CLAUSON LOVES KOKOMO “SMACKDOWN,” WINS NIGHT ONE

Kokomo, Indiana…….Bryan Clauson of Noblesville, Indiana backed up his “Sprint Car Smackdown I” championship in style on Thursday, coming from 14th without the aid of a caution to win Night 1 of the 2013 version at Kokomo Speedway. Clauson’s 22nd career AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory tied him for 20th on the all-time list with greats Sammy Sessions, Bubby Jones, and Rick Hood.

Six-time winner this season Kevin Thomas, Jr. led the field to the green, but Jerry Coons, Jr. jumped from outside the front-row to lead the opening round. Thomas moved under Coons on lap two, though, and held the lead as second-row starter Dave Darland moved to second.

Darland was the man on the move as he slid underneath Thomas on lap-five in turn-three and checked out with the lead. Thomas fell back into a battle for second with Coons, as Clauson carved up the field along with row-seven mate Jon Stanbrough. Clauson moved into the top-five before halfway, and into second just after.

Although Darland had a huge lead, Clauson chopped it down in no time and beat Darland off the fourth corner for the lead on lap 22. He disappeared into traffic and was never challenged, winning by 4.388 seconds in the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing – Chevy Performance #20 Beast/Kistler Chevy, and also garnering PPM Titanium Products “Hard Charger Award.”

“Everybody knows I can’t qualify here – but I really love racing at this place. We knew we’d have to be able to move around to get up there. Luckily, I have a lot of practice coming from the back at this place. I found somethin’ in three and four, more through the middle. I had to search to find something our car liked. It kinda surprised me how quickly we tracked Darland down. I glanced up at the scoreboard and thought we could get there, just didn’t expect to get there so quick,” Clauson said.

Darland had no trouble hanging onto second, claiming the runner-up slot by 4.317 seconds in the Phillips Motorsports – Racer’s Advantage #71P DRC/Foxco.

“It surprised me to see him go by me like that. The top slowed down a little bit, but I couldn’t believe how fast he was down there. The cushion got some really tricky spots, especially off turn-two. It just wasn’t a real even shape and upset the car. We got into the lead early there and things were looking good, but Bryan and his guys had some things figured out. This is a good track for me, and we’re not disappointed with second, but we gotta be a little better and get us a win this weekend,” Darland said.

Stanbrough completed his drive from 13th by ending up on the podium in the Marion Underground Construction – Shane Wade Enterprises #66 DRC/Dynotech.

“We thought we put it on kill, but we were just a little off. We blistered the right-rear, too. We actually got by Bryan at the beginning, but he took off after he got us back. Starting back where we started, tonight was a great result and hopefully we can carry it through the weekend. I made a mistake on my qualifying lap to put us back there, but we were good the rest of the night and hopefully Saturday night is good to us,” Stanbrough said.

Brady Bacon came from ninth to finish fourth in the Hoffman Auto Racing – Mean Green #69 Triple X/Stanton Mopar, and Coons rounded out the top-five in the Edison Motorsports – Crume-Evans Insurance #10E Spike/Chevy.

Justin Grant posted ProSource Fast Time in the Jeff Walker Racing #39 before flipping in Heat 1. He was unhurt, but scratched for the night. Butlerbuilt Seat Systems Heat Races presented by CSI Shocks winners were Clauson, Chase Stockon, Chris Windom, and Stanbrough. The GoPro Semi-Feature winner was Daron Clayton. The Wilwood Brakes “Hard Work Award” winner was Darren Hagen, and Chris Gurley won the Indy Performance Composites (IPC) “Close Call Award” as the first non-transfer.

AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 22, 2013 – Kokomo, Indiana – Kokomo Speedway – “Sprint Car Smackdown II”

QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 39, Walker-12.739; 2. Robert Ballou, 12x, Ballou-12.839; 3. Hunter Schuerenberg, 41, Stensland-12.851; 4. Chad Boespflug, 57, Hazen-12.916; 5. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips-12.952; 6. Shane Cottle, 2, Epperson-12.953; 7. Daron Clayton, 35, Byram-12.954; 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-12.958; 9. Tyler Courtney, 23c, Courtney-12.960; 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 17RW, Dutcher/RW/Tri-Star-12.974; 11. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.980; 12. Jarett Andretti, 18a, Andretti-13.008; 13. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-13.047; 14. Gary Taylor, 40, Hery-13.056; 15. Scotty Weir, 18, Keen-13.091; 16. Jon Stanbrough, 66, Wade-13.097; 17. Bryan Clauson, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-13.126; 18. Chase Stockon, 32, 32/TBI-13.157; 19. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-13.215; 20. Wes McIntyre, 83, McIntyre-13.218; 21. Casey Shuman, 21k, Krockenberger-13.269; 22. Blake Fitzpatrick, 10, Fitzpatrick-13.289; 23. Christopher Bell, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.354; 24. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-13.371; 25. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-13.371; 26. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.387; 27. Thomas Meseraull, 5, Baldwin-13.485; 28. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-13.493; 29. Darren Hagen, 21x, Pollock-13.495; 30. Conner Donelson, 42, Donelson-13.519; 31. Chris Gurley, 12G, Team Automotive-13.565; 32. Dustin Smith, 77s, Smith-13.578; 33. Braylon Fitzpatrick, 3F, Fitzpatrick-13.583; 34. Nick Drake, 55, Cline-13.705; 35. Landon Simon, 24, Simon-13.728; 36. Travis Welpott, 18x, Welpott-14.313; 37. Billy Wease, 59, Powell-14.346; 38. Ray Kenens, K9, Kenens-14.693.

FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Clauson, 2. Hines, 3. Darland, 4. Shuman, 5. Courtney, 6. Spencer, 7. Braylon Fitzpatrick, 8. Wease, 9. Grant, 10. Hagen. NT

SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Cottle, 3. Thomas, 4. Ballou, 5. Taylor, 6. Blake Fitzpatrick, 7. Jarett, 8. Donelson, 9. Drake, 10. Kenens. 2:14.29

THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Windom, 2. Bacon, 3. Bell, 4. Weir, 5. Schuerenberg, 6. Clayton, 7. Gurley, 8. Meseraull, 9. Simon. NT

FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. McIntyre, 3. Coons, 4. Boespflug, 5. Jackson, 6. Andretti, 7. Smith, 8. Welpott. 2:16.31

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Clayton, 2. Meseraull, 3. Courtney, 4. Blake Fitzpatrick, 5. Taylor, 6. Hagen, 7. Gurley, 8. Braylon Fitzpatrick, 9. Jackson, 10. Andretti, 11. Drake, 12. Spencer, 13. Wease, 14. Smith, 15. Kenens, 16. Welpott, 17. Schuerenberg, 18. Donelson. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Dave Darland, 3. Jon Stanbrough, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 6. Tyler Courtney, 7. Kevin Thomas Jr., 8. Robert Ballou, 9. Christopher Bell, 10. Chad Boespflug, 11. Shane Cottle, 12. Casey Shuman, 13. Chris Windom, 14. Darren Hagen, 15. Wes McIntyre, 16. Chase Stockon, 17. Scotty Weir, 18. Thomas Meseraull, 19. Blake Fitzpatrick, 20. Daron Clayton, 21. Tracy Hines, 22. Gary Taylor. 7:21.35
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**Andretti flipped during qualifying. Leary flipped during qualifying. Grant flipped during the first heat.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Coons, Laps 2-4 Thomas, Laps 5-22 Darland, Laps 23-30 Clauson.

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Darland-1,190, 2-Clauson-1,188, 3-Bacon-1,163, 4-Thomas-1,132, 5-Stockon-1,078, 6-Ballou-971, 7-Schuerenberg-952, 8-Hines-939, 9-Windom-774, 10-Cottle-746

NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: August 23 – Kokomo, Indiana – Kokomo Speedway – “Sprint Car Smackdown II”