Gas City, Indiana…….Noblesville, Indiana driver Bryan Clauson kicked off AMSOIL “Indiana Sprintweek” in style with a commanding victory in Friday’s 30-lap Main Event at Gas City I-69 Speedway. The win marked the third visit to victory lane for the Curb Records – R&B Trucker’s #7 Maxim/Fisher.
It was a race-long duel with five-time series champion Levi Jones, who led early in the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing – Chevrolet Performance #20 Maxim/Kistler. Clauson split two cars off turn-two and jumped to the cushion to grab second quickly. From there, it was a high-low battle with Clauson screaming on the top while Jones tried to hold him off on the bottom.
Clauson powered around the outside to take the lead on lap five, but he gave it right back on lap eight after slipping over the edge of turns three and four. Jones adjusted his line with a second chance at the lead, heading to the top in turns one and two. Clauson changed his game, though, and dove across the bottom looking for the lead. The two nearly made contact on multiple occasions off turn-two as Clauson slid up and Jones darted by to protect his lead.
Finally, Clauson grabbed the lead for good with a slide-job on lap 19 that cleared Jones easily in turn-two. It was the second-career Sprintweek win for Clauson, and the 14th National Sprint Car win of his career.
“I had to be patient there with Levi on the bottom. I knew if I could hang with the top long enough and not make mistakes, we’d be good. You can’t count on him to make too many mistakes, so we had to force the issue as much as possible to put pressure on him. We finally were able to clear him there. He had kinda taken the line away up top there, so I tried to check out the bottom in one and two, and kinda had to slide him to get clear,” Clauson said.
As Clauson pulled away, a great three-car battle unfolded for the runner-up spot, as Jon Stanbrough slid by Jones for the the position in the final laps aboard the Roberts/Tate Racing – Leer Racing #21x DRC/Speedway.
“At the end, the left-rear was going flat and the right-rear was sealed over. I was just trying to roll through there. We had a heckuva battle toward the end with Levi there. We had to work at it tonight. It might have been good to miss the transfer in the heat, as we won the B and learned a little bit about the race track,” Stanbrough said.
Jones held off Dave Darland to round out the podium.
“We were good early in the race. We got to where we were draggin’ the left rear around there and didn’t have quite enough drive. We raced Bryan pretty hard for a while, and Stanbrough was coming pretty hard at the end. We just gave up a little too much and ended up third,” Jones said.
Darland finished fourth in the Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage – AMSOIL #11 Maxim/Claxton, while Shane Cottle ended up fifth in the Epperson Painting #2 DRC/Claxton.
===========================================
AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: July 13, 2012 – Gas City, IN – Gas City I-69 Speedway – “Indiana Sprint Week”
QUALIFYING: 1. Brent Beauchamp, 11B, Beauchamp-11.901; 2. Bryan Clauson, 7, Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-11.931; 3. Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-11.983; 4. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-12.063; 5. Dave Darland, 11, Walker-12.103; 6. Darren Hagen, 69, Dynamics-12.111; 7. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-12.130; 8. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-12.135; 9. Shane Cottle, 2, Epperson-12.206; 10. Jon Stanbrough, 21x, Roberts/Tate-12.212; 11. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-12.247; 12. Scotty Weir, 77, Wingo-12.266; 13. Jon Sciscoe, 57, Hazen-12.271; 14. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, BlackJack-12.288; 15. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-12.291; 16. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-12.292; 17. Bobby East, 5E, East-12.301; 18. Andrew Elson, 27A, Elson-12.303; 19. Thomas Meseraull, 41, Stensland-12.322; 20. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-12.342; 21. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-12.342; 22. Chris Gurley, 12G, Team Automotive-12.347; 23. Josh Clemons, 71c, Pederson-12.384; 24. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-12.403; 25. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.404; 26. Wes McIntyre, 83, McIntyre-12.411; 27. Chad Boespflug, 98, Boespflug-12.414; 28. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-12.425; 29. Jerry Coons, Jr., 71P, Phillips-12.462; 30. Jonathan Hendrick, 68, Hendrick-12.473; 31. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-12.478; 32. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-12.501; 33. Coleman Gulick, 14, Gulick-12.508; 34. Chase Briscoe, 5B, Briscoe-12.537; 35. A.J. Hopkins, 42G, Jackson-12.560; 36. Seth Parker, 38P, Parker-12.588; 37. Brady Short, 36, Short-12.617; 38. Kyle Cummins, 3c, Cummins-12.641; 39. Josh Burton, 04, Burton-12.646; 40. Casey Shuman, 10E, Edison-12.717; 41. Richard VanderWeerd, 10, VanderWeerd-12.743; 42. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott-12.773; 43. Wesley Gordon, 23H, Harner-12.881; 44. Tyler Hewitt, 21H, Hewitt-12.888; 45. Jace VanderWeerd, 88, VanderWeerd-12.889; 46. Garrett Abrams, 32x, Abrams-12.940; 47. Kevin Studley, 57x, Studley-13.045.
NON-QUALIFIERS RACE: (8 laps) 1. Gulick, 2. Parker, 3. Short, 4. Hopkins, 5. Shuman, 6. Cummins, 7. Briscoe, 8. Burton, 9. Gordon, 10. Welpott, 11. J. VanderWeerd, 12. Hewitt, 13. Studley, 14. R. VanderWeerd, 15. Abrams. NT
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Cottle, 2. Coons, 3. Darland, 4. Gulick, 5. Windom, 6. Beauchamp, 7. Shuman, 8. Sciscoe, 9. Goodnight, 10. East. NT
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. Clauson, 3. Hagen, 4. Gurley, 5. Elson, 6. Stanbrough, 7. Hendrick, 8. McIntyre, 9. Cummins, 10. Parker. 2:17.68
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Schuerenberg, 2. Meseraull, 3. Gardner, 4. Boespflug, 5. Short, 6. Stockon, 7. Grant, 8. Ted Hines, 9. Briscoe, 10. Clemons. NT
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Jones, 3. Weir, 4. Tracy Hines, 5. Jackson, 6. Mitchell, 7. Leary, 8. Jarrett, 9. Hopkins, 10. Burton. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Stockon, 3. Beauchamp, 4. East, 5. Elson, 6. Sciscoe, 7. Jackson, 8. Clemons, 9. Ted Hines, 10. McIntyre, 11. Hendrick, 12. Mitchell, 13. Leary, 14. Short, 15. Hopkins, 16. Shuman, 17. Jarrett, 18. Grant, 19. Burton, 20. Briscoe, 21. Goodnight, 22. Parker, 23. Windom, 24. Cummins. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Jon Stanbrough, 3. Levi Jones, 4. Dave Darland, 5. Shane Cottle, 6. Jon Sciscoe, 7. Damion Gardner, 8. Scotty Weir, 9. Jonathan Hendrick, 10. Chase Stockon, 11. Jerry Coons, Jr., 12. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 13. Bobby East, 14. Chad Boespflug, 15. Darren Hagen, 16. Hunter Schuerenberg, 17. Chris Gurley, 18. Thomas Meseraull, 19. C.J. Leary, 20. Coleman Gulick, 21. Brent Beauchamp, 22. Tracy Hines, 23. Robert Ballou, 24. Andrew Elson. NT
——————————–
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-4 Jones, Laps 5-7 Clauson, Laps 8-18 Jones, Laps 19-30 Clauson.
**Elson flipped during the Feature.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Stanbrough-828; 2-Jones-802; 3-Darland-759; 4-Gardner-744; 5-Tracy Hines-694; 6-Clauson-640; 7-Windom-610; 8-Hagen-609; 9-Schuerenberg-599; 10-Ballou-592.
AMSOIL INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Clauson-72; 2-Stanbrough/Jones-61; 4-Darland-59; 5-Cottle-56; 6-Gardner-48; 7-Sciscoe-46; 8-Weir-45; 9-Coons-38; 10-Thomas-37.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: July 14 – Kokomo, IN – Kokomo Speedway – “Indiana Sprint Week”