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| Puterbaugh Bests Stellar KISS Field At Kokomo |
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May 31, 2009 -- Billy Puterbaugh earned his second King of Indiana Sprint Series victory by hauling the mail around the huggy-pole at Kokomo Speedway, Sunday night. Puterbaugh worked the inside groove nearly to perfection, and held off several challenges as he led all but one lap of the main event. Shane Cottle and Jon Stanbrough were close on his heels at the checkers, with Hunter Schuerenberg and Chris Windom fourth and fifth. “Nobody was going to pass anybody unless you made a mistake or got a big run on the top,” Puterbaugh said afterwards. “You had to play huggy-pole tonight and make sure nobody beat you around the bottom.” Driving his own DRC, Puterbaugh took the lead in the first turn and opened a dozen car-length advantage over Kurt Gross and Hunter Schuerenberg. While Puterbaugh worked the bottom, Schuerenberg was riding the cushion and gaining ground. A caution bunched the field on the third circuit, when Nic Faas spun in the second turn after another car bobbled in front of him, and collected Cole Whitt and Brady Short. On the restart, Schuerenberg returned to the top groove and got his nose past Puterbaugh in turn three, but Puterbaugh fought back into the lead at the flagstand. Schuerenberg continued to press the issue on the next circuit, again charging past in turn three, and this time his lead lasted until the first turn, when Puterbaugh moved back in front. Following this confrontation, Puterbaugh opened a two-second gap that lasted until a red flag when the engine in Gross’s machine let go. Coming from the 8th starting slot, Cottle slipped past Stanbrough in turn three, after the restart. But on the next lap, Shane Hmiel climbed the wall in turn two, ripped a hole in the catch fence, returned to the track on four wheels, and drove around to the frontstretch, where another red flag was waving. Counting Chris Gurley’s tip-over on lap 2, it was the third stoppage of the race. The battle behind Puterbaugh was fierce, as Schuerenberg, Cottle, Stanbrough, Windom and Marc Arnold scrapped for position. Like Schuerenberg, Windom spent most of the event dancing on the unpredictable cushion. But the best results came from the inside lane. Cottle noted, “It was kind of a one-groove deal right around the bottom. You kind of had to root and gouge to get past them. It was a lot of fun.” Schuerenberg began to slip back after bouncing off the wall on lap 13. He and Stanbrough spent most of five laps working side-by-side before Stanbrough claimed third. Cottle slowly began to reel Puterbaugh in during the closing laps. By the 26th circuit, he had caught the leader and was looking for a hole to take advantage of. That hole never opened, and Stanbrough soon made it a three-car fight. As they raced under the finish, they were nose-to-tail. It was a satisfying victory for Puterbaugh, who compared it to a USAC win. Then he explained, “I didn’t want to try the top, the thing felt so good running around the bottom, and it’s the shortest way around. That’s where the most moisture was. So I figured if I could stay in the moisture, stay around the bottom, they were going to have to run twice as hard to pass me around the top.” Cottle thought that his car was better in the closing stages. ”It seemed like he was missing his marks the last five or six laps. We kept hitting them, but we never could get close enough to get past him. He was pretty good, though.” Following his thrilling run, Schuerenberg was pleased with a fourth place finish. He said, “It was mostly my fault for running fourth, it was a better car than that. The guys that were in the top three might have been a little tighter than me because they were better on the bottom. I tried to go down there and we were a little too free to be able to keep up. It was to our advantage to run the top, because I was freer, but at the same time it was just a tougher ballgame up there, so it was hard to be consistent.” It was the second KISS feature race victory for Puterbaugh, but his first since 2007. With a seventh place result, Dave Darland retained an eleven-point lead in the KISS standings, over defending King of Indiana, Jon Stanbrough. King of Indiana Sprint Series Kokomo Speedway May 31, 2009 HEAT 1 1. Anthony Peterman 7p (2), 2. Shane Cottle 10e (4), 3. Jon Stanbrough 53 (8), 4. Ryan Kaplan 27k (3), 5. Brady Short 3m (9), 6. Andrew Elson 27a (7), 7. Logan Hupp 9h (6), 8. Patrick Haynes 5h (1), 9. Jeff Wimmenauer 15j (5) HEAT 2 1. Billy Puterbaugh 16 (2), 2. Marc Arnold 4a (1), 3. Dave Darland 7r (5), 4. Chris Gurley 12g (7), 5. Kyle Robbins 17r (3), 6. Kevin Thomas Jr. 9k (4), 7. Josh Spencer 66j (8), 8. Sammy Imel 35 (6), Mark Perry III 3m DNS HEAT 3 1. Blake Fitzpatrick 10f (1), 2. Hunter Schuerenberg 07 (8), 3. Ryan Pace 44 (2), 4. Shane Hmiel 10 (3), 5. Coleman Gulick 14 (9), 6. Corey Smith 66s (7), 7. Ryan Hamilton 59 (4), 8. Bryan Clauson 7 (5), 9. Jeff Bland Jr. 21s (6) HEAT 4 1. Kurt Gross 1x (4), 2. Nic Faas 17f (6), 3. Chris Windom 11 (7), 4. Cole Whitt 29w (5), 5. Jonathan Vennard 12 (8), 6. Jason Holt 42g (1), 7. Randy Donelson 16 (3), 8. Landon Simon 24 (2) B MAIN 1. Gulick (3), 2. Short (1), 3. Vennard (4), 4. Robbins (2), 5. Elson (5), 6. Clauson (15), 7. Smith (7), 8. Bland (14), 9. Hupp (9), 10. Holt (8), 11. Donelson (10), 12. Imel (12), 13. Haynes (13), 14. Wimmenauer (16), 15. Hamilton (11), 16. Thomas (6), 17. Spencer (17) FEATURE (30 laps) 1. Puterbaugh (2), 2. Cottle (8), 3. Stanbrough (9), 4. Schuerenberg (5), 5. Windom (12), 6. Gulick (17), 7. Darland (10), 8. Arnold (7), 9. Gurley (14), 10. Vennard (19), 11. Robbins (20), 12. Fitzpatrick (6), 13. Peterman (1), 14. Hmiel (16), 15. Pace (11), 16. Kaplan (13), 17. Gross (3), 18. Faas (4), 19. Whitt (15), 20. Short (18) Points (as of May 31) 1. Darland 505, 2. Stanbrough 494, 3. Short 460, 4. Cottle 435, 5. Bland 412, 6. Faas 391, 7. Windom 390, 8. Schuerenberg 373, 9. Shuman 343, 10. Clauson 336 The KISS racers return to the track at Tri-State Speedway, in Haubstadt, IN on Saturday, June 6. As in previous years, the event will be a showdown between KISS and MSCS sprint car teams. The purse has been raised and now features a $3,000-to-win payoff. Adult admission is $15, students $10 and pits $30. Hot laps will begin at 6:30, and racing at 7:30. More information is available at www.tristatespeedway.com . 2009 King Of Indiana Sprint Series Schedule Gas City I-69 Speedway Friday, May 15 Bryan Clauson Lawrenceburg Speedway Saturday, May 23 Nic Faas Bloomington Speedway Friday, May 29 Chris Windom Kokomo Speedway Sunday, May 31 Billy Puterbaugh Tri-State Speedway Saturday, June 6 Paragon Speedway Saturday, June 20 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. Many thanks to the series sponsors, including Indiana Stone Works for the B-Main, Simpson Performance Products, Sprint Car & Midget Magazine and Eagle Graphix for the champion’s helmet, Elliottbrand Web Designs, in Westport, IN, and Kiva Networking in Bloomington for the KISS website ( www.kissracing.com). |
