Hagar sweeps opening weekend for NSL 360’s at 81 Speedway

Derek Hagar in victory lane at 81 Speedway. (Image courtesy of Inside Line Promotions)
Derek Hagar in victory lane at 81 Speedway. (Image courtesy of Inside Line Promotions)

From Inside Line Promotions

Park City, KS — (March 26, 2016) — Derek Hagar proudly climbed up the back of his sprint car and onto the top wing, where he hoisted a broom that symbolized his dominance throughout the opening weekend of the season for the GoMuddy.com National Sprint League 360 Sprint Car Series.

Hagar led all 35 laps on Saturday at 81 Speedway to cap the two-day Park City Cup/Air Capital Shootout, which was co-sanctioned with the GoMuddy.com NCRA/NSL 360 Region, with a pair of feature wins, including Saturday’s main event that provided a $10,000 check – the largest of his career.

“Maybe I’ll have to take Monday off because I’m sure we’ll be doing a little bit of partying,” Hagar beamed in Victory Lane. “I was just trying to save my tires. I had to put my silver crown experience into play. I knew I had to get my elbows up the last 10 laps. It paid off tonight. We’re sitting on the front straightaway $10,000 richer.”

Saturday was like a carbon copy of the previous night for Hagar, who led the distance of Friday’s 25-lap main event after starting on the outside of the front row. Once again, Hagar earned the second-most points during heat race and qualifier competition to start Saturday’s feature on the outside of polesitter Ian Madsen.

“Try to get the lead early,” Hagar said of his pre-race goal. “It’s hard to lead one of these things with this caliber of drivers behind you. I just had to run my race and keep clicking the laps off.”

Hagar did just that as he took the top spot entering turn one on the opening lap. The first caution came on Lap 2 when ninth-running Danny Wood flipped down the frontstretch.

Hagar had a strong restart and pulled away to a sizeable advantage before entering traffic on Lap 9. He owned more than a three-second lead when a caution on Lap 15 closed the gap for Madsen, who had two lapped cars between himself and the leader.

Traffic came into play on Lap 20 and Hagar’s three-second advantage was slowly erased as Madsen closed within two tenths of a second prior to the final caution with seven laps remaining. However, with a clear track ahead of him Hagar maintained the top spot in the closing laps to sweep the weekend.

“They had an awesome weekend,” Madsen said. “They should celebrate it because it doesn’t happen like that very often.”

Brian Brown maneuvered to fourth place on Lap 14 and to third on Lap 16 before ending in that position to round out the podium.

“You don’t want to use all your stuff up the first quarter or half of the race,” he said. “In clean air we weren’t free enough to do what we did last night. If we would have been a tad bit better earlier we may have had something for them.

“I think it was a pretty successful weekend (for the GoMuddy.com NSL 360 Series). It’s a good series to race with.”

Danny Lasoski, who is a two-time winner of the event, finished fourth with Parker Price-Miller placing fifth.

Madsen, Justin Henderson, Lasoski, Chris Morgan and Cody Ledger all scored a victory in heat race action with Don Droud Jr., Luke Cranston, Wood and Madsen capturing qualifier wins. Jordon Mallett and Tyler Thomas picked up triumphs during twin B Mains.

The GoMuddy.com NSL 360 Series returns to action next Saturday, April 2, at Randolph County Raceway in Moberly, Mo., with the GoMuddy.com NSL 360 Show-Me Region. Fans unable to attend the event can watch live Pay-Per-View video by visiting http://www.SpeedShiftTV.com .

GoMuddy.com National Sprint League 360 Sprint Car Series Race Report: 81 Speedway in Park City, Kan., on March 26, 2016 –

Heat Race #1 (8 Laps): 1. 18-Ian Madsen (1); 2. 21-Brian Brown (3); 3. 10c-Jeremy Campbell (4); 4. 81w-Danny Wood (5); 5. 76-Jay Russell (6); 6. 75-Tommy Barber (2); 7. 4j-John Carney II (7); 8. 50z-Zach Chappell (DNS).

Heat Race #2 (8 Laps): 1. 24bh-Justin Henderson (3); 2. 14m-Jordon Mallett (6); 3. 9n-Wade Nygaard (8); 4. 85-Forrest Sutherland (7); 5. 28-Tracey Hill (4); 6. 33-Kris Miller (5); 7. 31b-Sheldon Haudenschild (2); 8. 17w-Harli White (1).

Heat Race #3 (8 Laps): 1. 33l-Danny Lasoski (1); 2. E85-Tony Bruce Jr. (2); 3. 9jr-Derek Hagar (8); 4. 81-Jon Freeman (5); 5. 45x-C.J. Johnson (7); 6. 81s-Stu Snyder (6); 7. 47-Brant O’Bannion (4); 8. 20g-Jake Greider (3).

Heat Race #4 (8 Laps): 1. 81a-Chris Morgan (4); 2. 2-Parker Price-Miller (5); 3. 86-Tyler Thomas (6); 4. 1x-Don Droud Jr. (7); 5. 21x-Taylor Velasquez (3); 6. 6-Kaden Taylor (1); 7. 4jx-Lee Grosz (DNS).

Heat Race #5 (8 Laps): 1. 35L-Cody Ledger (6); 2. 75k-Zach Daum (2); 3. 20-Luke Cranston (3); 4. 72-Ray Seemann (7); 5. 14-Josh Riggins (5); 6. 51-Josh Fairbank (4); 7. 91-Jeff Stasa (1).

Qualifier #1 (10 Laps): 1. 1x-Don Droud Jr. (2); 2. 33l-Danny Lasoski (4); 3. E85-Tony Bruce Jr. (3); 4. 24bh-Justin Henderson (5); 5. 45x-C.J. Johnson (1); 6. 35l-Cody Ledger (6); 7. 21x-Taylor Velasquez (7); 8. 75-Tommy Barber (8); 9. 31b-Sheldon Haudenschild (DNS); 10. 50z-Zach Chappell (DNS).

Qualifier #2 (10 Laps): 1. 20-Luke Cranston (2); 2. 21-Brian Brown (4); 3. 2-Parker Price-Miller (5); 4. 76-Jay Russell (1); 5. 4j-John Carney II (8); 6. 75k-Zach Daum (3); 7. 14m-Jordon Mallett (6); 8. 81s-Stu Synder (7); 9. 91-Jeff Stasa (DNS); 10. 4jx-Lee Grosz (DNS).

Qualifier #3 (10 Laps): 1. 81w-Danny Wood (2); 2. 10c-Jeremy Campbell (3); 3. 85-Forrest Sutherland (4); 4. 81a-Chris Morgan (5); 5. 9n-Wade Nygaard (6); 6. 33-Kris Miller (7); 7. 14-Josh Riggins (1); 8. 20g-Jake Greider (9); 9. 6-Kaden Taylor (8).

Qualifier #4 (10 Laps): 1. 18-Ian Madsen (5); 2. 81-Jon Freeman (2); 3. 9jr-Derek Hagar (6); 4. 86-Tyler Thomas (3); 5. 47-Brant O’Bannion (8); 6. 72-Ray Seemann (4); 7. 51-Josh Fairbank (7); 8. 28-Tracey Hill (1); 9. 17w-Harli White (DNS).

B Main #1 (10 Laps/Top 4 Transfer): 1. 14m-Jordon Mallett (1); 2. 4j-John Carney II (4); 3. 76-Jay Russell (3); 4. 72-Ray Seemann (2); 5. 81s-Stu Synder (7); 6. 33-Kris Miller (5); 7. 20g-Jake Greider (9); 8. 14-Josh Riggins (DNS); 9. 75-Tommy Barber (DNS); 10. 17w-Harli White (DNS); 11. 31b-Sheldon Haudenschild (DNS).

B Main #2 (10 Laps/Top 4 Transfer): 1. 86-Tyler Thomas (1); 2. 45x-C.J. Johnson (3); 3. 21x-Taylor Velasquez (5); 4. 47-Brant O’Bannion (4); 5. 91-Jeff Stasa (9); 6. 75k-Zach Daum (2); 7. 6-Kaden Taylor (8); 8. 28-Tracey Hill (7); 9. 51-Josh Fairbank (DNS); 10. 4jx-Lee Grosz (DNS); 11. 50z-Zach Chappell (DNS).

A Feature (35 Laps): 1. 9jr-Derek Hagar (2); 2. 18-Ian Madsen (1); 3. 21-Brian Brown (5); 4. 33l-Danny Lasoski (4); 5. 2-Parker Price-Miller (3); 6. 1x-Don Droud Jr. (6); 7. 10c-Jeremy Campbell (11); 8. 9n-Wade Nygaard (13); 9. 86-Tyler Thomas (18); 10. 20-Luke Cranston (8); 11. E85-Tony Bruce Jr. (15); 12. 4j-John Carney II (19); 13. 81a-Chris Morgan (12); 14. 24bh-Justin Henderson (7); 15. 14m-Jordon Mallett (17); 16. 85-Forrest Sutherland (14); 17. 72-Ray Seemann (23); 18. 47-Brant O’Bannion (24); 19. 21x-Taylor Velasquez (22); 20. 81-Jon Freeman (16); 21. 76-Jay Russell (21); 22. 45x-C.J. Johnson (20); 23. 81w-Danny Wood (10); 24. 35l-Cody Ledger (9). Laps led: Derek Hagar 1-35.

(The top 24 in passing and finishing points in the heat races were inverted in the qualifiers. The top 16 in overall passing and finishing points following the qualifiers locked into the A Main.)