WINDOM WINS WILD ELDORA "4-CROWN" AMSOIL SPRINT CAR FEATURE

Rossburg, Ohio........The Sprint Car portion of the Eldora Speedway "4-Crown Nationals" has always been known for unpredictably and Saturday night was just the latest chapter, as Chris Windom avoided disaster and capitalized on the opportunity to win for the first time at the vaunted high-banked oval. The Canton, Illinois 22-year old only led one lap, but it was good enough for the win.

After Dave Darland, who was second in points coming in, had issues forcing him to use a back-up car and start from the tail, series point-leader Bryan Clauson began from the pole as front-row mate Daron Clayton jumped to the early lead. He led comfortably over the first half of the race as Clauson lost a couple spots after contact with the wall, and Jac Haudenschild did the same while running third.

A restart on lap 15 saw Clayton leading Chase Stockon, Brady Bacon, Clauson and Tracy Hines, but as Clauson looked under Bacon for third on the restart, Bacon banged the cushion and swapped ends, flipping through turn-two. He walked away. Under red, the race took a few more turns as Robert Ballou, who was slated to restart seventh, pitted with a flat right-rear tire. Just a moment later, second-running Chase Stockon came to the pits and retired with engine issues.

A ten-lap run saw the leaders enter traffic, with Hines ascending to track down Clayton for the lead. The duo saw the five-to-go signal just as Clayton slid under a slower car entering turn-one. He banged the cushion much the way Bacon did, sending him into a flip in turn-two, as well. He emerged unscathed, but his misfortune handed the lead to ProSource "Fast Qualifier" Hines.

On the restart, Hines led a charging Windom, who appeared faster and readied for a slide-job. He never got close enough, as Hines took the white flag comfortably in command until he too encountered problems, this time getting into the turn-four wall and flipping with the checkered flag in sight. Hines was unhurt but narrowly missed his third win of the year and 46th of his career, which would have tied him with Jack Hewitt and Darland for second all-time.

Windom survived the final lap with a good restart and no mistakes to take his first win of the year in the Jeff Walker Racing-owned, Jeff's Jam-It-In Storage - Hoosier Tire #11 Maxim/Claxton.

"I don't even know what to say. It was a crazy night. Really, the last two years have been pretty up-and-down for me, but I think (car owner) Jeff (Walker) and me have settled back into something nice here. He's given me a great car, and we just haven't been able to finish it off until tonight. I just was trying to be conservative with all the crashes those guys had ahead of us. I thought I could get a little bit closer to Tracy before I slid him, and he actually ended up getting away from me a little, so I was far enough back on the last lap to miss him when he crashed. It's just great to finally get a win at Eldora," Windom said.

Haudenschild wound up second in the Simon Racing - USI #22 Maxim/Claxton, while Darland completed an amazing drive to rebound from starting 24th with a podium finish, easily winning the "Larry Rice High Performance Award" in the Phillips Motorsports - Racer's Advantage #71P DRC/Foxco.

Clauson, aboard the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing - Chevy Performance #20 Beast/Kistler, held on to fourth and his point lead, which is two points heading into next Saturday's "City of Lawrenceburg Fall Nationals" at Lawrenceburg (Ind.) Speedway. Ballou also put on a show, using the final 16 laps to move from 21st to fifth in the Rossie Feed & Grain - Butlerbuilt #12 Maxim/Ott.

AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: September 21, 2013 – Rossburg, Ohio – Eldora Speedway – 32nd “4-Crown Nationals”
 
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-15.088; 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-15.341; 3. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-15.414; 4. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips-15.431; 5. Jac Haudenschild, 22s, Simon-15.489; 6. Daron Clayton, 35, Byram-15.528; 7. Justin Grant, 27a, Elson-15.583; 8. Bryan Clauson, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-15.608; 9. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E. Edison-15.617; 10. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-15.619; 11. Jon Stanbrough, 66, Tate/Wade-15.656; 12. Robert Ballou, 12x, Ballou-15.669; 13. Matt Westfall, 54, Best Performance-15.732; 14. Kevin Thomas Jr. 17RW, Dutcher/RW/Tri-Star-15.736; 15. Kyle Cummins, 21x, Pollock-15.739; 16. Dallas Hewitt, 2m, Marshall-15.777; 17. Scotty Weir, 18, Keen-15.779; 18. Wes McIntyre, 83, McIntyre-15.816; 19. Gary Taylor, 40, Hery-15.841; 20. Bill Rose, 6, Rose-15.908; 21. Mike Brecht, 9x, SC-15.929; 22. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-16.021; 23. Jarett Andretti, 18a, Andretti-16.112; 24. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-16.202; 25. Luke Hall, 9N, Nelson-16.247; 26. Tyler Courtney, 23c, Courtney-16.279; 27. Tim Hunter, 5m, Walters-16.281; 28. Nick Drake, 55, Cline-16.329; 29. Mike Miller, 82, Miller-16.366; 30. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-16.386; 31. Adam Cruea, 83x, Cruea-16.520; 32. Brandon Whited, 15, French-16.548; 33. Derek Hastings, 32m, Marshall-16.957; 34. Mike Galajda, 2x, Galajda-17.214; 35. Toby Alfrey, 5a, Alfrey-17.577; 36. Mitch Wissmiller, 1w, Wissmiller-NT.
 
FIRST HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Hines, 2. Brecht, 3. Westfall, 4. Haudenschild, 5. Hastings, 6. Weir, 7. Miller, 8. Coons, 9. Hall. 2:11.83
 
SECOND HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Clayton, 2. Windom ,3. Bacon, 4. Thomas, 5. McIntyre, 6. Farney, 7. Courtney, 8. Galajda, 9. Leary. NT
 
THIRD HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Taylor, 2. Stockon, 3. Stanbrough, 4. Cummins, 5. Andretti, 6. Cruea, 7. Hunter, 8. Alfrey, 9. Grant. 2:14.41
 
FOURTH HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Rose, 3. Clauson, 4. Drake, 5. Hewitt, 6. Jarrett, 7. Whited, 8. Darland. NT
 
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Hewitt, 2. Darland, 3. Hall, 4. Grant, 5. Andretti, 6. McIntyre, 7. Leary, 8. Miller, 9. Cruea, 10. Whited, 11. Farney, 12. Hunter, 13. Courtney, 14. Jarrett, 15. Alfrey, 16. Galajda, 17. Hastings, 18. Coons. NT
 
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Jac Haudenschild, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Bryan Clauson, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Jon Stanbrough, 7. Gary Taylor, 8. Justin Grant, 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 10. Jarett Andretti, 11. Mike Brecht, 12. Wes McIntyre, 13. Kyle Cummins, 14. Bill Rose, 15. Matt Westfall, 16. Luke Hall, 17. C.J. Leary, 18. Nick Drake, 19. Tyler Courtney, 20. Tracy Hines, 21. Daron Clayton, 22. Mike Miller, 23. Chase Stockon, 24. Brady Bacon, 25. Dallas Hewitt,
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**Bacon flipped on lap 15 of the feature. Clayton flipped on lap 25 of the feature. Hines flipped on the 30th lap of the feature.
 
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-24 Clayton, Laps 25-29 Hines, Lap 30 Windom.
 
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Clauson-1,634, 2-Darland-1,632, 3-Bacon-1,543, 4-Thomas-1,435, 5-Stockon-1,416, 6-Hines-1,318, 7-Ballou-1,287, 8-Windom-1,045, 9-Hunter Schuerenberg-1,000, 10-Shane Cottle-952.
 
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: September 28 – Lawrenceburg (IN) Speedway