Kennedale TX (3/6/10) by DarinShort.com:  Nearly 200 cars filled the pits to complete capacity and the midget feature was over before 10AM.

The Cowtown Midget Championship feature saw a wild battle with first-ever Cowtown visiting driver Danny Stratton and Missouri's Brad Loyet swapping the lead several times using the entire racing surface, bottom to top until disaster stuck with around 10 laps to go.

With Loyet and Stratton setting a torrid pace, the wheels of Loyet and local sprint/modified ace George White hooked, sending White into a series of tumbles off corner two, and Loyet to the pits with a flat tire.

Loyet would rejoin the tussle at the back of the pack and climb to incredible 4th place as the balance of the feature race went green, white, checkered. Stratton would go on to win a well deserved victory.

The top five finishers of the 3/5 Cowtown Midget Championships feature: Danny Stranton (IN), Don Droud Jr. (NE), Zach Daum (IL), Brad Loyet (MO), Kevin Ramey (TX).

 

From MidgetMadness:  Danny Stratton was on a mission - and won the first night at Cowtown Speedway. Most of the race he was hounded by Brad Loyet (after Danny passed Brad) but then, after encountering lapped traffic Loyet put a slide job on Stratton - but clipped George White in the process sending George on a wild ride and Loyet to the pits...Paul White started 17th and pulled in while in around 10th place.
 

 

 

From Jayski:  2008 Camping World Truck Series champ Johnny Benson strolled briskly behind pit road Friday afternoon, sporting regular clothes with no emblem, looking more like a media member than a racing ace. After running well for the #95 Team Gill Racing team in Daytona, fellow veteran Geoff Bodine is behind the wheel at AMS. "There's have been a lot of questions about the #95 and Danny Gill. Geoff was always scheduled to run here," he said. "I'm trying to help some other teams and we're hoping to do some other stuff." Benson says he is not frustrated by the fact that he is a past champion of the series without a ride, because he understands that the sport is now for younger drivers - especially ones who have money. Benson was tentatively tabbed to run for KBM and says he still could, but sponsorship has failed to materialize as of yet

 

Ron Hornaday was the fastest qualifier with a top speed of 177.721 mph to win the pole for the E-Z-GO 200 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This is Hornaday's 24th career pole in the Camping World Truck Series. Rounding out the top ten were; #18-Kyle Busch, #88-Matt Crafton, #2-Kevin Harvick, #3-Austin Dillon, #15-Steve Wallace, #51-Aric Almirola, #95-Geoff Bodine, #13-Johnny Sauter, #30-Todd Bodine. DNQ-#01-Carl Long (truck Yeley had 10th in points! - JD) #87-Chris Jones. There were 38 trucks that attempted to qualify

 

While all young NASCAR drivers have their sights set on an eventual Sprint Cup emergence, a report earlier in the week about Steve Wallace and his dad's Rusty Wallace Racing team making the big leap wound up false. But while the funding isn't yet in place, Wallace says Cup starts may soon be on his horizon after all. "We're sure thinking about it," he said. "We don't have anything set and done yet. [Last week's report] might have been a little bit misleading, but we're definitely trying to put some stuff together and whether it happens or not, we don't know, but we're definitely thinking about it." Wallace has five straight top 10s in the Nationwide Series dating back to late last season and sits 6th in points, a sign the 5th-year NNS driver is finally gaining the consistency to make a run for a championship. For now, he's making his Truck Series debut, racing the #15 Red Top Auto Auction Toyota for Billy Ballew Motorsports this weekend.

 

Saturday practice for the Kobalt Tools 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway is over, 45 minutes of practice, some notes and results:
#48-Johnson 189.694
#5-Martin 188.700
#11-Hamlin 188.028
#2-Busch 187.900
#9-Kahne 187.361
slowest: #26-Said 176.073 and #37-Conway 176.583

 

Happy Hour practice for the Kobalt Tools 500 Sprint Cup Series race at Atlanta Motor Speedway is over, after 60 minutes of practice, some notes and results:
#5-Martin 185.524
#88-Earnhardt Jr. 185.517
#56-Truex Jr. 185.300
#98-Menard 185.232
#6-Ragan 185.226
slowest: #37-Conway 174.598 and #26-Said 176.067
incidents: #16-Biffle smacked the wall hard and did right side damage and will go to a backup car.

 

There are still many unknowns in the advent of the transition from wings to spoilers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, but the pieces are coming together. Teams have received retro-fit pieces to adjust the template grids for the change from the wing to the spoiler which will measure four inches on intermediate and down force tracks and 4.5-inches at Talladega and Daytona. A two-inch "ear" will be at the ends of 64.5-inch spoiler for Talladega similar to the construction on the truck spoilers. All spoilers will mount on to the cars at exactly 70-degrees without adjustability, thereby preventing modification by individual teams. Although NASCAR is preparing for the roll out of the new spoilers at Martinsville Speedway on March 26, teams will be responsible for manufacturing their own spoilers for the test scheduled on March 16th at Talladega Speedway. NASCAR template guru Billy Berkheimer anticipates each team having at least two spoilers by the time NASCAR rolls into Charlotte Motor Speedway for the test following Bristol on March 22nd. Spoilers will be distributed to teams at the same time so one team does not gain an advantage over another. Following the initial distribution, teams will be able to place orders for additional spoilers. Despite initial wind tunnel reports of the spoiler providing more downforce than the wing on the new car, Berkheimer said, "If this works the way I expect it will, the downforce numbers will the same with the spoiler and the wing." Most of the top organizations have tested cars with spoilers at tracks such as Walt Disney World Speedway (1 mile), Rockingham Speedway (1.017 mile) and Little Rock (0.526 mile).

 

To truly understand how special it is for Bill Elliott to drive the Wood Brothers' #21 Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford Fusion at Atlanta Motor Speedway, as he'll do this weekend in the Kobalt Tools 500, it helps to know about one of his first-ever trips to his home track. The year was 1973. Elliott was just a teenager. He went to the race with some high school friends from his hometown of Dawsonville, Ga. "We drove down there in a 1973 Ford Torino," Elliott said, adding that the sporty ride came from his father's small Ford dealership. "We parked in the infield. It was really muddy." The boys watched a familiar scenario play out  David Pearson won the race in the Wood Brothers' #21 Mercury, one of the team's league-leading 12 Cup victories at the track and one of their 11 superspeedway wins that season. Pearson and the Woods swept Atlanta that year. So were young Elliott and his pals backing the winner that day? "Of course," he said. "It was David Pearson. It was a Ford, and it was the Wood Brothers." Soon Elliott was racing himself at AMS, starting out in Fords fielded by his father, the late George Elliott, a man who not only loved Fords but absolutely hated any other brand of automobile. To date, Elliott has five wins and five poles at his home track. Throughout his Sprint Cup career, Elliott, from the north Georgia mountains, has been a crowd favorite at AMS. Many of his fans will watch Sunday's race from the Elliott Grandstand, which was named for the popular driver and his family. He said he also feels fortunate to be back behind the wheel of the same car he drove last fall in the season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. In that race, he qualified ninth; fell back, then charged through the field late in the race to claim a strong 16th-place finish. Also in his favor is the fact that the Motorcraft/Quick Lane crew has spent the winter tuning the car and working on its overall downforce program, which is one of the main keys to running well on an intermediate track that makes up the bulk of the team's limited 2010 schedule. Elliott will also be the only Ford running the new FR-9 engine at AMS.

 

 

From Lonnie Wheatley:  The American Sprint Car Series Gulf South Region opened up the 2010 season in much the same way as 2009, with Gary Wright standing in victory lane at Golden Triangle Raceway Park.

For the second year in a row, “The Texan” topped the $3,000-to-win, 25-lap Prelude to the Gulf Coast Nationals to launch the season for the ASCS Gulf South Region atop the Golden Triangle clay.

However, rather than wait for the last lap to make the winning move like last year, Wright gunned into the lead at the outset aboard Scott Brown’s ASI-powered Lubbock Wrecker Service/The Shop No. 9x Maxim and never looked back en route to a third ASCS Gulf South season opening win.

“As heavy as the track was tonight, it was real easy to get in trouble in traffic or really anywhere,” Wright explained. “We got lucky tonight and stayed out of trouble, we’ll get cleaned up and try to get another one tomorrow.”

A move past Tommy Bryant and Bruce Crockett in the final two laps of his heat race landed Wright in the redraw. And when he drew the number one pill, that may have been all the luck the four-time Lucas Oil National Sprint Car champion needed.

Weathering three red flag periods over the initial four circuits, including a pair on the initial two starts, Wright paced the early circuits in front of fellow front row starter Klint Angelette before Travis Rilat, Ricky Logan and Jesse Hockett freight trained the 16-year-old on a lap five restart.

After one final caution after nine circuits for Dustin Morgan’s turn four spin, the final 16 rounds ran off in non-stop fashion with Wright distancing himself from the field while lapping well into the top ten.

...Hockett advanced from ninth in the early rounds to snare fourth, with Tony Bruce, Jr., rounding out the top five.

Brady Bacon crossed the stripe sixth, making it a sweep of the top six positions by prospective Lucas Oil Sprint Car Series presented by K&N Filters championship contenders.

 

...First “B” Feature (12 Laps): 1. 31-Brandon Berryman, 2. 93-Chris Sweeney, 3. C41-Wayne Johnson...

 

“A” Feature (25 Laps): 1. 9x-Gary Wright, 2. 29-Travis Rilat, 3. 10-Ricky Logan, 4. 75-Jesse Hockett, 5. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 6. 99-Brady Bacon, 7. 21-Brian Brown...18. C41-Wayne Johnson...

 

 

 

From Tony Veneziano:  Jason Meyers had been trying to win a World of Outlaws race at his home track of Groppetti Automotive Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare since 2003. He came close on a couple of occasions, leading laps and being in contention, though never was quite able to make it to Victory Lane with the series at the high-banked 1/3-mile bullring. The native of nearby Clovis changed all of that on Friday night, as he won an exciting race over Joey Saldana to score the $10,000 triumph.

For Meyers, it was the 37th A-Feature win of his World of Outlaws career, as he closes in on becoming just the 12th driver in the series 30-plus year history to cross the 40 A-Feature win plateau.

Meyers started second and used a couple of strong starts including on a complete restart after an opening lap red flag, to jump out to the lead over Fred Rahmer, who started on the pole. Meyers then fended off several challenges from Joey Saldana in the late going to score his second consecutive World of Outlaws win aboard the GLR Investments KPC.

“It’s incredible,” said Meyers. “Every sponsor I have is here tonight. All of my family is here, and my fellow car owners are here as well. It couldn’t be any better. We’ve won so many races here, but never an Outlaws show. It’s been a great start to the season. We got the monkey off our back tonight and to win two in a row is great.”

Joey Saldana closed in on Meyers down the stretch and got along side of him a couple of times and actually took the lead in turn one in the waning laps, only to have Meyers power back around him as they exited turn two. The lead pair encountered some light lapped traffic over the final two circuits, with Meyers splitting a couple of cars to pull away slightly on the white flag lap en route to the win.

“I was starting to move around in lapped and trying to find a better line, but I couldn’t find anything better and that kind of allowed those guys to catch me,” explained Meyers in Victory lane. “I knew when Joey (Saldana) got by me with how good he is running the top, that the top must be better. I just had to get back up there and not be moving around in the lapped cars and get my timing back down. Joey is great to race with. We crossed over there about three or four times and never touched each other and put on another great race for the fans.”

Meyers endured three red flags and two yellows which led to the first double file restarts of the season during a feature event on a short track. Meyers chose to restart on the top side of the track on every double file restart and charged to the lead each and every time.

“It was too hard to get going on the bottom and the straightaway was too slick,” he shared. “You definitely had to use the banking and the little bit of moisture that was there to get you rolling and carry your speed down the front straightaway.”

Saldana wound up second for the third time in four races this season aboard the Budweiser Maxim for Kasey Kahne Racing. He started fifth and lost a spot in the early going, before making his charge to the front.

“We had a good car and the crew did a great job,” Saldana said. “I felt like at the end of the race when it counts, our car definitely had the speed to win the race. We just came up one spot short. We’ll come back tomorrow and see if we can put on another good show for the fans and see if we can win one.”

A double file restart around the halfway point found Saldana running fifth and restarting on the outside. He shot around Donny Schatz and Lucas Wolfe on the restart to move into third and set his sights on Jac Haudenschild.

“Donny (Schatz) and I were having a great race for fourth and finally on that restart, I went for it and got by two guys and got to third,” noted Saldana. “Then I got by Haud (Jac Haudenschild) and tracked down Jason (Meyers) and just had to get real aggressive on the restart.”

Haudenschild came home third in the Owens Corning Fiberglass XXX to earn his best finish of the season, despite having a significant amount of damage to his top wing sustained much earlier in the race. The Hall of Famer started third and fell to fourth early on before moving up to second on the 16th lap when he got around Lucas Wolfe and inherited a spot when Tim Kaeding got upside ending his night while running third.

“The car felt good,” Haudenschild said. “I’m glad to get back up there. Hopefully we can start running in the Top-Five again. It’s nice to be in the Top-Three. We just need to win some races now.”

Donny Schatz steadily worked his way from the 13th starting spot to finish fourth aboard the Armor All/STP J&J. The four–ime and defending series champion has finished fourth or better in all four races this season and moved into a tie with his Tony Stewart Racing teammate Steve Kinser for the point lead.

Kinser recovered from a third-lap spin that put him at the rear of the field to finish fifth aboard the Bass Pro Shops Maxim to earn his fourth Top-Five finish of the season. He climbed the front straightaway wall coming to the checkered flag and nearly got upside, but saved it and crossed the line on all four wheels.

Fred Rahmer came home sixth after starting on the pole in the C&S Lawn & Landscape machine in his debut at Thunderbowl Raceway. Chad Kemenah earned the KSE Race Products Hard Charger Award coming from17th to finish seventh in the Golden Flavor Sesame Sticks Maxim.

FAST QUALIFIER: Tim Kaeding paced the 32 cars that took time

 

Heat 1 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) O-Jonathan Allard [1]

2) 14-Jason Meyers [2]

3) 91-Paul McMahan [3]

4) 2B-Ben Gregg [6]

5) 83-Tim Kaeding [4]

6) 83JR-Tim Shaffer [5]

7) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. [8]...

 

Heat 2 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) 51-Fred Rahmer [2]

2) 5W-Lucas Wolfe [4]

3) 7S-Jason Sides [6]

4) 6-Danny Lasoski [3]

5) OO-Cory Eliason [7]

6) 33E-Evan Suggs [3]

7) 63-Chad Kemenah [5]...

 

Heat 3 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) 7-Craig Dollansky [2]

2) 9-Joey Saldana [4]

3) 24-Terry McCarl [3]

4) 11K-Kraig Kinser [1]...

 

Heat 4 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) 11-Steve Kinser [2]

2) R19-Jac Haudenschild [4]

3) 44W-Austen Wheatley [1]

4) 15-Donny Schatz [3]

5) 17-Daryn Pittman [5]...

 

Dash (8 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature)

1) 51-Fred Rahmer [1]

2) 14-Jason Meyers [2]

3) R19-Jac Haudenschild [4]

4) 5W-Lucas Wolfe [6]

5) 9-Joey Saldana [5]

6) 83-Tim Kaeding [10]

7) 91-Paul McMahan [3]

8) 11-Steve Kinser [8]

9) 7-Craig Dollansky [7]

10) O-Jonathan Allard [9]

 

A-main (35 laps) – Starting Position [#]

1) 14-Jason Meyers[2] [$10,000]

2) 9-Joey Saldana[5] [$5,000]

3) R19-Jac Haudenschild[3] [$3,000]

4) 15-Donny Schatz[13] [$2,700]

5) 11-Steve Kinser[8] [$2,500]

6) 51-Fred Rahmer[1] [$2,200]

7) 63-Chad Kemenah[17] [$2,000]

8) 11K-Kraig Kinser[15] [$1,800]

9) 7-Craig Dollansky[9] [$1,600]

10) 7S-Jason Sides[21] [$1,450]

11) 6-Danny Lasoski[11] [$1,300]

12) 17-Daryn Pittman[19] [$1,200]

13) 33E-Evan Suggs[14] [$1,100]

14) 55-Brandon Carey[22] [$1,000]

15) 44W-Austen Wheatley[16] [$950]

16) 2B-Ben Gregg[20] [$900]

17) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[4] [$850]

18) 83-Tim Kaeding[6] [$750]

19) 91-Paul McMahan[7] [$725]

20) 24-Terry McCarl[12] [$700]

21) 21-Tommy Tarlton[18] [$700]

22) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[24] [$700]

23) OO-Cory Eliason[23] [$700]

24) O-Jonathan Allard[10] [$700]

 

World of Outlaws Championship Standings through March 5

1. Steve Kinser 586  (All is right with the world! Steve K atop WoO point standings...How I grew up! - JD)

Donny Schatz 586

2. Joey Saldana 583
3. Jason Meyers 580
4. Jason Sides 549
5. Danny Lasoski 528
6. Jac Haudenschild 522
7. Tim Kaeding 519
8. Kraig Kinser 517