CLAUSON STARTS ARKANSAS SPRINT CAR WEEKEND WITH I-30 WIN

Little Rock, Arkansas…….Bryan Clauson of Noblesville, Indiana came out on top in the first-ever Feature for the AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series at I-30 Speedway. After setting fast time before being rained out last year, Clauson worked his way around early leader Kyle Cummins to take a hard-fought win in the 40-lapper.

Cummins led from the pole as Clauson worked an outside line to to work his way by Tracy Hines for the second spot. From there, he continued to assault the extreme outside groove until he caught the middle through turn-four on lap eight to take the lead.

Kevin Thomas, Jr. started from row three and followed Clauson to the front as the duo briefly raced side in the early laps. Thomas finally cleared Cummins for second around the halfway point, as the two leaders checked out on the rest of the field.

A final twelve-lap green flag run saw the two patiently navigate the bottom as Clauson hung on for his 23rd career Sprint Car Feature win, and fifth this season, by .672-seconds in the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing – Chevy Performance #20 Beast/Kistler.

“Early on, I jumped up there just to see what would happen, and slowly made some runs. The restarts were key to give us a chance with them packed up to make a run at those guys. Our Chevrolet Performance car was really good, and we knew we’d have to be pretty tight to be able to move around and make something work. The championship is a game of runs, and tonight we put a lot of points on the board, and it should be a fun road to the end,” Clauson said.

Thomas stopped his recent slump with a podium finish in the Rotondo Weirich – Black Jack Oil Company #17RW Maxim/Fisher.

“It was a test of patience tonight. Right at the start, the top was just hanging on by a thread. It was really thin, so you had to be careful up there. Once we got to 1-2, there wasn’t much to do with the leader. We’ve had some rough nights lately, so it’s good to bounce back,” Thomas said.

After falling back in the early laps, Brady Bacon stuck to the top-side and closed on two cars racing the bottom in the final few laps, getting a big run off the turn-four cushion to barely nab third at the line in the Hoffman Auto Racing – Mean Green #69 Triple X/Stanton Mopar.

“The top had a good cushion in three and four, but it was just really far around. I stayed up there, and we barely nicked him at the line for third. We rode around for a few there, and obviously weren’t going to pass them down there. I actually felt a little better on the top as hard as the bottom was to run. I thought I had a chance to gain something, and once we got the momentum going, we were pretty good. We were able to work through the middle a few times, too,” Bacon said.

Cummins held on for fourth in the Rick Pollock – Bates Commodities #21x Maxim/Advanced, and local favorite Tim Crawley finished fifth after starting 11th in the Boater Sports – Senter Farms #88 GF1/Shark. Sixth-place finishing Zach Pringle took home the ProSource “Hard Charger Award” after advancing from 13th, and Chase Stockon started the evening by setting ProSource “Fast Time.”

AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 6, 2013 – Little Rock, Arkansas – I-30 Speedway

QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 32, 32/TBI-13.092; 2. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.193; 3. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 17RW, Dutcher/RW/TriStar-13.330; 4. Bryan Clauson, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-13.337; 5. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-13.496; 6. Nick Drake, 55, Cline-13.687; 7. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.728; 8. Kyle Cummins, 21x, Pollock-13.744; 9. Tyler Courtney, 23c, Courtney/Anderson-13.773; 10. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips-13.781; 11. Derek Hagar, 9, Conrad-13.787; 12. Tim Crawley, 88, Ward-14.100; 13. Keaton Dobbs, 15K, Dobbs-14.128; 14. Zach Pringle, 14z, Mobbs-14.138; 15. Anthony Nicholson, 16, Nicholson-14.166; 16. Jerod Roller, 5, Roller-14.179; 17. Jacob Pringle, 2J, Mobbs-14.186; 18. Jordon Mallett, 14, Mallett-14.224; 19. Joe Young, 12T, Young-14.308; 20. Brad Bowden, 39, Bowden-14.447; 21. Tommy Snellgrove, 4T, Snellgrove-14.547; 22. Nathan Moore, 48, Moore-14.570; 23. Cody Gardner, 1G, Gardner-14.591; 24. Johnny Gardner, 31G, Gardner-14.674; 25. Rick Pringle, 38, Pringle-14.786; 26. Chet Williams, 38, Williams-14.915.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Clauson, 2. Darland, 3. Dobbs, 4. Young, 5. Roller, 6. Moore, 7. R. Pringle, 8. Ballou, 9. Stockon. NT

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Z. Pringle, 2. Bacon, 3. Cummins, 4. Hines, 5. Hagar, 6. Bowden, 7. C. Gardner, 8. Williams, 9. J. Pringle. NT

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Crawley, 2. Thomas, 3. Nicholson, 4. Courtney, 5. Drake, 6. Mallett, 7. Snellgrove, 8. J. Gardner. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. C. Gardner, 3. Mallett, 4. Snellgrove, 5. Moore, 6. R. Pringle, 7. Williams, 8. Stockon, 9. J. Pringle, 10. Bowden, 11. J. Gardner. NT

FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Kyle Cummins, 5. Tim Crawley, 6. Zach Pringle, 7. Tracy Hines, 8. Tyler Courtney, 9. Derek Hagar, 10. Dave Darland, 11. Jordon Mallett, 12. Joe Young, 13. Anthony Nicholson, 14. Chase Stockon, 15. Keaton Dobbs, 16. Nick Drake, 17. Chet Williams, 18. Nathan Moore, 19. Jerod Roller, 20. Robert Ballou, 21. Rick Pringle, 22. Cody Gardner, 23. Tommy Snellgrove.
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Cummins, Laps 8-40 Clauson.

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Clauson/Darland-1,489; 3-Bacon-1,430; 4-Stockon-1,323; 5-Thomas-1,302; 6-Hines-1,192; 7-Ballou-1,154; 8-Hunter Schuerenberg-1,000; 9-Chris Windom-980; 10-Shane Cottle-919.

NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: September 7 – West Memphis, Arkansas – Riverside International Speedway