From USAC, Bill Miller photo
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Grant started 11th, but he could only watch as the battle raged up front. Bryan Clauson jumped to the early lead but was quickly joined by Chris Windom, who moved to the lead on lap 5. Windom stretched out his lead, but that came to an abrupt halt on lap 8 as he hit the turn-three wall and flipped. He climbed out unscathed.
Dave Darland assumed the lead, but Clauson came calling again. Using the extreme upper regions of the speedway, Clauson finally circled Darland in turn-two for the lead on lap 19 as Grant was moving into the top-five. Just a lap later, Jonathan Hendrick’s fine run up to third after setting fast time ended as he slowed to a stop.
After a caution two laps later for Shane Cottle, who went up in smoke while in third, Clauson checked out on the field. Grant was on the move and stole second from Darland, who made contact with Grant the next lap and spun in turn one.
With just two laps to go, Clauson’s right-rear tire deflated under yellow and he was forced to head for the work area. With Clauson restarting, Grant ran two mistake-free laps to notch the popular victory in the Sunset Meats – S&H Nerf Bars #40 DRC/Claxton.
“My driver got lost on the way here, and we showed up after hot laps. It worked out alright. I could see Clauson’s right-rear going flat, and I love to get a win any way I can, but you hate to see that for him. It’s incredible to win our first USAC feature. I gotta thank Mark Hery so much for letting me run this thing all the time. He just wants to race all the time, which is great,” Grant said.
Damion Gardner came home second after starting 12th in the DG Racing – Pace Lighting #71 Eagle/Shaver.
“The car was good in the main. My guys are working really hard. We just gotta get a little better start. It’s hard to start 12th and beat these guys. It’s about being there and maybe having a shot at the end. I tried to be smooth, and I was hoping for him to make a mistake. I just wasn’t comfortable enough to throw any banzai move at him,” Gardner said.
Coleman Gulick capped off and eventful night with his best career finish, a third aboard the Hazardous Sports – Rob’s Market #14 DRC/Claxton.
“It’s a great night for us. I gotta thank Fred Click, our new head wrench. My crew has been on me about being patient and hitting my marks. It’s ok to run the bottom every once in a while. I kinda stuck with that and it worked out for us tonight. Maybe you’ll see me down there a little more,” Gulick said.
Hunter Schuerenberg made a comeback late in the feature to pick off a few spots and finish fourth in the Fatheadz Eyewear – R&B Trucker’s #35 Spike/Rider, and Levi Jones picked up the “Hard Charger Award” after coming from 21st to finish fifth in the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing – Chevy Performance #20 Maxim/Kistler.
AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: July 15, 2012 – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – Lawrenceburg Speedway – 25th AMSOIL “Indiana Sprint Week”
QUALIFYING: 1. Jonathan Hendrick, 68, Hendrick-13.703; 2. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-13.716; 3. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.794; 4. Dave Darland, 11, Walker-13.815; 5. Jon Stanbrough, 21x, Roberts/Tate-13.912; 6. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.913; 7. Coleman Gulick, 14, Gulick-13.918; 8. Bryan Clauson, 7, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-13.921; 9. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-13.948; 10. Shane Cottle, 2, Epperson-13.956; 11. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-13.965; 12. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-14.030; 13. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-14.031; 14. Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-14.071; 15. Bobby East, 5E, East-14.092; 16. Kyle Cummins, 3c, Cummins-14.131; 17. Logan Hupp, 9H, Hupp-14.137; 18. Chad Boespflug, 98, Boespflug-14.158; 19. Scotty Weir, 77, Wingo-14.161; 20. Wes McIntyre, 83, McIntyre-14.170; 21. Jerry Coons Jr., 71p, Phillips-14.188; 22. Brady Short, 36, Short-14.214; 23. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-14.232; 24. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-14.237; 25. Jace Vander Weerd, 88, Vander Weerd-14.237; 26. Logan
Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-14.249; 27. Brett Burdette, 17B, Burdette-14.256; 28. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart-14.260; 29. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-14.278; 30. Darren Hagen, 69, Dynamics-14.284; 31. Richard Vander Weerd, 10, Vander Weerd-14.294; 32. Andrew Elson, 27a, Elson-14.312; 33. Thomas Meseraull, 18, Keen-14.317; 34. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9k, Black Jack-14.355; 35. Brent Beauchamp, 11B, Beauchamp-14.492; 36. Chase Briscoe, 5B, Briscoe-14.558; 37. Jeff Bland Jr., 38, Bland-14.604; 38. Kevin Studley, 57, Studley-14.725; 39. Drew Abel, 04, Abel-15.145.
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Coons, 2. Stanbrough, 3. Hupp, 4. J.Vander Weerd, 5. Mitchell, 6. Hendrick, 7. Ted Hines, 8. Meseraull, 9. Bland, 10. Gardner. 2:25.68
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Schuerenberg, 2. Tracy Hines, 3. Cottle, 4. Windom, 5. Boespflug, 6. Thomas, 7. Jarrett, 8. Hagen,. 9. Studley, 10. Short. NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Jackson, 2. East, 3. Stockon, 4. Beauchamp, 5. Leary, 6. Burdette, 7. R.Vander Weerd, 8. Abel, 9. Weir, 10. Gulick. 2:27.99
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. McIntyre, 2. Ballou, 3. Darland, 4. Clauson, 5. Jones, 6. Elson, 7. Grant, 8. Cummins, 9. Briscoe. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Hendrick, 2. Gulick, 3. Grant, 4. Leary, 5. Jones, 6. Gardner, 7. Mitchell, 8. Boespflug, 9. Elson, 10. Meseraull, 11. Jarrett, 12. Weir, 13. Short, 14. R.Vander Weerd, 15. Hagen, 16. Thomas, 17. Ted Hines, 18. Briscoe, 19. Burdette, 20. Abel, 21. Studley, 22. Cummins. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Damion Gardner, 3. Coleman Gulick, 4. Hunter Schuerenberg, 5. Levi Jones, 6. Robert Ballou, 7. Tracy Hines, 8. Jon Stanbrough, 9. Chase Stockon, 10. Bobby East, 11. Matt Mitchell, 12. Jerry Coons Jr., 13. Darren Hagen, 14. Kevin Thomas Jr., 15. Brent Beauchamp, 16. Logan Hupp, 17. C.J. Leary, 18. Wes McIntyre, 19. Dave Darland, 20. Jace Vander Weerd, 21. Dakota Jackson, 22. Bryan Clauson, 23. Shane Cottle, 24. Jonathan Hendrick, 25. Chris Windom. NT
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**Windom flipped on lap eight of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Clauson, Laps 5-7 Windom, Laps 8-18 Darland, Laps 19-28 Clauson, Laps 29-30 Grant.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Stanbrough-876; 2-Jones-851; 3-Gardner-802; 4-Darland-783; 5-Hines-748; 6-Schuerenberg-658; 7-Clauson-658; 8-Ballou-644; 9-Hagen-636; 10-Windom-619.
NEW AMSOIL INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Jones-110, 2-Stanbrough-109, 3-Gardner-106, 4-Schuerenberg-92, 5-Clauson-90, 6-Darland-83, 7-Stockon-78, 8-Gulick-75, 9-Hines-75, 10-Coons-75.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: July 16 – Kokomo (IN) Speedway – 25th AMSOIL “Indiana Sprint Week”