DARLAND GOES STREAKING, WINS THIRD-STRAIGHT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT FEATURE
West Burlington, Iowa…….After picking up a huge win in last week’s “Sprint Car Smackdown II,” Dave Darland kept the momentum rolling as he set a new track record at 34 Raceway and ended the evening in victory lane. It was Darland’s fifth victory of the season, now tying him for third all-time with Larry Dickson and Tracy Hines.
Brady Bacon wound up on the pole for the 30-lapper and was the man to beat, immediately jumping to the lead and stretching out a huge lead over the rest of the field. Darland battled his way to the front of a vicious pack racing for second, slipping past Chris Windom and Kevin Thomas, Jr.
The race took a major turn as leader Bacon stopped with a broken rear-axle in turn-two on lap 14. His lead had been 6.853 seconds over Darland on the last completed lap. Bacon was okay, and Darland was handed the lead.
The Lincoln, Indiana was never seriously threatened from there. A caution with ten to go put Windom on his tailtank, and the two remained close for a couple laps before Darland found his rhythm on the cushion and gradually pulled to a 1.641-second win in the Phillips Motorsports – Racer’s Advantage #71P DRC/Foxco. The win puts him just one behind Jack Hewitt for second on the all-time Sprint Car win list.
“All those guys up there on the list are great, but we’ve all gotten to be on some pretty great teams along the way. I have to thank the Phillipses and our group for the hard work and giving me a great race car. We really work well together. It was pretty heavy tonight, so we were busy pulling tear-offs in traffic. Luckily, it was racey and we were able to get up through there. One behind Jack (Hewitt) – he’s a great race car driver and a great guy; you just don’t ever want to piss him off,” Darland said.
Windom was strong, finishing second after starting seventh in the Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage – Hoosier Tire #11 Maxim/Claxton.
“He’s just too hard to beat up there like it was tonight. I could keep with him through three and four, but he was getting off two so well. It seemed like I couldn’t catch a good break to get to second, but once we did, we were really good,” Windom said.
Bryan Clauson was quiet in the Feature, running in the top-five before jumping to third in the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing – Chevy Performance #20 Beast/Kistler.
“Had anybody else won, it would have been a good night for us in the championship. We were decent all night, just needed to be better to run with Dave, obviously. We couldn’t get free of guys early and get the bottom working, and by the time we got in a rhythm, he was long gone,” Clauson said.
Justin Grant finished fourth in the second Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage – Hoosier Tire #39 Maxim/Claxton entry, while Robert Ballou rounded out the top-five in the Rossie Feed & Grain – Butlerbuilt #12x Maxim/Ott.
AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 30, 2013 – West Burlington, Iowa – 34 Raceway
QUALIFYING: 1. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips-14.554; 2. Justin Grant, 39, Walker-14.692; 3. Bryan Clauson, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-14.719; 4. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-14.754; 5. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 17RW, Dutcher/RW/TriStar-14.802; 6. Tyler Courtney, 23c, Courtney/Anderson-14.814; 7. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-14.827; 8. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-14.915; 9. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-14.931; 10. Keaton Dobbs, 5K, Dobbs-15.080; 11. Robert Ballou, 12x, Ballou-15.134; 12. Kyle Cummins, 21x, Pollock-15.167; 13. Hunter Schuerenberg, 12, Rogers-15.210; 14. Chase Stockon, 32, 32/TBI-15.218; 15. Nick Drake, 55, Cline-15.264; 16. Shane Cottle, 2, Epperson-15.319; 17. Mike Houseman, Jr., 68, Houseman-15.791; 18. Steve Thomas, 20T, Thomas-15.835; 19. Matt Sutton, 3, Grit-16.256; 20. Andy Huston, 40, Huston-16.322; 21. Tyler Shoemaker, 1T, Shoemaker-17.232; 22. Mitch Wissmiller, 1, Wissmiller-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Cottle, 2. Bacon, 3. Darland, 4. Schuerenberg, 5. Dobbs, 6. Sutton, 7. Farney. NT
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Windom, 3. Ballou, 4. Grant, 5. K. Thomas, 6. Houseman, 7. Huston.
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Drake, 2. Hines, 3. Clauson, 4. Courtney, 5. Cummins, 6. S. Thomas, 7. Shoemaker.
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Dave Darland, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Bryan Clauson, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Chase Stockon, 7. Tracy Hines, 8. Kyle Cummins, 9. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 10. Tyler Courtney, 11. Keaton Dobbs, 12. Nick Drake, 13. Steve Thomas, 14. Tyler Shoemaker, 15. Shane Cottle, 16. Matt Sutton, 17. Hunter Schuerenberg, 18. Andy Huston, 19. Brady Bacon, 20. Mike Houseman, Jr. NT
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**Wissmiller flipped in Qualifying. Farney flipped in the First Heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-13 Bacon, Laps 14-30 Darland.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Darland-1,394; 2-Clauson-1,355; 3-Bacon-1,299; 4-Stockon-1,249; 5-Thomas-1,195; 6-Ballou-1,088; 7-Hines-1,076; 8-Schuerenberg-1,000; 9-Windom-938; 10-Cottle-886.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: August 31 – Terre Haute, Indiana – Terre Haute Action Track – “Tony Hulman/Jim Hurtubise Classic”