Rossburg, Ohio.....Bryan Clauson opened up an afternoon "Four Crown Nationals" at Eldora Speedway on Sunday with a flag-to-flag 25-lap Honda National Midget Series win, but it didn't come easily. The Noblesville, Indiana driver led throughout but felt pressure from defending series champion Christopher Bell, who recovered from an early-race tangle which sent him to the tail.
Bell tried to slide past Clauson in the closing laps, but the Fairbury Westin Packaged Meats - Curb Records #63 Spike/Esslinger held him off and navigated traffic right in front of him coming to the checkered to close the 33rd National Midget victory of his career.
"I knew when I saw the 71 come up to second on the board, I had to turn up the wick a little bit. The track was really wide and tough to run up there on the cushion so close to the wall, but I was really good off turn-two and could carry a lot of speed on entry to kind of protect myself. We've been really close here quite a few times before, so it's great to finally seal the deal on a win here," Clauson said.
Bell completed an incredible comeback to run second in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports - Toyota TRD #71 Bullet/Speedway Toyota, and Darren Hagen rounded out the podium in the Great Clips - Fatheadz Eyewear #56 Beast/Esslinger.
Zach Daum finished fourth in the Daum Crop Insurance - Weld Wheels #5D Eagle/Stanton Toyota, and Shane Cockrum finished fifth while winning the Larry Rice "High Performance Award" for his drive from 13th.
HONDA USAC NATIONAL MIDGET RACE RESULTS: September 20-21, 2014 - Rossburg, Ohio - Eldora Speedway - 33rd "4-Crown Nationals"
QUALIFICATIONS: (Sept. 20) 1. Rico Abreu, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.369; 2. Christopher Bell, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.416; 3. Tanner Thorson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.423; 4. Darren Hagen, 56, 5IVE-6IX-16.570; 5. Bryan Clauson, 63, RKR/Curb-16.605; 6. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-16.605; 7. Zach Daum, 5, Daum-16.643; 8. Chris Windom, 3, RFMS-16.725; 9. Brady Bacon, 11, Wilke-Pak-16.823; 10. Steven Drevicki, 19, DeGre-17.302; 11. Tony DiMattia, 50, Brandywine Auto-17.394; 12. Thomas Meseraull, 16, Sandy-17.411; 13. Terry Babb, 88, Babb-17.441; 14. Parker Price-Miller, 9p, Ronk-17.491; 15. Isaac Chapple, 52, Chapple-17.703; 16. Brett Arndt, 46, Arndt-18.112; 17. Dave Darland, 17, RW/Curb-Agajanian-NT; 18. Shane Cockrum, 66, Amati-NT.
FIRST HEAT : (8 laps - Sept. 20) 1. Abreu, 2. Clauson, 3. Daum, 4. Thorson, 5. Bacon, 6. Cockrum, 7. Chapple, 8. Dimattia. 2:19.55
SECOND HEAT : (8 laps - Sept. 20) 1. Windom, 2. Bell, 3. Hines, 4. Hagen, 5. Drevicki, 6. Meseraull, 7. Miller, 8. Arndt. 2:19.65
REMAINDER OF EVENTS CONDUCTED SEPTEMBER 21
FEATURE: (25 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Christopher Bell, 3. Darren Hagen, 4. Zach Daum, 5. Shane Cockrum, 6. Brady Bacon, 7. Isaac Chapple, 8. Tracy Hines, 9. Steven Drevicki, 10. Parker Price-Miller, 11. Rico Abreu, 12. Tanner Thorson, 13. Chris Windom. NT
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**Abreu, Thorson and Bacon flipped on lap 2 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-25 Clauson.
NEW HONDA NATIONAL MIDGET POINTS: 1-Abreu-867, 2-Bell-788, 3-Hines-786, 4-Clauson-744, 5-Daum-663, 6-Windom-594, 7-Thorson-569, 8-Michael Pickens-499, 9-Darland-419, 10-Andrew Felker-378.
NEXT HONDA NATIONAL MIDGET RACE: October 2-4 - Granite City, IL - Tri-City Speedway - "Gold Crown Midget Nationals"