From USAC
Kokomo, Indiana…….Dave Darland of Lincoln, Indiana returned to victory lane at his hometown track as he ran the mean cushion of Kokomo Speedway to Monday night’s 30-lap Feature win. It was Darland’s record 16th-career AMSOIL “Indiana Sprintweek” victory.
Local youngster Logan Jarrett shot to the early lead, but it was Jon Stanbrough flexing his muscle on lap two to grab the lead and check out on the field. The fast pace set by Stanbrough left a gaggle of cars fighting for top-five spots while he put many lapped cars in between them.
Meanwhile, Bryan Clauson was on a tear through the field. With Stanbrough way out front, Clauson sliced through Darland, Tracy Hines, and Levi Jones to take the second spot, but he was well behind the leader.
With just nine laps remaining, the caution flew for Kyle Cummins, and leader Jon Stanbrough had to pit with a flat right-rear tire. Clauson assumed the lead, and after a restart with six laps remaining, Darland made his move for the lead. After Darland stalked him on the cushion, Clauson jumped to the top on the restart. But Darland was ready, and he fired a slider into the first corner. Clauson countered him, but the following lap saw Darland find his line against the cushion in turns one and two, and he flashed by Clauson down the backstretch for the lead.
Darland survived one more restart to take the win in the Jeff Walker Racing #11 Maxim/Claxton Chevy sponsored by Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage and Parker Store.
“To race here at Kokomo and run that cushion like that, up close to the wall all the way around is just a blast. I gotta thank Jeff Walker and everybody who helps us. I didn’t want to see that yellow when I was gaining on him, but we got a good restart and got going up on the top,” Darland said in front of an energized crowd.
Clauson fended off Jones for the second spot in the Curb Records – R&B Trucker’s #7 Maxim/Fisher.
“The boys had it hooked up again. When it gets up on the fence like that, though, you’re gonna have a hard time beating Darland. You saw that, he drove right by us. It’s a good bounce back from last night, and hopefully we can keep the momentum going. We feel like we’ve had the best car all three nights, but Darland just got me tonight,” Clauson said.
Jones ended up third after starting ninth in the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing – Chevy Performance #20 Maxim/Kistler Chevy.
“Bryan and I were having a pretty good race there for a while. Then all of a sudden, Dave got rolling on the top. He’s won 170,000 races here around the top, it seems like. He’s still the best running the cushion here. We hate to lose, and we’ve been really close every night. We’ve got a day to work on our car and looking forward to four more nights,” Jones said.
Hunter Schuerenberg finished fourth in the Fatheadz Eyewear – R&B Trucker’s #35 Spike/Rider, while Darren Hagen rounded out the top-five in the Mean Green – Oxydol #69 Chalk/Stanton Mopar.
AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: July 16, 2012 – Kokomo, IN – Kokomo Speedway – 25th AMSOIL “Indiana Sprint Week”
QUALIFYING: 1. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-12.825; 2. Bobby East, 5E, East-12.891; 3. Brent Beauchamp, 11B, Beauchamp-12.905; 4. Dave Darland, 11, Walker-12.952; 5. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-13.030; 6. Richard VanderWeerd, 10, VanderWeerd-13.031; 7. Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-13.034; 8. Darren Hagen, 69, Dynamics-13.040; 9. Chad Boespflug, 98, Boespflug-13.041; 10. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-13.043; 11. Jon Stanbrough, 21x, Roberts/Tate-13.046; 12. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.057; 13. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.071; 14. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-13.093; 15. A.J. Hopkins, 14H, Hopkins-13.112; 16. Scotty Weir, 77, Wingo-13.126; 17. Bryan Clauson, 7, Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-13.154; 18. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-13.165; 19. Jerry Coons, Jr., 71P, Phillips-13.184; 20. Casey Shuman, 10E, Edison-13.247; 21. Coleman Gulick, 14, Gulick-13.266; 22. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-13.267; 23. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.289; 24. Jonathan Hendrick, 68, Hendrick-13.306; 25. Kyle Cummins, 3c, Cummins-13.307; 26. Thomas Meseraull, 41, Stensland-13.323; 27. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-13.344; 28. Wesley Gordon, 23H, Harner-13.384; 29. Logan Hupp, 9H, Hupp-13.454; 30. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-13.471; 31. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, Black Jack-13.479; 32. Shane Cottle, 2, Epperson-13.545; 33. Jace Vander Weerd, 88, Vander Weerd-13.571; 34. Andrew Elson, 27A, Elson-13.592; 35. Josh Burton, 04, Burton-13.662; 36. Drew Abel, 04x, Abel-13.738; 37. Chris Gurley, 12G, Team Automotive-13.776; 38. Wes McIntyre, 83, McIntyre-13.910; 39. Seth Parker, 38P, Parker-13.987; 40. Tyler Hewitt, 21H, Hewitt-14.427.
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Clauson, 2. Gulick, 3. Boespflug, 4. Jarrett, 5. Hines, 6. Jones, 7. Hupp, 8. Cummins, 9. Gurley, 10. J. Vander Weerd. 2:13.99
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Gardner, 3. East, 4. Mitchell, 5. Grant, 6. McIntyre, 7. Elson, 8. Meseraull, 9. R. Vander Weerd, 10. Jackson. NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Stanbrough, 3. Thomas, 4. Coons, 5. Schuerenberg, 6. Ballou, 7. Hopkins, 8. Beauchamp, 9. Parker, 10. Burton. NT
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Shuman, 2. Hendrick, 3. Weir, 4. Darland, 5. Leary, 6. Hagen, 7. Cottle, 8. Gordon, 9. Hewitt. 2:13.77
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Hines, 2. Jones, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. Beauchamp, 5. Cummins, 6. Hagen, 7. McIntyre, 8. Grant, 9. Cottle, 10. Leary, 11. Elson, 12. Jackson, 13. Hupp, 14. Meseraull, 15. Parker, 16. Hopkins, 17. J. Vander Weerd, 18. Gurley, 19. Gordon, 20. Ballou, 21. Hewitt. 2:46.01
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Dave Darland, 2. Bryan Clauson, 3. Levi Jones, 4. Hunter Schuerenberg, 5. Darren Hagen, 6. Casey Shuman, 7. Chase Stockon, 8. Jerry Coons, Jr., 9. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 10. Bobby East, 11. Matt Mitchell, 12. Robert Ballou, 13. Damion Gardner, 14. Chris Windom, 15. Scotty Weir, 16. Jonathan Hendrick, 17. Jon Stanbrough, 18. Chad Boespflug, 19. C.J. Leary, 20. Logan Jarrett, 21. Tracy Hines, 22. Coleman Gulick, 23. Jace Vander Weerd, 24. Kyle Cummins, 25. Brent Beauchamp. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1 Jarrett, Laps 2-21 Stanbrough, Laps 22-25 Clauson, Laps 26-30 Darland.
**Abel flipped in Qualifying. R. Vander Weerd flipped in Heat 2.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Jones-910; 2-Stanbrough-902; 3-Darland-851; 4-Gardner-836; 5-Hines-771; 6-Clauson-723; 7-Schuerenberg-711; 8-Hagen-685; 9-Ballou-673; 10-Windom-662.
NEW AMSOIL INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Jones-169; 2-Clauson-155; 3-Darland-151; 4-Schuerenberg-145; 5-Gardner-140; 6-Stanbrough-135; 7-Stockon-128; 8-Coons-119; 9-East-112; 10-Hines-98.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: July 18 – Terre Haute, IN – Terre Haute Action Track – “Don Smith Classic” – 25th AMSOIL “Indiana Sprint Week”