Lawrenceburg, Indiana…….For the second-straight year, Bryan Clauson took home $10,000 as the AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship wrapped up the Midwest portion of the schedule before heading west in November for the final four races of the 2014 calendar. The Noblesville, Indiana driver took his fifth win of the season in wire-to-wire fashion, holding off National point leader Brady Bacon and registering his 30th career victory with the series.
Clauson led from the front row over Chase Stockon in a race that went 25-straight laps under green. Bacon quickly nabbed second as Stockon was trying to stick in the top-five. Bacon kept pace with Clauson throughout, and continually looked low through turns three and four as they negotiated traffic. He never could pull even and Clauson opened up his advantage before a caution with five laps to go for Dave Darland, who had a flat right-rear tire. He returned at the tail of the field.
Bacon moved alongside Clauson as the two completed the 26th lap but was unable to uproot Clauson from his perch in the lead on the high side. He again pulled away with the lead as spring Lawrenceburg winner Justin Grant moved past Jon Stanbrough for fourth and closed on Tracy Hines.
Another stoppage with two laps to go set up a green-white-checker finish, but this time Bacon had no threat for Clauson, as the Tony Stewart/Curb-Agajanian Racing – Chevy Performance #20 Beast/Kistler took a .593-second win.
“Tonight is a big win for us. The car was good all night, and very forgiving more than anything. You don’t see me win too many races up on the curb at Lawrenceburg, but these guys made my job easy. We’re at the point of needing to win races and letting the points fall where they may – we didn’t gain on Brady tonight but this is a good send-off to the last four races out west,” Clauson said.
Bacon protected his 51-point lead in the National standings with his runner-up finish aboard the Hoffman Auto Racing – Mean Green #69 Triple X/Williams Mopar.
“We would have needed him to fall asleep and make a major mistake or something to get him. I tried the bottom for all it was worth throughout the race, and it just wasn’t enough. He doesn’t make many mistakes, and tonight none were big enough to capitalize on. We’ve gotten going really well the last few races and hopefully we can take that momentum with us to try to close out the championship,” Bacon said.
Hines rounded out the podium in his The Carolina Nut Company – Hansen’s Welding #4 DRC/Stanton Chevy.
“It was key to qualify so well. Tonight is not my prototypical strong track, running the cushion that high up there. Our car was good and we’ve found some things with motors that have made them more driveable,” Hines said.
Grant came home fourth in the Mark Hery Racing – Racing for Kinser Clayton #40 DRC/Claxton, while Jerry Coons, Jr. snuck past Stanbrough on the final lap for the fifth spot in the Edison Motorsports – Crume Evans Insurance #10E Spike/Chevy.
AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 27, 2014 – Lawrenceburg, Indiana – Lawrenceburg Speedway – “Fall Nationals”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips-13.985; 2. Jon Stanbrough, 37RW, Dutcher-14.035; 3. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-14.036; 4. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-14.074; 5. Justin Grant, 40, Hery-14.229; 6. Bryan Clauson, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-14.260; 7. Jac Haudenschild, 11x, Walker-14.311; 8. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-14.312; 9. Daron Clayton, 92k, Clayton-14.315; 10. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-14.315; 11. Landon Simon, 24, Simon-14.330; 12. Shane Cottle, 2E, Epperson-14.330; 13. Thomas Meseraull, 18x, Keen-14.347; 14. Hunter Schuerenberg, 20N, Nolen/Schuerenberg-14.354;15. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-14.363; 16. Scotty Weir, 27a, Elson-14.420; 17. Robert Ballou, 12x, Ballou-14.442; 18. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-14.466; 19. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-14.483; 20. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-14.517; 21. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9k, KT-14.517; 22. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-14.532; 23. Chad Boespflug, 5, Baldwin-14.560; 24. Drew Abel, 04, Abel-14.688; 25. Dallas Hewitt, 21, Coomer-14.747; 26. Shawn Westerfeld, 89, Westerfeld-14.795; 27. Travis Hery, 21H, Hery-14.803; 28. Garrett Abrams, 32a, Abrams-14.986; 29. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-15.293; 30. Dwayne Spille, 71, Spille-15.842; 31. Mike Weber, 22w, Weber-16.101; 32. Joss Moffatt, 5J, Moffatt-NT.
FIRST HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. Meseraull, 3. Darland, 4. Ballou, 5. Grant, 6. Clayton, 7. Hewitt, 8. Goodnight. 1:56.13
SECOND HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Leary, 2. Clauson, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. Stanbrough, 5. Andretti, 6. Robbins, 7. Westerfield, 8. Spille. 1:53.17
THIRD HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. Coons, 3. Jarrett, 4. Hines, 5. Haudenschild, 6. Weber, 7. Simon, 8. Hery. NT
FOURTH HEAT : (8 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Cottle, 3. Stockon, 4. Windom, 5. Weir, 6. Moffatt, 7. Abel, 8. Abrams. 1:58.62
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Haudenschild, 2. Grant, 3. Clayton, 4. Andretti, 5. Weir, 6. Simon, 7. Robbins, 8. Westerfeld, 9. Hewitt, 10. Moffatt, 11. Abrams, 12. Abel, 13. Goodnight,14. Spille, 15. Weber. 3:11.92
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Tracy Hines, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Jerry Coons Jr., 6. Chase Stockon, 7. Jon Stanbrough, 8. Robert Ballou, 9. Chris Windom, 10. Dave Darland, 11. Jac Haudenschild, 12. Hunter Schuerenberg, 13. Chad Boespflug, 14. Daron Clayton, 15. Jarett Andretti, 16. Scotty Weir, 17. Kevin Thomas Jr., 18. Thomas Meseraull, 19. C.J. Leary, 20. Logan Jarrett, 21. Landon Simon, 22. Shane Cottle. NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Clauson.
NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,762, 2-Clauson-1,711, 3-Darland-1,683, 4-Stanbrough-1,588, 5-Stockon-1,474, 6-Hines-1,401, 7-Grant-1,376, 8-Windom-1,351, 9-Ballou-1,284, 10-Schuerenberg-1,188.
NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: November 7 – Perris Auto Speedway – Perris, California – “Oval Nationals”
- administrator on Sep 29, 2014
- Article Date: 9/29/2014