Sun Prairie, WI…….Dave Darland of Lincoln, Indiana bounced back from a disappointing near-miss on Saturday night to score Sunday’s AMSOIL National Sprint Car Main Event at Angell Park Speedway. The win was Darland’s first of the year in the Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage – AMSOIL #11 Maxim/Claxton Chevy.
Darland led from the outset and used a substantial cushion to open up ground over a torrid race for second. Darland sliced through lapped traffic in a race that finished in just seven minutes and forty-two seconds.
“We had a good starting spot and got the jump, and then I got in a rhythm up around the top and found the bottom a little bit in three and four, and it worked out good. I could go wherever I had to get through traffic, but it was just tough to pick the right place to be. We’ve got a great team, though, and Jeff (Walker) had the car so good tonight it made it easy,” Darland said.
Behind Darland, a major scrap took place for the remainder of the top-five spots. Polesitter Chris Windom chased Darland early in the race, but he fell back into the grasp of Hunter Schuerenberg, who was getting better on the cushion. After losing ground to the leaders at the start, Jon Stanbrough came on late in the race and brought Darren Hagen along with him.
Windom found some steam late in the race and pulled back away to come home in the runner-up spot aboard the Baldwin Brothers Racing – Fox Paving #5 Maxim/Claxton Mopar.
“The more the cushion built up, the tighter I got. I actually started to come around some at the end, but he had built such a big lead, there wasn’t much we could do without a yellow. I gotta thank Brian & Kevin Cripe for coming on to help us this weekend – we didn’t have a very good night last night, but we bounced back tonight and had a good run,” Windom said.
Stanbrough looked low on Schuerenberg for the third-spot before circling the outside to take the final podium position on the final lap in the Roberts/Tate Racing – Leer Racing #21x DRC/Speedway.
“We were just a little bit too tight at the very beginning and let those guys get away, but within five to ten laps, it came to me. I was moving around and moved up next to Hunter once, and then I finally tried the top and got around him. Daryl (Tate) is great and easy to work with, and everything’s just been going really smooth right now,” Stanbrough said.
Schuerenberg came home fifth in the Fatheadz Eyewear – R&B Trucker’s #35 Spike/Rider owned by Hank Byram, while Darren Hagen rounded out the top-five in the Hoffman Auto Racing – Mean Green #69 Chalk/Stanton Mopar.
AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: June 24, 2012 – Sun Prairie, WI – Angell Park Speedway
QUALIFYING: 1. Bryan Clauson, 7, Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-14.141; 2. Darren Hagen, 69, Dynamics, 14.145; 3. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-14.227; 4. Jon Stanbrough, 21x, Roberts/Tate-14.299; 5. Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-14.357; 6. Dave Darland, 11, Walker-14.395; 7. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-14.434; 8. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-14.437; 9. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-14.537; 10. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-14.569; 11. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, BlackJack-14.581; 12. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-14.618; 13. Jerry Coons, Jr., 71P, Phillips-14.621; 14. Mike Hess, 51, Hess-14.866; 15. Steve Irwin, 1, Flying Zero-14.870; 16. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-15.389; 17. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-15.391; 18. Wayne Modjeski, 14, Mojo-15.492; 19. John Fahl, 0, Fahl-16.066.
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Coons, 3. Windom, 4. Stockon, 5. Stanbrough, 6. Clauson, 7. Fahl. 2:49.00
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. Hess, 3. Hagen, 4. Gardner, 5. Schuerenberg, 6. Mellenberndt. NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Hines, 2. Jones, 3. Darland, 4. Ballou, 5. Modjeski, 6. Irwin. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Dave Darland, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Jon Stanbrough, 4. Hunter Schuerenberg, 5. Darren Hagen, 6. Levi Jones, 7. Tracy Hines, 8. Robert Ballou, 9. Damion Gardner, 10. Jerry Coons, Jr., 11. Bryan Clauson, 12. Chase Stockon, 13. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 14. C.J. Leary, 15. Mike Hess, 16. Bret Mellenberndt, 17. Wayne Modjeski, 18. John Fahl, 19. Steve Irwin. 7:42.47
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Darland
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Stanbrough-767; 2-Jones-741; 3-Darland-700; 4-Gardner-696; 5-Hines-673; 6-Windom-609; 7-Hagen-579; 8-Ballou-571; 9-Clauson-568; 10-Schuerenberg-566.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: July 13 – Gas City, IN – Gas City I-69 Speedway – “Indiana Sprint Week”