From Lonnie Wheatley
WHEATLAND, Mo. (September 25, 2010) – Tim Crawley took quick advantage of a late race restart at Lucas Oil Speedway to notch his second Lucas Oil ASCS presented by K&N Filters main event win in a row by topping Saturday night’s 30-lap feature.
After challenging for the point in traffic, Crawley slid past Brady Bacon for the lead on a lap 26 restart and raced on to the checkered flag at the “Diamond of Dirt Tracks” aboard Mike Ward’s McCarver-powered Boater Sports/Southern Renovations No. 88 Maxim for his 41st career ASCS National triumph.
With Crawley starting Saturday’s main event inside the third row, it was a pair of 20-year-old hotshoes, Bacon and Jack Dover, leading the way to the green flag. And, after the first start was waved off when Rusty Quick suffered front end damage after drilling an infield tire in turn two, it was Dover gunning into the early lead.
Dover paced the early rounds in front of Bacon, 22-year-old Jonathan Cornell and Crawley, although the Springfield, NE, was likely the only one that knew he had issues that could end his strong drive.
A dzus button had fallen out of the dash of Dover’s car, so he spent the early laps steering with one hand and holding the dash with the other. But, when he reached traffic after nine laps, that one-handed style wasn’t suitable with Bacon and company hot on his heels. Dover slowed to bring out a caution flag and was done for the race when repairs weren’t completed before action resumed.
Bacon assumed the point on the restart, with Crawley and ninth-starter Shane Stewart both disposing of Cornell for second and third, respectively. As traffic became a factor on the 15th round, both past series champions turned the heat up on Bacon.
Bacon fended off the challenges until a lap 19 interruption for Tyler Blank’s shredded left rear tire and then held command until the final caution flew when Matt Covington got into the turn four wall with just five laps remaining.
Crawley made the big slide for the lead in turns one and two on the restart and made it stick, with Stewart slipping past Bacon as well. Crawley held the top position the rest of the way and took the checkered flag for the $6,000 triumph.
Defending series champion Stewart, who won last year’s event at Lucas Oil Speedway, took runner-up honors this time around aboard Paul Silva’s Wesmar-powered Rockstar Energy Drink No. 57 A.R.T., with Bacon settling for the show position in Mike and Megan Eubanks’ Wesmar-powered Tel-Star Communications No. 99 Triple-X.
Right behind the lead trio, Cornell, Brian Brown and current Lucas Oil ASCS National points leader Jason Johnson were in a wild scrum for position as well. Cornell held off the experienced shoes to post his best career ASCS National finish by crossing the stripe fourth in the Kiowa Line Builders/VKCC Motorsports No. 28.
After blitzing from his 19th starting position to fifth in the initial nine laps of the main event, Johnson was plus or minus a couple of positions the rest of the way before ultimately turning Brown around in the final corner to round out the top five in the JJR Don Ott-powered Haynes No. 41 Maxim.
As the balance of the finishing order was reverted to the previous lap minus the car in the caution, Tony Bruce, Jr., steered clear of the final-corner chaos to finish off Hard Charger efforts with a run from 21st to sixth, with Dustin Morgan the top Brodix Rookie of the Year contender of the night in seventh after starting 17th.
Current ASCS Sooner Region points leader Sean McClelland climbed from 15th to eighth, with Winged Outlaw Warriors shoe Austin Alumbaugh posting his first career ASCS National top ten finish by crossing the stripe in ninth, just ahead of Ohio’s Darren Long.
After working forward from 13th to contend for a top-five finish, Brown was credited as the final car on the lead lap in 16th after the last-lap incident.
Danny Smith (Oklahoma), Dover, Crawley, Brown, Alumbaugh, Cornell and Bacon topped heat race action for the stacked 61-car field, with Morgan, Gregg Bakker and Johnson winning the “B” Mains.
Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters
Lucas Oil Speedway Results:
Heat Races (Top 16 in Passing Points to “A” Main; Balance to 3 “B” Mains):
Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 5$-Danny Smith, 2. 10a-Ricky Logan, 3. 5h-Josh Fisher, 4. 93-Dustin Morgan, 5. 9m-Cody Baker, 6. 9$-David Stephenson, 7. 3p-Rusty Potter, 8. 04-Kirby Hagans, 9. 21T-Eric Todd.
Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 53-Jack Dover, 2. 88k-J. Kinder, 3. 26-Rafe Essary, 4. 53x-Justin Jackson, 5. 8w-Jordan Whitehead, 6. 14n-H.J. Norman, 7. 11c-Dakota Carroll, 8. 4-Evan Martin, 9. 165-Haley Arnold.
Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 88-Tim Crawley, 2. 97-Aaron Berryhill, 3. 29-Rusty Quick, 4. 57-Shane Stewart, 5. 0c-Preston Peebles II, 6. 0-Jason Martin, 7. 72-Curtis Boyer, 8. 6g-Bryan Gossel, 9. 9x-Gary Wright.
Heat Four (8 Laps): 1. 21-Brian Brown, 2. 1-Sean McClelland, 3. 22-Dustin Barks, 4. 11x-Gregg Bakker, 5. 13-Strike Hill, 6. 9mx-Brad Ryun, 7. 14a-Andrew Turley, 8. 27-Mark Finnell, 9. 6-Kyle Hirst.
Heat Five (8 Laps): 1. 33-Austin Alumbaugh, 2. 17-Kyle Carpenter, 3. 95-Matt Covington, 4. 71-Channin Tankersley, 5. 3-Mark Shirshekan, 6. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 7. 14-Randy Martin, 8. 14k-Kyle Bellm, 9. 94-Danny Wood.
Heat Six (8 Laps): 1. 28-Jonathan Cornell, 2. 3g-Darren Long, 3. 75-Tyler Blank, 4. 7c-Chris Morgan, 5. 3z-Zach Davis, 6. 93k-Andy Korte, 7. 7-Eric Schrock, 8. 50z-Zach Chappell.
Heat Seven (8 Laps): 1. 99-Brady Bacon, 2. 41-Jason Johnson, 3. 44-Jon Corbin, 4. 1p-Curtis Evans, 5. 1a-Adam Jones, 6. 19s-Steven Cross, 7. 24-Lanny Carpenter, 8. 5m-Mallory Arnold.
“B” Mains (Top 2 From Each Advance to “A” Main):
First “B” Feature (12 Laps): 1. 93-Dustin Morgan, 2. 97-Aaron Berryhill, 3. 71-Channin Tankersley, 4. 9x-Gary Wright, 5. 0-Jason Martin, 6. 14k-Kyle Bellm, 7. 9m-Cody Baker, 8. 53x-Justin Jackson, 9. 26-Rafe Essary, 10. 11c-Dakota Carroll, 11. 19s-Steven Cross, 12. 14a-Andrew Turley, 13. 1a-Adam Jones. DNS: 27-Mark Finnell, 6-Kyle Hirst.
Second “B” Feature (12 Laps): 1. 11x-Gregg Bakker, 2. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 3. 17-Kyle Carpenter, 4. 0c-Preston Peebles II, 5. 9$-David Stephenson, 6. 94-Danny Wood, 7. 5m-Miranda Arnold, 8. 04-Kirby Hagans, 9. 3z-Zach Davis, 10. 14n-H.J. Norman, 11. 50z-Zach Chappell, 12. 24-Lanny Carpenter, 13. 8w-Jordan Whitehead. DNS: 44-Jon Corbin, 165-Haley Arnold.
Third “B” Feature (12 Laps): 1. 41-Jason Johnson, 2. 95-Matt Covington, 3. 1p-Curtis Evans, 4. 7c-Chris Morgan, 5. 14-Randy Martin, 6. 13-Strike Hill, 7. 72-Curtis Boyer, 8. 9mx-Brad Ryun, 9. 4-Evan Martin, 10. 93w-Andy Korte, 11. 21T-Eric Todd, 12. 3-Mark Shirshekan. DNS: 3p-Rusty Potter, 7-Eric Schrock, 6g-Bryan Gossel.
Lucas Oil Speedway “A” Main:
“A” Feature (30 Laps): 1. 88-Tim Crawley, 2. 57-Shane Stewart, 3. 99-Brady Bacon, 4. 28-Jonathan Cornell, 5. 41-Jason Johnson, 6. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 7. 93-Dustin Morgan, 8. 1-Sean McClelland, 9. 33-Austin Alumbaugh, 10. 3g-Darren Long, 11. 50z-Zach Chappell, 12. 10a-Ricky Logan, 13. 22-Dustin Barks, 14. 88k-J. Kinder, 15. 5h-Josh Fisher, 16. 21-Brian Brown, 17. 11x-Gregg Bakker, 18. 95-Matt Covington, 19. 94-Danny Wood, 20. 75-Tyler Blank, 21. 5$-Danny Smith, 22. 44-Jon Corbin, 23. 97-Aaron Berryhill, 24. 53-Jack Dover, 25. 29-Rusty Quick.
Lap Leaders: Jack Dover 1-9, Brady Bacon 10-25, Tim Crawley 26-35.
Note: Zach Chappell and Danny Wood both utilized their mid-season bonus full-point provisionals to start the main event; both have one partial-points provisional remaining. Jon Corbin utilized a Winged Outlaw Warriors provisional to start the main event.
Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters Points (Top 20): 1. Jason Johnson 2,406, 2. Brady Bacon 2,344, 3. Shane Stewart 2,333, 4. Tim Crawley 2,199, 5. Jack Dover 2,143, 6. Zach Chappell 2,136, 7. Tony Bruce, Jr. 2,121, 8. Danny Wood 1,991, 9. Kyle Hirst 1,989, 10. Ricky Logan 1,965, 11. Matt Covington 1,879, 12. Dustin Morgan 1,757, 13. Darren Long 1,752, 14. Channin Tankersley 1,635, 15. Justyn Cox 1,513, 16. Gary Wright 1,387, 17. Austen Wheatley 1,344, 18. Travis Rilat 1,152, 19. Brian Brown 850, 20. Andrew Marshala 823.