STANBROUGH STARTS SPRINTWEEK WITH GAS CITY WIN, FIRST FOR AMATI RACING

Gas City, Indiana…….Jon Stanbrough of Avon, Indiana is no stranger to winning in the AMSOIL National Sprint Car competition, and on Friday night he kicked off “Indiana Sprintweek” in style by capturing his 30th career win with the series, this one coming at Gas City I-69 Speedway. The win was the first for his Amati Racing team.

The most recent winner with the series, Chad Boespflug, led the field to green and paced a hammer-down race through the first half. Stanbrough, who started alongside, actually slid back to the third spot as Bryan Clauson became the biggest threat to Boespflug’s lead. As the first half wound on, Shane Cottle joined the lead pack and made it a four-car tussle.

Stanbrough jumped to the top on lap 12 and soon had a line carved in around the outside, circling Boespflug for the lead on lap 16. Just a lap later, the only caution of the race flew when Casey Shuman slowed to a stop.

After the restart, Stanbrough raced to a comfortable advantage, only giving up some ground late in the going as he encountered slower cars. At the finish, it was a .860-second win for Stanbrough in the Marion Underground Construction – Shane Wade Enterprises #66 DRC/Dynotech.

“(Crew chief) Daryl (Tate) and I never lost communication with each other, and his hard work and Shane Wade giving us the chance to do this, and those guys believing in me put this all together. We’ve just kept at it when we’ve been so close to winning races lately. Jeff Peterson did a great job on bleeders tonight, and we really made gains there. I never met Shane Wade before this came together, and hopefully now that we got him one, we can get some more this week,” Stanbrough said.

Cottle held on for second, as he inched away from everyone else and actually reeled in the leader on the bottom in the Epperson Painting – Leer Racing #2 Spike/Claxton.

“I had Jon passed at one point, but I just had to get a way by Chad (Boespflug). He got us back and I just blew the corner a few too many times before I settled down. I think we were as fast as he was once I got going, but hopefully this is the turn we needed after all the bad luck we’ve had lately to get one in the win column soon,” Cottle said.

Hunter Schuerenberg made a huge surge on the cushion, as he picked up the “Hard Charger” award from ProSource and made himself an early favorite for the week-long B&W Auto Mart “Josh Burton Hard Charger Award” after climbing from 4th to finish third in the MyLocalFordStore.com – Fatheadz Eyewear #35 Mach-1/Rider

“We knew the track would be heavy, so we took a chance and tried to keep it free to be good early. It worked out pretty well for us. We’ve gotten back to stuff we used to do, and I’m feeling really comfortable. We have done so little to the car, people probably wouldn’t believe us. I’ve got a lot of confidence in it right now to just go out and drive the crap out of it,” Schuerenberg said.

Clauson held on for fourth despite a flattening right-rear tire on the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing – Chevy Performance, while Dave Darland rounded out the top-five in the Phillips Motorsports – Racer’s Advantage #71P DRC/Foxco. Darland also picked up the night’s ProSource “Fast Time Award.”