Brady Short Scores Thrilling KISS Victory At Gas City I69 Speedway
Calling it his biggest victory, Brady Short earned his second King of Indiana Sprint Series victory of the season with another come-from-behind thriller. Racing from the ninth starting slot, Short battled to the front, overtaking Dave Darland for the win. Tyler Courtney finished third, behind Darland, with Josh Spencer and Logan Jarrett filling the top five.
“When we took off in the feature, I thought, man, this is going to be a good race car,” Short explained later. “I was going to be pretty excited if we made the top five. It just stayed hooked up on the top and I kept rolling them one-by-one. This is probably the best win I’ve ever had in my racing career. I’ve won a lot of big races, I’ve won a $10,000-to-win race, a $5,000 USAC race at Bloomington, but this is probably the best race I’ve ever won.”
Early in the race, it didn’t appear anyone would catch Darland. From outside the front row, he quickly jumped into the lead and built a half-straightaway lead after a couple of early cautions. On a lap 7 restart, Short’s #11p Pottorff Logging / Indiana Stoneworks Maxim was still ninth, but decided that with nearly everyone else running low on the track, he needed to step out. He didn’t make any progress at first, but once he found the line, he began picking off cars quickly. He passed Hunter Schuerenberg on lap 11, and Courtney two laps later. He took third from Jarrett on lap 14, then caught Spencer on lap 17.
Brady Short (outside) and Dave Darland (closest) battle side-by-side at Gas City. (Doug Vandeventer photo)
With Darland’s #71p Phillips / Racer’s Advantage DRC a dozen car lengths ahead, it took several laps to catch him. Short had made getting through the field look fairly easy, but passing Darland was different. On the 21st lap, Short pulled even as they raced through turn three, but Darland edged him as they exited turn four. The battle over then next five laps was memorable as Darland worked different lines in an effort to stay ahead of Short. Whether on the bottom or the top, Short could pull even, but Darland would outrun him as they came off the turns.
Finally, on the 26th circuit, Short found a better run off the inside of turn four and beat Darland to the first turn. Darland fought back over the next lap, but Short held him off and soon opened several car lengths. Even though he caught slower cars in the final laps, that is how they finished. The victory solidified Short’s point lead in the KISS chase, and Darland took over second spot. Both drivers are past KISS champions.
The winner of the opening round at Bloomington Speedway, Short said that he weighed the risks when he tried the top groove. “I felt the right rear stick and actually drive off of two really good and I thought that at that point, I really didn’t have nothing to lose trying to follow those guys, I was probably going to run seventh or eighth. I thought I might as well try it. If I’m the first guy to run off the racetrack, well, so be it. It’s a chance you have to take as a race car driver. I didn’t used to take those chances, but I’m getting more confident in what I’m doing.”
He added that catching Darland was easier than passing him. “I caught him pretty quick and I thought I was going to blow by him, but he saw my nose and the next corner he moved up, he did the right thing. At that point, I thought I was going to run second because he’s tough to beat when he’s running around the top. But it was hooked up so much better I could get in harder than those guys could in the corners. It was just a faster race car.”
In his pit, Darland admitted that he wasn’t really surprised when Short caught him. “I knew that some people were running the top, I could see the marks up there. The bottom is what I had done, and it was working okay for me, but got a little slow in the second half of the race. I wasn’t able to get in real hard because you’d slide up into the slick. I was able to get off good, but just couldn’t get in very hard. So, I was half surprised, but not really. There were a lot of good race cars out there and with the track slowing down, you just never know. You just have to race until the checkered.”
Lawrenceburg Speedway hosts the fourth stop of the 2013 KISS tour on Saturday, May 18. The final three events will be at Tri-State Speedway, Paragon Speedway and the Terre Haute Action Track. The KISS races will be shown on MAVTV on Thursdays at 3:30 and 5:30, beginning with Bloomington’s event which will be televised on May 16, followed by KISS at Kokomo on May 23, and Gas City on May 30.
King of Indiana Sprint Series, Round 3
Gas City I69 Speedway, Gas City, IN
May 10, 2013
(34 cars)
Heat 1: 1. Tyler Courtney 23c (1), 2. Scotty Weir 18 (8), 3. Brady Short 11p (6), 4. AJ Hopkins 42g (3), 5. Chris Gurley 12g (4), 6. Bradley Sterrett 90 (5), 7. Bobby East 5e (2), 8. Jamie Fredrickson 58 (9) 9. Scott Hull 48 (7)
Heat 2: 1. Shane Cottle 2e (1), 2. Hunter Schuerenberg 35 (3), 3. Jerry Coons Jr. 10e (5), 4. Robert Ballou 5b (2), 5. Gary Taylor 40 (7), 6. Brady Bacon 99 (4), 7. Casey Shuman 22 (6), 8. Chad Boespflug 57 (9), Jake Simmons 3 (8)
Heat 3: 1. Josh Spencer 66j (1), 2. Dave Darland 71p (6), 3. Chris Windom 11 (5), 4. Kevin Thomas Jr. 17rw (3), 5. Max McGhee 17m (8), 6. Travis Welpott (7), 7. Aaron Farney 5f (2), 8. Scott Orr 4 (4)
Heat 4: 1. Logan Jarrett 29j (3), 2. Matt Westfall 54 (1), 3. CJ Leary 30 (4), 4. Parker Price-Miller 9p (5), 5. Joe Liguori 6rr (7), 6. Ted Hines 12 (6), Travis Hery 21h DNS, Landon Simon 41 DNS
B-Main: 1. Taylor (2), 2. Gurley (1), 3. McGhee (3), 4. Hines (8), 5. East (9), 6. Shuman (10), 7. Boespflug (14), 8. Liguori (4), 9. Fredrickson (13), 10. Bacon (6), 11. Farney (11), 12. Simmons (17), 13. Sterrett (5), 14. Hery (12), 15. Orr (15), Simon DNS, Welpott DNS, Hull DNS
Feature (30 laps): 1. Brady Short 11p (9), 2. Dave Darland 71p (2), 3. Tyler Courtney (7), 4. Josh Spencer 66j (3), 5. Logan Jarrett 29j (1), 6. Matt Westfall 54 (5), 7. Hunter Schuerenberg 35 (4), 8. Chris Windom 11 (11), 9. Scotty Weir 18 (6), 10. Kevin Thomas Jr. 17rw (15), 11. Robert Ballou 5b (14), 12. Gary Taylor 40 (17), 13. Shane Cottle 2e (8), 14. Jerry Coons Jr. 10e (10), 15. Casey Shuman 21k (22), 16. Chris Gurley 12g (18), 17. Parker Price-Miller 9p (16), 18. Bobby East 5 (21), 19. Ted Hines 12 (20), 20. AJ Hopkins (13), 21. CJ Leary 30 (12), 22. Max McGhee 17m (19)
KISS Points: 1. Brady Short 520, 2. Dave Darland 479, 3. Robert Ballou 465, 4. Hunter Schuerenberg 312, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. 430, 6. Shane Cottle 427, 7. Casey Shuman 405, 8. Jerry Coons Jr. 400, 9. Chris Gurley 351, 10. Chad Boespflug 344
2013 KISS SCHEDULE
May 3 Bloomington Speedway – Brady Short
May 5 Kokomo Speedway – Robert Ballou
May 10 Gas City I-69 Speedway – Brady Short
May 18 Lawrenceburg Speedway
May 26 Tri-State Speedway
June 1 Paragon Speedway
July 2 Terre Haute Action Track