Kokomo, Indiana…….Chris Windom turned Night 2 of “Sprint Car Smackdown I” at Kokomo Speedway into the first-ever AMSOIL National Sprint Car win for car owner Rick Pollock on Friday night. The Canton, Illinois, who tied for the series lead in wins last year while finishing second in series points, raced for the first time with Pollock just 19 days ago in Cameron, Missouri.
Tracy Hines took off from outside the front row to lead early, but Thomas Meseraull again stuck with him aboard the Hoffman Auto Racing #69. Dave Darland immediately made his presence felt as he ran hard on the cushion to pressure the top-two. Windom ran the bottom behind Hines as Meseraull fell back into a battle with Bryan Clauson for fourth.
Darland took the lead from Hines on multiple occasions, but Hines was always quick to counter with a move back to the point. Darland appeared to be the man to beat over the middle portion of the race, but over the final ten circuits the bottom half of the speedway became the place to be. Windom cleared Darland and went after Hines, while Clauson took over the third spot with just seven to go.
Clauson tracked down the leaders and jumped to the high side, but he couldn’t find the momentum to get by them. On lap 28, Windom finally got enough of a run down the backstretch to beat Hines into turn-three. The final winning margin was .293-seconds for Windom in the Pollock Racing – Bates Commodities #21 Maxim/Advanced.
“This thing was hooked up tonight. I didn’t know where the track would be better. Dave got around me early on the top, but he’s the best at running the top around here. I just stuck to the low side, and I knew Tracy was gonna stay down there too, so I had to just inch under him. The bad news is I think I blew it up coming to the checkered, but we’ll take the win. This is Rick Pollock’s first win, and I couldn’t be happier than to get it for him. He’s a great guy and works his butt off on this car. Things have gone up since we got together, so this is an awesome win,” Windom said.
Hines fought hard all night to hold the lead, but came up two laps short in the MP Environmental Services – Support Esophagus Cancer Research #4 DRC/Shaver.
“Just wasn’t quite good enough tonight. Second sucks, and we don’t show up to run second. I appreciate those guys racing me clean, and we’ll try it again tomorrow. I have to thank everybody on the MP Environmental team,” Hines said.
Clauson’s bid to take back-to-back wins to start the weekend came up short, but he took home the Fast Time award and finished third in the Curb Records – R&B Trucker’s #7 Maxim/Fisher, locking up high-point man for Saturday’s program.
“Those guys were running the bottom pretty well up ahead of us and I tried to go to the top and it didn’t quite work out for us. We just didn’t get down early enough and got the track position on us, and they did a good job late to keep us back there. We’re in good shape for tomorrow, though, so we’ll look forward to that,” Clauson said.
Meseraull finished strong to pass Darland for fourth in the Mean Green – Oxydol #69 Chalk/Stanton Mopar, while Darland rounded out the top-five in the Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage – Hoosier Tire #11 Maxim/Claxton.
AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: August 24, 2012 – Kokomo, IN – Kokomo Speedway – “Sprint Car Smackdown I”
QUALIFYING: 1. Bryan Clauson, 7, CTR/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-12.799; 2. Dave Darland, 11, Walker-12.993; 3. Kevin Thomas, 9k, Black Jack-13.056; 4. Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-13.095; 5. Brent Beauchamp, 11B, Beacuhamp-13.106; 6. Tyler Courtney, 23c, Courtney-13.113; 7. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.137; 8. Kyle Larson, 53, Fox-13.145; 9. Shane Cottle, 2, Epperson-13.171; 10. Chris Windom, 21, Pollock-13.172; 11. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-13.174; 12. Casey Shuman, 17, McGhee-13.186; 13. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-13.200; 14. Wes McIntyre, 5, Baldwin-13.203; 15. Thomas Meseraull, 69, Dynamics-13.209; 16. Jon Stanbrough, 21x, Roberts/Tate-13.217; 17. Jerry Coons Jr., 71p, Phillips-13.226; 18. Jonathan Hendrick, 68, Hendrick-13.243; 19. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-13.253; 20. Chad Boespflug, 22, Batcheldor/Rice-13.262; 21. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-13.319; 22. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-13.327; 23. Billy Puterbaugh Jr., 10E, Edison-13.329; 24. Scotty Weir, 57 Hazen-13.349; 25. Brady Short, 36, Pottorff-13.365; 26. Blake Fitzpatrick, 10, Fitzpatrick-13.368; 27. Coleman Gulick, 14, Gulick-13.415; 28. Nick Drake, 55, Cline-13.445; 29. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-13.455; 30. Ryan Bernal, 5x, Baldwin-13.483; 31. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.571; 32. Dakota Jackson, 9p, Ronk-13.593; 33. Chase Briscoe, 5B, Briscoe-13.605; 34. Wesley Gordon, 23H, Horner-13.677; 35. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-13.719; 36. Kurt Gross, 1x, Gross-13.727; 37. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-13.758; 38. Damion Ramsay, 71x, Indy Race Parts-14.000; 39. Chris Gurley, 12G, Team Automotive-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Jones, 2. Coons, 3. Hines, 4. Cottle, 5. Beauchamp, 6. Clauson, 7. Briscoe, 8. Short, 9. Spencer, 10. Stockon. NT
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Hendrick, 2. Ballou, 3. Windom, 4. Darland, 5. McIntyre, 6. Fitzpatrick, 7. Courtney, 8. Gordon, 9. Bernal, 10. Ramsay. NT
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Grant, 2. Puterbaugh, 3. Meseraull, 4. Gulick, 5. Gardner, 6. Leary, 7. Ted Hines, 8. Jarrett, 9. Thomas, 10. Gurley.
FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Weir, 2. Boespflug, 3. Larson, 4. Stanbrough, 5. Shuman, 6. Jackson, 7. Schuerenberg, 8. Drake, 9. Gross. 2:18.31
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Beauchamp, 2. Clauson, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. Leary, 5. Courtney, 6. Gardner, 7. Drake, 8. Shuman, 9. Short, 10. Stockon, 11. Briscoe, 12. Spencer, 13. Fitzpatrick, 14. Ted Hines, 15. Gross, 16. Ramsay, 17. McIntyre, 18. Jackson, 19. Gordon, 20. Gurley. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Tracy Hines, 3. Bryan Clauson, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Dave Darland, 6. Hunter Schuerenberg, 7. Damion Gardner, 8. Coleman Gulick, 9. Kyle Larson, 10. Jonathan Hendrick, 11. Robert Ballou, 12. Levi Jones, 13. Shane Cottle, 14. Jon Stanbrough, 15. Billy Puterbaugh, 16. Scotty Weir, 17. Brent Beauchamp, 18. Chase Stockon, 19. Chad Boespflug, 20. Tyler Courtney, 21. Justin Grant, 22. C.J. Leary, 23. Jerry Coons, Jr. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-28 Hines, Laps 29-30 Windom.
**Gurley flipped in Heat 3. Leary flipped on lap 5 of the Feature.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Stanbrough-1,572; 2-Jones-1,570; 3-Darland-1,526; 4-Clauson-1,427; 5-Gardner-1,325; 6-Tracy Hines-1,313; 7-Stockon-1,222; 8-Ballou-1,215; 9-Schuerenberg-1,206; 10-Thomas-1,162.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: August 25 – Kokomo, IN – Kokomo Speedway – “Sprint Car Smackdown I”