Kevin Swindell Perfect on Christner Qualifying Night
Bryan Hulbert – Tulsa, Oklahoma (January 10, 2013) Dominating his Heat and Qualifier was the only difference between Kevin Swindell’s night and that of his Father. Like Sammy on Wednesday night, Kevin earned the top of the US Fleet Tracking A-Feature line-up and led all 25 laps on Thursday’s John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night.
Pacing alongside Jerry Coons Jr., the Super Shox No. 39 left nothing to the imagination; jumping to a half straight-a-way advantage before the caution flew on lap six for the flipped No. 25B of Steve Buckwalter.
At speed, Jerry Coons Jr. made his bid for the race lead. Diving to the hub of turn one, Coons pulled the Dooling Machine No. 63 even with Swindell for the next pair of laps with Swindell holding the lead by inches before the cushion.
“I was ok and I just went back a little conservative after the restart” commented Swindell on his race with Coons. “I didn’t get a good one and two, or three and four, and I knew it would kind of go away. On the next yellow Dad walked out and said you are doing fine, keep doing what you are doing”
Pacing again under caution for the spun No. 67 of Rico Abreu, nine laps had passed as the field resumed with Swindell pulling to a sizable advantage as Coons was left to contend with Cole Whitt.
Charging from fifteenth, Tim McCreadie began his climb through the running order, breaking the top ten before the eleventh circuit in the Andy Bondio No. 47x. Pacing around the bottom berm, the 2006 Chili Bowl Champion held pace between sixth and tenth as attention turned again to the race for the runner up spot.
Trading back and forth for much of the contest, the battle between Coons and Whitt was joined by Brad Sweet with the Grass Valley, California native advanced past Whitt for third on lap eleven, then taking the second spot away from Coons the following lap.
Describing the preferred high line as “treacherous”, Sweet referred to mistakes made during his feature, “The car was really good when I’d hit it right but there was just so many spots on the cushion at the exit of four that it was just so big and ledgy and it was just easy to get tripped up on it.”
Cracking the top five in the later running of the US Fleet Tracking A-Feature, Tim McCreadie worked past Jerry Coons Jr. for third in slower traffic with a trio of laps remaining.
“Our whole night was behind” said McCreadie of his Thursday qualifier. “I’ve been here a few years and my success hasn’t been as good as my failures lately. I’m just happy to be up here with these guys.”
Closing on Sweet, the Watertown, New York native would settle for the final step on the podium as Brad Sweet earned second with Kevin Swindell navigating slower traffic without falter for his third prelim feature victory in as many years.
Jerry Coons Jr. crossed the stripe fourth with 2005 Chili Bowl Champion Tracy Hines navigating to fifth from thirteenth.
Cole Whitt would fade to sixth with J.J. Yeley seventh ahead of Chili Bowl Rookie D.J. Netto. A.J. Hopkins and Andrew Felker completed the top ten.
Thursday’s John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night began with eight Heat Races that saw victories going to Brett Anderson, J.J. Yeley, Brad Sweet, Matt Ward, Kevin Swindell, Tim Sine, Nic Faas, and Jerry Coons Jr.
C-Features went to Dakoda Armstrong and Tanner Swanson with B-Feature wins going to Troy Rutherford and Tim Crawley.
A-Feature Qualifiers numbered four with Kevin Swindell, Cole Whitt, Steve Buckwalter, and Andrew Felker topped the qualifying events.
Thursday night had 67 drivers from 19 states including Austalia draw in for competition.
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Thursday’s John Christner Trucking Qualifying Night Results
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 11BA-Brett Anderson[1]; 2. 37-Cameron Hagin[2]; 3. 2D-Troy DeCaire[3]; 4. 67-Rico Abreu[4]; 5. 11XS-Donovan Peterson[5]; 6. 35L-Cody Ledger[6]; 7. 12G-Chris Gurley[7]; 8. 4C-Chuck McGillivary[8]; DNF 40-Andy Huston[9]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 1ST-J.J. Yeley[1]; 2. 11R-Troy Rutherford[5]; 3. 7N-D.J. Netto[7]; 4. 47X-Tim McCreadie[6]; 5. 70-Peter Palazzolo[9]; DNF 87R-Danny Smith[3]; DNF 2B-Tyler Reddick[8]; DNF 43-Brent Beauchamp[2]; DNF 3F-Tanner Swanson[4]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 67X-Brad Sweet[2]; 2. 25B-Steve Buckwalter[1]; 3. 11A-Andrew Felker[4]; 4. 19S-Richard VanderWeerd[3]; 5. 6A-David Gough[5]; 6. 69-A.J. Fike[9]; 7. 2AU-Alex Orr[8]; 8. 73X-Greg Edenholm[7]; DNF 12J-Jay Mounce[6]
Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 8L-Matt Ward[1]; 2. 14W-Matt Westfall[2]; 3. 7D-Michelle Decker[3]; 4. 15D-Andrew Deal[8]; 5. 35-Billy Pauch Jr[5]; 6. 06-Mario Clouser[7]; DNF 55B-Brian Shirley[4]; DNS 7JS-Kyle Bellm
Heat 5 (8 Laps): 1. 39-Kevin Swindell[5]; 2. 24-Tracy Hines[6]; 3. 35S-Matt Sherrell[1]; 4. 96-Brad Noffsinger[7]; 5. 5B-Tommy Brown[8]; 6. 14S-Tom Casson[2]; 7. 31E-Evan Sewell[4]; DNF 2P-Payton Pierce[3]
Heat 6 (8 Laps): 1. 15S-Tim Siner[3]; 2. 87-Tim Crawley[5]; 3. 38N-Joey Moughan[2]; 4. 05K-Bud Kaeding[8]; 5. 7DA-Dakoda Armstrong[4]; 6. 75-Landon Simon[6]; 7. 50-Daniel Adler[7]; 8. 29S-Tim Kent[1]
Heat 7 (8 Laps): 1. 12F-Nic Faas[1]; 2. 21D-A.J. Hopkins[6]; 3. 5-Cole Whitt[8]; 4. 56P-Jason Leffler[2]; 5. 19-Patrick Stasa[7]; 6. 51X-Matt Lundy[3]; 7. 5G-P.J. Gargiulo[4]; DNF 93R-Jake Rosario[5]
Heat 8 (8 Laps): 1. 63-Jerry Coons Jr[5]; 2. 115-Conner Kassik[6]; 3. 71S-Sheldon Haudenschild[2]; 4. 62-Dennis Howell[8]; 5. 26X-John Golobic[7]; 6. 72K-Kevin Olson[1]; 7. 27C-Kip Hughes[4]; DNF 6C-Michael Heberling[3]
C-Features – Top 4 advance to corresponding B-Features
C Feature 1 (12 Laps): 1. 7DA-Dakoda Armstrong[1]; 2. 06-Mario Clouser[2]; 3. 5G-P.J. Gargiulo[8]; 4. 2B-Tyler Reddick[12]; 5. 12G-Chris Gurley[3]; 6. 72K-Kevin Olson[6]; 7. 55B-Brian Shirley[7]; 8. 87R-Danny Smith[4]; 9. 14S-Tom Casson[5]; 10. 12J-Jay Mounce[13]; DNS 43-Brent Beauchamp; DNS 93R-Jake Rosario; DNS 2P-Payton Pierce; DNS 7JS-Kyle Bellm
C Feature 2 (12 Laps): 1. 3F-Tanner Swanson[10]; 2. 2AU-Alex Orr[3]; 3. 35L-Cody Ledger[1]; 4. 50-Daniel Adler[5]; 5. 31E-Evan Sewell[7]; 6. 75-Landon Simon[2]; 7. 40-Andy Huston[13]; 8. 27C-Kip Hughes[8]; 9. 51X-Matt Lundy[4]; 10. 6C-Michael Heberling[11]; DNF 4C-Chuck McGillivary[6]; DNF 73X-Greg Edenholm[9]; DNS 29S-Tim Kent
A-Feature Qualifiers – Top 16 in combined passing points advance to the US Fleet Tracking A-Feature
A-Feature Qualifier #1 (10 Laps): 1. 39-Kevin Swindell[6]; 2. 1ST-J.J. Yeley[3]; 3. 14W-Matt Westfall[1]; 4. 67-Rico Abreu[7]; 5. 56P-Jason Leffler[10]; 6. 87-Tim Crawley[4]; 7. 115-Conner Kassik[5]; 8. 19-Patrick Stasa[9]; 9. 62-Dennis Howell[2]; 10. 7D-Michelle Decker[8]
A-Feature Qualifier #2 (10 Laps): 1. 5-Cole Whitt[5]; 2. 63-Jerry Coons Jr[6]; 3. 7N-D.J. Netto[4]; 4. 47X-Tim McCreadie[7]; 5. 37-Cameron Hagin[2]; 6. 8L-Matt Ward[3]; 7. 38N-Joey Moughan[8]; 8. 6A-David Gough[10]; 9. 26X-John Golobic[9]; 10. 70-Peter Palazzolo[1]
A-Feature Qualifier #3 (10 Laps): 1. 25B-Steve Buckwalter[1]; 2. 67X-Brad Sweet[4]; 3. 71S-Sheldon Haudenschild[8]; 4. 15D-Andrew Deal[7]; 5. 24-Tracy Hines[6]; 6. 69-A.J. Fike[9]; 7. 12F-Nic Faas[3]; 8. 35-Billy Pauch Jr[10]; DNF 2D-Troy DeCaire[2]; DNF 15S-Tim Siner[5]
A-Feature Qualifier #4 (10 Laps): 1. 11A-Andrew Felker[1]; 2. 05K-Bud Kaeding[3]; 3. 11BA-Brett Anderson[4]; 4. 21D-A.J. Hopkins[6]; 5. 11R-Troy Rutherford[5]; 6. 19S-Richard VanderWeerd[9]; 7. 35S-Matt Sherrell[8]; 8. 96-Brad Noffsinger[2]; 9. 11XS-Donovan Peterson[10]; 10. 5B-Tommy Brown[7]
B-Features – Top 4 advance to the US Fleet Tracking A-Feature
B Feature 1 (15 Laps): 1. 11R-Troy Rutherford[1]; 2. 35-Billy Pauch Jr[9]; 3. 19S-Richard VanderWeerd[5]; 4. 8L-Matt Ward[4]; 5. 38N-Joey Moughan[6]; 6. 5G-P.J. Gargiulo[15]; 7. 56P-Jason Leffler[2]; 8. 2B-Tyler Reddick[16]; 9. 5B-Tommy Brown[12]; 10. 7DA-Dakoda Armstrong[13]; 11. 7D-Michelle Decker[11]; 12. 2D-Troy DeCaire[10]; 13. 06-Mario Clouser[14]; 14. 115-Conner Kassik[3]; 15. 96-Brad Noffsinger[8]
B Feature 2 (15 Laps): 1. 87-Tim Crawley[2]; 2. 69-A.J. Fike[4]; 3. 14W-Matt Westfall[1]; 4. 35S-Matt Sherrell[6]; 5. 62-Dennis Howell[9]; 6. 12F-Nic Faas[5]; 7. 37-Cameron Hagin[3]; 8. 3F-Tanner Swanson[13]; 9. 70-Peter Palazzolo[12]; 10. 6A-David Gough[8]; 11. 35L-Cody Ledger[15]; 12. 11XS-Donovan Peterson[11]; 13. 26X-John Golobic[10]; 14. 19-Patrick Stasa[7]; 15. 2AU-Alex Orr[14]; 16. 50-Daniel Adler[16]
US Fleet Tracking A-Feature – Top 3 Lock into Saturday’s Lucas Oil Championship A-Feature
A Feature (25 Laps): 1. 39-Kevin Swindell[1]; 2. 67X-Brad Sweet[4]; 3. 47X-Tim McCreadie[15]; 4. 63-Jerry Coons Jr[2]; 5. 24-Tracy Hines[13]; 6. 5-Cole Whitt[3]; 7. 1ST-J.J. Yeley[6]; 8. 7N-D.J. Netto[7]; 9. 21D-A.J. Hopkins[5]; 10. 11A-Andrew Felker[11]; 11. 19S-Richard VanderWeerd[21]; 12. 05K-Bud Kaeding[8]; 13. 71S-Sheldon Haudenschild[9]; 14. 11R-Troy Rutherford[17]; 15. 67-Rico Abreu[14]; 16. 35-Billy Pauch Jr[19]; 17. 35S-Matt Sherrell[24]; 18. 69-A.J. Fike[20]; 19. 14W-Matt Westfall[22]; 20. 87-Tim Crawley[18]; 21. 11BA-Brett Anderson[12]; 22. 8L-Matt Ward[23]; DNF 25B-Steve Buckwalter[10]; DNF 15D-Andrew Deal[16]
Photo Credit: Joe Orth