From John Rittenoure
Ada, OK — (July 26, 2014) — Saturday, July 26, 2014, is one day Andrew Deal won’t soon forget.
After breaking down on the road heading to Ada Deal considered turning around and going home. But thanks to Alex and Andy Sewell Deal found a ride to Oklahoma Sports Park and ended the day with his first OCRS feature win of the season behind the wheel of his Cagle Motorsports sprinter.
“We got to the other side of Kellyville and realized the motor home had an oil leak,” explained Deal who started his journey in his hometown of Caney, Kansas. “We got to looking and it had about two gallons more oil than it should. It was pumping fuel into the crankcase.”
The only hope was finding another tow vehicle.
“I made about 40 phone cars and Alex Sewell came and rescued us and got us here just in time to unload and make the heat race,” Deal said. “He got his dads truck and brought us down here. I can’t thank them enough. I am thankful to have good friends. It was a blessing just to make it here. They are good people. I owe them one.”
Deal and Sewell arrived just minutes before the first heat race. With just enough time to fire the race car Deal suited up and ran the opening heat where he finished second.
“We were good. We were ready,” Deal said. “I think we were faster than the first place car, but with the day we had I was not going to risk anything. I did not want to work on it.”
In the 25-lap feature Deal started tenth and worked his way toward the front. Late in the race Deal made a run at leader Danny Smith and drove low to take the lead away and become the 12th different winner in 15 events.
“He was running the top and I slid him a little bit and he tried to get back around me on top but it was too sandy,” Deal said of his move to the lead. “I just found a little bit different line down in three and four then he (Smith) was running.”
The only worry Deal had was whether or not his engine was going to overheat.
“The car got really hot, but I knew his was hot too, so I was not going to pull off,” Deal said of Smith.
“I was a little worried before that red as it was getting hot. We had the red and it cooled down a little bit.”
The red flag waved after Michael Bookout got his right rear tire into the front stretch wall and took a series of hard flips at the start-finish line. Mike Huard could not avoid Bookout and plowed into Bookouts 007 sprinter. A small fire erupted under the car but Bookout was pulled from the overturned sprinter. Bookout was a little shaken up but was able to walk to the pits on his own. Huard also exited his car unhurt.
On the restart Smith set the pace and Deal gave chase. However Smith could not hold on and settled for second. Johnny Kent, Gary Owens and Kade Morton rounded out the top five.
“We were overheating,” Smith said. “This is a brand new motor and we did not want to destroy it so we backed up a little bit. Andrew (Deal) was coming.
“We want to win but can’t afford to destroy stuff.”
In the opening laps Perry Pickard jumped into an early lead followed by Kyle Cobb and Derek Cottrell. But his lead was short lived after tangling with Jeff Garnett during the red flag for Bookout’s flip and ending his night.
OCRS Race Results
Oklahoma Sports Park
Saturday, July 26, 2014
21 Cars
(Pos-Car-Driver-Start)
AmeriFlex Hose and Accessories Heat
1, 5K-Koby Barksdale[2]. 2, 15D-Andrew Deal[3]. 3, 55-Johnny Kent[7]. 4, 33-Gary Owens[6]. 5, 88S-Shayla Waddell[5]. 6, 5-Cameron Hagin[4]. 7, 01-Mike Huard[1].
Bob Hurley Auto Family Heat
1, 4C-Kyle Cobb[1]. 2, 94-Dan Schnackenberg[3]. 3, P78-Perry Pickard[6]. 4, 9$-Kyle Clark[7]. 5, 007-Michael Bookout[5]. 6, 25-Chuck Bellefeuille[4]. 7, 51F-Billy Fields[2].
Drive Shafts Inc. Heat
1, 5$-Danny Smith[1]. 2, 9-Derek Cottrell[2]. 3, 8M-Kade Morton[3]. 4, 7M-Chance Morton[6]. 5, 3G-Jeff Garnett[4]. 6, F5-Darrell McGuire[5]. 7, 20S-Sheldon Barksdale[7].
OCRS A Feature
1, 15D-Andrew Deal[10]. 2, 5$-Danny Smith[11]. 3, 55-Johnny Kent[9]. 4, 33-Gary Owens[12]. 5, 8M-Kade Morton[7]. 6, 9-Derek Cottrell[4]. 7, 9$-Kyle Clark[5]. 8, 88S-Shayla Waddell[13]. 9, 5-Cameron Hagin[16]. 10, 25-Chuck Bellefeuille[17]. 11, F5-Darrell McGuire[18]. 12, 3G-Jeff Garnett[15]. 13, P78-Perry Pickard[2]. 14, 007-Michael Bookout[14]. 15, 51F-Billy Fields[20]. 16, 01-Mike Huard[19]. 17, 5K-Koby Barksdale[6]. 18, 7M-Chance Morton[8]. 19, 94-Dan Schnackenberg[1]. 20, 4C-Kyle Cobb[3]. DNS: 20S-Sheldon Barksdale.