The 4-wide salute in front of a huge crowd at Jackson
Heat one (started): 1. Pittman 9 (1) 2. Balog 17B (2) 3. Tim Kaeding 3 (4) 4. Danny Lasoski 2L (6) 5. Jeffrey 12 (3) / 6. Terry McCarl 24 (7) 7. Travis Whitney 16 (9) 8. Brooke Tatnell 55 (5) 9. Austin McCarl 17A (8)
Pittman led the distance in the 8-lapper. Heats transferred the top two to the Dash, and the top five to the A. Once Tim Kaeding took third on lap two, the battle was on between he and Balog for the second Dash spot. Balog held the spot on the cushion, while Kaeding rode the low side to third. Lasoski snagged fourth from Jeffrey on the second lap. A. McCarl retired early.
Heat two (started): 1. Gravel 5 (1) 2. Swindell 1 (3) 3. Dollansky 2KS (2) 4. Donny Schatz 15 (5) 5. Jason Sides 7s (8) / 6. Davey Heskin 56N (4) 7. Dakota Hendrickson 10 (6) 8. Skylar Prochaska 35 (9) 9. Jacob Allen 1a (7)
Gravel led the distance and was gone. Dollansky slid above the turn two cushion and lost second to Swindell on the first lap. Heskin held the last transfer until lap five when Sides used the low side to cruise by.
Heat three (started): 1. Saldana 83 (2) 2. Stewart 2 (1) 3. Brian Brown 21 (3) 4. Brad Sweet 49 (6) 5. Paige Polyak 19 (4) / 6. Matt Juhl 09 (5) 7. Derrik Lusk 2x (7) 8. Kaley Gharst 7x (8) 9. Scott Winters 23w (9)
Good to hear some KISS (“I Love it Loud”) before this one. Saldana led from green to checker. Juhl drove past Sweet on the first lap for fifth, but Sweet shot back by on lap two. He added an insurance spot by getting by Polyak on lap three. Winters exited early, as did Gharst, who pulled off on the last lap.
Heat four (started): 1. I. Madsen 18 (1) 2. J. Johnson 41 (2) 3. Kerry Madsen 29 (4) 4. Logan Schuchart 1s (5) 5. Paul McMahan 7 (3) / 6. Chris Martin 44 (6) 7. Greg Wilson w20 (8) 8. Tasker Phillips 7w (7) 9. Clyde Knipp 13
Madsen led the distance. The top five remained unchanged after lap one. Schuchart made a nice move into fourth on lap one. Knipp struggled with his motor all night and pulled it in.
Dash (started): 1. Pittman (1) 2. Saldana (3) 3. Gravel (2) 4. I. Madsen (4) 5. Swindell (6) 6. Stewart (7) 7. J. Johnson (8) 8. Balog (5)
When Balog tried to squeeze under Swindell entering turn one, the two made contact and Balog spun, collecting Stewart. Both restarted. Pittman led the 6-lap distance in a mostly single-file affair. He set himself up for winning without passing a car. In my opinion, the 0 pill needs to be eliminated from the Dash if you are lining heats heads-up, which was a bone of contention again tonight for many fans in my section.
B main (started): 1. T. McCarl (6) 2. Tatnell (2) 3. Hendrickson (4) 4. Heskin (1) / 5. Juhl (3) 6. Wilkson (10) 7. Lusk (8) 8. Martin (5) 9. Gharst (11) 10. Whitney (13) 11. Allen (7) 12. Winters (15) 13. Prochaska (12) 14. Phillips (9) 15. Knipp (14) DNS – A. McCarl
Tatnell led a surging T. McCarl, Hendrickson and Heskin through lap one in the 12-lapper. T. McCarl would grab the lead quickly on lap two and pull away. Juhl tried to reel in Heskin for the final transfer to no avail. Hendrickson looked very strong in garnering the third transfer. Knipp and Phillips retired early.
A main (started): 1. Pittman (1) 2. K. Madsen (12) 3. Stewart (6) 4. Gravel (3) 5. Dollansky (10) 6. Schatz (14) 7. Lasoski (13) 8. J. Johnson (7) 9. Kaeding (9) 10. McMahan (20) 11. Sides (18) 12. Saldana (2) 13. Tatnell (22) 14. Schuchart (16) 15. T. McCarl (21) 16. Brown (11) 17. I. Madsen (4) 18. Hendrickson (23) 19. Sweet (15) 20. Heskin (24) 21. Jeffrey (17) 22. Swindell (5) 23. Balog (8) 24. Polyak (19)
If not for Saldana leading the first lap, Pittman would have won without passing a car all night. Saldana did lead the first lap on the cushion, and Pittman used the low side to snag it back on lap two. However, Robert Ballou’s prophecy that there would not be as much passing in this one as Thursday’s USAC show was ill-founded. There was plenty of passing. The bottom was clearly a lot better than the top, but a few drivers made it rotate enough to do some passing. Gravel moved into third by lap two, and then took second from Saldana on lap ten, just before Joey blew a right rear tire. The double-file restart saw Pittman choose the low line ahead of Gravel, I. Madsen, Swindell, Stewart and J. Johnson. Swindell would shoot into third, and J. Johnson would go from sixth to fourth on the restart. That set up a battle between those two that saw J. Johnson’s slide job cause Sammy to hammer the brakes and get sideways to avoid him at the halfway mark. That collected the fifth place car of I. Madsen. Swindell would be done as would Balog who went pitside with tire issues. I. Madsen would restart at the tail. Pittman chose the inside line ahead of Gravel, J. Johnson, K. Madsen, Stewart and Kaeding on the restart. K. Madsen quickly moved into second. On lap 20, Tatnell spun bringing caution again. It turned into a red when officials deemed we needed a fuel stop. Stewart shot into third on the restart, and Dollansky moved into fifth. With 29 laps completed, the final caution flew for Sweet, who spun. Pittman pulled away on the last restart, using the bottom as he did the whole race. The cushion was just too far around for K. Madsen, who went from tenth to second. McMahan was the hard-charger.