Lawrenceburg, Indiana…….Chase Stockon continued an impressive year on the AMSOIL National Sprint Car tour by finally sealing the deal to notch his first series victory. The Sullivan, Indiana driver racked up nine top-five finishes this season before cashing in $10,000 for his dominant in on Saturday in the Terre Haute First Financial Bank – Superior Tank & Trailer #32 DRC/Fisher.
Stockon began from outside the front row and outshot Chris Windom to turn-one to take command of the 30-lap Feature. After building up a lead over 2.6 seconds, a caution slowed the pace on lap 13 as Stockon was mired in thick traffic.
Windom again saw Stockon take a healthy lead on the restart, but as they again entered traffic, Windom came storming back to close in as the laps wound down. Stockon finally split two cars to lap up to 13th and held onto a 1.532-second advantage at the finish. On a night where the track promoted “Breast Cancer Awareness” and honored cancer survivors, Stockon picked up his first career National win just six weeks after losing his mother Laura to ovarian cancer.
“I can’t even tell you what I think right now. It hasn’t sunk in yet. I just can’t put into words what this win means to us. It’s awesome to get our first USAC win…we’ve come so close, and we just didn’t know what else we could do to make it happen. Tonight just went as perfectly as it could. I really wish my mom could have been here to see me win this one, but I know she was watching us. We’re a small team, and we’ve kept at it all year, so this is a huge win,” Stockon said.
Windom finished a strong second in his best finish so far aboard the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing – Chevy Performance #20 Maxim/Kistler Chevy.
“It was definitely a fast pace. We could gain on him in traffic, but that caution killed it the first time. Then I had a problem there in (turns) three and four and lost a bunch of ground. We were coming at the end, but there wasn’t much I could do with him. I gotta say, he’s really deserving of a win and I can’t really complain about second. We’ve gotten better every night in this car,” Windom said.
Damion Gardner, a former winner of the event, rounded out the podium in the DG Racing – Pace Lighting #71 Eagle/Shaver.
“I like the track the way it is tonight – really fast and pretty smooth. It was a little choppy getting in there, but it was fast and you could move around some. Stockon was really fast there, and that’s their first win, so that’s big for him. I just want to thank my guys for working and getting us going good tonight,” Gardner said.
Bryan Clauson finished fourth in the Curb Records – R&B Trucker’s #7 Maxim/Fisher and closed to within 24 of point leader Dave Darland. Hunter Schuerenberg rounded out the top-five in the Fatheadz Eyewear – R&B Trucker’s #35 Mach-1/Rider.
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AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: September 29, 2012 – Lawrenceburg, IN – Lawrenceburg Speedway – “City of Lawrenceburg Fall Nationals” (co-sanctioned by Midwest Sprint Car Series)
QUALIFYING: 1. Coleman Gulick, 14, Gulick-13.685; 2. Bryan Clauson, 7, Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-13.751; 3. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-13.846; 4. Chris Windom, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-13.855; 5. Thomas Meseraull, 17, McGhee-13.936; 6. Tyler Courtney, 23c, Courtney-13.984; 7. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-13.994; 8. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-14.020; 9. Bobby East, 5E, East-14.038; 10. Andrew Elson, 27A, Elson-14.045; 11. Shane Cottle, 2, Epperson-14.064; 12. Logan Hupp, 9H, Hupp-14.071; 13. Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-14.077; 14. Jerry Coons, Jr., 21, Pollock-14.086; 15. Scotty Weir, 51, Gnat-14.096; 16. Daron Clayton, 92, Clayton-14.158; 17. Dave Darland, 11, Walker-14.204; 18. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-14.205; 19. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-14.223; 20. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 69OT, Dynamics-14.248; 21. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-14.290; 22. Jonathan Hendrick, 68, Hendrick-14.310; 23. Wes McIntyre, 5, Baldwin-14.417; 24. Jon Stanbrough, 21x, Leer-14.476; 25. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-14.520; 26. Todd Kane, 78, Kane-14.526; 27. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-14.548; 28. Drew Abel, 04, Abel-14.553; 29. Shawn Westerfeld, 89, Westerfeld-14.591; 30. Brady Short, 36, Pottorff-14.745; 31. David Applegate, 11x, Applegate-14.916; 32. Dwayne Spille, 71s, Spille-15.072; 33. Dickie Gaines, 8G, Wood-15.191; 34. Brian Karraker, 23, Karraker/Byram-15.307; 35. Adam Cruea, 83, Cruea-15.387; 36. Travis Hery, 21H, Hery-15.605; 37. Chet Williams, 38, Williams-15.833; 38. John Race, 42, Race-16.002; 39. Mike Weber, 22w, Weber-NT.
FIRST HEAT:: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Schuerenberg, 3. Darland, 4. Gulick, 5. Meseraull, 6. East, 7. Westerfeld, 8. Jarrett, 9. Gaines, 10. Williams. 1:57.19
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Jackson, 2. Hendrick, 3. Coons, 4. Clauson, 5. Elson, 6. Courtney, 7. Short, 8. Kane, 9. Karraker, 10. Race. 1:57.59
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Leary, 2. McIntyre, 3. Gardner, 4. Stockon, 5. Cottle, 6. Weir, 7. Boespflug, 8. Cruea, 9. Applegate. 1:56.35
FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Thomas, 3. Windom, 4. Hupp, 5. Hines, 6. Abel, 7. Spille, 8. Hery, 9. Clayton. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Clayton, 2. Meseraull, 3. Hines, 4. Cottle, 5. East, 6. Weir, 7. Westerfeld, 8. Courtney, 9. Kane, 10. Karraker, 11. Gaines, 12. Hery, 13. Williams, 14. Race, 15. Elson, 16. Spille, 17. Boespflug, 18. Jarrett, 19. Abel, 20. Short, 21. Cruea. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Damion Gardner, 4. Bryan Clauson, 5. Hunter Schuerenberg, 6. Thomas Meseraull, 7. Shane Cottle, 8. Tracy Hines, 9. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 10. Jerry Coons, Jr., 11. Jon Stanbrough, 12. Bobby East, 13. Logan Hupp, 14. C.J. Leary, 15. Robert Ballou, 16. Scotty Weir, 17. Brady Short, 18. Wes McIntyre, 19. Dave Darland, 20. Jonathan Hendrick, 21. Dakota Jackson, 22. Daron Clayton, 23. Coleman Gulick.
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Stockon.
**Applegate flipped in Heat 3. Jarrett flipped in the Semi. Boespflug flipped in the Semi. Elson flipped in the Semi.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Darland-1,822; 2-Clauson-1,798; 3-Stanbrough-1,796; 4-Hines-1,624; 5-Levi Jones-1,615; 6-Gardner-1,588; 7-Stockon-1,524; 8-Schuerenberg-1,480; 9-Ballou-1,479; 10-Thomas-1,413.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: October 12 – Terre Haute, IN – Terre Haute Action Track – “Jim Hurtubise Classic”