Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania…….After waiting until November to get his one win last season on the AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship tour, Chase Stockon got his first victory of the season out of the way on Tuesday night as he waited out a rain delay to lead all 40 laps of the “Jesse Hockett Classic” at Grandview Speedway. It kicked off the 8th "Eastern Storm" Championship presented by RW & Partners.
“Tonight was one of those nights where you could really feel the speed. We had a fast pace, especially after the restart. I knew I wasn’t slowing down too much, just based on how fast I was closing on lapped cars. We struggled a bit with our shock package over the last month, but Afco got us lined out. We came out here with the main goal of getting a win, so it’s nice to meet it right at the start,” Stockon said.
Stockon got the jump over fellow front-row starter Jon Stanbrough on a lightning-quick race track, aided by an earlier rain shower just after the heat races. Two cautions early in the going gave way to a long green-flag run, which took the race just past halfway before a yellow was displayed due to increasing rainfall over the speedway.
Cars were pulled off the race and a short break was taken to work the track back to raceable condition before restarting the race. As the race resumed, speeds were even greater as Stockon turned laps at qualifying pace while carving through traffic over the final 19 laps, winning by 2.479 seconds in the Superior Tank & Trailer – Crescent Electric Supply #32 DRC/Fisher.
Stanbrough was strong in second, finishing without any pressure from behind to take his best finish of the season in the MP Environmental Services – Indiana Underground Construction #37RW Maxim/Fisher.
“I was hoping to be able to get it in before the rain, and our car was coming to us in that stretch. That changed things, obviously. It took a few laps to get back good again after the restart, and after that I felt like we were pretty close to the same speed. I ran as hard as I could those last twenty laps, but there wasn’t much else you could do. It was a good night – we ran second for about the hundredth time this year,” Stanbrough said.
Dave Darland withstood pressure from Justin Grant late in the race to hold on for the final podium spot in the Phillips Motorsports – Racer’s Advantage Store #71P DRC/Foxco.
“It was unfortunate to have to fight the rain, but at least we got the race in for the fans. We loosened it up just a little bit too much for after the rain, but it was a good night and we salvaged a decent finish,” Darland said.
Grant finished fourth in the Mark Hery Racing – Dick’s Paint & Body #40 DRC/Claxton, and Brady Bacon held onto his point lead as he finished fifth in the Hoffman Auto Racing – Mean Green #69 Triple X/Williams Mopar.
AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: June 3, 2014 – Bechtelsville, Pennsylvania – Grandview Speedway – “Eastern Storm”
QUALIFYING: 1. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-13.776; 2. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips-13.814; 3. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-13.853; 4. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.999; 5. Chase Stockon, 32, 32/TBI-14.044; 6. Jon Stanbrough, 37RW, Dutcher-14.082; 7. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-14.175; 8. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-14.259; 9. Daron Clayton, 3R, Byram-14.301; 10. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, KT-14.318; 11. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-14.384; 12. Hunter Schuerenberg, 20N, Schuerenberg/Nolen-14.391; 13. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-14.424; 14. Mark Smith, 1M, Smith-14.455; 15. Bryan Clauson, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-14.498; 16. Shane Cockrum, 66, Wade-14.531; 17. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.534; 18. Dalten Gabbard, 5, Baldwin-14.717; 19. Joey Biasi, B1, Biasi-14.719; 20. Mark Bitner, 15, Bitner-14.765; 21. Trevor Kobylarz, 14, RT-14.877; 22. Billy Pauch, Jr., 36, Thomas/Engler-14.914; 23. Chad Boespflug, 98, Boespflug-14.923; 24. Michael Hamer, 47, Hamer-16.142; 25. Nathan Moore, 48, Moore-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Cockrum, 3. Hines, 4. Leary, 5. Thomas, 6. Simon, 7. Biasi. 1:55.15
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Smith, 3. Windom, 4. Stockon, 5. Darland, 6. Andretti, 7. Bitner, 8. Boespflug. 1:54.50
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Schuerenberg, 2. Stanbrough, 3. Clayton, 4. Grant, 5. Clauson, 6. Kobylarz, 7. Hamer, 8. Gabbard. NT
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Simon, 2. Biasi, 3. Andretti, 4. Gabbard, 5. Boespflug, 6. Kobylarz, 7. Bitner, 8. Moore, 9. Hamer.
FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Jon Stanbrough, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Tracy Hines, 7. Chris Windom, 8. Robert Ballou, 9. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 10. Hunter Schuerenberg, 11. Shane Cockrum, 12. Bryan Clauson, 13. C.J. Leary, 14. Mark Smith, 15. Joey Biasi, 16. Mark Bitner, 17. Trevor Kobylarz, 18. Dalten Gabbard, 19. Jarett Andretti, 20. Daron Clayton, 21. Chad Boespflug, 22. Landon Simon. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-40 Stockon.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bacon-585; 2-Darland-560; 3-Stockon-535; 4-Hines-533; 5-Clauson-525; 6-Stanbrough-520; 7-Grant-490; 8-Schuerenberg-443; 9-Windom-414; 10-Leary-341.
NEW RW & PARTNERS EASTERN STORM POINTS: 1-Stockon-67; 2-Stanbrough-65; 3-Darland-63; 4-Grant-60; 5-Bacon-59; 6-Hines-57; 7-Windom-48; 8-Ballou-47; 9-Schuerenberg-41; 10-Thomas-40.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: June 4 – Abbottstown, Pennsylvania – Lincoln Speedway – “Eastern Storm”
