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| Oval Nationals Night #2 by Ed Hollowell |
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PERRIS, CA-RIS- After a twelfth place finish on the first night
Jesse “The Rocket” Hockett took feature win on the second of
three nights of the 2007 Budweiser Oval Nationals. Starting from fifth place Hockett moved slowly to the front while past champion Cory Kruseman came from the second row to pass Charles Davis, Jr. and Levi Jones to lead the first lap of the 25 lap race. Kruseman held the lead for the first 16 laps. Behind him Hockett advanced to fourth place on lap 2 to third on lap three and finally took second place on the eighth lap. On the 17th lap Scotty Weir had a rear tire fail and debris from the tire was the cause of a caution. As the cars slowed something went wrong with the leading cars engine and Kruseman was forced to stop for mechanical attention, giving the lead to Hockett. Second place Tim Kaeding was able to lead Hockett for a part of the 17th lap but Jesse took the lead back before the flag stand and was never seriously challenged for the rest of the race. Behind Hockett USAC National Sprint points leader Levi Jones fought with Damion Gardener and Casey Shuman and Brad Sweet for third. On the 24th lap Darren Hagen flipped in the first turn and brought the race to a stop. When the race was restarted Sweet took third from Gardner but on the final lap Shuman was able to pass both Sweet and Gardner to claim the third place on the podium, just as he had finished in the first nights race. Casey Shuman's two third place finishes make him the leader in points for the 2007 title and he, along with the other eleven drivers in the top twelve will get to avoid the qualifying races to get into the 40 lap championship feature. It was another ho-hum night for the past champions. 2005 & 2006 champ Dave Darland was the best with a sixth place finish. Tony Jones (2000) had to work hard to finish in twelfth place and was followed by Rip Williams (1997) in thirteenth. Bud Kaeding, the winner in 2001 and 2002 was fifteenth. The 2003 and 2004 champion, Cory Kruseman was scored 20th. Rodney Argo, the 1998 winner was 23rd and “Super” Rickie Gaunt, the 1999 winner was 23. At the start of the feature Kevin Swindell flipped on the front straight, putting him out for the night. Sixty three drivers made qualifying attempts, the fastest being Cole Whitt with a 16.880 second lap. Darren Hagen tried to qualify but his drive shaft broke on his first lap and all the loose thrashing parts broke so much of his car that it could only be repaired in time for him to start the feature on a provisional. His Keith Kunz teammate Brad Sweet also had trouble and had to use a provisional to start the feature as well. Sweet finished fifth in both his heat and the semi, one position out of transferring. The top two contestants for the USAC/CRA title, Tony Jones and Mike Spencer both dropped out of the B semi and had to take provisionals in the feature where Tony finished four positions better than Mike and increased his lead to sixty five points, up from 57. Levi Jones increased his USAC National points lead to 99 over Darren Hagen, up from 67. Mike Spencer and the Ron Chaffin crew had a special challenge this night when their engine went bad during the B semi. They may have broken all records for an engine change which they accomplished between that race and the start of the feature. David Cardey won the B semi. Daron Clayton, Bud Kaeding, Rickie Gaunt, Danny Sheridan and Kevin Swindell were the heat winners. Cole Whitt, David Cardey, Dave Darland, Brad Sweet, Sammy Swindell, Mike Spencer, Mat Neely and Dustin Morgan were the unfortunates who failed to advance in the heats. Tony Jones won a ten lap C semi and Nadine Gardner won the ten lap D semi. The 2007 Budweiser Oval Nationals conclude November third with an eight lap D-main and twenty lap C and B-Mains. The starting positions will be determined on points and Provisional starters on Thursday and Friday will not have points toward a starting position in the Saturday finals. There will be no individual qualifying on Saturday. QUOTES: CASEY SHUMAN- “So far so good. Going into tonight the goal was to get in the show and maybe run in the top ten or fifteen and we definitely did a little better than we expected tonight and got on the podium two nights in a row. With this group of guys this is awesome!” TIM KAEDING- “We were good. I could move around, I could get down on the bottom if I needed to but the top was just the fastest way around and I was just following Jesse. He's been running these non-wing cars a little bit longer than I have so... I just want to congratulate him, he ran a hell of a race.” JESSE HOCKETT- “Once I got out by myself, the track pretty good around the top and our car was working real nice.” “It's just awesome to get our first USAC National win here at Perris and hopefully we can hit the setup and the tracks similar on tomorrow night and maybe get up here again for the big money!” |
