DARLAND’S 41ST NATIONAL SPRINT CAR WIN IS PHILLIPS MOTORSPORTS’ 1ST

Bloomington, Indiana…….Dave Darland of Lincoln, Indiana worked hard on Friday to win the “Larry Rice Classic” at Bloomington Speedway, adding to his amazing record that now includes 41 AMSOIL National Sprint Car wins. This one was a milestone, however, as he made it the first USAC win for car owners Steve & Carla Phillips. Darland also become the third driver to string together 21 straight years with at least one USAC National win (across all three series), joining A.J. Foyt and Mel Kenyon.

Kevin Thomas, Jr., looking to become the first driver since Rick Hood in 1985 to win four straight National Sprint Car races, led the field from outside the front row and stretched out a commanding lead. After an early yellow, Darland got by Chase Stockon for second and came calling on Thomas. Just as Darland had caught Thomas and pulled alongside down the backstretch, a red flag for polesitter Bobby East slowed the action.

On the restart, Darland followed Thomas to the bottom but quickly jumped to the top trying to find a way around. After hitting halfway, Darland and Thomas ran side-by-side until lap 19, when Darland finally cleared Thomas down the backstretch and drove away.

Darland was unchallenged in the closing laps, producing an excited victory lane for the Phillips Motorsports – Racer’s Advantage #71P DRC/Foxco.

Thomas came home second, continuing his impressive streak of finishes despite missing out on the elusive fourth straight-win in the Mike Dutcher/RW/Tri-Star Motorsports – Black Jack Oil Company #17RW Maxim/Fisher.

Brady Short made a move off turn-four to narrowly take the third spot, garnering the B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger money along the way in the Pottorff Logging – Indiana Stone Works #11P Maxim/SPEC.

Chase Stockon held onto his point lead while finishing fourth in the Superior Tank & Trailer – Crescent Electric Supply #32 DRC/Fisher, while B&W Auto Mart Fast Qualifier Brady Bacon rounded out the top-five in the Hoffman Auto Racing – Mean Green #69 Triple X/Stanton Mopar.

AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: May 17, 2013 – Bloomington, Indiana – Bloomington Speedway – “Larry Rice Classic”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-11.597; 2. Bryan Clauson, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-11.604; 3. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-11.740; 4. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips-11.744; 5. Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-11.793; 6. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 17RW, Dutcher/RW/TriStar-11.807; 7. Chase Briscoe, 5B, Briscoe-11.826; 8. Matt Westfall, 54, Best Performance-11.878; 9. Bobby East, 5E, East-11.888; 10. Levi Jones, 39, Walker-11.899; 11. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-11.907; 12. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-11.910; 13. Logan Hupp, 9H, Hupp-11.963; 14. Robert Ballou, 5, Baldwin-11.965; 15. Brady Short, 11P, Pottorff-11.973; 16. Jordan Kinser, 5K, JKR-11.999; 17. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-12.002; 18. Tyler Courtney, 23c, Courtney/Anderson-12.027; 19. Landon Simon, 41, Stensland-12.047; 20. Jon Stanbrough, 66, Tate/Wade-12.051; 21. Danny Holtsclaw, 3H, Holtsclaw-12.057; 22. Nick Drake, 55, Cline-12.123; 23. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-12.161; 24. Chris Babcock, 35x, Babcock-12.180; 25. Josh Burton, 04, Burton-12.224; 26. Casey Shuman, 21K, Krockenberger-12.233; 27. Bub Cummings, 71, Cummings-12.408; 28. Kurt Gross, 1x, Gross-12.427; 29. Daylan Chambers, 4c, Chambers-12.809; 30. Shane Cottle, 2, Epperson-NT; 31. Kent Christian, 1c, Christian-NT; 32. Jon Sciscoe, 7, Sciscoe-NT.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Holtsclaw, 2. Bacon, 3. Jackson, 4. East, 5. Schuerenberg, 6. Hupp, 7. Chambers, 8. Burton.

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Jones, 3. Clauson, 4. Thomas, 5. Shuman, 6. Courtney, 7. Drake, 8. Cottle.

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Short, 2. Stockon, 3. Simon, 4. Leary, 5. Hines, 6. Briscoe, 7. Cummings.

FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Darland, 3. Windom, 4. Kinser, 5. Babcock, 6. Westfall, 7. Gross.

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Schuerenberg, 2. Shuman, 3. Briscoe, 4. Hines, 5. Courtney, 6. Westfall, 7. Drake, 8. Hupp, 9. Cummings, 10. Cottle, 11. Chambers, 12. Babcock, 13. Burton, 14. Gross. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Dave Darland, 2. Kevin Thomas, 3. Brady Short, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Robert Ballou, 7. Bryan Clauson, 8. Levi Jones, 9. Hunter Schuerenberg, 10. Matt Westfall, 11. C.J. Leary, 12. Tracy Hines, 13. Chris Windom, 14. Jon Stanbrough, 15. Jordan Kinser, 16. Casey Shuman, 17. Tyler Courtney, 18. Nick Drake, 19. Chase Briscoe, 20. Bobby East, 21. Dakota Jackson, 22. Landon Simon, 23. Danny Holtsclaw. NT
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**East flipped on lap 14 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-18 Thomas, Laps 19-30 Darland.

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Stockon-466, 2-Darland-452, 3-Bacon-439, 4-Thomas-438, 5-Schuerenberg-422, 6-Clauson-417, 7-Ballou-406, 8-Hines-381, 9-Leary-275, 10-Courtney-254.

NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: May 22 – Terre Haute (IN) Action Track – 43rd “Tony Hulman Classic”