By TJ Buffenbarger
Rossburg, OH — (May 7, 2016) — Chad Boespflug claimed his first Eldora Speedway victory in dominating style with the USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series during the “Let’s Race Two” weekend Saturday night at Eldora Speedway. Boespflug, from Hanford, California, drove off from the rest of the field through a multitude of restarts holding off Brady Bacon for the victory. The win was Boespflug’s second career USAC National Sprint Car victory.
“I kept pulling my helmet strap a little tighter each yellow and red. These guys are so tough,” said Boespflug about the restarts towards the end of the event. “The Hoffman’s have been doing it forever, I was fortunate enough to drive for them once or twice. I know how good they are and Thomas (Meseraull) He’s been good here since he got in the 66. Those guys work hard every night. When you see those numbers up on the board behind you, you know you have to get you elbows up and go for the win.”
The win was the first of the year for Boespflug while taking his own team on the road with new partners.
“This is huge. Over the winter last year, I did some ride jumping. Luckily Chuck (Eberhardt) and Fred (Zirzow) kind of teamed up this year. I had my mind set after last year than I wanted to do my own thing. It’s extremely hard and it costs a lot of money, as everybody knows, and to get another USAC win and especially here. I was telling everyone I didn’t want to be a one hit wonder; I guess we’re not that now.”
Boesfplug and Swanson started on the front row for the 30-lap main event with Boespflug taking the lead at the start and immediately opening up a sizeable advantage with Swanson and Windom trying to keep pace with a gaggle of cars stacked up two and three wide racing for fourth on back. In the middle of that pack was defending USAC National Sprint Car champion Robert Ballou charging to the front. Ballou worked his way into fifth and was able to throw a big slide job on Aaron Farney for fifth and Chase Stockton for fourth on the second on consecutive laps. Then while working lap four Ballou tried the same move on Windom, but was unsuccessful as the duo collided with Windom getting upside down hard in turn one and collected Bryan Clauson in the process. Windom emerged from the car under his own power with only Clauson able to make the restart.
Boespflug pulled away again during the restart as Bacon started his march towards the front following the restart. Bacon slid past Chase Stockon for third position in turn one on lap five with Thomas Meseraull, who had to switch to a backup car after a grinding crash with C.J. Leary during his heat race, followed Bacon around Stockon one lap later to claim third. Bacon continued to move through the pack passing Kody Swanson for second on lap 13 and Boespflug began to encounter slower traffic. Meseraull also kept pace moving into third on lap 14 around Swanson.
Bacon closed on Boespflug for the lead while racing through heavy traffic. Boespflug was up to the challenge though sliding by two lapped cars in turn three in one swoop on lap 16 that allowed him to gain some distance between himself and Bacon. One lap later the caution appeared for debris on the front stretch. Boespflug used the advantage of two lapped cars between himself and Bacon to open up some distance even though Bacon quickly disposed of the slower cars. Another caution when Tony DiMattia caught the wall coming off turn four and blew a right rear tire and lengthy caution erased Boespflug’s advantage again. As Boespflug pulled away again the red flag appeared when Dallas Hewitt had a car make contact with his front end, breaking it, and sending him into wild series of flips off of turn two. Cole Ketcham had nowhere to go and made contact with Hewitt and also got upside down. Both drivers emerged from the cars uninjured.
During the restart following the red for Hewitt and Ketcham Bacon was able to hang closer to Boespflug. Just as it appeared Bacon was setting up to challenge for the lead the yellow appeared again for debris between turns three and four with just five laps to go.
The subsequent restart Boespflug left no doubt as he motored away to his first Eldora victory over Bacon and Meseraull. Leary and Tyler Courtney rounded out the top five. Meseraull’s third place finish allowed him to keep the USAC National Sprint Car Series point standings.
USAC Amsoil National Sprint Car Series
Eldora Speedway
Rossburg, OH
Saturday April 7, 2016
Qualifications:
1. 40 – Chris Windom, 15.983
2. 66 – Thomas Meseraull, 15.985
3. 1 – Robert Ballou, 16.027
4. 17 – Max McGhee, 16.048
5. 63 – Bryan Clauson, 16.056
6. 32 – Chase Stockon, 16.057
7. 15F – Aaron Farney, 16.106
8. 63X – Kody Swanson, 16.113
9. 98E – Chad Boespflug, 16.123
10. 3R – Kyle Cummins, 16.147
11. 69 – Brady Bacon, 16.190
12. 23C – Tyler Courtney, 16.198
13. 17GP – C.J. Leary, 16.204
14. 21 – Carson Short, 16.204
15. 50 – Tony DiMattia, 16.218
16. 11 – Dave Darland, 16.363
17. 10 – Aric Gentry, 16.369
18. 57 – Shane Cottle, 16.394
19. 24 – Landon Simon, 16.475
20. 52 – Issac Chapple, 16.543
21. 18 – Scotty Wier, 16.546
22. 38 – Matt Westfall, 16.583
23. 15 – Brandon Whited, 16.724
24. 5 – Dallas Hewitt, 16.750
25. 41K – Cole Ketcham, 16.881
26. 97 – Bret Mellenberndt, 16.980
27. 39 – Matt Goodnight, 17.410
28. 96 – Riley VanHise, 17.655
Heat Race #1 (8 Laps): 1. 18 – Scotty Weir, 2. 98E – Chad Boespflug, 3. 21 – Carson Short, 4. 40 – Chris Windom, 5. 63 – Bryan Clauson, 7. 10 – Aric Gentry, 8. 41K – Cole Ketcham. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #2 (8 Laps): 1. 1. 57 – Shane Cottle, 2. 32 – Chase Stockon, 3. 38 – Matt Westfall, 4. 3R – Kyle Cummins, 5. 66 – Thomas Meseraull, 6. 30 – C.J. Leary, 7. 97 – Bret Mellenberndt. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #3 (8 Laps): 1. 1 – Robert Ballou, 2. 24 – Landon Simon, 3. 50 – Tony DiMattia, 4. 15F – Aaron Farney, 5. 15 – Brandon Whited, 6. 39 – Matt Goodnight, 7. 69 – Brady Bacon. (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
Heat Race #4 (8 Laps): 1. 5 – Dallas Hewitt, 2. 11 – Dave Darland, 3. 23C – Tyler Courtney, 4. 63X – Kody Swanson, 5. 52 – Issac Chapple, 6. 96 – Riley VanHise, 7. 17 – Max McGhee . (First four finishers transferred to the A-Main)
B-Main (12 Laps): 1. 69 – Brady Bacon, 2. 63 – Bryan Clauson, 3. 66 – Thomas Meseraull, 4. 17GP – C.J. Leary, 5. 41K – Cole Ketcham, 6. 15 – Brandon Whited, 7. 52 – Issac Chapple, 8. 10 – Aric Gentry, 9. 97 – Bret Mellenberndt, 10. 17 – Max McGhee, 11. 39 – Matt Goodnight. 12. 96 – Riley VanHise. (First six finishers transferred to the A-Main)
A-Main (30 Laps): 1. 98E – Chad Boespflug, 2. 69 – Brady Bacon, 3. 66 – Thomas Meseraull, 4. 17GP – C.J. Leary, 5. 23C – Tyler Courtney, 6. 63 – Bryan Clauson, 7. 63X – Kody Swanson, 8. 21 – Carson Short, 9. 32 – Chase Stockon, 10. 18X – Scotty Weir, 11. 15 – Brandon Whited, 12. 15F – Aaron Farney, 13. 11 – Dave Darland, 14. 57 – Shane Cottle, 15. 5 – Dallas Hewitt, 16. 50 – Tony DiMattia, 17. 41K – Cole Ketcham, 18. 17 – Max McGhee, 19. 3R – Kyle Cummins, 20. 38 – Matt Westfall, 21. 24 – Landon Simon, 22. 40 – Chris Windom, 23. 1 – Robert Ballou.