JONES JUMPS TO FIRST WIN OF YEAR AT U.S. 36
Cameron, Missouri…….Five-time AMSOIL National Sprint Car champion Levi Jones of Olney, Illinois made his first trip to victory lane with the series this season as he came from behind to seal the win in the series’ first-ever visit to U.S. 36 Raceway. The win was the 28th of his storied career, tying him with J.J. Yeley for 12th on the all-time win list.
Darren Hagen jumped to the lead from the pole, but Kevin Thomas, Jr. was on a tear. After starting fourth, the Cullman, Alabama driver ran the top with reckless abandon as he closed in on Hagen and slid under him in turn-one on lap three for the lead.
After a stoppage for Stu Snyder’s flip on lap five, Thomas was off to the races again while Hagen tried to hold off Chase Stockon and Bryan Clauson, who established the Track Record in qualifying. Clauson slowed to a stop on lap eight, however, and rejoined the field at the tail after visiting the work area.
From there, the race went green all the way as Jones moved toward the front from his 7th-starting position. Thomas carved his way through traffic, but once Jones found clear track as well, he started to whittle away at the lead. Coming to the flag to complete lap 28, Jones got a run off the bottom of turn-four to take the lead. Thomas tried to counter on the top but was no match for the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing – Chevy Performance #20 Maxim/Kistler.
“It’s good for us to get this win, and I feel really good because we’ve got our car working great. We had to start from a ways back, but we just ran him down and right as we caught him and got the lead, the white was flying. It’s great to have our confidence up and the car working well going into Oskaloosa (tomorrow and Tuesday),” Jones said.
Thomas held off Chris Windom to finish second, making it his seventh top-five of the season in the Black Jack Oil – Indy Metal Finishings #9K Spike/Kistler.
“The top was there for us early, and this thing just was so fast up top, I didn’t think anyone would be able to catch us on the bottom. That’s really all we had up there. Maybe if we hadn’t messed around with a lapped car for a couple laps, we coulda beat him, but we can’t complain too much about getting beat by one of the best,” Thomas said.
Windom made the most of his first start in the Pollock Racing – Bates Commodities #21 Maxim/Advanced, coming home with a solid podium finish.
“The track and the car came to us as the race went on. After about halfway, this thing was just a rocketship. I can’t thank Rick & Hank (Pollock) enough for the opportunity to run their car. The first night out, we can’t ask for much more – we were bad fast, just ran out of time. We ran them down at the end, just fell a little short,” Windom said.
Stockon held on for fourth in the Terre Haute First Financial Bank – Superior Tank & Trailer #32 DRC/Fisher, while Dave Darland sailed on the cushion to pick up the Schroeder Torsion Bars “Hard Charger Award” after climbing from 13th to finish fifth.
AMSOIL USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: August 5, 2012 – Cameron, MO – US 36 Raceway
QUALIFYING: 1. Bryan Clauson, 7, Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-12.075; 2. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-12.239; 3. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, BlackJack-12.264; 4. Chris Windom, 21, Pollock-12.273; 5. Chase Stockon, 32, Stockon-12.372; 6. Darren Hagen, 69, Dynamics-12.393; 7. Levi Jones, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-12.402; 8. Jon Stanbrough, 21x, Roberts/Tate-12.413; 9. Jerry Coons, Jr., 71P, Phillips-12.442; 10. Damion Gardner, 71, DG-12.449; 11. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-12.485; 12. Thomas Meseraull, 5, Baldwin-12.513; 13. Dave Darland, 11, Walker-12.518; 14. Hunter Schuerenberg, 35, Byram-12.661; 15. Robert Ballou, 81, MPHG-12.731; 16. Stu Snyder, 21s, RHS-13.059; 17. Austin Alumbaugh, 26, Smith-13.066; 18. Curtis Evans, 1P, Evans-13.133; 19. Jeff Lowery, 45, Lowery-13.368; 20. Joe Boyles, 4F, Boyles-13.810; 21. John Helm, 12, Helm-NT.
FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Gardner, 3. Jones, 4. Windom, 5. Clauson, 6. Lowery, 7. Snyder. 1:44.02
SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Hines, 2. Schuerenberg, 3. Stockon, 4. Grant, 5. Stanbrough, 6. Alumbaugh, 7. Boyles. 1:42.70
THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Ballou, 2. Thomas, 3. Coons, 4. Meseraull, 5. Hagen, 6. Evans, 7. Helm. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Levi Jones, 2. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 3. Chris Windom, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Dave Darland, 6. Jon Stanbrough, 7. Damion Gardner, 8. Tracy Hines, 9. Bryan Clauson, 10. Justin Grant, 11. Robert Ballou, 12. Jerry Coons, Jr., 13. Darren Hagen, 14. Thomas Meseraull, 15. Hunter Schuerenberg, 16. Jeff Lowery, 17. Austin Alumbaugh, 18. Curtis Evans, 19. Joe Boyles, 20. Stu Snyder, 21. John Helm. NT
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**Snyder flipped on lap 5 of the Feature and was transported to a local hospital for observation.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Hagen, Laps 3-27 Thomas, Laps 28-30 Jones.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Stanbrough-1,381; 2-Jones-1,377; 3-Darland-1,277; 4-Clauson-1,191; 5-Gardner-1,114; 6-Hines-1,086; 7-Thomas-1,042; 8-Ballou-1,035; 9-Stockon-1,026; 10- Schuerenberg-1,007.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: August 6 – Oskaloosa, IA – Southern Iowa Speedway (Non-Points Special Event)
Note...both nights at Osky are "Special Event" races so everyone will get appearance points only.
Tim Wolffrum aka Cowboy