Tampa, Fla – Damion Gardner took advantage of first-lap spins by both front-row starters Monday night and ended up leading all 30 laps of the 2010 Amsoil USAC National Sprint Car Series opener at East Bay Raceway Park.
Gardner was slated to start fourth but a spin by rookie pole starter Ricky Williams on the first lap and a subsequent spin by outside-front row starter Shane Hmiel on the restart left Shane Cottle and Gardner lined up on the revised front row. Gardner fought off Cottle’s challenge to lead the first lap and stretched his lead in his Pace Lighting Eagle/Shaver to a full straightaway before the field bunched up under the yellow flag at lap 23. Gardner then pulled away in the closing laps to win the race over Bryan Clauson, fast qualifier Brady Short, Cottle and Jon Stanbrough.
Defending series champion Levi Jones finished seventh after starting 14th. The finish left Gardner and Clauson tied for the series point lead after the opening race.
1ST Heat – 1)Shane Hmiel 2)Tracy Hines 3)Kent Christian 4)Brady Short 5)Dave Darland 6)Bobby East 7)Shane Wade 8)Casey Riggs
2nd Heat – 1)Henry Clarke 2)Bryan Clauson 3)Jeff Bland, Jr. 4)Kyle Cummins 5)Jon Stanbrough 6)Thomas Meseraull 7)Curt Gross 8)Rob Chaney
3rd Heat – 1)Justin Grant 2)Ricky Williams 3)Levi Jones 4)Damion Gardner 5)Brett Burdette 6)Chris Windom 7)Mike Weber 8)Frank Carlson
4th Heat – 1)Hunter Schuerenberg 2)Jerry Coons, Jr. 3)Robert Ballou 4)Shane Cottle 5)Caleb Armstrong 6)Alex Shanks 7)Eric Smith 8)Dwayne Spille
Semi (12 Laps) – 1)Casey Riggs 2) Chris Windom 3)Jon Stanbrough 4)Caleb Armstrong 5)Dave Darland 6)Brett Burdette 7)Bobby East 8)Curt Gross 9)Eric Smith 10)Rob Chaney 11)Alex Shanks 12)Shane Wade 13)Mike Weber 14)Frank Carlson 15)Dwayne Spille 16)Thomas Meseraull
A – Main (30 Laps) – 1)Damion Gardner 2)Bryan Clauson 3)Brady Short 4)Shane Cottle 5)Jon Stanbrough 6)Casey Riggs 7)Levi Jones 8)Robert Ballou 9)Dave Darland 10)Shane Hmiel 11)Tracy Hines 12)Jerry Coons, Jr. 13)Henry Clarke 14)Chris Windom 15)Justin Grant 16)Kent Christian 17)Hunter Schuerenberg 18)Brett Burdette 19)Caleb Armstrong 20)Bobby East 21)Kyle Cummins 22)Ricky Williams 23)Jeff Bland, Jr.
