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Clayton Captures Thrilling Tri-State KISS Feature |
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June 7, 2008 -- Missouri's Daron Clayton scored a brilliant victory on a very quick night, in the King of Indiana Sprint Series/MSCS tilt at Tri-State Speedway, in Haubstadt, IN. Starting from the pole, Clayton led wire-to-wire, as KISS point leader Jon Stanbrough was able to close, but not catch him. Jeff Bland Jr. claimed third, followed by Hud Cone and Mitch Wissmiller. "I was just out there running my own race, trying to be as careful as I could, but not giving up anything at the same time," Clayton said afterwards. "I was just on kind of a Sunday cruise. It was a great car, I can't thank these guys enough for sticking behind me and it's just a good night, finally." Wheeling the Trucker's 24 Hour Truck Service DRC, Clayton led Kyle Cummins and Jesse Cramer early, on a very fast track. With continuous two and three-wide racing throughout the field, there were three cautions during the first eight circuits. Each restart saw Clayton surge ahead and rebuild a lead, only to have another caution. Racing at the front was fierce, and Stanbrough's Fox Brothers DRC found moving forward difficult and each pass took 3 - 4 laps of hard scrapping. On lap 17, he took second from Cone, but found that Clayton had put a handful of cars between them. Without cautions in the second half of the main event, Clayton sliced quickly through traffic, and Stanbrough battled the same lapped cars as he tried to catch him. At the checkers, Clayton maintained a half-straightaway advantage over Stanbrough. Bland, Cone and Wissmiller battled each other and lapped traffic for well-earned top five results. Schuerenberg's eighth place run was hard fought as he restarted on the tail after an early caution. For Stanbrough, it was tougher than a Sunday drive. "The lapped traffic was just terrible tonight," he said. "There's a couple of guys that wanted to race with you after they got lapped and that held me up for probably two or three laps. At the beginning of the race I got held up a little bit. The lapped traffic was really tough tonight. Once I got clear of the lapped traffic I started reeling him in, but we just ran out of time." Clayton's second KISS series victory, and first this season, showed that the Truckers' team is getting closer to finding answers they've been looking for. He explained, "We've had an up-and-down season and we've tried everything with the car to get it right. We've been struggling and they haven't lost faith in me. That's what's important, they can't lose faith in the driver. I kept telling them that it's not me, we'll get this thing right and we'll win some races. Hopefully tonight's the first night we start that tour." With Clayton climbing to sixth in the KISS points, Stanbrough increased his advantage over Cummins to nearly 100. However, with heavy storms and flooding prevailing throughout the KISS State, it was a racing program that he nearly missed, Stanbrough said. "I wasn't sure if I was going to get here. I left Brownsburg around 12:30 and didn't get here until 7:30 because of all the floods and road closures. I'm happy we're here. I would have liked to won, but the car's all one piece and everybody's in one piece and we'll go tomorrow and see what happens." King of Indiana Sprint Series Results, Tri-State Speedway, Haubstadt, IN June 7, 2008 Heat 1: Jeff Bland Jr. 21s (2), Daron Clayton 10c (3), Mitch Wissmiller 23 (4), John Memmer 4m (1), Kevin Thomas Jr. 9k (8), Coleman Gulick 14g (5), Kurt Gross 22x (7), Bret Triplett 22 (6) Heat 2: Jon Stanbrough 53 (2), Kyle Cummins 3c (4), Blake Fitzpatrick 10f (7), Sammy Imel 35 (3), Chase Stockon 32 (8), Lance Grimes 87 (1), Scott Hampton 42 (5), Craig Budde (6) Heat 3: A.J. Anderson 34 (8), Jesse Cramer 12t (5), Brett Burdette 17b (6), Erik Folger 17e (3), Jake Cook 18c (7), Ron Gerhardt 53g (4), Donny Brackett 4b (2), Thomas Meseraull 10t (1) Heat 4: Hud Cone 14 (2), Hunter Schuerenberg 11 (8), Chad Boespflug 98 (5), Chris Urish 77u (3), Ricky Williams 11w (7), Neil Shepherd 4n (9), Arin McIntosh 34m (6), Jerry Ruble 17j (4), Randy Bateman 51b (1) B Main: Williams (4), Stockon (2), Thomas (1), McIntosh (12), Hampton (10), Gross (9), Triplett (13), Budde (14), Ruble (16), Gulick (5), Gerhardt (7), Shepherd (8), Cook (3), Grimes (6), Bateman (17), Brackett (DNS), Meseraull (DNS) A Main (30 laps): 1. Daron Clayton 10c (1), 2. Jon Stanbrough 53 (5), 3. Jeff Bland Jr. 21s (7), 4. Hud Cone 14 (4), 5. Mitch Wissmiller 23 (9), 6. Kyle Cummins 3c (2), 7. Blake Fitzpatrick 10f (10), 8. Hunter Schuerenberg 11 (6), 9. Sammy Imel 35 (14), 10. John Memmer 4m (13), 11. Ricky Williams 11w (17), 12. Chad Boespflug 98 (12), 13. A.J. Anderson 34 (8), 14. Chris Urish 77u (16), 15. Kevin Thomas Jr. 9k (19), 16. Erik Folger 17e (15), 17. Arin McIntosh 34m (20), 18. Chase Stockon 32 (18), 19. Jesse Cramer 12t (3), 20. Brett Burdette 17b (11) KISS Points: 1. Stanbrough 445, 2. Cummins 351, 3. Bland Jr. 342, 4. Anderson 301, 5. Schuerenberg 273, 6. Clayton 270, 7 Short 267, 8. Burdette 240, 9. Hampton 217, 10. McIntosh & Hockett 215 (tie) SCHEDULE. Next up will be Kokomo Speedway's KISS show on Sunday, June 8. The series will then celebrate the first day of summer by crowning the 2008 King Of Indiana on Saturday, June 21 at Paragon Speedway. 2008 King Of Indiana Sprint Series Schedule Gas City I-69 Speedway Friday, May 16 Stanbrough Lawrenceburg Speedway Saturday, May 24 canceled Bloomington Speedway Friday, May 30 Stanbrough Tri-State Speedway Saturday, June 7 Clayton Kokomo Speedway Sunday, June 8 Paragon Speedway Saturday, June 21 SPONSORS. Bedford's Indiana Stone Works, Elliottbrand Web Designs, in Westport, IN, and Kiva Networking in Bloomington are returning sponsors for the KISS series. The 2008 KISS Championship Helmet is sponsored by Simpson Performance Products, Sprint Car & Midget Magazine and Eagle Graphix. The King of Indiana Sprint Series is organized and conducted by the individual Indiana sprint car race track promoters to provide the best sprint car racing. More information is available on our website, www.kissracing.com. |
