BOESPFLUG THE BADLANDS MASTER ON NIGHT ONE OF ROCK AND ROLL GOLD CUP
Brandon, South Dakota………Chad Boespflug had no intentions of running second Saturday night. In fact, he skipped running second altogether after using a swift maneuver to double-dip on a restart with nine laps remaining, moving from third to first in one fell swoop before speeding away to victory and a nice $10,000 paycheck in a rare USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car, non-points “Special Event” on the preliminary night of the inaugural “Rock and Roll Gold Cup” at Badlands Motor Speedway.
Chase Stockon led much of the early-going, dominating in the opening laps from his outside front row starting position. Just a bit past halfway through the 25-lap feature, Justin Grant, who just 24 hours earlier had won in his debut in the Sam McGhee number 17 during a weekly show at Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway, began dramatically cutting into Stockon’s advantage.
Meanwhile, fifth-starting Boespflug had worked his way up to third, using an inside turn four pass to rip the position from Thomas Meseraull on the 13th lap and began to forge ahead toward Stockon and Grant, running one-two.
A Mike Martin turn four spin with nine laps left set up a double-file restart with Stockon and Grant occupying the front row. Heading into turn one, Stockon and Grant nearly touched wheels, allowing Boespflug to capitalize, grabbing second from Grant after starting on the inside of row two for the restart.
However, the move would be all for naught after Landon Simon went for a wild ride down the back straightaway on the first lap of the restart, getting upside down to bring out the feature’s first red flag. Simon would walk away from the scene uninjured.
On the ensuing double-file restart attempt, Stockon and Grant once again hit the cushion entering turn one, but Boespflug was able to quickly slip past Grant for second, then utilized a massive run off of turn two to shoot past Stockon on the inside for the lead as the field hit the back straightaway.
Stockon fought back from the punch, using the inside lane to pull side-by-side with Boespflug off of turn four. Boespflug got a bid sideways on the high-side exit, nearly making contact with Stockon as the two raced to the flag stand with Boespflug able to secure the spot.
Boespflug was a jet in the forthcoming laps, opening up a comfortable lead over Stockon and Grant. Yet those comfortable leads would quickly disappear after a pair of red flags in the final laps stifled his get-away.
With five laps to go, Brady Bacon’s challenging night came to an end after pushing up into the turn two wall and bouncing the right rear tire off the concrete, resulting in the series point leader barrel-rolling his self-owned machine a handful of times atop the turn two cushion. Though his race for the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship would be unharmed due to this weekend’s events not counting toward the season title, his attempt at pulling off the double on Sunday night – winning both the winged sprint car and the USAC Sprint Car features for a $125,000 total prize - took a significant blow.
On the restart, Boespflug instantly pulled away from the field once again, setting him up for an easy cruise to victory. But, just as Boespflug saw the white in the air from the flagstand, the flag would be switched out for the red as South Dakota’s own Bret Mellenberndt found himself upside down up against the wall between turns one and two, surrounded by a pair of Goodnight cars driven by Matt Goodnight and Scotty Weir. All drivers were uninjured.
On the single-file, green-white-checkered restart on lap 24, Boespflug once again got a nice jump, but Stockon was able to hang within close range.
As Boespflug and Stockon passed under the white flag, Stockon gave it one last shot, throwing his number 32 hard on the bottom into turn one, briefly pulling alongside the inside of Boespflug as the pair hit turn two. But, with the momentum in Boespflug’s favor up top, Stockon was unable to make the move stick as Boespflug pulled away on the back straight, navigating the final two corners to perfection to claim his fourth USAC Sprint Car victory of the 2016 season over Stockon, Grant, Meseraull and Brady Short.
Hanford, California’s Boespflug led the final nine laps in his NineEight Motorsports-EZR/AMSOIL - Creative Finishing – Midwest Shades/Maxim/Claxton to take the victory in USAC’s seventh ever visit to the state of South Dakota and the first since a 1996 USAC National Midget race won by Kenny Irwin, Jr. at Badlands back when it was known as Huset’s Speedway
“I just wanted to hit my marks on that last restart,” Boespflug said. “Our car was great, but I just had to make sure I didn’t get over the cushion. I may have left the door open for Chase when I slid myself going down the backstretch, but I gave it all I had. I couldn’t push the pedal down any further than I did coming off of turn two on that last restart. We fine-tuned it under the open red, but we were awesome before then. We timed it perfectly being in second with five to go and getting a single file restart. That helped us a lot. We weren’t even sure if we wanted to come out here, but I’m pretty glad we did.”
Fort Branch, Indiana’s Stockon led the first 16 circuits before yielding to Boespflug in his 32-TBI Racing/Superior Tank & Trailer – Crescent Electric Supply/DRC/Fisher. Despite the runner-up position in the feature, Stockon leads the point standings by six markers over Boespflug in the USAC portion of the “Rock and Roll Gold Cup” heading into Sunday’s $50,000-to-win finale.
“On the restarts, I chose the bottom because I didn’t want to leave myself vulnerable going into turn one,” Stockon affirmed. “Being the leader, I kind of felt like a sitting duck, but I tried to make the best decision possible just to keep those guys behind me. I think ultimately, though, Chad was better than us and we got to him on that restart and just got pinched into turn one., which, when you’re racing for this much money, that’s just the way it goes. We started second, ran second. We’re locked in for tomorrow, so we’re where we want to be at. We had to run the cushion and that’s not usually my forte, so we’ll take second tonight.”
Grant, of Ione, California, didn’t sit behind the wheel of the Sam McGhee Motorsports/Brown & Miller Racing Solutions – Mike McGhee & Associates/Maxim/Foxco until Friday, just one night prior to the opening USAC event at Badlands. However, after a last lap, last corner victory at Bloomington, the decision was made by the team to make the long road trip from southern Indiana to South Dakota – a decision they sure didn’t regret.
“Sam (McGhee) gave me an awesome car,” Grant exclaimed. “We should’ve won; we just needed things to play out differently. The double-file restarts hurt because we had to start on the outside most of the time. Chad could get under us and I had to fight him for a lap or two, but by the time I would get to Chase, the yellow would come back out and I’d have to start over. We just never really got a good green flag run to work Chase over and when he would bobble, it seemed like I was always stuck under his left rear, which would open the door back up for Chad. But we had a great car and we’re locked in. I’m really looking forward to tomorrow (Sunday).”
Contingency award winners at Badlands Motor Speedway included Kevin Thomas, Jr. (ProSource Fast Qualifier & Simpson Race Products First Heat Race Winner), Chase Stockon (Competition Suspension, Inc. (CSI) Second Heat Race Winner), Thomas Meseraull (Benic Enterprises Third Heat Race Winner), Justin Grant (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Race Winner), Robert Ballou (KSE Racing Products/B&W Auto Mart Hard Charger) and Dustin Smith (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Feature Finisher).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR “SPECIAL EVENT” RACE RESULTS: August 20, 2016 – Brandon, South Dakota – Badlands Motor Speedway - "Rock and Roll Gold Cup” Preliminary Night
PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-12.711; 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-12.732; 3. Thomas Meseraull, 17GP, Dutcher-12.745; 4. Justin Grant, 17, McGhee-12.780; 5. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-12.836; 6. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-12.863; 7. Bud Kaeding, 26, Rudeen-12.898; 8. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-12.944; 9. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-12.950; 10. Scotty Weir, 39w, Goodnight-13.028; 11. Landon Simon, 24, LSR-13.038; 12. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-13.040; 13. Ryan Bernal, 56, Phulps-13.046; 14. C.J. Leary, 66, Amati-13.056; 15. Chris Windom, 11w, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-13.058; 16. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.088; 17. Alex Schriever, 0, Davis-13.114; 18. Mike Martin, 16, Martin-13.121; 19. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-13.139; 20. Dustin Smith, 77, Smith-13.164; 21. Rob Caho, Jr., 78, Caho-13.185; 22. Mark Dobmeier, 13, Grinch-13.389; 23. Tim Kaeding, 3, Lunstra-13.439; 24. Aaron Reutzel, 87, Reutzel-13.601; 25. Dylan Peterson, 25, Peterson-13.602; 26. Donovan Peterson, 11xs, Metal Worx-13.857; 27. Clinton Bruns, 7, Bruns-13.858; 28. Chuck McGillivray, 101, McGillivray-13.957; 29. Doug Martens, 51, Martens-13.960; 30. Justin Jacobsma, 10, Jacobsma-14.043; 31. Rob Sharits, 14, Davis-14.472; 32. Brady Bacon, 99, Bacon-NT; 33. Leon DeBoer, 2, DeBoer-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. Boespflug, 3. Bernal, 4. Mellenberndt, 5. Dobmeier, 6. Martin, 7. Jacobsma, 8. Donovan Peterson. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Darland, 3. Weir, 4. Windom, 5. Ballou, 6. T. Kaeding, 7. Bruns, 8. Sharits. NT
BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Meseraull, 2. B. Kaeding, 3. Simon, 4. Smith, 5. Goodnight, 6. Reutzel, 7. McGillivray. NT
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Grant, 2. Farney, 3. Short, 4. Schriever, 5. Caho, 6. Dylan Peterson, 7. Martens. NT
SEMI: (15 laps) 1. Dobmeier, 2. T. Kaeding, 3. Dylan Peterson, 4. Bacon, 5. Reutzel, 6. Bruns, 7. McGillivray, 8. Donovan Peterson, 9. Jacobsma, 10. Sharits, 11. Martens. NT
FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Chad Boespflug, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Brady Short, 6. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 7. Ryan Bernal, 8. Robert Ballou, 9. Dave Darland, 10. Chris Windom, 11. Bud Kaeding, 12. Aaron Farney, 13. Dustin Smith, 14. Mark Dobmeier, 15. Rob Caho, Jr., 16. Tim Kaeding, 17. Mike Martin, 18. Matt Goodnight, 19. Alex Schriever, 20. Scotty Weir, 21. Bret Mellenberndt, 22. Brady Bacon, 23. Dylan Peterson, 24. Landon Simon. NT
----------------------------
**Leary flipped during qualifying. Simon flipped on lap 17 of the feature. Bacon flipped on lap 21 of the feature. Mellenberndt flipped on lap 24 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-16 Stockon, Laps 17-25 Boespflug.
KSE RACING PRODUCTS HARD CHARGER: Robert Ballou (18th to 8th)
NEW USAC BADLANDS “ROCK AND ROLL GOLD CUP” POINTS: 1-Stockon-493, 2-Boespflug-487, 3-Grant-484, 4-Meseraull-481, 5-Thomas-475, 6-Short-448, 7-Darland-445, 8-Bernal-436, 9-B. Kaeding-433, 10-Farney-426.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: August 21 – Brandon, South Dakota – Badlands Motor Speedway – “Rock and Roll Gold Cup”
**RICHIE MURRAY – USAC MEDIA