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Traditional Sprint Car FanSite |
See You At The Races!!! |
| 2007 Oval Nationals Night #1 by Ed Hollowell |
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PERRIS, CA-RIS- The 12th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals sprint car
races began with a new winner at the Perris Auto Speedway. Daron
Clayton won for the first at “the PAS” Thursday night holding
off Kevin Swindell after taking the lead from Scotty Weir on the
fourth lap, losing it to Casey Shuman on lap 16 taking it back for
good on lap 18. Sixty Seven cars and drivers qualified on opening night at Perris. The fastest was Blake Miller at 17.129 seconds. Critter Malone won a 12 car D semi and Dustin Morgan took the C semi. Five 10 lap heats were contested with the winners being Damion Gardner, Cory Kruseman, Darren Hagen, Tony Jones and Danny Sheridan. Missing heat transfers were Dave Darland, Sammy Swindell, Dustin Morgan, Bud Kaeding, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Jon Stanbrough, and Robert Ballou. Fast qualifier Blake Miller blew his engine in his heat and could not start the B feature. Ballou and Sammy Swindell crashed with each other and were put out of the B feature which was won by Rickie Gaunt. Clayton won the 25 lap feature and was followed home by Kevin Swindell and Casey Shuman with Rickie Gaunt in fourth and David Cardey fifth. It was Daron's fifth win this season and the fourth team he has won for this year. It was not a good night for past champions. The best finish was by 1999 champion Rickie Gaunt who came home fourth. Bud Kaeding, winner of 2001 and 2002 was eighth; Cory Kruseman, 2003 and 2004 winner was eleventh; 2005 and 2006 champion Dave Darland had to start on a provisional and ended in 19th. 2000 winner Tony Jones' seventh place finish was the second best result while 1997 and 1998 winners Rip Williams and Rodney Argo both failed to make the feature; Argo was eliminated in the C semi while Williams' car was damaged in his heat when he collied with Kevin Swindell who had spun in front of him. USAC/CRA points leader Tony Jones finished seventh while Mike Spencer, who was second in points finished ninth. Tony now leads by 57 points, adding seven to his lead. USAC National Sprint Car Series drivers points have Levi Jones leading Darren Hagen by 67 points. Hagen came into the night trailing by 71. The 2007 Oval Nationals continues Friday night with a second night of preliminaries and concludes Saturday with the 40 lap championship feature with its $30,000 winners prize. |
