OCALA, FL. (Sunday, Feb. 8, 2015) – Kerry Madsen made it look easy the first two nights of the University of Northwestern Ohio All Star Circuit of Champions visit to Bubba Raceway Park as he roared to the victories. However, the third night proved not to be so easy, but the outcome was the same. The Madman would lead 29 of the 30 laps and record his third straight victory.
Madsen’s three wins moves him atop the win total for All Star races at Bubba with 4 career victories…all in a row as he won the last series race at the track. It is his sixth overall All Star win.
Madsen, with his Brian Morrison horsepower, made a fantastic move in lapped traffic with five to go to retake the lead from Chad Kemenah, who had used the traffic to drive into the lead the previous lap.
“All weekend I’ve been running a real nice line and it’s worked well. Tonight it just wouldn’t work. It got real gritty up there so I just kind of figured no one was going to go around me up there cause I can’t go around anyone up there so I tried to start and stop it on the bottom. I wasn’t really good at it but I was good enough in one and two. Chad had me clean there and I had one shot around the outside and I took it. That was a tough race,” said Madsen beside his Keneric Racing/American Racing Custom Wheels/Earthex Logistics backed #29.
“Lapped traffic was difficult. I couldn’t get through it quite as good as I could the last two nights. You make a decision where someone was running the lap before and they change their line and I was struggling with it. I knew there would be someone on my heels and I wasn’t very good in four. When you’re running like that you’re trying to stay focused and maximize where you are good,” added Madsen.
“This is a fun track and I really appreciate the effort Bubba (Clem, track promoter) and Tony (Stewart, All Star owner) put in…especially Tony and all the All Star officials. The crowds have been fantastic and it’s a fun place to be,” concluded Madsen.
For Kemenah, who has been reunited with his brother Brian as the Hunter Racing Team mechanic, the strong second place run is a shot in the arm as the team heads to Volusia Speedway Park.
“It was a blast. Kerry did what he had to do. I got by him there and the lapped cars got pretty confusing sometimes but I’m not complaining. This feels great to be a race car driver rather than an owner…I can’t thank Rob and Rita Hunter enough and my brother and everybody sticking behind me. There’s a lot of people out there who probably think I can’t drive any more. I hope there was some people watching. I’m getting more and more comfortable every race with my brother and I hope we can keep going better and better. We’re going to get one before we leave Florida,” said Kemenah beside his Seneca Energy/Night Hawk Holdings/Brilex LLC backed #10h.
“I want to thank J&J, Kistler Engines…Paul builds a hell of a power plant…man this thing runs…it showed in qualifying,” added Kemenah.
For the second straight night Steve Kinser would bring his Tony Stewart-Curb Agajanian Motorsports #11 home in third though he and Kemenah battled several laps for the runner-up spot.
“We went backwards there early in the race and lost three or four spots then we got going pretty good. Sort of got trapped where I didn’t want to be at the start of the race and then got by Chad and shouldn’t have let him slip back by. I thought I had him and I got into one a little too slow and he got back by me. I was trying to catch the bottom there and I would have been better off to motor it right on in there. All in all I had a chance and just didn’t get it done,” said Kinser of his Bad Boy Buggies backed machine.
“It’s a pleasure just driving now. The past four years I’ve been taking care of the car and now it’s being taken care of at his (Tony Stewart) shop and I just show up and drive. I don’t have to worry about the guys working on the car and payroll. He let me run the team as I wanted to. I told him I didn’t want to run much more and he said why don’t you just run it out of my shop and I said that sounded like a good deal,” added Kinser..
Tim Shaffer and Madsen would bring the field to green for the 30 lap feature with Madsen gaining the advantage as Danny Holtgraver had a tremendous drive into second with Shaffer back to third followed by Dale Blaney, Kemenah and Steve Buckwalter in tow.
Shortly after two laps were scored Tyler Clem and Brent Matus would spin in turn four to bring out the caution. On the restart Madsen would pull away from Holtgraver as Kemenah powered to third with Blaney, Shaffer and Buckwalter giving chase. Kemenah would take second on lap six just as the caution would fly for a Caleb Armstrong spin. Armstrong would spin again on the restart.
When the green flew again the race would go to the end without a stoppage.
Madsen appeared to be comfortably on his way to the win until he encountered heavy lapped traffic on lap 12. Kemenah slowly ate into the Mad Man’s lead with Kinser also closing. By lap 17 Kemenah had his hands full with Kinser as they tried to chase down Madsen.
With eight laps to go the leaders were in heavy lapped traffic again and Kemenah and Kinser were within a couple of car lengths of Madsen who was struggling in turn four. Coming to the line to complete lap 24 Kemenah shot off the bottom of turn four, split a lapped car and took the lead.
But, going into turn one, Madsen shot to the outside to regain the top spot. With five laps to go the running order was Madsen, Kemenah, Kinser, Blaney and Holtgraver.
Madsen would clear the traffic and would drive to the win over Kemenah, Kinser, Blaney, Holtgraver, Shaffer, Wayne Johnson, Lucas Wolfe, Buckwalter and Parker Price Miller.
The UNOH All Stars now head to Volusia Speed Park located near Barberville, Florida for racing on Wednesday, Feb. 11 and Thursday, Feb. 12 as part of the DIRTcar Nationals.
Volusia Speedway Park is located at 1500 East State Road 40, Deleon Springs Florida. Event information is available by calling 1-704-795-7223 or visit www.dirtcar.ticketforce.com.
The UNOH All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Series is the original winged sprint car tour. Follow the All Stars during their 50 plus race season on Twitter.com/@ASCoC, www.facebook.com/AllStarCircuitofChampions and www.Instagram.com/AllStarSprints using the hashtag #TheNewAllStars. An all new website has been launched at www.AllStarSprint.com.
2/8/2015 at Bubba Raceway Park
410 Sprints – Winged
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 29-Kerry Madsen[2]; 2. 10H-Chad Kemenah[4]; 3. 11-Steve Kinser[6]; 4. 14K-Dale Blaney[5]; 5. 59-Danny Holtgraver[3]; 6. 45-Tim Shaffer[1]; 7. 77X-Wayne Johnson[8]; 8. 1-Lucas Wolfe[9]; 9. I07-Steve Buckwalter[7]; 10. 9P-Parker Price-Miller[14]; 11. 55F-Taylor Ferns[11]; 12. 4-Danny Smith[13]; 13. 71M-Paul May[17]; 14. 13-Brandon Matus[15]; 15. 49H-Bradley Howard[16]; 16. 7C-Caleb Armstrong[10]; 17. 10-Terry Gray[19]; 18. 14-Tyler Clem[12]; 19. 33-Brent Matus[18]
Dash (8 Laps): 1. 45-Tim Shaffer[2]; 2. 29-Kerry Madsen[1]; 3. 59-Danny Holtgraver[4]; 4. 10H-Chad Kemenah[3]; 5. 14K-Dale Blaney[8]; 6. 11-Steve Kinser[7]; 7. I07-Steve Buckwalter[9]; 8. 77X-Wayne Johnson[6]; 9. 1-Lucas Wolfe[5]
Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 77X-Wayne Johnson[2]; 2. 59-Danny Holtgraver[1]; 3. 11-Steve Kinser[4]; 4. 7C-Caleb Armstrong[3]; 5. 4-Danny Smith[5]; 6. 49H-Bradley Howard[6]; 7. 10-Terry Gray[7]
Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 10H-Chad Kemenah[4]; 2. 1-Lucas Wolfe[2]; 3. 55F-Taylor Ferns[1]; 4. 14K-Dale Blaney[3]; 5. 9P-Parker Price-Miller[5]; 6. 71M-Paul May[6]
Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 45-Tim Shaffer[2]; 2. 29-Kerry Madsen[4]; 3. 14-Tyler Clem[1]; 4. I07-Steve Buckwalter[3]; 5. 13-Brandon Matus[5]; 6. 33-Brent Matus[6]
Qualifying: 1. 11-Steve Kinser, 12.183; 2. 10H-Chad Kemenah, 12.203; 3. 29-Kerry Madsen, 12.214; 4. 7C-Caleb Armstrong, 12.381; 5. 14K-Dale Blaney, 12.440; 6. I07-Steve Buckwalter, 12.453; 7. 77X-Wayne Johnson, 12.482; 8. 1-Lucas Wolfe, 12.638; 9. 45-Tim Shaffer, 12.675; 10. 59-Danny Holtgraver, 12.681; 11. 55F-Taylor Ferns, 12.785; 12. 14-Tyler Clem, 12.947; 13. 4-Danny Smith, 12.966; 14. 9P-Parker Price-Miller, 12.991; 15. 13-Brandon Matus, 13.184; 16. 49H-Bradley Howard, 13.189; 17. 71M-Paul May, 13.488; 18. 33-Brent Matus, 13.714; 19. 10-Terry Gray, 14.071