From Dick Jordan
Putnamville, Indiana…….Brady Bacon listed Lincoln Park Speedway as his arch nemesis heading into Thursday night’s Round 5 of “Indiana Sprint Week,” but the defending AMSOIL Sprint Car National Champion reversed his recent showings at the Putnamville, Indiana oval to pick up his fifth win of the year.
Bacon led at the outset from the front row as polesitter Max McGhee took the second spot while Kevin Thomas, Jr. got rolling early on the high side to take third. A caution on lap eight saw Jerry Coons, Jr. in the fourth spot, but he was on the move forward using the bottom.
A red flag on Lap 13 for Jake Swanson set up a restart that Coons used to take the lead, as he rotated underneath Bacon through turns one and two and powered down the backstretch in front. Bacon battled back, though, and he worked back in front of Coons on lap 14 just before the final caution of the night.
The final half of the race saw Bacon perform flawlessly down low on the speedway, as Thomas, Jr. finally cleared Coons for second and came after him using the extreme high side of the track. He closed to within a few car lengths before Bacon pulled away again. At the line, Bacon held a .596-second advantage to take his 13th career victory, tying him for 38th all-time with Don Branson and Steve Chassey. It was also the 91st victory for the famed Hoffman Auto Racing – Mean Green #69 Triple X/Williams Mopar.
“It’s no secret that this place has had our number, but we’ve worked and worked and tried everything we could think of to try to make this car better here. We measured and cut on this car, and my Hoffman guys are just tireless workers who always put in the effort to get us better. I had one bad lap on the restart where my line had gone away some and the bottom was worked in enough for Jerry to sneak under me. I just got back after him and hit my marks to keep it out front after that,” Bacon said.
Thomas rebounded from a tough Wednesday night to take home the runner-up spot after relentlessly trying every line imaginable in the Bakken Concrete – Indiana Underground Construction #17RW Maxim/Fisher.
“One and two worked for me early on, but it was my big problem at the end. We were rolling right through three and four and get a great run, but I couldn’t finish on the other end. It’s a lot better than how we ran last night, and we needed to get back in the battle up front. Obviously we want to win, but it was a good night and we were going forward,” Thomas said.
Coons held strong in the third spot to take another podium finish at Putnamville aboard the Edison Motorsports – Crume Evans Insurance #10E Spike/Chevy.
“I was hoping I could sneak up there, and I had a good rhythm going on the bottom. I got him, and then I kinda goofed on my entry and he drove back by me when I screwed up. He got to the bottom more after that, and that yellow just cost me my rhythm or something, because we had nothing for him after that. It was a fun race coming from seventh, as tough as that is, and I’m happy with our run. We’ve definitely gotten better on that kinda race track and running that line,” Coons said.
Hunter Schuerenberg continued his strong week with a fourth-place finish after capturing the ProSource “Fast Time Award” earlier in the night in the Epperson Painting – PPG #2E Spike/Claxton, and Brady Short came from 22nd to finish fifth and earn himself the B&W Auto Mart “Hard Charger Award” in the Pottorff Logging – Sipe’s Body & Glass #11P Maxim/SPEC.
Thomas Meseraull earned the night’s American Racing Ministries “Perseverance Award” as the last transfer spot from the night’s Semi-Feature.
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AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 16, 2015 – Putnamville, Indiana – Lincoln Park Speedway – 28th Annual “Indiana Sprint Week”
QUALIFYING: 1. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-12.953; 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 17RW, Dutcher-13.097; 3. Chad Boespflug, 66, Amati-13.129; 4. Carson Short, 21, Short-13.214; 5. Cole Smith, 29x, Smith-13.225; 6. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-13.226; 7. Jake Swanson, 92, Sertich-13.297; 8. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.336; 9. Chase Stockon, 32, 32TBI-13.354; 10. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.381; 11. Scotty Weir, 11, Walker-13.390; 12. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.394; 13. Thomas Meseraull, 39, Goodnight-13.419; 14. Chris Windom, 21x, Pollock-13.421; 15. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.446; 16. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-13.446; 17. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-13.473; 18. Mike Gass, 17G, Gass-13.496; 19. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.498; 20. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-13.529; 21. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-13.583; 22. Chris Phillips, 6p, Phillips-13.617; 23. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.628; 24. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.674; 25. Mitch Wissmiller, 1W, Wissmiller-13.678; 26. Bill Rose, 6, Rose-13.685; 27. Tyler Courtney, 4, THR-13.693; 28. Justin Grant, 5, Baldwin-13.717; 29. Shelby VanGilder, 22V, VanGilder-13.722; 30. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-13.726; 31. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-13.778; 32. Bryan Clauson, 7, Clauson-13.800; 33. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.811; 34. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.838; 35. Casey Shuman, 2x, Barnhill-13.850; 36. Austin Prock, 77, Wingo-13.852; 37. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.867; 38. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-13.868; 39. Chris Babcock, 35, Babcock-13.870; 40. Kevin Studley, 57x, Studley-14.026; 41. Kyle Wissmiller, 3x, Simmons-14.074; 42. Nathan Moore, 48, Moore-14.488; 43. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-15.019; 44. Matt McDonald, 5M, McDonald-15.558; 45. Clyde Knipp, 13, Korte-15.608; 46. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Byram-NT; 47. Lee Dakus, 75, Dakus-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Beauchamp, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. M.Wissmiller, 5. Stockon, 6. Farney, 7. Robbins, 8. K.Wissmiller, 9. VanGilder, 10. Knipp, 11. Meseraull, 12. Smith. NT
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Phillips, 3. McGhee, 4. K.Thomas, 5. Coons, 6. Gass, 7. B.Short, 8. Rose, 9. Andretti, 10. Ketcham, 11. Moore. NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Stanbrough, 3. Boespflug, 4. Weir, 5. Leary, 6. Babcock, 7. Courtney, 8. Simon, 9. Shuman, 10. Bell, 11. J.Swanson. NT
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Hodges, 3. C.Short, 4. S.Cottle, 5. Clauson, 6. Jarrett, 7. Prock, 8. Studley, 9. McDonald, 10. DiMattia, 11. Grant. NT
QUALIFYING RACE: (10 laps) 1. Andretti, 2. Farney, 3. B.Short, 4. Shuman, 5. Babcock,6. Prock, 7. Studley, 8. K.Wissmiller, 9. Bell, 10. Knipp. 2:22.15
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Coons, 2. J.Swanson, 3. Leary, 4. B.Short, 5. Clauson, 6. Meseraull, 7. Grant, 8. Courtney, 9. Farney, 10. Rose, 11. Jarrett, 12. Shuman, 13. VanGilder, 14. Andretti, 15. Gass, 16. Stockon, 17. Ketcham, 18. Robbins, 19. Simon. 2:47.80
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Jerry Coons Jr., 4. Hunter Schuerenberg, 5. Brady Short, 6. Robert Ballou, 7. Jon Stanbrough, 8. Chris Windom, 9. Dave Darland, 10. Chase Stockon, 11. Scotty Weir, 12. Aaron Farney, 13. Max McGhee, 14. Josh Hodges, 15. Bryan Clauson, 16. Brent Beauchamp, 17. Chris Phillips, 18. Shane Cottle, 19. Thomas Meseraull, 20. Jake Swanson, 21. Carson Short, 22. Chad Boespflug, 23. C.J. Leary, 24. Mitch Wissmiller. NT
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**Smith flipped during the first heat. Andretti flipped during the second heat. Grant flipped during the fourth heat. Swanson flipped on lap 13 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Bacon, Lap 13 Coons, Laps 14-30 Bacon.