Archive for October, 2008
Vault World Finals Friday Night TSR Results
Here’s how the Tony Stewart Racing cars did Friday night at the World Vault Finals at The Dirt Track @ Lowes.
World of Outlaws Sprints:
- Heat #2 Schatz started 2nd Finished 1st
- Heat #2 Kinser started 5th Finished 7th
- Last Chance Kinser started 3rd Finished 3rd
- Dash Schatz started 4th Finished 3rd
- A Main Schatz started 3rd Finished 2nd
- A Main Kinser started 19th Finished 18th
World of Outlaws Late Model Series:
- Heat #4 Richards started 1st Finished 2nd
- A Main Richards started 10th Finished 10th
The finale of the VAULT World Finals will air live on SPEED beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, November 1. The October 31 portion of the VAULT World Finals was taped for broadcast and will air on SPEED on Saturday, November 8 at 9 p.m. Eastern.
If you can’t get to the track to see the races, you can experience the excitement of the World of Outlaws live on DIRTVision.com through the DIRT Radio Network. To listen to the audio broadcasts, log on to www.DIRTVision.com and click on the DIRT Radio Network logo. Listeners will need Windows Media Player 9 or higher to listen to the DIRT Radio Network.
Meyers Defeats Both TSR Drivers On Way To Perfect Night
Concord, NC (WoO) Jason Meyers had a perfect start to the weekend in the second annual VAULT World Finals for the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway. He not only was fastest in both rounds of time trials for the event on Thursday night, but also swept every round of the inaugural ‘Breaking the VAULT’ dashes, defeating a total of nine drivers to claim the top prize.
Owens and McDowell top qualifiers at Lowe’s
by Kevin Kovac
CONCORD, N.C. - Southern stars Jimmy Owens and Dale McDowell shared the spotlight on Thursday night, grabbing fast-time honors in the two rounds of World of Outlaws Late Model Series time trials that opened the second annual VAULT World Finals at The Dirt Track at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Jones Looks to Wrap Up Second Consecutive USAC Title
INDIANAPOLIS (TSR) – The storyline is one that Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) Levi Jones has played a part in once before. But as he and the No. 20 TSR/Chevy/Maxim team head to California’s Perris Auto Speedway (PAS) for the first of the season’s final five USAC National Sprint Car Series events, they know it’s up to them to write the ending. Beginning with the 13th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals Thursday through Saturday, Jones and the No. 20 team will look to wrap up Chevy’s second consecutive USAC Sprint Series championship.
Video - World of Outlaws Late Model Series at Lowe’s
Chris “Smokey” Madden held on to the lead of the Armour Foods Vienna Sausage Showdown presented by Ferris Commercial Mowers to beat the “Moweaqua Missile” Shannon Babb by 0.077 seconds to win the 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series race at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Madden Registers $16,150 Armour Vienna Sausage Showdown Victory
By Kevin Kovac
Concord, NC — Chris Madden thought he could cruise to victory in Wednesday night’s Armour Vienna Sausage Showdown presented by Ferris Commercial Mowers at The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
The standout driver from Gaffney, S.C., ended up in a dramatic, down-to-wire dogfight instead.
Richards Runs Sixth While Newman Barrel Rolls in the Vienna Sausage Showdown
The World of Outlaws Late Model Series rolled into The Dirt Track @ Lowes’s Motor Speedway last night and put on a show that will be hard for the WoO Sprints to beat. Among those doing the rolling were NASCAR stars Ryan Newman and Ken Schrader. Schrader finished 3rd in his heat race before coming in 13th in the Feature. The real roller of the night was Schrader’s fellow NASCAR driver Ryan Newman. Newman ran 9th in his heat race which put him in the first of the last chance races. That didn’t work out to well for Ryan as he was caught up in an accident that saw his car do a few barrel rolls before coming to a stop.
Josh Richards finished the World of Outlaws Late Model Series season by winning his heat race, and then finishing 6th in the feature. Here’s the full story of the evening by Scott Cooper
CONCORD, N.C. - Gaffney, S.C., resident Chris “Smokey” Madden held on to the lead of the Armour Foods Vienna Sausage Showdown presented by Ferris Commercial Mowers to beat the “Moweaqua Missile” Shannon Babb by 0.077 seconds to win the 50-lap World of Outlaws Late Model Series race at The Dirt Track at Lowe’s Motor Speedway.
Madden started the feature from sixth place and took over the lead position on lap five. He was uncontested for most of the race, until Babb closed in to contend for the top spot with five laps to go. The two battled neck and neck in the closing laps, with Madden edging Babb by just a few feet as they took the checkered flag.
“I knew (Shannon Babb) was going to be tough,” Madden said. “He was really good on the top. I was hoping we weren’t going to have all of those restarts whenever he got to the top five, but we were able to hold him off. ‘”I could race with Shannon any time of the week. He’s a great hard racer.”
Madden’s win in the Armour Foods Vienna Sausage Showdown was his fourth at The Dirt Track. He is now tied with Scott Bloomquist for the most Super Late Model Wins at the four-tenths-mile clay oval.
The feature was slowed by six caution periods, including one for World of Outlaws Late Model Series points leader Darrell Lanigan, who stopped on the track due to mechanical problems on lap 34. The “Kentucky Colonel” Steve Francis, second in the point standings, also suffered mechanical issues that sent him to the pit area on lap 28.
Dale McDowell, “Voodoo Child” Scott Bloomquist and Shane Clanton rounded out the top-five finishers.
With 81 cars entered, the field for the feature was set by six heat races and three last-chance qualifiers. The biggest accident of the evening occurred during the first last-chance qualifier when the field bunched up in turn two, sending reigning Daytona 500 champion Ryan Newman into a barrel roll down the backstretch.
The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway will end its 2008 season with the VAULT World Finals today through Saturday. The three-day show will feature twin $10,000-to-win features for the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and World of Outlaws Late Model Series on Friday and Saturday nights.
Newman Eyes Copper World Double on November 6th
by Dick Jordan
INDIANAPOLIS - Daytona 500 Winner Ryan Newman has entered both ends of USAC’s “Copper World Classic” presented by Fast Signs November 6 at Phoenix (Ariz.) International Raceway. The Thursday event features the K & N Silver Crown Championship Cars and the Mopar National & Western Midgets. Only three “sweeps” have occurred, Tony Stewart taking both wins in 1998 and Dave Steele accomplishing the feat in 2002 and 2006.
Newman will pilot the #192 DDK of Illinois Beast/Chevy Silver crown car from Joliet and the #39 Hot Pepper Promotions Drinan/Esslinger Ford Midget entered by the 2008 NEMA Midget Championship team of Bertrand Motorsports from Massachusetts. Ryan finished second to Bobby East in the July 31 “J.D. Byrider 100” Silver Crown race at O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis, his only previous 2008 USAC appearance.
Last year Ryan finished 34th at PIR in the Midget race but he finished second to Tony Stewart in the 2000 “Copper World” Midget feature. His last PIR Silver Crown start resulted in an eighth-place finish, also in 2000.
“I think we have a good chance to pull off the sweep,” says Newman. “My cars are top of the line and I’m comfortable racing on the Phoenix Mile. We had a shot at the sweep in 2000 but didn’t pull it off. PIR is an odd-shaped oval and presents a challenge from one end to the other. It’s fun to draft the Midgets there and the Silver Crown cars always put on a good show.” Newman is a three-time NASCAR Sprint Cup pole winner at the 1-mile oval (2002-03-04).
The only driver is USAC history to win all three National “Rookie of the Year” honors, Ryan was USAC’s 1999 Silver Crown Champion and he has 17 career USAC victories to his credit (13 in Midgets, two in Silver Crown and two in Sprints). His last Silver Crown win came at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, Ill. in 1999 and his last Midget win came at Pikes Peak International Raceway in Fountain, Co. in 2000.
His NASCAR resume now includes victories in the Sprint Cup, Nationwide and Craftsman Truck Series following his recent Truck victory at Atlanta International Raceway in Georgia.
The South Bend, Ind. native will have his work cut out for him, facing a formidable field which includes fellow NASCAR vets Kasey Kahne, Jason Leffler, Bobby East, Tracy Hines, Shane Hmiel, Josh Wise and Michael Annett plus IRL and Indy 500 vet Davey Hamilton.
The Silver Crown race is 100 miles, while the Midget race is 25. Ironically, Newman’s best finishes in both races at PIR has been second. He was second in both 1999 “Copper World Classic” features, finishing second to Leffler in the Midgets and second to Brian Tyler in the Silver Crown cars.
Editorial Note: Next year Newman will team up with his fellow Hoosier Tony Stewart at Stewart-Haas Racing, so hopefully we’ll see him driving occasionally for Tony Stewart Racing
Tony Stewart is Nascar Illustrated’s person of the year
Nascar Illustrated is naming Tony Stewart as its Person of the Year. True Speed Communications, Tony’s PR firm, has a copy of the article available for download. It will be in the December 2008 edition of Nascar Illustrated. Here’s a link to the pdf download, Tony Stewart: Person of the Year.
Kinser Looks to Close Out 2008 Campaign With Strong Outing
INDIANAPOLIS (TSR) – The calendar says it’s been a year since Kraig Kinser made his return to the Advance Auto Parts World of Outlaws (WoO) Sprint Car Series at the inaugural World Finals last October. For the past 12 months, the 24 year-old driver of the Tony Stewart Racing (TSR) No. 20 Bass Pro Shops/Chevy/JD Byrider Maxim has regained his spot among Sprint car racing’s elite, and his goal for this weekend’s VAULT World Finals from The Dirt Track @ Lowe’s Motor Speedway is to continue his late-season surge during the final two nights of racing for 2008.