win

Levi Jones
Levi Jones

From Dick Jordan/MudclodBob

Levi Jones won an action packed USAC Sprint Week feature Sunday night at Kokomo Speedway after taking the top spot on the 19th lap and hanging on through three red flags.
Daron Clayton started the night by setting a new track record of 12.620 during group qualifying in front of another huge crowd. Brady Short took the first heat race win in a fast paced event. Heat number two turned into “wheel stand city” with Jon Stanbrough winning an excellent heat race. Damion Gardner grabbed the third heat victory from 6th starting postion. The fourth heat saw Dave Darland take a close win over Chris Windom.
The next race up would have made for a great feature on any night but it only was the 22 car Semi feature. Levi Jones drove under the checkers first over Coons, Cottle, Fitzpatrick, Mitchell and Hendrick with these cars transferring to the A main.

Chris Windom and Tracy Hines led the field of shiny tire clad sprinters to the green for the 30 lap main with Windom showing the way after one lap. With five laps completed Windom still led but Jerry Coons Jr. was making up ground on the high side and was looking to be a contender moving into 4th. The high side continued to work for Coons as he roared to the lead with 11 laps in over Windom, Levi Jones (from 10th), Hines, Bobby East, Blake Fitzpatrick, Brady Short and Jon Stanbrough coming fast from 20th.

Lap 18 saw the red flag as Bobby East flipped in turn four. After the restart, Gardner flipped in turn two. Both drivers were ok. At the next restart Levi Jones made the pass on Coons during the 19th go round with Windom moving to second with Coons, Short, Stanbrough (who looked to be on a mission) and Shane Cottle from 22nd.
Stanbrough’s night came to an end after he jumped the turn four cushion hit the wall and turned over on lap 24. With 26 laps in, the low line now was the preferred route with Jones, Windom, Short, Cottle, Coons and Dave Darland moving in from 19th. With only three laps remaining, Robert Ballou encountered problems on the backstretch and at the same time Jeff Bland Jr. made hard contact with the turn four wall. This brought out another red for some fence repair.

One final red came out for Daren Hagen’s barrel roll in turn two on lap 29 before Levi Jones took the checkers over Short, Windom, Cottle, and Jerry Coons Jr. after the restart that found the lead pack holding tight to the bottom of the track.

USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: July 11, 2010 – Kokomo, Indiana – Kokomo Speedway – 23rd “Indiana Sprint Week”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Daron Clayton, 92, Clayton-12.620; 2. Blake Fitzpatrick, 10F, Fitzpatrick-12.668; 3. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-12.700; 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 69, Dynamics-12.707; 5. Jonathan Hendrick, 68, Hendrick-12.817; 6. Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-12.870; 7. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart-12.917; 8. Justin Grant, 5B, Baldwin-12.923; 9. Bobby East, 5, Klatt-12.935; 10. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-12.939; 11. Mike Spencer, 15m, Pierce/Ellis-12.989; 12. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-12.992; 13. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-13.019; 14. Jeff Bland Jr., 38s, Bland-13.020; 15. Bud Kaeding, 29, BK-13.050; 16. Matt Mitchell, 37x, Mitchell-13.065; 17. Brady Short, 36, Short-13.071; 18. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-13.076; 19. Bryan Clauson, 2B, RWB-13.098; 20. Dave Darland, 39, Goodnight-13.154; 21. Caleb Armstrong, 7, Tucker-13.182; 22. Jon Stanbrough, 53, Fox-13.208; 23. Coleman Gulick, 14x, Gulick-13.221; 24. Kurt Gross, 1x, Gross-13.255; 25. Shane Cottle, 10E, Edison-13.261; 26. Andrew Elson, 27a,
Elson-13.284; 27. Darren Hagen, 71p, Phillips-13.376; 28. Keith Bloom, 1k, Braund-13.382; 29. Brandon Petty, 42G, Jackson-13.408; 30. Scotty Weir, 1G, Gorby-13.418; 31. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-13.428; 32. J.J. Hughes, 76, Hughes-13.435; 33. Greg Bragg, 1B, Deskovick-13.477; 34. Shane Hmiel, 17s, 56 Inc.-13.534; 35. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.553; 36. Henry Clarke, 67, Kunz-13.554; 37. Casey Riggs, 37, Indiana Underground-13.588; 38. Anthony Peterman, 7p, Peterman-13.609; 39. Ricky Williams, 11w, Williams-13.662; 40. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-13.747; 41. Gary Rooke, 42a, Rooke-13.972.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Short, 2. East, 3. Stockon, 4. Clayton, 5. Armstrong, 6. Hendrick, 7. Cottle, 8. Riggs, 9. Bragg, 10. Rooke, 11. Petty. 2:15.83
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Bland, 3. Tracy Hines, 4. Ballou, 5. Fitzpatrick, 6. Elson, 7. Hmiel, 8. Peterman, 9. Weir, 10. Schuerenberg. NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Gardner, 2. Clauson, 3. Kaeding, 4. Hagen, 5. Jones, 6. Gulick, 7. M.Spencer, 8. Robbins, 9. Ted Hines, 10. Williams. 2:13.87
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Windom, 3. Grant, 4. Gross, 5. Coons, 6. Clarke, 7. J.Spencer, 8. Bloom, 9. Hughes, 10. Mitchell. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Jones, 2. Coons, 3. Cottle, 4. Fitzpatrick, 5. Mitchell, 6. Hendrick, 7. M.Spencer, 8. Armstrong, 9. Hmiel, 10. Hughes, 11. Elson, 12. Ted Hines, 13. Bloom, 14. Bragg, 15. Robbins, 16. Rooke, 17. Riggs, 18. Peterman, 19. Petty, 20. Schuerenberg, 21. Gulick, 22. J.Spencer. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Levi Jones, 2. Brady Short, 3. Chris Windom, 4. Shane Cottle, 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 6. Dave Darland, 7. Bryan Clauson, 8. Blake Fitzpatrick, 9. Tracy Hines, 10. Henry Clarke, 11. Shane Hmiel, 12. Matt Mitchell, 13. Jonathan Hendrick, 14. Bud Kaeding, 15. Daron Clayton, 16. Justin Grant, 17. Chase Stockon, 18. Mike Spencer, 19. Darren Hagen, 20. Robert Ballou, 21. Jeff Bland Jr., 22. Jon Stanbrough, 23. Kurt Gross, 24. Bobby East, 25. Damion Gardner. NT

**Schuerenberg flipped during the semi. East & Gardner flipped on lap 19 of the feature. Stanbrough flipped on lap 24 of the feature. Hagen flipped on lap 29 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-10 Windom, Laps 11-18 Coons, Laps 19-30 Jones.

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Jones-1,295; 2-Gardner-1,218; 3-Clauson-1,175; 4-Coons-1,121; 5-Windom-1,075; 6-Hines-1,075; 7-Clarke-940; 8-Darland-749; 9-Hmiel-747; 10-Williams-619.
NEW NATIONAL SPRINT CAR DIRT STANDINGS: 1-Jones-1,078; 2-Gardner-969; 3-Clauson-916; 4-Windom-886; 5-Coons-862.
NEW “INDIANA SPRINT WEEK” STANDINGS: 1-Jones-185; 2-Short-153; 3-Darland-149; 4-Clauson-143; 5-Hines-138; 6-Clayton-135; 7-Windom-123; 8-Stanbrough-122; 9-Gardner-119; 10-Fitzpatrick-111.

NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE: – July 14 – Terre Haute (IN) Action Track – 23rd “Indiana Sprint Week”