(Photo by Terry Ford)
Inside Line Promotions – KNOXVILLE, Iowa (July 3, 2018) – Mason Daniel added another historic track to his win list last Friday as he continues his first full year in a sprint car.
The Californian won a hard fought battle with veteran driver Tony Bruce Jr. to score the victory at Missouri State Fair Speedway in Sedalia, Mo., during an event sanctioned by the ASCS Warrior Region.
Daniel opened the night by winning the second heat race over a pair of veteran drivers, who have numerous laps at the tricky oval during their respective careers. This set the young driver up to start on the pole for the 25-lap main event at the half-mile track.
“The track reminded me a lot of Knoxville, with flatter corners and longer straightaways,” Daniel said. “The track was prepped really well and we could run right to the top and it had moisture all the way around. I was excited to run there and see how we stacked up against everyone. The car felt good in hot laps and we were fast. We carried that over into the heat race and ultimately the main event.”
Daniel fell to second in the early going of the main event with Bruce Jr. in the lead. Turns three and four was the spot for passing. Daniel tried that piece of real estate a couple of times as he battled for the top spot, using traffic to his advantage in the closing laps.
“We got to some heavy lapped traffic and I tried to make a move on him in turns three and four and wasn’t able to,” he shared. “I gathered myself back up and closed the gap on him and we ran into more lapped traffic. That is where I was able to throw a slider in (turns) three and four and made it stick. We drag raced on the front straightaway and were able to come out on top. It felt really good to win there. The track was faster than anything I had ever been on. It was exciting just to get to run there. It’s such a historic race track. I was pumped to get a win.”
Another visit to the famed Knoxville Raceway, where Daniel earned his first career sprint car triumph on June 16, capped the weekend. He was sixth fastest in time trials of the 24 entries and followed that up with a sixth-place finish in a heat race. Daniel ended up finishing eighth in the 18-lap main event, which was cut short to 11 laps because of impending severe weather.
“We were really strong in the feature,” he said. “I had just passed the seventh and then sixth-place cars on that lap when the red flag came out. We would have actually restarted fifth. I was confident in the car and I think we could have gotten a top-five finish or even a top three depending on how the restarts went. I’m glad we got the laps in we did. There is nothing you can do about the weather and I fully understand what Knoxville did. It was a huge storm coming in. We’ll look ahead to this coming weekend and know we have good speed there.”
Daniel will return to Knoxville Raceway this Saturday as he looks to extend his current three-race top-10 streak at the half-mile oval.
QUICK RESULTS –
June 29 – Missouri State Fair Speedway in Sedalia, Mo. – Heat race: 1 (2); Feature: 1 (1).
June 30 – Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa – Qualifying: 6; Heat race: 6 (5); Feature: 8 (9).
SEASON STATS –
21 races, 2 wins, 7 top fives, 10 top 10s, 15 top 15s, 18 top 20s
UP NEXT –
Saturday at Knoxville Raceway in Knoxville, Iowa
MEDIA LINKS –
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MasonDRacing
SPONSOR SPOTLIGHT – Golden State Peterbilt
Golden State Peterbilt is a leading supplier of Peterbilt trucks in California.
“They supply our company with trucks,” Daniel said. “We’ve been working with them for as long as I can remember and we’re excited to have them as part of our sprint car team.”
Daniel would also like to thank Dillon Risk Management, Delray Tire, Valley Pacific, Young’s Commercial Transfer, Fresno Truck Center, Bell Helmets and Schoenfeld Headers for their continued support.
INSIDE LINE PROMOTIONS –
Inside Line Promotions specializes in affordable public relations and media management for motor sports drivers, teams, sponsors, tracks, series, events, organizations and manufacturers. ILP Founder Shawn Miller leverages professional journalism with new media technologies and social networking to improve your exposure and the return on investment for your sponsors.
To meet the media relations needs of your program by joining Team ILP, contact Shawn at 541-510-3663 or Shawn@InsideLinePromotions.com. For more information on Inside Line Promotions, visit http://www.InsideLinePromotions.com.
- Shawn Miller on Jul 03, 2018
- Article Date: 7/3/2018 by Inside Line Promotions