7/13/07
Gas City Speedway
Gas City, IN
USAC Indiana Sprintweek Round #3
41 cars
QUALIFICATIONS: 1 Jon Stanbrough, 53 Fox 12.566; 2 Shane Cottle, 10E Edison 12.643; 3 Levi Jones, 20 Stewart 12.740; 4 Darren Hagen, 67 Kunz 12.744; 5 Scotty Weir, 38 Crossno 12.756; 6 Daron Clayton, 69 Dynamics 12.795; 7 Brad Sweet, 2J Yeley 12.810; 8 Cory Kruseman, 21k Kruseman 12.835; 9 Brady Bacon, 99 Kahne 12.837; 10 Ricky Stenhouse Jr, 21 Stewart 12.873; 11 Chris Windom, 17 Windom 12.920; 12 Neil Shepherd, 4N Shepherd 12.948; 13 Kevin Swindell, 9 Kahne 12.980; 14 Hunter Scheurenberg, 10T R&B 13.016. 15 Steve Ott, 0tt Ott 13.026; 16 Shane Hollingsworth, 10 R&B 13.048; 17 Chad Boespflug, 90 Gatten 13.054; 18 Cole Whitt, 29 CW 13.070; 19 Dustin Morgan, 11 Walker/Guiducci 13.071; 20 Critter Malone, 5 Baldwin 13.118; 21 Sammy Imel, 35 Imel 13.185; 22 Brett Burdette, 17B Burdette 13.206; 23 A.J Anderson, 57 Hazen 13.271; 24 Brandon Petty, 26 Pearce 13.309; 25 Robert Ballou, 81 MPHG 13.314; 26 Damion Gardner, 71 Leffler 13.318; 27 Bret Mellenberndt, 97 Mellenberndt 13.324; 28 Jesse Hockett, 75 VKCC 13.362; 29 Josh Spencer, 66J Spencer 13.369; 30 Josh Ford, 2 Reid 13.389; 31 Jimmy Light, 23 Light 13.396; 32 Matt Westfall, 54 Westfall 13.429; 33 Brady Short, 2B 2B Racing 13.447; 34 John Memmer, 4m Memmer 13.452; 35 Michael Trimble, 21T Kruseman 13.500; 36 Russ Gamester, 46 Gamester 13.549; 37 Mike Spencer, 67k Kunz 13.622; 38 Ted Hines, 12 Hines 13.641; 39 Dave Darland, 44 Pace 13.657; 40 Kyle Robbins, 17R Robbins 13.810. NT Jeff Bland, 21s (flipped)
Stanbrough (13th car to time) set quick time on a quickly drying track. Cottle (26th car out) was second quick followed by Jones (8), Hagen (31), Weir (15), Clayton (6), Sweet (9), Kruseman (18), Bacon (14) and Stenhouse, who went out 24th. The track was rough and choppy. Bland found that out as he dumped in qualifying and was done for the night.
C-main (10 laps) 1 Brady Short, 2 Michael Trimble, 3 Dave Darland, 4 Jon Memmer. DNQ 5 Ted Hines 12, 6 Mike Spencer (Kunz 67), 7 Russ Gamester 46, 8 Kyle Robbins 17r. DNS Jeff Bland 21s (2:18.46)
HEAT 1 (10 laps) 1 Stanbrough, 2 J.Spencer, 3 Boespflug, 4 Ballou (flipped) DNQ 5 Weir, 6 Swindell, 7 Bacon, 8 Imel (flipped), 9 Short
Heats were run in a dust storm, with several cautions marring them. Spencer led early, but Bacon spun on lap two to slow things. Spencer led Ballou, Imel, Boespflug and Stanbrough back to green flag racing. Three more laps were in the books when Swindell hit an infield tire and came to a spinning stop. After the yellow, Imel and Ballou made contact in turns three and four while running second and third. Both got upside down, but Ballou was able to restart at the rear. Spencer led Boespflug and Stanbrough at the time. Two more laps were in the books when Swindell spun again. On that restart, Stanbrough took the lead. The final stoppage came on another spin by Bacon as the two-spin rule does not apply in USAC. With two laps to go, Stanbrough led Spencer, Boespflug, Weir and Ballou. Ballou used a dusty drive-by of Weir to capture the final transfer on the last lap.
HEAT 2 (10 laps) 1 Ford, 2 Gardner, 3 Scheurenberg, 4 Whitt. DNQ 5 Burdette, 6 Cottle, 7 Clayton, 8 Trimble, 9 Stenhouse (2:25.94)
Clayton's spin and contact between Trimble and Cottle slowed events in getting started. Once underway, Ford led the distance amongst a tempest of dust. Stenhouse exited on lap nine after slipping over the powdered cushion.
HEAT 3 (10 laps) 1 Mellenberndt, 2 Anderson, 3 Darland, 4 Jones. DNQ 5 Light, 5 Morgan, 7 Ott, 8 Windom, 9 Sweet
Sweet spun before a lap could be completed, and suffered a flat left rear on lap two ending his race. Morgan also had a flag early and restarted at the rear. Mellenberndt led early and was ahead of Light, Anderson, Windom and Ott on the lap two restart. Jones was able to move into fourth, and Darland into fifth by lap six, when Windom spun out of fourth. Jones and Darland used the last four laps to dispose of Light and grab transfers. Jones pass was in the final corner.
HEAT 4 (10 laps) 1 Westfall, 2 Hollingsworth, 3 Kruseman, 4 Hockett. DNQ 5 Shepherd, 6 Memmer, 7 Hagen, 8 Petty, 9 Malone
A chain reaction in front of them, collected Malone and Hagen. Malone went pitside. Westfall led flag to flag. Kruseman used the low side to make his way forward for a transfer.
B-main (12 laps) 1 Shane Cottle, 2 Daron Clayton, 3 Darren Hagen, 4 Brady Bacon, 5 Scotty Weir, 6 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. DNQ 7 Brad Sweet (Yeley 2J), 8 Chris Windom 17c, 9 Neil Shepherd 4n, 10 Critter Malone (Baldwin 5), 11 Dustin Morgan (Walker 11), 12 Kevin Swindell (Kahne 9), 13 Brett Burdette 17b, 14 Brady Short (Benic 2b), 15 Sammy Imel 35, 16 Michael Trimble (Kruseman 21), 17 Jimmy Light 23, 18 John Memmer 4m. DNS Brandon Petty (Pearce 26), Steve Ott 0tt (2:39.29)
A-main (30 laps) 1 Daron Clayton 92 (1), 2 Levi Jones 20 (4), 3 Darren Hagen 67 (3), 4 Scotty Weir 38 (2), 5 Brady Bacon 9 (8), 6 Shane Cottle 10 (5), 7 Cory Kruseman 21 (7), 8 Ricky Stenhouse Jr 21 (9), 9 Dave Darland 44 (22), 10 Jon Stanbrough 53 (6), 11 Shane Hollingsworth 10 (11), 12 Damion Gardner 71 (14), 13 Robert Ballou 81 (15), 14 Hunter Schuerenberg 10 (10), 15 Jesse Hockett 75 (18), 16 Brady Short 2b (provisional), 17 Josh Ford 2 (20), 18 Kevin Swindell 9 (provisional), 19 Chad Boespflug 90 (12), 20 Josh Spencer 66J (19), 21 Matt Westfall 54 (21), 22 Bret Mellenberndt 97 (17) DNF A.J Anderson 57 (14: flipped on lap 2), Cole Whitt 29 (13: flipped on restart of lap 2) LAP LEADERS: 1-2 Weir, 3-30 Clayton
Weir took an early lead before a lap two flip by Anderson. Ballou was also caught up in the incident, but kept his spot in the lineup for some reason. One lap later, Whitt flipped hard on the frontstretch. He was unhurt, but done.
Weir led Clayton, Jones, Hagen and Stanbrough back to green. Clayton took a lap five lead and hit the high side into traffic, subbing for Jerry Coons, who was racing in Joliet with the Silver Crown Series. Stanbrough was up to fourth by lap seven, but his left rear tire started going down. He competed for the next 15 laps, only losing a few spots before stopping and bringing out a lap 22 caution.
Clayton led Jones, Weir, Cottle and Hagen back to green in an eight-lap dash. The Modern Day Cowboy pulled away and was never challenged. Hagen surged to third late, driving the first four-bar car ever wrenched by Keith Kunz. Stanbrough raced back into the top ten after his flat, and Darland was the hard-charger, moving forward 13 spots.