Kokomo, Indiana…….It had been since September of 2013 since Chris Windom had won on the AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship tour, but the Canton, Illinois driver ended that slump as he held off Dave Darland for victory in Wednesday night’s 30-lap Feature event postponed from the July 11th “Indiana Sprint Week” event. The race precedes “Sprint Car Smackdown IV” weekend at Kokomo Speedway, with three more nights ahead culminating with Saturday’s $10,000-to-win main event.
Windom took the lead from outside the front-row as polesitter Darland kept pace and set up a race-long battle for the lead. A lap-three yellow prefaced a long green-flag that put the leaders in traffic just before halfway. Darland finally darted inside Windom on lap 16 through turns three and four as Windom was stuck behind cars racing two-wide. As they came to the stripe, Darland moved low and crossed just .067 seconds behind Windom at the line.
A big move to the inside netted Darland the lead on lap 17, but as they came around to complete the lap, Kevin Thomas, Jr. spun around after colliding with Brady Bacon in a battle for third. With the race reverting back to lap 16, Windom reinherited the lead.
Darland wasted no time going at Windom, using the low-side of turn-one to draw underneath him, but Windom’s momentum on the high side kept the lead. Behind them, 15th-starting Chase Stockon and 17th-starting Robert Ballou were the two cars on the move, as Stockon powered inside the top-five on lap nineteen, while Ballou was up to eighth at the same time.
With less than ten to go, another yellow gave Darland a restart to attack Windom, and he again drove to the bottom of turn-one, sliding all the way up just as Windom rocketed by on the cushion. Stockon moved past Scotty Weir for fourth and Ballou took seventh with five laps to go.
The final caution of the night appeared with three laps to go as sixth-running Max McGhee slowed off turn-four. This time, Windom nailed the restart, completing the final three laps without issue to post a .848-second victory in the Rick Pollock – Bates Commodities #21x Maxim/Advanced. It was his tenth-career National Sprint Car win, tying him with Tony Stewart for 44th all-time.
“This is definitely one of my favorite tracks in the world, and to hold off Dave Darland here is a tall task. I thought on the restarts we’d be okay, but he was good at trying to get past me through one and two. He threw everything at us, and we just had to work hard to hold him off. Rick Pollock basically built a brand new car for this event and has worked hard for this week, so hopefully we can keep it going and make a run at it Saturday night,” Windom said.
Darland crossed second in the Phillips/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Trench Shoring #71P DRC/Foxco.
“It seems like I’ve gotten screwed by the yellows right as I take the lead, and it’s starting to make me mad. It’s definitely getting old. Chris was fast, and we just about had him there before the yellow and on the restarts, but we weren’t quite good enough toward the end to have something for him. The O’Connors did a great job with the track tonight, and it’ll be even better the rest of the weekend,” Darland said.
Bacon held off Stockon for fourth in the Hoffman Auto Racing – Mean Green #69 Triple X/Williams Mopar.
“The track is obviously a little wetter than normal for the feature, but we made the most of it to get to third. I thought we might have something when we got into traffic, but the yellow stopped that, and those guys are just too fast out front to get them without a major mistake. Chase was coming good on the bottom at the end, but held him off through the last restart, and hopefully we can keep this thing on the podium all weekend,” Bacon said.
Stockon’s fine run netted eleven positions as he wound up fourth in the Superior Tank & Trailer – Crescent Electric Supply #32 DRC/Fisher, and Ballou came forward twelve spots to retain his series point lead in the Blakesley Auto – TwisterX #12 Maxim/Ott.
Justin Grant set ProSource “Fast Time” back on July 11th before being involved in a heat-race incident, ending his run for the program.
AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 26, 2015 – Kokomo, Indiana – Kokomo Speedway – “Indiana Sprint Week” Make-up Event from July 11th
QUALIFYING: (Held July 11) 1. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-12.805; 2. Tyler Courtney, 23E, Eberhardt-12.933; 3. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.946; 4. Chad Boespflug 66, Amati-12.973; 5. Thomas Meseraull, 18X, Keen-13.021; 6. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.024; 7. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.035; 8. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 17RW, Dutcher-13.056; 9. Scotty Weir, 11, Walker-13.111; 10. Chris Windom, 21X, Pollock-13.144; 11. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-13.151; 12. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.165; 13. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-13.211; 14. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.250 ;15. Tracy Hines, 4, THR-13.276; 16. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-13.287; 17. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-13.309; 18. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.338; 19. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.339; 20 .Chase Stockon, 32, 32/TBI-13.369; 21. C.J. Leary, 5, Baldwin-13.403; 22. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-13.404; 23. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.464; 24. Cole Ketcham, 41K, Ketcham-13.551; 25. Casey Shuman, 2X, Barnhill-13.559; 26. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Byram-13.585; 27. Lee Dakus, 75, Dakus-13.590; 28. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-13.609; 29. Dakota Jackson, 3, Jackson-13.644; 30. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.681; 31. Bill Rose, 6, Rose-13.714; 32. Brian Karraker, 23, Karraker-13.765; 33. Stuart Hanft, 69H, Hanft-13.767; 34. Travis Hery, 21H, Hery-13.802; 35. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.850; 36. Colten Cottle, 42E, Jackson-13.852; 37. Jake Swanson, 92, Sertich-13.870; 38. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-14.018; 39. Todd Gnat, 51, Gnat-14.048; 40. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-14.104; 41. Nathan Moore, 48, Moore-14.125; 42. Tom Harris, 5E, East-14.229; 43. Jamie Frederickson, 3W, Sweat-14.309; 44. Tyler Hewitt, 97x, Hewitt-14.399; 45. Steve Thomas, 20, Thomas-14.554; 46. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-15.253.
FIRST HEAT: (Held July 11) (10 laps) 1. Short, 2. Shuman, 3. Weir, 4. Jackson, 5. J.Swanson, 6. Hanft, 7. Moore, 8. S.Thomas, 9. Leary, 10. Meseraull. 11. Grant, 12. Simon. NT
SECOND HEAT: (Held July 11) (10 laps) 1. Schuerenberg, 2. Stanbrough, 3. Windom, 4. Farney, 5. S.Cottle, 6. Cummins, 7. Andretti, 8. DiMattia, 9. Harris, 10. Hery, 11. Bell, 12. Courtney. 2:15.58
THIRD HEAT: (Held July 11) (10 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Bacon, 3. Ballou, 4. Hines, 5. McGhee, 6. Robbins, 7. Dakus, 8. Rose, 9. Goodnight, 10. Gnat, 11. Frederickson. 2:11.92
FOURTH HEAT: (Held July 11) (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Hodges, 3. Boespflug. 4. K.Thomas, 5. Jarrett, 6. Coons, 7. Karraker, 8. Spencer, 9. C.Cottle, 10. T.Hewitt. 2:13.32
QUALIFYING RACE: (Held July 11) (10 laps) 1. Hery, 2. C.Cottle, 3. J.Swanson, 4. Spencer, 5. Goodnight, 6. Frederickson, 7. S.Thomas, 8. Bell, 9. Gnat, 10. Harris, 11. T.Hewitt, 12. DiMattia, 13. Moore. NT
SEMI: (12 laps – First 2 laps completed on July 11) 1. Courtney, 2. Simon, 3. McGhee, 4. Andretti, 5. Cottle, 6. Cummins, 7. Ketcham, 8. Meseraull, 9. Spencer, 10. Robbins. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Dave Darland, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Scotty Weir, 7. Aaron Farney, 8. Brady Short, 9. Tracy Hines, 10. Shane Cottle, 11. Tyler Courtney, 12. Jon Stanbrough, 13. Jarett Andretti, 14. Max McGhee, 15. Chad Boespflug, 16. Kyle Cummins, 17. Cole Ketcham, 18. Casey Shuman, 19. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 20. Landon Simon, 21. Hunter Schuerenberg, 22. Brian Karraker, 23. C.J. Leary (Leary #30). NT
July 11: Grant, Leary and Meseraull flipped during the first heat. Moore flipped during the qualifying race. Harris flipped during the qualifying race. August 26: Robbins flipped during the semi.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Windom.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Ballou-1,577; 2-Darland-1,494; 3-Stockon-1,489; 4-Bacon-1,422; 5-Stanbrough-1,336; 6-Thomas-1,232; 7-Leary-1,063; 8-Windom-1,044; 9-Hines-995; 10-Farney-944.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: August 27 – Kokomo (IN) Speedway – “Sprint Car Smackdown IV”