From USAC and Bill W, image courtesy of Mike Campbell
Bud Kaeding took the checkers in Oskaloosa, Iowa Tuesday night and won the “Ultimate Challenge”. He was followed by Bryan Clauson, Levi Jones, Damion Gardner and Dave Darland.
Things got off to a ragged start in turn one in the 30-lapper. With several cars checking up in front, Windom got the worst of it and flipped hard. The incident also involved Wolfgang and Urish, and also Rose and Thomas, who were done. No one was hurt. Darland replaced a tire and went to the tail for the restart.
Clauson jumped out to a lead in front of Kaeding, who had a good start and Jones. Kaeding and Jones battled for second the first five laps before Kaeding took control. Larson had a resurgence and took third back from Jones, riding the cushion on lap sevent. On lap ten, Kaeding worked by Clauson for the lead.
The halfway point was unlucky for Larson, who jumped the cushion in turn one and turned the car over while running third. The Golden State Challenge driver who seeks a ride for the Nationals was unhurt. The restart was wicked for Ballou, who flipped violently down the backstretch. He was unhurt. The last restart saw Kaeding leading Clauson, Jones, Gardner and Coons Jr.
The last ten laps went fairly uneventful up front, with Kaeding nabbing his first Ultimate Challenge and $15,000 to go with his Knoxville Non-wing Nationals win on Sunday. Swindell lost three spots with a 360 spin on lap 24, but he kept it going. Darland passed Coons Jr. for fifth on the final go-around. Hmiel was the hard-charger and took home a new KSE Steering Pump.
USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: August 10, 2010 – Oskaloosa, Iowa – Southern Iowa Speedway – Casey’s General Stores “Ultimate Challenge”
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Kyle Larson (#2 Yeley), .2. Bryan Clauson (#2B RWB), 3. Robby Wolfgang (#7k Williams), 4. Scotty Weir (#12B RWB), 5. Kyle Cummins (#21x Pollock), 6. Bill Rose (#6 Rose), 7. Steve Thomas (#20T Thomas), 8. Henry Clarke (#67 Kunz), 9. Shane Hmiel (#17s 56 Inc.). NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Dave Darland (#39 Goodnight), 2. Damion Gardner (#71 DG), 3. Robert Ballou (#81 MPHG), 4. Chris Windom (#11 Walker), 5. Keith Bloom (#27 Braund), 6. Brady Bacon (#99 Tel-Star), 7. Chris Urish (#77u Urish), 8. Ricky Williams (#11w Williams), 9. Casey Riggs (#37 Indiana Underground). NT
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Tracy Hines (#4 Hines), 2. Levi Jones (#20 Stewart), 3. Jon Stanbrough (#53 Fox), 4. Bud Kaeding (#29 BK), 5. Casey Shuman (#4G Cook), 6. Jerry Coons Jr. (#69 Dynamics), 7. Kevin Swindell (#1 Big Game), 8. Russ Harper (#9 Harper), 9. Chris Morgan (#F1 Morgan). NT
FIRST QUALIFIER: (8 laps – no points) 1. Larson, 2. Rose, 3. Clauson, 4. Harper, 5. Weir, 6. Wolfgang, 7. Thomas, 8. Morgan, 9. Ballou. NT
SECOND QUALIFIER: (8 laps – no points) 1. Coons, 2. Bacon, 3. Kaeding. 4. Jones, 5. Windom, 6. Hines, 7. Swindell, 8. Williams, 9. Hmiel. NT
THIRD QUALIFIER: (8 laps – no points) 1. Gardner, 2. Darland, 3. Shuman, 4. Cummins, 5. Riggs, 6. Urish, 7. Stanbrough, 8. Bloom. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bud Kaeding, 2. Bryan Clauson, 3. Levi Jones, 4. Damion Gardner, 5. Dave Darland, 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 7. Brady Bacon, 8. Tracy Hines, 9. Kevin Swindell, 10. Shane Hmiel, 11. Casey Shuman, 12. Casey Riggs, 13. Russ Harper, 14. Ricky Williams, 15. Robby Wolfgang, 16. Chris Urish, 17. Kyle Cummins, 18. Kyle Larson, 19. Robert Ballou, 20. Keith Bloom Jr., 21. Scotty Weir, 22. Bill Rose, 23. Chris Windom, 24. Steve Thomas. NT
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**Ballou & Morgan flipped during the first qualifier. Bloom and Stanbrough flipped during the third qualifier. Rose and Windom flipped on lap 1 of the feature. Larson flipped on lap 15 of the feature. Ballou flipped on lap 15 restart of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-9 Clauson, Laps 10-30 Kaeding.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Jones-1,621; 2-Gardner-1,534; 3-Clauson-1,504; 4-Coons-1,388; 5-Windom-1,358; 6-Hine-1,312; 7-Darland-1,086; 8-Clarke-1,063; 9-Hmiel-920; 10-Stanbrough-773.
NEW NATIONAL SPRINT CAR DIRT STANDINGS: 1-Jones-1,404; 2-Gardner-1,287; 3-Clauson-1,245; 4-Windom-1,169; 5-Coons-1,129; 6-Hines-1,089; 7-Darland-1,086; 8-Clarke-828; 9-Stanbrough-767; 10-Ballou-666.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE: – August 14 – Salem (IN) Speedway – ”Joe James/Pat O’Connor Memorial”