CLAUSON COOLS THOMAS STREAK WITH LINCOLN PARK “SPRINTWEEK” SCORE

Putnamville, Indiana…….Bryan Clauson of Noblesville, Indiana cracked the 20-win milestone in AMSOIL National Sprint Car competition for his career after winning Thursday’s “Indiana Sprintweek” feature at Lincoln Park Speedway. The win was the second of the season for Clauson and ended the three-race reign of Kevin Thomas, Jr. during the week.

Chris Bell outgunned Hunter Schuerenberg to the lead, while Clauson quickly jumped from row-two to the second spot. The race took a major turn when Tracy Hines went off turn-two and stopped while running in the top-five, and Thomas, the ProSource “Fast Qualifier” on the night, spun as the result of a chain reaction on the first lap after the restart.

Just a lap later, Schuerenberg stopped with front-end issues, ending his night, but he will carry the lead for the B&W Auto Mart “Josh Burton Hard Charger Award” into Bloomington.

After a lap eleven red flag for Chase Briscoe, who was unhurt, Clauson went to work on Bell. He had looked low continually in turns three and four, sliding through the middle, but was unable to clear the leader. On lap 12, Bell left the high side open and Clauson pounced, grabbing the lead off turn-four.

Bell did not give up, charging back at Clauson as the duo drew away from the rest of the field, who battled for top-five spots. Bell closed through turns three and four as both pounded the tall cushion, but a bobble on the cushion with just a couple laps remaining allowed Clauson to break away, earning a 1.527-second win in the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing – Chevy Performance #20 Beast/Kistler.

“Man, we needed that one! We had a shot at him early when he was railing the top, but he saw me and got down a little. We carved in that lane a little better off turn-two, and it was just a matter of time. He was doing a great job on restarts, and finally he kinda slid himself into three and we could beat him to the cushion off four. It was a little treacherous down there in three and four, so I was trying to be mistake-free as tricky as it was. You can’t run thirty perfect ones up there,” Clauson said.

Bell recovered to easily finish second on the birthday of car owner Keith Kunz in the Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Advanced Racing Suspension #67 Bullet/Speedway.

“I couldn’t really tell where was the best place to be. Being out front, you just have to run your line until somebody shows you a different one. I saw his nose a couple times off four and a couple times entering one. I was searching through one and two, and he finally found something that worked, I guess. I was getting through three and four better than he was, and I tried everything I could to get through the other end, but I could never get a run on him,” Bell said.

Brady Short put on a show, slicing through the field from 19th to finish third in his Pottorff Logging – Indiana Stone Works #11P Maxim/SPEC, garnering ProSource “Hard Charger Award” honors for his effort.

“We probably weren’t even set up for it, as quickly as it got slick. I over-drove it a bit when I got up to Bell and needed to slow down to hit two a little better, but that’s part of it, I guess. All in all, it’s not a bad week, and I still got my two favorite race tracks coming up to finish it off,” Short said.

Jon Stanbrough continued his solid week with a fourth-place finish in the Marion Underground Construction – Shane Wade Enterprises #66 DRC/Dynotech, and Chris Windom rounded out the top-five in the Jeff’s Jam-It-In Storage – Hoosier Tire #11 Maxim/Claxton.

AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS:  July 18, 2013 – Putnamville, Indiana – Lincoln Park Speedway – “Indiana Sprintweek”

QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas, 17RW, Dutcher-RW/Tri-Star-12.716; 2. Ryan Pace, 44, Pace-12.790; 3. Jon Stanbrough, 66, Wade-12.809; 4. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.846; 5. Richard Vander Weerd, 10, Vander Weerd-12.846; 6. Bryan Clauson, 20, Stewart-12.935; 7. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-12.943; 8. Christopher Bell, 67, Kunz-12.998; 9. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-12.999; 10. Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-13.010; 11. Nick Drake, 55, Cline-13.015; 12. Scotty Weir, 18, Keen-13.088; 13. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-13.151; 14. Kyle Cummins, 3c, Cummins-13.167; 15. A.J. Hopkins, 14H, Hopkins-13.179; 16. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips-13.185; 17. Shane Cottle, 2, Epperson-13.214; 18. Chad Boespflug, 57, Hazen-13.215; 19. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-13.223; 20. Seth Parker, 38p, Parker-13.297; 21. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.297; 22. Chris Gurley, 12G, Team Automotive-13.301; 23. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-13.308; 24. Ethan Barrow, 15, Barrow-13.362; 25. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.388; 26. Tyler Courtney, 23c, Courtney-13.408; 27. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.416; 28. Chase Briscoe, 5B, Briscoe-13.429;29. Ryan Bernal, 73, Ford-13.451; 30. Robert Ballou, 12x, Ballou-13.453; 31. Justin Grant, 21x, Pollock-13.481; 32. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.491; 33. Casey Shuman, 21k, Krockenberger-13.505; 34. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-13.531; 35. Wes McIntyre, 83, McIntyre-13.536; 36. Jace Vander Weerd, 88, Vander Weerd-13.547; 37. Blake Fitzpatrick, 10F, Fitzpatrick-13.555; 38. Kent Schmidt, 5k, Schmidt-13.569; 39. Dalten Gabbard, 77x, Walker-13.575; 40. Nathan Moore, 48, Moore-13.623; 41. Carson Short, 21c, Short-13.637; 42. Brian Hayden, 77, Wingo-13.641; 43. Mike Terry, 85, Terry-13.651; 44. Bill Rose, 6, Rose-13.663; 45. Travis Welpott, 18x, Welpott-13.756; 46. Conner Donelson, 42, Donelson-13.785; 47. Daylan Chambers, 4c, Chambers-14.208; 48. Kent Christian, 1c, Christian-14.253; 49. Jake Simmons, 3x, Simmons-14.253; 50. Mark Smith, 1m, Smith-NT.

QUALIFYING RACE #1: (8 laps) 1. McIntyre, 2. Shuman, 3. Fitzpatrick, 4. C.Short, 5. Welpott, 6. Gabbard, 7. Chambers, 8. Simmons, 9. Terry. NT

QUALIFYING RACE #2: (8 laps) 1. Jackson, 2. J.Vander Weerd, 3. Hayden, 4. Schmidt, 5. Donelson, 6. Christian, 7. Moore, 8. Rose. NT

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Windom, 3. R.Vander Weerd, 4. Cottle, 5. Stockon, 6. Fitzpatrick, 7. Thomas, 8. McIntyre, 9. Bernal, 10. McGhee. 2:12.39

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. Clauson, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. Cummins, 5. Ballou, 6. Courtney, 7. Pace, 8. Gurley, 9. C.Short, 10. Shuman. 2:13.20

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. B.Short, 2. Hines, 3. Beauchamp, 4. Stanbrough, 5. Grant, 6. Drake, 7. Hopkins, 8. Hayden, 9. Robbins, 10. Jackson. NT

FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Bell, 3. Parker, 4. Weir, 5. Briscoe, 6. Barrow, 7. J.Vander Weerd, 8. Jarrett, 9. Schmidt, 10. Bacon. 2:15.21

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. Bacon, 3. McIntyre, 4. Stockon, 5. Ballou, 6. Briscoe, 7. Drake, 8. Fitzpatrick, 9. Gurley, 10. Courtney, 11. Robbins, 12. Jarrett, 13. J.Vander Weerd, 14. Schmidt, 15. Hopkins, 16. Shuman, 17. C.Short, 18. Pace, 19. Barrow, 20. McGhee, 21. Grant, 22. Hayden. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Chris Bell, 3. Brady Short, 4. Jon Stanbrough, 5. Chris Windom, 6. Brady Bacon, 7. Robert Ballou, 8. Chad Boespflug, 9. Brent Beauchamp, 10. Chase Stockon, 11. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 12. Kyle Cummins, 13. Wes McIntyre, 14. Jace Vander Weerd, 15. Tracy Hines, 16. Seth Parker, 17. Shane Cottle, 18. C.J. Leary, 19. Nick Drake, 20. Richard Vander Weerd, 21. Dave Darland, 22. Chase Briscoe, 23. Hunter Schuerenberg, 24. Scotty Weir. NT
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**Terry flipped in Qualifying Race 1. Briscoe flipped on lap 11 of the Feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-12 Bell, Laps 13-30 Clauson.

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Darland-1,049; 2-Clauson-1,038; 3-Thomas-1,033; 4-Bacon-987; 5-Stockon-933; 6-Schuerenberg-931; 7-Ballou-858; 8-Hines-850; 9-Cottle-687; 10-Windom-661.

NEW “INDIANA SPRINTWEEK” POINTS: 1-Thomas-279; 2-Stanbrough-271; 3-Clauson-269; 4-Bacon-248; 5-Bell-247; 6-Darland-245; 7-Cottle-222; 8-McIntyre-215; 9-Windom-205; 10-Schuerenberg-203.

NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: July 19 – Bloomington, Indiana – Bloomington Speedway – “Indiana Sprintweek”