WINNING NEVER GETS OLD FOR DARLAND AS HE PICKS UP ELDORA
Matt Westfall and Jeff Koz Complete Branson/Larson Classic Tripleheader
ROSSBURG, OH (April 19) – Winning never seems to get old for Dave Darland. To him, every checkered flag is as important and exciting as the first one and Saturday’s triumph in Eldora Speedway’s Don Branson/Jud Larson Classic was no exception.
Victory lane was pure jubilation for the popular Walton, IN veteran as he collected his fifth USAC (United States Auto Club) National Sprint Car win on the venerable .500-mile clay Eldora oval and in doing so, extended his USAC cumulative point lead. Sharing victory lane honors with Darland were Matt Westfall in the UMP DIRTcar Modifieds and Jeff Koz in the Stock Cars.
Getting to the front was no easy task for fourth-place starting Darland. Pole sitter Chase Stockon charged into the lead at the dropping of the green flag, with Dallas Hewitt, Jerry Coons, Jr. and Darland in tow.
Within three laps, Stockon had built up an eight car length lead over Hewitt, as Darland moved into third to challenge for the runner-up position. Driving hard into turn three on the fifth circuit, Hewitt brushed the outer wall which sent him into a series of flips and ended his night.
The ensuing restart set up an eight lap battle highlighted by classic Eldora slide jobs.
Darland slid under Stockon going into turn three, but Stockon retaliated by diving off of turn four and ran wheel to wheel down the front stretch with Darland before doing a slide job of his own into turn one. That move outsmarted Darland and again Stockon began increasing his margin over the field.
Darland began building up his steam and coming down to complete lap ten, he not only caught up to the leader, but tried yet another slide job going into turn one. While this time the slide job was successful, before the lap could be completed, another red flag appeared for a flipping Jarrett Andretti.
That relegated Darland back to second and set up two laps of see-saw battling between the fast-running pair. Persistence paid off for Darland as he executed a successful pass coming down to complete lap 13 to move out front, where he was to remain throughout the distance.
Stockon refused to give up and kept Darland in sight as he held off all challenges from Tracy Hines. They crossed the finish line in that order, with Coons, Jr. and Brady Bacon completing the top five.
Westfall had signed in to do double duty on the evening, but mechanical issues kept his Sprint Car from competition and reduced the driving chores on a chilly evening to his UMP DIRTcar Modified.
All disappointments were clearly erased as he simply dominated the 18-lap Modified feature event for his second win in a division that was celebrating its 250th event Saturday evening.
David Smith was turning in a strong run at the onset of the event with a spirited challenge to Westfall, before defending champion Jerry Bowersock came on the scene to set up a three-way battle. That battle increased to four as soon Zach Schroeder moved forward, but within a few laps, Westfall got hooked up and went off and running.
The fast-paced event was all Westfall from that point on, with Bowersock eventually moving past Smith for second, while Schroeder and Jesse Bittlering completed the top five.
While Jeff Koz was able to move into victory lane for his first-ever Eldora win, he had to be getting nervous in the closing laps. Two leaders before him fell to misfortune. First it was Paul Pardo, who led the first seven circuits. Pardo dropped quickly to the low side of the track to give Koz the lead he was to hold for three laps before giving way to defending champion Barney Craig.
Craig’s lead last for less than two laps before he made contact with the wall in turn one to end his night prematurely.
That put Koz back out front and was able to hold off a pair of fast-closing runners, Chris Douglas and Andy King to grab the checkered flag. Jordan Conover did a great job recovering from an earlier spin to record a fourth place run, while Adam Schaeff completed the top five.
Eldora returns to action next Saturday evening with a tripleheader program featuring the UMP DIRTcar Modifieds, Eldora Stock Cars and Waynesfield-Circle Track Trucks. Ticket and event information can be found on Eldora’s website www.EldoraSpeedway.com or can be obtained by calling the speedway office (937) 338-3815 during normal business hours. Additionally, race fans and race teams can get behind-the-scenes access by following @EldoraSpeedway on Twitter, hitting ‘Like’ at Facebook.com/EldoraSpeedway and view video highlights at YouTube.com/EldoraSpeedwayInc. Mobile device users can access the Eldora Speedway app for the iPhone, iPad and Android which is available for download via iTunes and Google Play.
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USAC SPRINT
TIME TRIALS – 1. 69-Brady Bacon [15.069]; 2. 20-Bryan Clauson [15.278]; 3. 4-Tracy Hines [15.331]; 4. 71P-Dave Darland [15.345]; 5. 10E-Jerry Coons, Jr [15.347]; 6. 12-Robert Ballou [15.524]; 7. 22S-Dallas Hewitt [15.619]; 8. 32-Chase Stockon [15.639]; 9. 11-Chris Windom [15.664]; 10. 15F-Aaron Farney [15.667]; 11. 37RW-Jon Stanbrough [15.711]; 12. 32M-Derek Hastings [15.722]; 13. 30-C.j. Leary [15.807]; 14. 40G-Justin Grant [15.822]; 15. 18-Scotty Weir [15.830]; 16. 66-Shane Cockrum [15.880]; 17. 20N-Hunter Schuerenberg [15.893]; 18. 18A-Jarett Andretti [15.981]; 19. 6-Bill Rose [16.136]; 20. 63-Kody Swanson [16.137]; 21. 3R-Daron Clayton [16.260]; 22. 54-Matt Westfall [16.264]; 23. 83-Wes Mcintyre [16.308]; 24. 15-Brandon Whited [16.438]; 25. 9X-Rob Chaney [16.575]; 26. 48-Nathan Moore [16.649]; 27. 82-Mike Miller [16.706]; 28. 29-Logan Jarrett [16.795]; 29. 83X-Adam Cruea [17.000]; 30. 63H-Huston Hewitt [17.898]; 31. 39-Matt Goodnight [99.999];
HEAT 1 – 1. 18A-Jarett Andretti [2]; 2. 11-Chris Windom [4]; 3. 40G-Justin Grant [3]; 4. 10E-Jerry Coons, Jr [5]; 5. 69-Brady Bacon [6]; 6. 83-Wes Mcintyre [1]; 7. 82-Mike Miller [7]; 8. 63H-Huston Hewitt [DNS];
HEAT 2 – 1. 18-Scotty Weir [3]; 2. 20-Bryan Clauson [6]; 3. 6-Bill Rose [2]; 4. 15-Brandon Whited [1]; 5. 15F-Aaron Farney [4]; 6. 32M-Derek Hastings [7]; 7. 12-Robert Ballou [DNF]; 8. 39-Matt Goodnight [DNS];
HEAT 3 – 1. 4-Tracy Hines [6]; 2. 37RW-Jon Stanbrough [4]; 3. 63-Kody Swanson [2]; 4. 22S-Dallas Hewitt [5]; 5. 66-Shane Cockrum [3]; 6. 29-Logan Jarrett [7]; 7. 9X-Rob Chaney [1];
HEAT 4 – 1. 71P-Dave Darland [6]; 2. 20N-Hunter Schuerenberg [3]; 3. 3R-Daron Clayton [2]; 4. 32-Chase Stockon [5]; 5. 30-C.j. Leary [4]; 6. 48-Nathan Moore [1]; 7. 83X-Adam Cruea [DNF];
B MAINS – 1. 69-Brady Bacon [1]; 2. 12-Robert Ballou [2]; 3. 15F-Aaron Farney [3]; 4. 30-C.j. Leary [4]; 5. 66-Shane Cockrum [5]; 6. 83-Wes Mcintyre [6]; 7. 82-Mike Miller [9]; 8. 29-Logan Jarrett [11]; 9. 83X-Adam Cruea [12]; 10. 48-Nathan Moore [8]; 11. 32M-Derek Hastings [DNF]; 12. 9X-Rob Chaney [DNF]; 13. 63H-Huston Hewitt [DNF];
FEATURE – 1. 71P-Dave Darland [4]; 2. 32-Chase Stockon [1]; 3. 4-Tracy Hines [5]; 4. 10E-Jerry Coons, Jr [3]; 5. 69-Brady Bacon [7]; 6. 20-Bryan Clauson [6]; 7. 37RW-Jon Stanbrough [11]; 8. 40G-Justin Grant [13]; 9. 12-Robert Ballou [8]; 10. 18-Scotty Weir [14]; 11. 20N-Hunter Schuerenberg [16]; 12. 63-Kody Swanson [19]; 13. 11-Chris Windom [9]; 14. 66-Shane Cockrum [15]; 15. 3R-Daron Clayton [20]; 16. 6-Bill Rose [18]; 17. 30-C.j. Leary [12]; 18. 83-Wes Mcintyre [21]; 19. 15-Brandon Whited [DNF]; 20. 15F-Aaron Farney [DNF]; 21. 29-Logan Jarrett [DNF]; 22. 18A-Jarett Andretti [DNF]; 23. 22S-Dallas Hewitt [DNF];
UMP DIRTcar MODIFIED
HEAT 1 – 1. 05-David Smith [2]; 2. 225-Jesse Bitterling [9]; 3. 10-Scott Bowersock [1]; 4. 22T-Tony Anderson [3]; 5. 36-Brandon Vaughan [5]; 6. 28R-Chad Rosenbeck [6]; 7. 21T-Tom Treon [8]; 8. 4J-David Treon, Jr [DNF]; 9. 51-Cody Timmerman [DNF];
HEAT 2 – 1. 5JB-Jerry Bowersock [7]; 2. 55S-Zach Schroeder [1]; 3. 52-John Phlipot, Jr [2]; 4. 1SW-Scott Williams [3]; 5. 26L-Casey Luedeke [5]; 6. 18-Ryan Sutter [6]; 7. 0A-Derrick Austin [8]; 8. 79-Shane Unger [4];
HEAT 3 – 1. 54-Matt Westfall [4]; 2. 23J-Jeff Koz [1]; 3. 4S-Rob Starkey [5]; 4. 3GW-Dylan Woodling [8]; 5. 91-Adam Thrush [3]; 6. 5X-Tim Richardson [6]; 7. 11MH-Mike Hohlbein [2]; 8. 20-Josh Morton [DNF];
A FEATURE – 1. 54-Matt Westfall [1]; 2. 5JB-Jerry Bowersock [2]; 3. 05-David Smith [3]; 4. 55S-Zach Schroeder [5]; 5. 225-Jesse Bitterling [4]; 6. 10-Scott Bowersock [7]; 7. 4S-Rob Starkey [9]; 8. 23J-Jeff Koz [6]; 9. 36-Brandon Vaughan [13]; 10. 28R-Chad Rosenbeck [16]; 11. 91-Adam Thrush [15]; 12. 18-Ryan Sutter [17]; 13. 22T-Tony Anderson [10]; 14. 5X-Tim Richardson [18]; 15. 11MH-Mike Hohlbein [21]; 16. 0A-Derrick Austin [20]; 17. 21T-Tom Treon [19]; 18. 79-Shane Unger [23]; 19. 4J-David Treon, Jr [DNF]; 20. 52-John Phlipot, Jr [DNF]; 21. 26L-Casey Luedeke [DNF]; 22. 20-Josh Morton [DNF]; 23. 3GW-Dylan Woodling [DNF]; 24. 1SW-Scott Williams [DNS]; 25. 51-Cody Timmerman [DNS];
STOCK CAR
HEAT 1 – 1. 16-Jeff Koz [4]; 2. 61-Rob Trent [7]; 3. 71C-Barney Craig [6]; 4. 82-Chris Douglas [8]; 5. 01-Earnie Woodard [1]; 6. 49-Eric Sandlin [2]; 7. 55A-Brandon Archey [DNF]; 8. 7D-Dan Wooten [DNF]; 9. 1B-Kenny Brady Jr. [DNF];
HEAT 2 – 1. 410-Paul Pardo [8]; 2. 7-Jordan Conover [1]; 3. 99-Andy King [9]; 4. 36-Adam Schaeff [6]; 5. 27-Frank Paladino [5]; 6. 20P-Robbie Phlipot [3]; 7. 19-Wayne Williams [7]; 8. 23-Casey Barr [4]; 9. 98R-Wilbert Ramey [DNS];
HEAT 3 – 1. 22T-Tony Anderson [1]; 2. 5G-Anthony Goode [6]; 3. 00-Dean Pitts [2]; 4. 58-Alex Peace [5]; 5. 68MC-Rob Love [DNF]; 6. 51H-Jay Huber [DNF]; 7. 501-Emily Gade [DNS]; 8. 28D-Tracy Dunaway Jr. [DNS];
A FEATURE – 1. 16-Jeff Koz [1]; 2. 82-Chris Douglas [10]; 3. 99-Andy King [8]; 4. 7-Jordan Conover [5]; 5. 36-Adam Schaeff [11]; 6. 27-Frank Paladino [14]; 7. 01-Earnie Woodard [13]; 8. 19-Wayne Williams [20]; 9. 49-Eric Sandlin [16]; 10. 58-Alex Peace [12]; 11. 68MC-Rob Love [15]; 12. 5G-Anthony Goode [6]; 13. 22T-Tony Anderson [DNF]; 14. 1B-Kenny Brady Jr. [25]; 15. 71C-Barney Craig [DNF]; 16. 20P-Robbie Phlipot [DNF]; 17. 410-Paul Pardo [DNF]; 18. 61-Rob Trent [DNF]; 19. 00-Dean Pitts [DNS]; 20. 51H-Jay Huber [DNS]; 21. 55A-Brandon Archey [DNS]; 22. 501-Emily Gade [DNS]; 23. 7D-Dan Wooten [DNS]; 24. 23-Casey Barr [DNS]; 25. 28D-Tracy Dunaway Jr. [DNS]; 26. 98R-Wilbert Ramey [DNS];