10/17/15
Lawrenceburg Speedway
Lawrenceburg, IN
Fall Nationals
USAC
34 cars
CJ Leary (12th car out to time) set quick time on the 3/8-mile high-banked oval at 13.898 seconds earning himself $1,100, thanks to the Lawrenceburg Rescue team. Tony DiMattia (3rd car out) was second quick, ahead of Kyle Robbins (27th), Dave Darland (21st), Kyle Cummins (1st), Chad Boespflug (4th), Thomas Meseraull (19th), Tracy Hines (24th), Kevin Thomas Jr. (31st) and Brady Bacon (20th). Making his first USAC start since 2004 in Memphis, Shane Stewart went into turn three hot and flipped during qualifying. He was a scratch the rest of the night.
Heat one (started): 1. Chris Windom 21x (2) 2. Thomas 17RW (4) 3. Max McGhee 17 (1) 4. Leary 30 (6) / 5. Cummins 3R (5) 6. Kody Swanson 21K (3) 7. Dallas Hewitt 21s (8) 8. Casey Shuman 4J (78) 9. Robert Bell 71 (9)
Windom slid in front of McGhee for the early lead in the 8-lapper. McGhee stormed back on lap two, and Windom got by for good on the third go-around in a good battled. Thomas grabbed second from McGhee on the last lap, while Cummins tracked down Leary for the final transfer, just falling short at the line.
Heat two (started): 1. Bacon 69 (4) 2. Aaron Farney 15F (2) 3. Jerry Coons Jr. 10E (3) 4. Dustin Ingle 2DI (1) / 5. DiMattia 2x (6) 6. Boespflug 20N (5) 7. Garrett Abrams 32A (7) 8. Beau Stewart 99 (8) DNS – Shane Stewart 2
Farney led Bacon and Ingle on lap one. Bacon would shoot by for the lead in turn two on the second lap. Coons would grab third from Ingle on lap seven.
Heat three (started): 1. Logan Jarrett 29 (2) 2. Scotty Weir 18x (4) 3. Meseraull 66 (5) 4. Jarett Andretti 18 (3) / 5. Robbins 17R (6) 6. Lee Dakus 75 (1) 7. Brandon Mattox 04 (7) 8. Cody Gardner 46 (8)
Jarrett led Weir and Dakus early on. On lap three, Meseraull made a move sliding two cars and going from sixth to fourth. He would move by Dakus for third on the next lap. The battle was for the fourth and final transfer. Andretti, Robbins and Dakus went three-wide on lap six, with Andretti emerging witht eh spot.
Heat four (started): 1. Robert Ballou 12 (1) 2. Darland 71P (6) 3. Justin Grant 5 (2) 4. Chase Stockon 32 (4) / 5. Jon Stanbrough 81 (3) 6. Hines 4 (5) 7. Terry Babb 17L (7) 8. Rile VanHise 96 (8)
The first three rows contained six of the top ten in the USAC point standings. Grant took the early lead over Ballou, Stockon and Darland. Darland would slide under Stockon for third on lap three. VanHise came to a stop at the halfway point. Grant led Ballou, Darland, Stockon, Hines and Stanbrough back to green. Ballou would shoot under Grant on lap six for the lead, and Darland would follow suit into second. Stanbrough made a late bid for the final transfer, but fell short of passing Stockon.
B main (started): 1. Swanson (6) 2. Cummins (3) 3. Stanbrough (7) 4. Boespflug (4) 5. Hines (5) 6. Abrams (10) / 7. Shuman (9) 8. VanHise (16) 9. DiMattia (1) 10. B. Stewart (14) 11. Babb (12) 12. Mattox (11) 13. Bell (17) 14. Dakus (8) 15. Gardner (15) 16. Hewitt (13) 17. Robbins (2) DNS – S. Stewart
Robbins led lap one in the 12-lapper, ahead of Swanson and Boespflug. There was a lot of shifting on the second lap. Boespflug and Cummins shot by Swanson into second and third, while Stanbrough and Hines moved into the fifth and sixth transfer spots. On lap six, Cummins worked under Boespflug for second, when the latter got loose in turn four. At the halfway point, Robbins struck the turn three wall while leading, ending his night. Cummins assumed the lead ahead of Boespflug, Swanson, Stanbrough, Hines and Abrams. Two laps later, Swanson and Stanbrough passed Boespflug for second and third. Hewitt stopped on the frontstretch with a damaged racer at that point. Dakus hit the wall and crippled his front end shortly after that restart. DiMattia was also involved. Swanson dove to the lead in two on that restart. Mattox was challenging Abrams for the final transfer with two laps to go, when he spun and collected Babb. The lead six stayed the same.
A main (started): 1. Meseraull (4) 2. Thomas (3) 3. Leary (6) 4. Bacon (2) 5. Windom (15) 6. Swanson (11) 7. Stockon (10) 8. Weir (1) 9. Stanbrough (14) 10. Ballou (21) 11. Hines (9) 12. Boespflug (8) 13. Grant (18) 14. Andretti (13) 15. Darland (5) 16. Farney (16) 17. McGhee (19) 18. Coons (12) 19. Ingle (20) 20. Jarrett (17) 21. Abrams (22) 22. Cummins (7)
The missing man salute was given for the late Tony Elliott. An additional lap was run in the 4-abreast for awareness of breast cancer. Points would promise to be shaken up, with less than 30 points separating Ballou from Stockon and Darland in third. The $10,000 feature was led by Bacon on lap one ahead of Meseraull and Thomas. Darland stopped on the backstraight with a lap in the books. That gave away his starting position in row three, while Ballou started 21st. It also negated a pass for the lead by Meseraull, but he repeated it on the restart and never looked back. T-Mez won his first career USAC feature at Eldora’s 4-Crown a few weeks back, and repeated it here. Thomas shot into second on lap three, and Leary entered the top three on lap 14. While the lead trio pulled away, there was plenty of action back in the pack, watching Windom move from 15th to fifth, and Ballou advance into the top ten. Meseraull lapped up to thirteenth. Bacon took a $1,000 bonus for the highest finisher Saturday and in Friday’s WoO feature.