Jason Bowles won the NASCAR Camping World Series West race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma on Saturday, but he gives all the credit to teammate Patrick Long.
Long, a driver from Thousand Oaks who races regularly in the Camping World Series East and has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans twice, won the pole for the NASCAR race in Sonoma and led the first 19 laps.
He was involved in a crash with Joey Logano, who worked his way to the led, during the final laps of the race. Logano spun, Long was penalized for rough driving and Bowles inherited the win.
“Actually, the real winner here today is my teammate Patrick Long,” Bowles said. “I was just the beneficiary of some rough driving. We were in the right place at the right time at the end.”
Bowles, a driver fron Ontario, won the West Series race in Sonoma for the second year in a row. Long wound up in 23rd place, the last driver on the lead lap.
The race featured a number of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers, including Logano, driver of the No. 20 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Logano was 17th in the West Series race.
David Gilliland, a driver from Riverside who also races in the Sprint Cup Series, was 31st. Boris Said, a road-course specialists from Carlsbad who will start ninth in today’s Sprint Cup race in Sonoma, was fourth in the West Series race.
Eric Holmes of Escalon, the leader in the West Series standings, was third in the race. Bowles is second in the West Series standings and trails Holmes by 16 points.
Kyle Kelly from Huntington Beach was 10th. Greg Pursley, a Canyon High graduate, was
20th.
Jason Bowles leads Joey Logano and most of the field in the NASCAR Camping World Series West race at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma. (Photo Credit: Getty Images for NASCAR)
Nick Joanides, a driver from Woodland Hills, won both NASCAR Super Late Model races at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night, June 20. He has won four Super Late Model races in a row at the track. For the second time this season, he has swept twin races in the same night at Irwindale. Rip Michelsk, a driver from San Fernando, was second in both races. Michels was 0.197 seconds behind Joanides in the first race and 0.211 seconds behind him in the second race. Joanides has eight wins in the Super Late Model division and leads the Super Late Model standings at the track.
R.J. Johnson, a driver from Canyon Country, won his second straight NASCAR Super Trucks race at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night, June 20. Johnson has three wins in his past four races at the track. He qualified with the fastest time for the fifth race in a row, but had to start eighth because of a randomly determined invert. He worked his way to the lead in 10 laps.
Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills swept the NASCAR Super Late Model twin races at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night. It was his fourth win in a row and his eighth of the season in the Super Late Model division at the track. Rip Michels of San Fernando finished second in both Super Late Model races. He lost the first race by 0.197 seconds and the second by 0.211 seconds. Joanides leads the Super Late Model standings. He is also the leader in the Late Model standings at the track. For the second time in a row, Joanides swept the Super Late Model twin races. He won both races at the track two weeks ago. R.J. Johnson of Canyon Country won the NASCAR Super Trucks race. It was his third win in the past four Super Trucks races at the track and his second in a row. Ron Peterson of Riverside was second followed by Mason Britton of Sacramento in third. Pat Mintey Jr. of Quartz Hill, the leader in the Super Trucks standings at the track, was fourth. Daryl Scoggins of Sunland won his fourth Mini Stocks race in a row and extended his lead in the Mini Stocks standings at the track. Jacob Rogers of Riverside, making only his second start of the season, was second. Dennis Croasmun of Alta Loma was third, his best finish in the three races at the track this year. Dalton Kuhn of San Marcos won the South West Tour Trucks race. Ronnie Davis Jr. of Whittier was second followed by Christian Copley of Santa Ynez. Copley entered the race as the leader in the South West Tour Trucks standings. Jeff Williams of Newbury Park, the second-place driver in the South West Tour Trucks standings, was involved in a first-lap crash. He was able to finish the race, with severe damage to the front of his truck, and came in sixth.
Todd Southwell won four races in the NASCAR Super Late Model division at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale in 2005. He was a top-five driver in the Super Late Model standings at the track in 2005 and 2006. But he hasn't been in a stock car at Irwindale since the season finale in 2006. That is until two weeks ago. Southwell made his return to racing at Irwindale in the No. 43 car owned and driven by Dennis Furden. If things work out, Southwell could be in the car a few more times before the season is over. Read about the deal Southwell and Furden worked out in The Signal.
Tony Pedregon beat Ashley Force Hood in the funny car final at Englishtown. It was a rematch of the final the previous Sunday at Route 66 Raceway in Illinois. Pedregon has won both finals against Force Hood. “I never thought I’d be afraid of a girl,” said Pedregon who leads the funny car standings by 20 points over Force Hood. “Fear of losing was in the back of my head. I knew we had a good race car. It ran good in the heat, and it ran good with cloud cover.” It was the third finals appearance in a row for Force Hood and her fifth finals appearance of the season. She leads the funny drivers in final appearances. Force Hood made three final appearances in a row in 2008. She lost the first two, but won the third in Atlanta. Her three straight final appearances in 2009 have yet to produce a win for her. “We were hoping since last year we went to three finals in a row (Houston, Las Vegas and Atlanta) and won on our third attempt Atlanta. We were hoping that we could do that again and have the third time be the charm,” said Force Hood. “I can’t complain about getting to another final. It gives us that much more data and me more experience in the car. That will come in handy down the road. If you are losing first or second round you aren’t just losing those points you are not getting extra rounds.”
Photo: Tony Pedregon won his second straight NHRA funny car event. For the second Sunday in a row, Pedregon beat Ashley Force Hood in the final. Pedregon leads the funny car standings by 20 points over Force Hood.
Larry Dixon, a National Hot Rod Assn. top fuel driver and a Van Nuys High graduate, made it a perfect 3-for-3 in finals after winning at Old Bridge Township Raceway in New Jersey on Sunday. Dixon won his third top fuel final of the season and his fifth career NHRA top fuel event in Englishtown, N.J. Joe Amato has the most wins of any NHRA driver at Englishtown with six. “We’ve had a lot of success at this race,” said Dixon, a driver from Al-Anabi Racing. “The race used to be Father’s Day at Columbus, and we won out until they moved the Father’s Day to here. I was like, ‘Wow, I haven’t won Englishtown in a long time. It would be cool to do that,’ nonchalantly saying that at the beginning of the season. And then all of a sudden, you get to go to a bunch of finals and win here. This is a great track, and there’s so much history here. Racing on the same track as ‘Jungle’ and Garlits and Shirley and all my heroes that I grew up watching race is a great deal.” Dixon was referring to NHRA legends “Jungle” Jim Libeman, “Big Daddy” Don Garlits and Shirley Muldowney. With the win, Dixon moved up to third place in the NHRA top fuel standings. Antron Brown, who Dixon defeated in the finals at Englishtown, leads the top fuel standings. He has a 34-point lead over reigning top fuel champion Tony Schumacher. “Even though we didn’t get the win here, we still managed to make a lot of progress relative to performance,” said Schumacher, who lost to Brown in the semifinals. “I believe we’ve got a solid combination right now. I’m looking for that to translate into some wins real soon.”
Photo: Larry Dixon won his third NHRA top fuel race and his fifth career NHRA race at Old Bridge Township Raceway in New Hersey on Sunday. Only Joe Amato with six wins has won more NHRA races at Englishtown, N.J.
Mike Johnson won his first NASCAR Late Model race of the season at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night. He posted three runner-up finishes in his past four races at the track. He finished ahead of Tim Huddleston, a driver from Agoura Hills and the reigning Late Model champion at Irwindale, and Nick Joanides, the current leader in the Late Model standings at the track. Johnson also won on the same night his son, Matt, won a race in the Charger division at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Mike Johnson of Covina won the NASCAR Late Model race at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night. It was his first win of the season at the track, snapping the three-race winning streak of Tim Huddleston of Agoura Hills. Johnson was the runner-up in three of the past four Late Model races at the track. Huddleston finished second and Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills was third. Joanides leads the Late Model standings. He has a six-point lead over Huddleston, the reigning Late Model champion at Irwindale. Johnson won on the same night his son, Matt, won at the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Matt Johnson, 29, won his first race of the year in the Charger division at the Bullring. It was Mike Johnson’s first win at Irwindale since winning the Late Model race of the Toyota All-Star Showdown in January. Donny St. Ours of Upland won the Legends Cars race. It was his second Legends win of the season and his second win in his past three races. Brent Scheidemantle of Alta Loma was second, followed by Chad Schug of Oak Hills in third. Brandon Toy of Bakersfield, the leader in the Legends standings at the track, was fourth. St. Ours was also in the ASA Speed Trucks race and finished 15th. Ken Michaelian of Lawndale won the Classic Stocks race. It was his fifth win in six Classic Stock race at the track. Michaelian, the leader in the Classic Stock standings, has won the past two races and has yet to finish worse than second. Tommy Agosta of Chino was second followed by Mike Colato Jr. of Chatsworth in third. Larry Cerquettini of Redlands won his fifth Super Stocks race in a row. He is undefeated at Irwindale this season. In addition to his five Super Stocks wins, he has a figure 8 win. Gary Frankovich of Barstow was second and Garret Cromsigt of Saugus, making his second start of the season, was third. Jeremiah Wagner of Las Vegas won the ASA Speed Trucks race after Cole Cabrera knocked Randel King out of the lead on the final lap of the race. Cabrera crossed the finish line first, but he was penalized for getting into the side of King’s car between turns 3 and 4. King, a driver from Riverside, entered the race as the leader in the ASA Speed Trucks standings and dropped to third. He ended up in sixth-place in the race. Cabrera, a driver from Exeter, was credited with a 17th-place finish. Jamie Bennet of Fullerton was second and Joey Licata of Van Nuys was third. Lee Hatch, five years removed from his last ASA Speed Trucks championship and more than three years removed from his last race, returned to the race track Saturday night at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. Hatch, a 41-year-old driver from Alta Loma, won the ASA Speed Truck championship in 2003 and 2004. He retired from racing after the 2006 season. But Hatch decided to end his retirement for at least two races this season. He made his return in his dad’s No. 91 BHRM Motorsports Chevrolet Colorado at Irwindale. His plan is to race again in September at Irwindale. Those will be the only two races he will enter this year. He was eighth in his season debut. Hatch was the ASA Speed Truck rookie of the year in 2002 and has won 32 Speed Truck races, the most of any drivers in the history of the series. In his championship season in 2004, Hatch won 12 races.
Lee Hatch, five years removed from his last ASA Speed Trucks championship and more than three years removed from his last race, returned to the race track Saturday night at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. Hatch, a 41-year-old driver from Alta Loma, won the ASA Speed Truck championship in 2003 and 2004. He retired from racing after the 2006 season. But Hatch decided to end his retirement for at least two races this season. He made his return in his dad’s No. 91 BHRM Motorsports Chevrolet Colorado at Irwindale. His plan is to race again in September at Irwindale. Those will be the only two races he will enter this year. Hatch was the ASA Speed Truck rookie of the year in 2002 and has won 32 Speed Truck races, the most of any driver in the history of the series. In his championship season in 2004, Hatch won 12 races.
Antron Brown is back atop the top fuel standings after a final round appearance at Route 66 Raceway. He is 18 points ahead of Tony Schumacher, the reigning top fuel champion and last year’s winner at Old Bridge Township Raceway in Englishtown, N.J. “I couldn’t be more excited to get back to racing at E-Town,'” said Brown, whose hometown is Chesterfield, N.J. “I always love getting to go home to the home track in New Jersey and race in front of all the family and friends. Our Matco Tools dragster is running awesome. We’re leading the points standings and coming off a great race at Chicago. We just want to keep things rolling along and qualify well and go rounds on race day.” Schumacher lost in the first round at Route 66 Raceway and broke his streak of 35 races in a row without a first-round loss. Even though he won at Englishtown last year, he does not have fond memories of the event because of the death of Kalitta. “For sure, it’s going to be tough for everyone in the NHRA family,” said the six-time NHRA champion. “It’s hard to believe, but it’s already been a year since we lost Scott Kalitta.”
Photo: Antron Brown raced to a runner-up finish in the NHRA top fuel races at Route 66 Raceway in Illinois on Sunday and moved into first place in the top fuel standings. (NHRA)
It was a year ago when National Hot Rod Assn. funny car driver Scott Kalitta died in a accident on the track at Old Bridge Township Raceway in Englishtown, N.J., site of this weekend’s races. Jack Beckman, a driver from North Hills, was waiting his turn to qualify when Kalitta had his tragic accident. “We didn't qualify last year for the SuperNationals, as the NHRA cancelled the rest of the qualifying that day when Scott had his accident,” said Beckman, a driver for Don Schumacher Racing. “It didn’t matter to me. It’s the first time that I could ever think of in my racing career where qualifying didn’t actually seem all that important.” The fallout from the fatal wreck was the change in race distance, from a quarter-mile to 1,000 feet. The shorter distance was implemented for two reasons: to reduce the speeds of the top fuel and funny car dragsters and to create a greater distance to slow down the cars after their runs. The debate continues as to whether the top fuel and funny car divisions will ever race at a quarter-mile distance again. “It’s never going to be the same,” he said following Kalitta’s death. “It’s not like one day we went, OK, well, we’re over that. You’ll never get over it. There is a time frame when it hurts almost constantly. And then when you get past that it’s a memory and a tugging at the heart when you think of the people we have lost.” Beckman enters this weekend’s races in fifth place in the funny car standings and has won two events this year. But he said returning to Englishtown will be bittersweet. “We'll have a chance to honor Scott amongst all the crews and the teams and remember him for the great racer and person he was,” Beckman said. Ron Capps, Beckman’s teammate, leads the funny car standings and won at Englishtown in 2006. “We’re going to one of the more historic races we have on our schedule this weekend,” said Capps, who has a 58-point lead over Tony Pedregon. “Really, I was overwhelmed by finally getting to win this race a few years ago.” Del Worsham, a driver from Chino Hills, is fourth in the funny car standings. He is coming off a second-round loss at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., on Sunday. “We’re fourth in points so we lost a couple of spots with our second-round loss last week, but that’s OK,” he said. “I’m still optimistic about this weekend in Englishtown; our car showed some good promise in Joliet for the summer races we are about to start running.”
Nick Joanides, a driver from Woodland Hills and the leader in the NASCAR Super Late Model standings at the Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, swept the twin races at the track on Saturday night, June 6. He has six wins in the Super Late Model division. Rip Michels of San Fernando was second in the first race. Alex Haase, a driver from Las Vegas and one of the drivers for Kyle Busch Motorsports, was second in the second race. Joanides also is fourth in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series national standings.
Alex Haase, one of the drivers for Kyle Busch Motorsports, had two top-five finishes in the NASCAR Super Late Model division at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night, June 6. Haase was fourth in the first Super Late Model race and second in the second Super Late Model race. Nick Joanides won both Super Late Model races. Haase, a 19-year-old from Las Vegas, was making his first visit to the track since the Toyota All-Star Showdown in January.
R.J. Johnson, a driver from Canyon Country, won the NASCAR Super Trucks race at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night, June, 6. It was his second Super Trucks win at the track this season and his second win in the past three Super Trucks races.
Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills swept the NASCAR Super Late Model races at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night. He won both Super Late Model races and extended his lead to 62 points in the standings at the track. It was his fifth and sixth wins of the season in the Super Late Model division. The reigning Super Late Model champion has won three of the last four races and five of his last seven. In the first Super Late Models race, Joanides finished ahead of Rip Michels of San Fernando, who was second, and Dan Moore of Burbank in third. Alex Haase, a driver from Las Vegas and one of the drivers for Kyle Busch Motorsports, finished fourth. Haase is the reigning Pro All Star Series champion and rookie of the year. The 19-year-old driver led the first 20 laps of the first Super Late Model race at Irwindale before giving way to Joanides. Joanides and Haase finished 1-2 in the second Super Late Model race. Michels was third. In addition to his five wins in the Super Late Model division, Joanides has two wins in the Late Model division and is the leader in the Late Model standings at the track. R.J. Johnson of Canyon Country won the NASCAR Super Trucks race. It was his second win of the season at the track. Pat Mintey Jr. of Quartz Hill was second, followed by Jeff Peterson of Riverside. Mintey is the leader in the Super Trucks standings. Brandon Toy of Bakersfield won the Legends Cars race. Ryan Reed of Bakersfield was second, followed by Mark Iungerich in third. Toy, the leader in the Legend Cars standings at the track, won his first race of the season at Irwindale. Christian McGhee of La Verne won the Bandoleros race, his first of the season. Lexi Moore of Burbank was second, followed by Blake Dunkleberger of Simi Valley. McGhee is the son of Lloyd McGhee, who owns the Super Late Model car driven by Joanides. Moore is the daughter of Dan Moore, who races in the Super Late Model division at the track.
Rip Michels, a driver from San Fernando, led 46 laps of a 50-lap NASCAR Super Late Model race at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale two weeks ago. His car broke on the last restart of the race, opening the door for Scott Dodd to win his second race of the year. Michels, the winningest driver in the history of the track, is winless this year in the Super Late Model division.
Travis Thirkettle, a driver from Fillmore, wrecked his NASCAR Super Late Model car in a race at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale two weeks ago. He was forced his team's back-up car, one that won five races at Irwindale last year. The car that crashed has only won once, a rain-shortened Toyota All-Star Showdown race in January.
Pat Mintey Jr., a driver from Quartz Hill, leads the NASCAR Super Truck standings at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He has two wins and an 18-point lead over Jeff Peterson, a driver from Riverside.
Todd Bodine won the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. He won for a Truck Series record fifth time at Texas, breaking the mark held by Brendan Gaughan, a driver from Las Vegas and a NASCAR West Series champ. “A good friend of mine told me last week that he was rooting for me to finish second, but not win," Bodine said. "Sorry Brendan, I had to beat you bud. It’s incredible. This truck right into that last run we were just too loose the whole race and (Mike Hillman) Junior (crew chief) made some great calls at the end and fixed it up to make it run. This is an awesome night.” Matt Crafton finished second and took over the lead in the Truck Series standings for the first time in his career. "That is cool for now. I mean, I am just a little bit aggravated because I know how good of a truck we had and I have always wanted to win here at Texas," Crafton said after the race on Friday night. "I want to be over there where that blue truck (Bodine's) is right now. These guys did an awesome job in the pits. I mean awesome, truck here. When we unloaded it, it was awesome and it was good at the end of the race too. "I can honestly say without a doubt this is the most diappointing second place ever. This Australian Gold Chevy Silverado, I mean, it was awesome, these guys in the pits. In the beginning we were just a little bit off and they made two air pressure adjustments and it just brought this thing to life." Ron Hornaday Jr. finished 19th in the race at Texas and dropped to second in the Truck Series standings. He trails Crafton by 30 points.
Photo: Todd Bodine does a burnout to celebrate winning the WinStar World Casino 400 at Texas Motor Speedway, his second victory of the season. (Photo Credit: Chris Trotman/Getty Images)
Formula X teammates Marc Miller and Jeff Mosing will race a Mazda MX-5 sporting the Race Now For Autism logo and colors for this weekend's race at New Jersey Motorsport Park. Each driver has a child with autism. “As both a father and a professional driver there just isn’t a better situation for me to be in,” said Miller. “It isn’t often that I can leave for a race weekend, but still feel like I am making a big impact in my son’s life. My goal is to be able to help make an impact in other families lives as well.” Miller leads the Mazda MX-5 Cup standings. Mosing said he is proud to drive the RaceNowForAutism.org car. “It provides my family with a sense of pride and purpose and I look forward to working with the site to promote autism awareness throughout the year,” he said.
Ron Hornaday Jr. heads into Texas Motor Speedway as the leader in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series leader. He is in pursuit of his fourth career Truck Series championship. Every time he wins a race, he adds to his own record for career Truck Series wins. He stands at 40 after winning at Lowe's Motor Speedway last month. Read more in The Signal.
Larry Dixon joined the 500-win club a couple weekends ago at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee and added to his total by winning the NHRA top fuel event at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas last weekend. He has 504 round wins in his career, one of only seven NHRA drivers to reach that milestone. John Force, who races in the NHRA funny car division, leads all drivers with 1,022 round wins. He is also the only driver with 1,000 round wins. Force, Warren Johnson, Kurt Johnson and Dixon are the only active drivers among the seven drivers with at least 500 round wins. For the record, Dixon notched his 500th round win in the first round at Bristol. He went on to win four rounds at Topeka and now has 504 career round wins. He is six round wins behind Kurt Johnson, who sits in sixth place with 510 career round wins. “It was nice to be able to go out there at Topeka and have a great event,” said Dixon, a driver for Al-Anabi Racing and a Van Nuys High graduate. “The car ran well all weekend, and everything about it was good. The other plus was that everyone ahead of us in points went out early so we were able to make up a lot of ground. We only moved up two spots, but we gained a lot of ground on some teams so that was a nice bonus.” Dixon moved up to fourth place in the top fuel standings and trails leader Tony Schumacher by 141 points. “Everything that happened from the time we got back to the pit area after the second-round loss at Bristol to the time we went to Topeka was good,” Dixon said. “We talked a lot in Bristol, and then tested for two days in Atlanta. We tried a lot of different things, and I was just making runs in the car. Everything about it was good … the mental and physical parts were great. Just being able to spend time with everyone and make the runs was important. We have all of the pieces we need, but we are now becoming more of a team, and I think we saw some of the results with our win at Topeka.”
Photo: Larry Dixon moved into fourth place in the NHRA top fuel standings after winning at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas on Sunday.
Ron Capps, the leader in the NHRA funny car standings, was supposed to be part of Tony Stewart’s Prelude to a Dream dirt track race at Eldora Speedway in Ohio. But rain washed out the race and Capps headed straight to Route 66 Raceway in Illinois for the NHRA races this weekend. “It’s unfortunate, but the bright side, and this happened a few years ago when it was rained out, is that the rain-out date is going to be Wednesday night, Sept. 9,” said Capps. “And it happens to be right after the biggest race on our NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series schedule, the U.S. Nationals, which we run on Monday, Labor Day, in Indianapolis. So, I’ll be able to stay in town again and cruise over and run the Prelude. It will be held prior to what they call ‘The World,’ which is one of the biggest Late Model races they have. It’s going to be just as big an event, and we expect the weather will be good at that time.” Capps is coming off a win at Topeka and leads the funny car standings by 119 points over Del Worsham, a driver from Chino Hills. Capps has one career win at Route 66 Raceway. That came in 2005. He was the runner up at Route 66 Raceway two years later. “Chicago is a track which every year, even with conditions that aren't cool, is considered one of the best tracks we go to, surface-wise,” said Capps, a driver for Don Schumacher Racing. “Lanny Miglizzi, our ‘track whisperer,’ as Tony Schumacher once called him, gets so excited when we roll into Chicago, because it’s a place where you can automatically throw a lot more clutch into these cars and that only means good things for a driver. It means hang on and pull your belts tighter.”
Photo: After winning the NHRA funny car portion of the event at Heartland Park Topeka on Sunday, Ron Capps extended his lead in the funny car standings to 119 points.
NHRA funny car driver Jack Beckman, along with top fuel driver Cory McClenethan and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Reed Sorenson, will be part of a promotion by Valvoline this weekend to donate $300,000 to schools and let people know about the company's 300,000-mile guarantee. Valvoline is putting their money where its mouth, or in this case oil, is. If Beckman, a driver from North Hills, McClenethan and Sorenson qualify for their respective races this weekend, Valvoline will commit $300,000 toward educational materials. To register your car with the Valvoline challenge, go to www.valvoline.com.
Photo: Jack Beckman will be driving his Don Schumacher funny car with a new Valvoline paint scheme for the NHRA races this weekend at Route 66 Raceway in Illinois.
Stanton Barrett is out and Jacques Lazier is in the Team 3G entry for this weekend’s Indy Racing League IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. Barrett, a Hollywood stuntman and NASCAR veteran, was the driver for the Team 3G car to start the season. He did not qualify for the 33-car field in the Indianapolis 500. Lazier is expected to drive the Team 3G car for one race. “As we continue to lay the foundation and improve as a team, we believe Jaques’ experience with these cars will help our team tremendously,” team co-owner Steve Sudler said. “Now is the time to start building toward 2010 for programs and sponsorship, and we look forward to giving Stanton a competitive car later this season for Japan and some other events.” Lazier is an IndyCar Series veteran with two career poles, at Richmond and Chicagoland, and one career win at Chicagoland. “I am really looking forward to rejoining the IndyCar Series,” Lazier said. “I have been talking with Greg (Beck) and Steve since Indy, and I feel really comfortable with where the team is headed and how we can work to grow the program on ovals and with my sponsors, as well.” Team 3G isn’t the only IndyCar Series team making changes for this weekend’s race at Texas. A.J. Foyt Racing is putting A.J. Foyt IV in its car and Alex Tagliani is returning to drive the Conquest Racing car after missing last weekend’s race at The Milwaukee Mile.
After challenging Danica Patrick to a race, Shaquille O’Neal will be on the same race track with her this weekend at Texas Motor Speedway. O’Neal will be the grand marshal and ride in the pace car for the IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway. He will be riding with three-time Indy 500 champion Johnny Rutherford in the pace car to start the Bombardier Learjet 550k. At least for part of the race, O’Neal will be ahead of Patrick. “I am excited about being the grand marshal and coming to my first IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway this weekend,” O'Neal said. “Since they won’t let me enter the race, I’ll do the next best thing and start the race in the pace car. I’m sure Johnny Rutherford can teach me a few things during the ride so when the day comes and I do get to race an IndyCar, I’ll be ready.”
Joey Logano and Boris Said are entered in the NASCAR Camping World Series race at Infineon Raceway on June 20. The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series is also racing at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma that weekend. Logano drives for Joe Gibbs Racing in the Cup Series. Said is a road-course specialist who has raced in the Cup Series on a regular basis at Infineon and Watkins Glen International Raceway in New York, the only two road course races on the Cup schedule. Logano won the Toyota All-Star Showdown at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale in 2007. Said, a driver from Carlsbad, finished third in the West Series race in Sonoma in 2007. He won a Truck Series race in 1998 and has four top-10 finishes in Cup races at Infineon in his career. The next race on the West Series schedule is Saturday at Douglas County Speedway in Roseburg, Ore. Eric Holmes won the West Series pole and the race at Roseburg last year. “In last year’s race, I started on the pole and we had a dominant car,” Holmes said. “That was one of the best cars I’ve driven in my entire life. We got a flat tire, with a huge lead, and had to come back through the pack. That was not an easy feat, but I was determined to get back up there and win that race. I didn’t want to break the streak for the NAPA car winning that race.” Four drivers have won five races for Bill McAnally Racing and the NAPA car. Austin Cameron won two (2002 and 2003), Peyton Sellers won in 2006, Brian Ickler won in 2007 and Holmes won last year’s race. Holmes is the leader in the West Series standings. He is 16 points ahead of Jason Bowles, a driver from Ontario. Greg Pursley, a Canyon High graduate who won the season opener in Kyle, Texas, is fifth in the West Series standings. By the way, Bowles won the West Series race at Sonoma last year.
Daniel Herrington, driving for Valencia’s Bryan Herta and his Bryan Herta Autosport team, finished 14th in the Firestone Indy Lights race at The Milwaukee Mile on Saturday. He spun out on lap 86 of the 100-lap race and crashed into the inside wall at the track. “We had a little bit of push in the car all day and that was the first time it gave any indication that it was loose and so then it stepped out pretty suddenly and that caught me off guard; then I was just along for the ride,” said Herrington. “It was a pretty disappointing way to end the race because there wasn’t very much further to go in the race and we had a decent run up until then. That’s not the way that I saw this weekend going, but sometimes you have those (accidents).” It was Herrington’s first DNF of the season and the second of his Indy Lights career. It was also his worst finish of the season. In his five previous races, Herrington has posted four top 10s and one top five. Mario Romancini won the pole, led every lap and won the race at Milwaukee. J.R. Hildebrand, the leader in the Indy Lights series standings, finished third. Camarillo’s Charlie Kimball, driving for the Palm Beach International Raceway team, was 10th. The race will be televised on Versus at 1 p.m. PDT.
Van Nuys High graduate Larry Dixon won the NHRA top fuel portion of the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas on Sunday. Dixon, driving Al-Anabi Racing, laid down a 3.971-second pass in the final against Clay Millican to win his second race of the year and the 45th of his career. Dixon’s win comes off a weekend at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee when he lost on one of the closest hole shots in his career in top fuel. “I’ve had worse weekends [than Bristol], but it wouldn’t be a surprise to anyone to say that I’m not where I want to be driving the car, and I think it peaked out last week,” Dixon said Dixon. “Alan [Johnson, team owner] took his crew chief hat off and put his coach hat on and worked on me and getting me right. We went and ran the car at Atlanta on Monday and Tuesday after Bristol and just made a whole bunch of runs. That was just nice, hitting the throttle and getting runs. They learned a lot from that test, and I learned a lot from that test. I was very excited and there wasn’t anything apprehensive about coming to this event. I just wanted to come here and get the gloves on and get in the game.” Ron Capps, the leader in the funny car standings, won at Topeka, beating Ashley Force Hood in the final. “It really came around probably from second round on after we beat John Force in the right lane,” said Capps, who extended his points lead to 119 over Del Worsham. “Everybody was saying there was no way you’re going to get down that track. And (crew chief) Ed McCulloch just kept plugging away.” Worsham, a driver from Chino Hills, had won the previous two funny car events in a row. Force Hood was the top qualifier and Capps, who drives from Don Schumacher Racing, said he expected her to put up quite a challenge in the final. "We figured they were going to step up like they were capable of doing,” Capps said. “They were No. 1 qualifier and we figured they were going to run a mid-4.20 and I was going to have to do my job on the starting line. And for Ace to pull out a 4.26 in the final round on a 125-degree track was incredible.” Force Hood is third in the funny car standings, 126 points behind Capps. “We’re gonna keep our sights set on that No. 1 spot,” Force Hood said. “I don’t think it’s out of our reach. We just kind of need to stay focused.and keep fighting the fight.” Jack Beckman, a driver from North Hills, lost Capps, his teammate at Don Schumacher Racing, in the semifinals. “We had an air line split on the car right at the hit,” said Beckman. “We did everything right for eliminations. And if you look at the numbers up until the time it ran out of air we were hauling butt. It was going to run a 4.25, it was going to turn the win light on, but our car didn’t get there first, so you have to hand it to the NAPA team.”
Photo: Ashley Force Hood lost in the NHRA funny car final to Ron Capps on Sunday at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas.
Tim Huddleston of Agoura Hills won his third NASCAR Late Model race in a row at Toytota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night. All of a sudden, Huddleston, the reigning Late Model champion at the track, is closing in on the lead in the Late Model standings. Huddleston is eight points behind Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills, the leader in the Late Model standings at Irwindale. Joanides finished sixth in the race on Saturday night. In other races, Jeremiah Wagner of Las Vegas won the ASA Speed Truck Challenge race. He was followed by Randel King of Riverside in second and Cole Carbrera of Exeter in third. Daryl Scoggins of Sunland won his third straight NASCAR Mini Stocks race. He leads the Mini Stocks standings by eight points over Tyler Rogers of Riverside. Rogers won the first two races of the Mini Stocks season at Irwindale. Donny St. Ours of Upland won the Legends Cars race. It was his first win in the Legends Cars division at the track. Brandon Toy of Bakersfield leads the Legends Cars standings at Irwindale. He finished seventh in the race on Saturday night. Dalton Kuhn of San Marcos won the South West Tour Truck Series race. He was followed by Jeff Williams of Newbury Park in second and Ronnie Davis Jr. of Whittier in third.
Ron Hornaday Jr. fell victim to a blown tire and finished in 26th place in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Dover International Speedway on Saturday, but maintained his lead in the Truck Series standings. Hornaday, driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet Silverado for Kevin Harvick Inc., started from the pole and led the first 12 laps of the race. Kyle Busch passed him for the lead, but Hornaday dropped in right behind in second place for a while. The right front tire on Hornaday’s truck blew out on lap 34 and he had to pull off the track for repairs. “I don’t know, no vibration no nothing,” Hornaday said. “We were just a little snug, but I mean, not too bad. I knew Kyle was fast so I let him go and just run with that brake. It just popped, I didn’t even lift yet. As soon I lifted, it popped and I went straight.” Hornaday wasn’t the only driver who experienced tire problems during the race. Busch blew a tire near the end and Colin Braun, who ran as high as second, blew a tire in the closing laps as well. Brian Scott won the first Camping World Truck Series race of his career. Hornaday, a three-time Truck Series champion, has a 27-point lead over Mike Skinner in the Truck Series standings. “That was a major hit,” Hornaday said Saturday night after the race. “We had a really good VFW Chevrolet Silverado. I hate this happened so early in the race. We really had a truck that was capable of contending for the win. I had no warning the tire was going to go. Things like this happen in racing, but I’m definitely going to have a major headache tomorrow. I just want to thank this team for working so hard to give me good trucks week in and week out. They really do not get enough credit for how hard they work. We will go to Texas next week and look for a good run there.”
Del Worsham, a funny car driver from Chino Hills, will be looking to make it three wins in a row at Heartland Park Topeka, site of this weekend's NHRA races. He won the race at Bristol despite blowing an engine in the semifinals. “I saw both sides of a team come together, the top fuel and the funny car guys, to put this car back together and basically change every part on it for the final round,” said Worsham, who drives for Al-Anabi Racing. “That shows you what kind of team this is; they all work together. Aaron Brooks leading this team, it’s basically his first full season working as a crew chief and he’s really stepped it up. This whole team has, and I just can’t say enough about all of them.” Worsham has closed the gap on Ron Capps, the leader in the funny car standings. Worsham trails Capps by 57 points after posting back-to-back wins.
Photo: Del Worsham won the funny car portion of the NHRA races at Bristol Dragway. It was his second win in a row. (NHRA)
Top fuel driver Tony Schumacher won his third race of the season and took over the lead in the top fuel standings after the races at Bristol. It was his third career win at Bristol. Schumacher has a 45-point lead over Antron Brown in the top fuel standings. At least up to this point, he’s not running away with the top fuel championship like he did last year. He too stayed in Bristol to test after winning the top fuel portion of the races there. “We need to do that,” he said. “A lot of teams are going to be testing over the next few days, so you don’t want to get left behind. We also want to make sure we’re prepared for the upcoming hot weather months. That’s typically the time period when you see some shuffling in the standings.” Schumacher has won 59 career NHRA events, but has yet to win one at Heartland Park Topeka. He has also never won at Atlanta Dragway. "Along with Atlanta Dragway, we definitely want to cross that track off the non-win list," he said.
Photo: NHRA top fuel driver Tony Schumacher celebrates after winning at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee. It was the third win of the season for Schumacher and his third career win at Bristol. (NHRA)
Jack Beckman, like many of the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series drivers, stayed in Bristol, Tenn., last week to test. The drivers had a week off between the races at Bristol Dragway and this weekend’s event at Heartland Park Topeka in Kansas. Beckman, a funny car driver from North Hills, said the test session went well. His team didn’t find anything to make his car noticeably faster, but the crew and engineers did gather some valuable data. “We’re coming off a test session in Bristol last week,” said Beckman, who drives for Don Schumacher Racing. “We made five runs on Monday after the last race and it wasn’t a test session where you say, ‘OK, load this car up, we have the best hot rod now.’ It was a test session where we got a lot of data and it showed us some things. It doesn’t mean that we fixed all of our problems. It means we’re headed in the right direction towards getting a consistently quick car.” Beckman has one win, two final appearances and is fifth in the funny car standings. Teammate Ron Capps leads the funny car standings with 616 points. Beckman is 137 points behind Capps. The top-10 drivers will qualify for the Countdown to One playoffs after the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis on Sept. 7. “We’re not far enough into the season that people are assured of having made it into the Countdown or have broken their chances of making it into the Countdown,” Beckman said. “But we are far enough into the season that if you’re going to have a slump it better not last very long if you want to have an opportunity to win the championship at the end of the year.”
Ron Hornaday Jr. is coming off his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win of the season and is the leader in the Truck Series standings. Hornaday, a driver for Kevin Harvick Inc., won the Truck Series race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. He is the Truck Series leader in career wins with 40. “After a win you always have momentum on your side,” said Hornaday, driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet Silverado for KHI. “Winning gives you the confidence to go into the next race and know that you can make it to victory lane. I have always felt this team thrives off winning. Our season up until Charlotte had not been bad, we have not finished outside the top-10 yet, so I would say that we kick started our season in Daytona, we are just now showing our strength.” Hornaday’s team is bringing one of its older trucks to the next race, Friday night at Dover International Speedway in Delaware. The truck has been in only six races, between 2007 and 2008. But it has never finished worse than fifth. The last time Hornaday ran the truck, he finished second at Atlanta Motor Speedway in 2008. Hornaday has never finished outside the top 10 in Truck Series races at Dover. He won the Truck Series race at Dover in 2007. “Dover can be tough on a driver,” Hornaday said. “The two corners seem to be a different from each other. You may have a different approach going into turn one than you do going into turn three. There are two lines you can run at Dover that are both really fast. We have had some good trucks here at KHI, had we not broken a part in the motor last year we probably would have caught Scott Speed there at the end and made it interesting and I think we’ll be good again this year at Dover.”
Tim Huddleston, of Agoura Hills, passed teammate Beau Debard, a rookie from Reno, on a late restart to win his second straight Auto Club Late Model feature at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale last night. Debard led a majority of the 50 lap race in his High Point Racing entry, before a flurry of late cautions allowed his team owner to make a move. Nick Joanides, of Woodland Hills, finished third, and continues to lead the points. There where five cautions in the event, with High Point’s Travis Motley and Cassie Gannis each finding the wall. Those two accidents where sandwiched by two incident’s involving pole winner Mike Johnson. After his crew changed a flat tire that nearly sent Johnson into the wall, the Covina resident maneuvered through the field before making contact with Brandon Loverock. Both were able to come through the field again, with Johnson taking eighth and Loverock coming home ninth. The fifth car from High Point Racing, Dallas Colodny, ended up seventh after fighting handling problems early. Following Joanides in the points are Huddleston in second, with Travis Irving, Johnson, and Colodny rounding out the top five.
Larry Cerquettini, from Redlands, stayed perfect in the Super Stock division, winning the fourth race of the season. Cerquettini did face his toughest competition of the year though, as Rich Delong III of Santa Clarita led a strong portion of the race before coming home second. Garret Cromsigt made his first appearance of the season, edging Eric Sunness and Ken Brown for third. Only two cautions were thrown during the race, both for incidents involving Brad Keegan. Brown holds a slight advantage over Delong for second in points, with Sunness and Scott Corriagan rounding out the top five in the standing.
The Classic stock division got back to familiarity last night. After defending series champion Tommy Agosta ended Ken Michaelian’s quest to go unbeaten two weeks ago, the 43 Richard Petty lookalike qualified on the pole and led the entire race. Michaelian, from Lawndale, also broke the track record in qualifying. Agosta, racing out of Chino, finished second after starting last. Toyota Speedway requires the previous race winner to start last. Mike Colato, Jr. came home third. Colato, of Chatsworth, also started at the back after missing the drivers meeting. The only two cautions came for mechanical issues. First, the 17 car, driven by Mark Garrett, blew a motor. On the restart, the 96 car of Tommy Mason had his exhaust fall off. Jimmy Rouse, Jr. was disqualified after the race after failing tech inspection. Michaelian leads the points, with Colato and Agosta separated by just two points for second and third. Patrick Miller and Ken’s dad Harry Michaelian round out the top five.
Next week is Teacher and Student Appreciation Night. All students and teachers will get in free with a school identification card. On tap are the Auto Club Late Models, Justice Brothers Mini Stocks, Legends, and two traveling truck series; The West Coast Pro Trucks and the ASA Speed Truck Challenge.
Tim Huddleston of Agoura Hills won his second race in a row in the NASCAR Late Model division at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night. Huddleston, the reigning Late Model champion at the track, got off to a bit of a slow start, trails Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills, by 18 points in the Late Model standings. Joanides, who has won two Late Model races at Irwindale this year, finished third in the race on Saturday night. Ken Michaelian of Lawndale won the Classic Stocks race. It was his fifth win in six Classic Stock races at the track. Larry Cerquettini of Redlands won his fourth Super Stocks race in a row at Irwindale.
Wade Cunningham, driving a car for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, won the Firestone Freedom 100 Indy Lights race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Friday. Cunningham won the pole and led 14 laps, including the last two, of the 40-lap race around the 2.5-mile oval. “The whole race was to and fro,” Cunnigham said. “I got to the front early and knew I couldn’t lead all 40 laps, so I fell back because I didn’t want to be leading at the end. I knew I had a fast car, and it was a matter of being at the right place at the right time.” Sam Schmidt is a Pepperdine University graduate, former IndyCar Series driver and owner of a three-car team in the Indy Lights series. Daniel Herrington, driving a car for Valencia’s Bryan Herta and his Bryan Herta Autosport team, was seventh. He was one of 11 drivers in the 22-car field to finish on the lead lap. “It was a very difficult race for us, actually,” Herrington said. “For whatever reason, we started the race off with a lot of understeer, and it never went away. We tried chasing it the whole time, and really we were just out there trying to hang on and wait for other people to screw up, which luckily some of them did. We came home in seventh place, which isn’t too bad, so we’ll get our points and get out of here and try and get ready to win some of these races.” Camraillo’s Charlie Kimball, driving a car for the Palm Beach International Raceway team, was 13th, completing on 31 laps after making contact with Mike Potekhen during the race. “I just went into Turn 3, on the low side of Potekhen, I think it was, and running through the spotter was calling high, high, and I was down on the white line holding it as low as I could and just kept chopping, chopping lower and lower and lower and then finally hit my right front,” Kimball said. “He spun across to the inside, and I just barely kept it off the wall. The right front toe-link was bent. So it’s day done. It was kind of crazy driving with like eight to go or something. It was dumb for him to come down that hard. I was as low as I could get on the white line or below it and he just kept coming on me. Too aggressive, I think.”
Don Johnson raced a No. 15 1957 Chevy convertible to four straight championships from 1969-72 at Saugus Speedway. His son ran the No. 15 at Saugus and Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. His grandson, who races in the NASCAR Super Trucks division at Irwindale. got to run the family 15 for the first time two weeks ago. He won in his debut with the 15, his first win of the season. FInd out how the Johnsons were able to get the No. 15 back in the family fold in The Signal.
Wade Cunningham, driving the No. 11 entry for Sam Schmidt Motorsports, won the pole for Friday’s Firstone Freedom 100 Indy Lights race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Schmidt is a Pepperdine University graduate, former IndyCar Series driver and owner in the Indy Lights series. Cunningham was the 19th driver to qualify in the 22-car field. Sebastian Saavedra was the pole sitter at 47.25 seconds at the time Cunningham started his qualifying run. That’s a good time running by yourself,” Cunningham said. “We were only running marginally quicker than that this morning at 9 with the cool ambient temperatures and a cold track. So I dug deep, and the car was great. I can’t complain. The changes that were made from second practice to qualifying obviously worked. We didn’t do the quickest lap time, but we were more consistent on the second lap.” Schmidt has three cars in the Indy Lights race. Ana Beatriz qualified fourth and James Hinchcliffe will start 12th. Charlie Kimball, a driver from Camarillo and driver of the No. 35 entry for Palm Beach International Raceway, qualified seventh. “We had a starter break at the qualifying line, so we had to push start it,” Kimball said. “The engine wouldn’t turn over. It was a bit tense and very frantic there for a few seconds, but we got it fired, luckily. It wasn’t an ideal run (because) we didn’t quite get the engine as warm as we wanted before we went out. We didn’t get the setup quite right. With everyone running in practice, there was a little more rubber down than we anticipated. The wind was blowing across the car instead of at our back. “We’re pretty happy. We have a good race car under us. We’re in good shape. We’re where we need to be to have a good result. From the front four rows, we can make anything happen. The competitive level of this series this year is higher than it’s been in a long, long time. And that lends itself to really tight races and good competition.” Daniel Herrington, driving for Valencia’s Bryan Herta and his Bryan Herta Autosport team, qualified ninth. “Yeah, it wasn’t bad,” said Herrington, driver of the No. 28 entrty. “We made a few more changes here before qualifying to get a little more speed out of it. So far, pretty good, but this is the worst part. You just have to sit here and wait and see if your time can hold up. But we made a few changes in the car, and that helped pick up a little bit of speed. It seemed like it did pretty well for us. Now the most important thing is to get a good race car.”
Kevin Harvick Inc. has a new driver, J.R. Fitzpatrick from Canada. He will be driving for Harvick's NASCAR Camping World Truck and Nationwide series teams in select races. Fitzpatrick is set for eight Truck and two Nationwide races. His first start for Harvick will be in the Truck Series at Dover International Speedway on May 29. “This is a great opportunity for me and I firmly believe that I am joining the best team in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series,” said Fitzpatrick. “I was fortunate enough to meet Kevin Harvick last year at Phoenix and he really helped me out a lot. Since then, I have gone to him on and off the track for advice and he has been great to learn from. Ron (Hornaday) has also helped me before and now that I will be a teammate of his, it gives me more confidence going to tracks that will be new to me. I believe racing is all about confidence and I have that knowing that I am going to be in great equipment driving for Kevin Harvick Inc.” Fitzpatrick's first Nationwide race will be at Watkins Glen International Raceway in New York on Aug. 8. Harvick has two trucks, with drivers Hornaday and Ricky Carmichael, in the Trucks Series, and a one-car team in the Nationwide Series. “We’re glad to have J.R. Fitzpatrick join KHI for the remainder of the 2009 season,” said KHI co-owner Kevin Harvick. “J.R. and I both got our starts in go-karts and he has taken a path similar to mine, moving up through the stock car ranks, during his career. I feel like our equipment speaks for itself and it will be exciting to watch him attempt to take that next step in his racing career.”
Photo: Kevin Harvick and his wife, DeLana, welcome R.J. Fitzpatrick from Canada to their NASCAR team. Fitzpatrick, a driver from Cambridge, Ontario, will race for Kevin Harvick Inc. in the Camping World Truck and Nationwide series. (KHI)
The NASCAR Camping World Series race at Iowa Speedway on Sunday proved costly for Eric Holmes, a driver from Escalon and the leader in the West Series standings. He was involved in a crash early in the race and wound up with a 36th place finish. He was last among the West Series drivers in the race. The Iowa Speedway race pitted drivers and teams from the Camping World Series West and East. There were 37 cars in the race. Despite his 36th place finish, Holmes maintained his lead in the West Series standings. However, his lead was trimmed significantly after the Iowa race. Holmes has a 16-point leader over Jason Bowles, a driver from Ontario who was ninth overall and fourth among West Series drivers in the Iowa Speedway race. David Mayhew, a driver from Atascadero who finished third at Iowa Speedway and first among the West Series drivers, moves up to third place in the West Series standings. Mike David of Modesto is fourth in the West Series standings, followed by Greg Pursley, a Canyon High graduate, in fifth.
Photo: Kyle Busch (18) leads David Mayhew (17) past Johnny Borneman (8) at Iowa Speedway. (Photo Credit: David Purdy/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Camping World Series East-West race at Iowa Speedway on Sunday night. The race at Iowa Speedway included drivers from the Camping World Series West and East Series. David Mayhew of Atascadera won the West portion of the race. Busch, a driver from Las Vegas who races for Joe Gibbs Racing in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, was in the Sprint All-Star race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in North Carolina on Saturday night. Busch was seventh in the all-star race. Jason Bowles of Ontario was fourth in the West Series portion of the race at Iowa Speedway. Greg Pursley, a Canyon High School graduate, was 12th in the West Series portion of the race.
Photo: Kyle Busch celebrated the Long John Silver's 200 win in Victory Lane Sunday at Iowa Speedway. (Photo Credit: David Purdy/Getty Images for NASCAR)
Tony Schumacher won the NHRA top fuel portion of the drag races at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee on Sunday. The reigning top fuel champion won for the third time in his career at Bristol and recorded his third win of the season. Del Worsham won for the second time in a row in the funny car division. He beat Tony Pedregon in the final at Bristol. Jack Beckman, a funny car driver from North Hills, beat John Force in the first round at Bristol, but lost in the second round to Tim Wilkerson. “We just didn’t get the job done," said Beckman, who drives for Don Schumacher Racing. “Wilkerson outran us that round. I think we had a great recovery from smoking the tires first round to put that competitive lap up there, but it wasn’t enough.” Ashley Force Hood made it to the semifinals at Bristol and lost to Pedregon by 0.012 seconds. “That shows how far our category has come,” said Force Hood. “Our class is almost like Pro Stock with how close the racing is. They are showing these races at the finish line where my team is driving down track along side of us and they can’t tell who won. I can’t tell who has won when I am in the car. That is a good thing. I am glad that I am in those races, the close races. That means our team is up to par with everyone else is doing. If we can keep that up we’ll have a really good chance at the end of the year.”
Stanton Barrett, a stuntman in movies and television, NASCAR driver and IndyCar Series driver, failed to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 on Sunday. He was one of a handful of drivers trying make the 33-car field on Bump Day at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He was one of three drivers who did not qualify for Sunday’s Indy 500. "I don’t know. We just gave it our all,” said Barrett. “Team 3G worked really hard, and all these guys just put a huge effort forth. It’s just a real bummer it didn’t work out. I don't know. They called it off because we didn't have the speed the first lap, and I just think taking time to learn without a teammate and taking time to learn what a difference this year and last year. We definitely made a change with the car speed-wise, aero-wise. I think it’s right in there. Too much scrub in the corners really killed our lap times, and unfortunately tough to go back and study what I can do better and what we can do as a team better. It’s a real disappointment.” Former Indy 500 winner Buddy Lazier and Alex Tagliani were the other two drivers who did not qualify for the Indy 500. With Barrett not qualifying for the Indy 500, it could hurt his team financially. “We need to make this race for sponsors that we had in line,” Barrett said. “It’s just one of those things. A lot of other guys didn’t make it too. There were (two) others. It’s not an easy deal.”
It was a bad night to have the fastest car at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. Rip Michels, who started on the pole for the NASCAR Super Late Model race, led 46 laps, but dropped to the back of the field on the last restart. R.J. Johnson set the fastest time in qualifying for the NASCAR Super Trucks race, but fell from first to last about midway through the race because of a mechanical failure. Scott Dodd of Mira Loma won Saturday night’s Super Late Model race, leading the last four laps of the 50-lap race. Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills was second, followed by Danny Gay of Lakeside. It was the second win of the season for Dodd. Joanides, the leader in the Super Late Model standings, recorded his third runner-up finish of the season. He has four wins and three second-place finishes in seven Super Late Model races. Michels ended up in 13th place. Bear Rzesnowiecky of Las Vegas and Travis Thirkettle of Newhall wrecked on lap 34. Rzesnowiecky was in a four-car battle for second place when he spun out in Turn 3. He came down and hit Thirkettle’s car head-on. Thirkettle’s car spun into the grass in turns 3 and 4. Rzesnowiecky’s car ended up on the track between turns 3 and 4. Neither driver was injured in the wreck. But neither car was able to return to the race. Jeff Peterson of Riverside won his first race of the season in the NASCAR Super Trucks. He was the fourth different winner in five Super Trucks races at the track this year. Grant Hebner of Fallbrook was second, followed by Ron Peterson, Jeff Peterson’s father, in third. Pat Mintey Jr. of Quartz Hill, the leader in the Super Trucks standings, was fifth. Johnson, a driver from Canyon Country, was the race leader for the first part of the race, but fell out of contention on a restart after a caution on lap 26. He finished in 13th place in the 14-truck field. Mintey has two wins in the Super Trucks division. Mason Britton, Jeff Peterson and Johnson each have one win. Darren Amidon of Santee won his second race in a row in the Legends division. He missed the first two races of the Legends Car season at the track. Ryan Reed of Bakersfield was second, followed by Brent Scheidemantle of Alta Loma was third. Brandon Toy of Bakersfield, the leader in the Legends Car standings at the track, was fifth. Mark Iungerich of Grande Hills flipped his car on the second lap of the Legends race. He crashed into the Turn 3 wall on the third-mile oval. He walked away from the crash after emergency crews cut him out of his wrecked race car. Ryan Cansdale of Menifee won his third race in a row in the Bandoleros. Christian McGee from LaVerne was second and Mikael Lovas of Murrieta was third.
R.J. Johnson changed the number on his truck, from 88 to 15, and won his first race of the season at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale two weeks ago. The No. 15 has been in the family since Johnson's grandfather, Don Johnson, was racing at Saugus Speedway in the 1960s.
Ron Hornaday Jr. won his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series of the season and took over the lead in the Truck Series standings Friday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in North Carolina. It was the 40th Truck Series win for Hornaday. The three-time Truck Series champion is the leader in career Truck Series wins. He has an 84-point lead over Mike Skinner after six races in the Truck Series season. Skinner, driving the No. 5 Toyota Tundra, was involved in a scary wreck at Lowe’s. After the race, Hornaday said he was more worried about Skinner than his lead in the Truck Series standings. “I don’t like doing the points that way,” said Hornaday, driver of the No. 33 Chevrolet Silverado for Kevin Harvick Inc. “I was more concerned about Skinner’s safety. I heard he got upside down. Rick Carelli my spotter told me he got out and my wife ran down to the infield care center to make sure he was alright. I hate Mike Skinner on the race track but I love him as a brother outside of it. You don’t want to see anybody get hurt.” Hornaday rallied from being a lap down and passed Matt Crafton for the lead in the waning laps of the race. Hornaday had to fend off a charging Kyle Busch to win the race. But his thoughts were with Skinner afterward. “Going this fast at Lowe’s and having him, I didn’t actually see the wreck but I heard he got upside down and I seen him getting loose underneath the No. 13 (Johnny Sauter) and I got by it pretty clean,” said Hornaday, a former Saugus Speedway cbamp from Palmdale. “You hate to see that like that. Mike is going to be a tough competitor. He’s going to come back from this one.” David Gilliland, a driver from Riverside, was sixth in the Truck Series race. He will be in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Open All-Star race Saturday night at Lowe’s Motor Speedway. Running in the Truck Series race gave him a little insight for the all-star race. “I learned that the top groove comes in and is a good passing area,” Gilliland said. “I think we will see a lot of that tomorrow night. You have to go somewhere to pass. Lowe’s is very aero sensitive so you can run high to make up places. We should be able to run the middle to the top tomorrow where we ran the truck tonight.”
Photo: Mike Skinner slides on the side of his truck after an accident with T.J. Bell. Skinner, who led the first 27 laps of the race, walked away from the accident uninjured. (Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images for NASCAR)
John Force has not been in a final round for 23 races. It is the longest drought of final round appearances in his career. He is heading to Bristol Dragway in Tennessee, a track where he has two wins and has been a finalist in three of the past five years. “We need to hurt some feelings,” said Force, a 126-time tour winner, “and I don’t mean our own. It’s a long season, but we need to start showing that we can still compete. “What did Waylon say in that song?,” Force asked, an obvious reference to the late country-and-western singer, Waylon Jennings.
“We may be used, but we ain’t used up. Yeah, that’s it. We ain't used up. We've still got something for ’em.”
Ashley Force Hood, the highest-ranking driver for John Force Racing in the NHRA funny car standings, tied fo fourth place, has raced at Bristol twice in her pro career. She lost to Melanie Troxel in the second round at Bristol last year. Troxel went on to win the Bristol event. She is coming off a first-round loss at Gateway International Raceway in Illinois two weeks ago. “It always seems like when you have a bad race, you’re off the next weekend,” she said. “It’s better to go right back to work and not dwell on it.” Force Hood lost to Tony Pedregon at Gateway and is looking for her second win of the season. She won the funny car portion of the NHRA races at Houston Raceway Park. “It was just one of those weekends,” Ashley said of her loss to Pedregon in the O'Reilly Midwest Nationals. “Every run I felt like I was making mistakes (even though) the car went down the track every time. “Whatever happened, we’ve just got to forget about it. I think we can get right back where we need to be. I’ve learned that you’re going to have some rough weekends. Hopefully, we got ours out of the way.”
Jack Beckman says even though he’s 135 points behind teammate Ron Capps for the lead in the NHRA funny car standings, he’s well ahead of where he was a year ago. Beckman, a driver from North Hills and a driver for Don Shcumacher Racing, was in 11th at this time a year ago, sitting outside the top 10 and a spot in the Countdown to One playoffs. “We’re actually just past the quarter-way point of this season and we’re sitting in fourth place,” said Beckman who won at Atlanta Dragway in April. “We're ahead of where we were at this time last year.” Not that it’s an explanation to Beckman’s impressive start to the season, but he said the change from a quarter-mile to 1000 feet in racing distance might be affecting the cars. Perhaps his team has been able to adapt to the new distance better than most of the other teams in the funny car division. “Something else that I think is interesting,” added Beckman, “is that until we get to Denver I believe this is the first time we're racing at all these tracks this year to 1000 feet. It doesn’t make a whole lot of difference other than the fact that the crew chiefs have found a way to shorten the fuse up a little bit on the cars. Instead of eating themselves up at 1250 feet, some of them are eating themselves up at 950 feet. “We have not stepped on our car in that way and we’re not going to do that until we’ve used up a couple of our four allotted test sessions and figure out what can make the car faster in the earlier part of the run. And, in fact, we’re kind of taking a step backwards. We have been testing some things during qualifying runs. We’re going to go back more to the combo that we ran in the 1000-foot era last year, with which we arguably have been the most successful funny car to 1000 feet, and make sure that this 2009 chassis responds to that. Once we’re satisfied, we’re going to build on it with a lot of test sessions.”
Tim Huddleston, a driver from Agoura Hills, won the NASCAR Late Model race at Toyota Speedway on Saturday night. It was his first win of the season. The reigning Late Model champion at the track has gone winless in four straight races. Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills, the leader in the Late Model standings at Irwindale, was third. He has two wins in the Late Models. Joanides is also the leader in the Super Late Model standings at the track. He has four wins in six races. Mike Johnson, a driver from Long Beach, was second in the Late Model race. There were 21 cars in the Late Model race, down from 28 cars two weeks ago and down from 32 cars on opening night. Among the drivers not entered in the race was Andrew Myers from Carlsbad. He won a NASCAR Late Model race on April 11 at Irwindale. But track officials parked him two weeks ago for rough driving. Tommy Agosta of Chino snapped the four-race winning streak of Ken Michaelian in the NASCAR Classic Stocks. Michaelian won the first four Classic Stocks races at the track this year, plus a Classic Stocks figure eights race. Daryl Scoggins of Sunland won his second straight race in the NASCAR Mini Stocks division. He finished ahead of Tyler Rogers, a driver from Riverside, and Kevin Bernhardt of Fontana. Dennis Tarlton won the DriveTech Late Models race.
Logan Henson, a driver from Valencia, has been involved in some costly wrecks in the past couple of NASCAR Late Model races at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. He lost the hood to his car in his last Late Model race at the track two weeks ago. His most recent race, Saturday night, didn't end any better. He completed only 15 laps and did not finish the race. He was 21st and last.
Tim Huddleston, a driver from Agoura Hills and the reigning NASCAR Late Model champion at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale, won his first race of the season on Saturday night. He led all 50 laps after setting the fastest time in qualifying. Huddleston's win comes on the heels of one of his worst races in his career at the track. He crashed with Andrew Myers during the second race of a twin race night at the track two weeks ago. All five of his High Point Racing cars were involved in wrecks that night. It was a different story Saturday night as all five of his cars finished without incident. Four were in the top 10.
Rich DeLong has been building race cars since Toyota Speedway at Irwindale opened 10 years ago. He was racing cars and building cars when Saugus Speedway was open more than 25 years ago. The Santa Clarita race car builder has been a big part of developing and nurturing drivers at Irwindale since the beginning. But one of the divisions he worked so hard to build up is running on empty. The NASCAR Super Stocks might be taking their final spins around the race track. DeLong is left to wonder why the track operators are pushing his cars and drivers out. He maintains three cars in the Super Stocks division. He had four last year. Only eight have shown up for races in recent weeks. DeLong’s son, Rich, drives one. He lost a driver a couple weeks ago and is considering putting his teenage daughter Nicole in one of his three cars. His third car is driven by a Mark Anderson, a 16-year-old from Lancaster in his first year racing in the Super Stocks division. The Super Stocks used to be a great testing ground for potential drivers looking to move up to the Late Model and Super Late Model divisions at the track. Some had dreams of becoming NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers. Few, if any, ever make it that far. But some do, not necessarily at Irwindale, but in similar divisions at tiny race tracks all across the country. It is an affordable, introductory class of race cars for drivers, teams and car builders to test their skills and commitment to a sport that demands focus and precision. A driver could potentially buy a car to race in the Super Stocks division for around $15,000. The popular car of choice was the Chevrolet Camaro, but other makes and models fit the specifications for the division. Before the season started at Irwindale, track operators made a change in the rules for the Super Stocks division. They recommended that drivers and team owners change the body on their cars. According to DeLong, it amounted to a nearly $5,000 upgrade. For his team with three cars, it meant a $15,000 investment. “We had heard rumors that they were going to switch to this new body on the Super Stocks this year, which we thought was kind of crazy,” DeLong said. “We knew that the cars were going to have to switch to the bodies if they wanted to be competitive.” DeLong said he changed the body on only one of his cars, the one driven by his son Rich. “By the time we were done, it cost us 4,800 bucks to put the body on the car,” DeLong said. “They don’t understand that $2,000 is a lot of money to a Super Stock driver. Not to mention whatever they do to the division, to us it’s times three.” For a division that is supposed to be an affordable alternative, it was a tremendous cost to put on some of the teams. Two drivers who showed up on opening night race in the Super Stocks division decided not to return. The car count went from 10 to eight in that span. If DeLong decided to stop racing in the Super Stocks, the car count for a race would be five, hardly enough for a decent race. It wasn’t that long ago when 40 cars and drivers would show up for Super Stock races. It was a draw and developed a strong following. That number dropped to 11 for the final Super Stocks race at Irwindale last year. It is down to eight, although DeLong said he anticipates two more drivers to bring their cars to the next Super Stocks race at the track on May 23. There are a couple factors that contributed to the decline in Super Stocks car count. A dwindling economy is one of them. Finding sponsorship dollars is as challenging as it’s ever been. Additionally, drivers and teams do not have the money to maintain cars like they have in the past. But what might be contributing to the demise of the Super Stocks division more than anything else is the introduction of the new S2 Sportsman stock car at Irwindale. The track unveiled the new race car a couple weeks after the season opened in March. The new division will begin racing in July. The new car is comparable to the Super Stocks in cost and performance. The difference, at least according to DeLong, is that the new S2 looks like the NASCAR Car of Tomorrow, the new stock car used at the Sprint Cup Series level. From DeLong’s perspective, the track operators wanted to add a modern-looking race car to the line-up. The timing of the introduction of the new S2 car could not have been worse. Even though the cost of the new S2 cars is more affordable than some of the cars in other divisions at Irwindale, it is still more than the cost of a Super Stock car. “The part that they haven’t figured out yet is not only are they going to kill the Super Stock,” DeLong said, “but who’s going to go spend $50,000, $60,000 for a Late Model when they can go buy this Sportsman S2 car for $25,000?” DeLong is at a crossroads. He has a collection of race cars he can’t race anywhere else and probably won’t be able to race at Irwindale anymore. He doesn’t know if he will invest in the new S2 car. If he does, it will most likely be on a smaller scale than his Super Stock team. “I don’t know. We are kind of in a place where we don’t know where we can go,” DeLong said. “If they kill the division or it goes away when they start with this new car in July, I don’t know what we do. We’ve invested the money in the bodies. We could probably put together one for $15,000. Most of the parts we could take off of the car and put on the new car. I don’t know. I’m so upset at the deal, the whole way it came about.”
Danny Gay, a driver from Lakeside, won his first NASCAR Super Late Model race at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale. A stock car racing veteran, Gay has won a number of races at tracks throughout the Southwest, including the old Cajon Speedway and the Bullring at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. He was wrecked by Luis Martinez in the second Super Late Model race of the night and ended up 18th.
RJ Johnson, a driver from Canyon Country, won his first race of the year in the NASCAR Super Trucks division. He was also the fastest driver in qualifying. Before the race, he talked about his qualifying run and looking for his win in the Super Trucks.
Nick Joanides of Woodland Hills won one of the NASCAR Super Late Model races at Toyota Speedway at Irwindale on Saturday night. Joanides, the leader in the Super Late Model standings at the track, won his fourth Super Late Model race and his sixth race at the track this season. He also has two wins in the Late Model division and is the leader in the Late Model standings at the track. Rip Michels of San Fernado was second, followed by Dan Moore of Burbank in third. In the first NASCAR Super Late Model race, Danny Gay of Lakeside won his first race at the track. He finished ahead of Joanides and Luis Martinez of Long Beach. Gay was 18th in the second Super Late Model race. Starting from the pole, he was caught up in a first-lap crash when Martinez hit him from behind. The crash knocked Gay out of the race. He said the damage to his car was mostly cosmetic. His front end, hood and fenders took the brunt of the damage. Gay said his radiator needs to be replaced, but other than that, his engine did not look like it was badly damaged. Patrick Long, who was born in Thousand Oaks and is a sports car driver who has won two 24 Hours of Le Mans races in the GT2 class and a 24 Hours of Daytona race, was in the Super Late Model races. He was 11th in the first race and fourth in the second race. R.J. Johnson of Canyon Country won his first NASCAR Super Trucks race of the season at the track. He finished ahead of Pat Mintey Jr. of Quartz Hill, the leader in the Super Trucks standings, and Grant Hebner of Fallbrook. Darren Amidon of Santee won the Legends Car, his first of the season. Ryan Reed of Bakersfield was second, followed by Gary Scheuerell. Chad Schug of Oak Hills, the leader in the Legend Cars standings, was 17th. Ryan Cansdale won the Bandoleros race. Aaron Anderson was second and Blake Dunkleberger was third. Steve Stewart of Long Beach won the Outlaw Figure 8s race. Billy Ziemann of Bloomington was second, followed by Tony Curtis of Hawthorne.
