TAFOYA JR. IS THE FIRST DRIVER TO ENTER NOV. 3-4-5 OVAL NATIONALS
By: Scott Daloisio
(Perris, CA, October 5, 2022) The first entry for Perris Auto Speedway’s 26th running of the Heimark Anheuser Busch Budweiser Oval Nationals crossed promoter Don Kazarian’s desk. It came from 2018 PAS Young Gun Sprint Car champion Eddie Tafoya Jr.
The young driver will close his third season of racing 410 sprint cars at the season-ending races featuring the AMSOIL USAC/CRA and USAC National Sprint Cars on November 3rd, 4th and 5th.
Tafoya, a 25-year-old driver from Chino Hills, California, moved up to 410 sprint cars in both the USAC/CRA and USAC Southwest Sprint Cars Series in 2019. The quiet driver won the “Rookie of the Year” title in both series.
Like everyone else, COVID played havoc with his racing in 2020, but he came back strong in 2021 by placing eighth in the USAC/CRA championship standings. He also recorded four top-five finishes in 2021 including a season-best third at Perris on July 17th.
Heading into the final six races of the 2022 campaign, Tafoya is currently fourth in the USAC/CRA points chase with six top-five finishes. His best outing this year came at Cocopah on January 29th when he placed second.
The driver known as “Mr. Smooth” drew a lot of attention when he qualified sixth fastest of 42 cars on the second night of the 2019 Oval Nationals. On the last night, he started 26th in the 40-lap main event and finished 24th. Last year, Tafoya started 18th in the finale. On lap two he tried to avoid a spinning car in turn four. Tafoya went to the outside, but the spinning car slid up the track and took out his front end. For the second year in a row, he finished 24th. Look for a big improvement in this year’s end-of-the-season show from the now veteran driver.
As always, the Thursday and Friday night portions of the Oval Nationals will be the preliminaries. The winner on each preliminary night will take home $5,000.00 and the races will pay $500.00 to start. On Saturday, the 40-lap main event will pay $20,000.00 to win and $1000.00 to start.
All three nights of the Oval Nationals will be complete shows with qualifying, heat races, preliminary mains, and an A main event. The top six cars from the first two nights will be seeded straight into Saturday’s main event and will contest a “Super Six Dash” to determine their starting positions in the first three rows.
In addition to being the season-ender for the USAC/CRA and National Sprint Car Series, Saturday will also feature the “Bubby Jones Master of Going Faster” finale. Broken Arrow, Oklahoma’s Brady Bacon currently leads Ione, California’s Justin Grant by 19 points. Greenfield, Indiana’s C.J. Leary is third and is followed by Chase Stockon of Fort Branch, Indiana, and Sutter, California’s Logan Seavey.
Saturday’s race will wrap up the 10-race series that honors Jones, who was a two-time CRA champion driver. He was also one of the key people involved in the design, construction, and management of Perris Auto Speedway.
Advance tickets for the Oval Nationals are available now online at https://www.tix.com/ticket-sales/pas/7 or by calling 1-800-595-4849.
The complete $118,270.00+ purse is available at the following link http://www.perrisautospeedway.com/2022/22ovalpurse.pdf.
The entry blank can be downloaded from the following link http://www.perrisautospeedway.com/2022/22ovalentry.pdf.
Oval Nationals Winners:
1996 – Jimmy Sills
1997 – Rip Williams
1998 – Rodney Argo
1999 – Rickie Gaunt
2000 – Tony Jones
2001 – Bud Kaeding
2002 – Bud Kaeding
2003 – Cory Kruseman
2004 – Cory Kruseman
2005 – Dave Darland
2006 – Dave Darland
2007 – Bud Kaeding
2008 – Jesse Hockett
2009 – Damion Gardner
2010 – Chris Windom
2011 – Damion Gardner
2012 – Mike Spencer
2013 – Dave Darland
2014 – Robert Ballou
2015 – Bryan Clauson
2016 – Damion Gardner
2017 – Kevin Thomas Jr.
2018 – Kevin Thomas Jr.
2019 – C.J. Leary
2020 – No Race
2021 – Kevin Thomas Jr.
