STOCKON WINS FIRST OF YEAR IN CANYON “HALL OF FAME CLASSIC”

Peoria, Arizona…….Chase Stockon of Elizabethtown, Indiana has had a strong year in 2013, but had yet to crack victory lane until Saturday’s “Arizona Hall of Fame Classic” at Canyon Speedway Park. After winning his first two AMSOIL National Sprint Car races last season, Stockon had stacked up 13 top-fives in the first 30 races before coming home with the victory in the Superior Tank & Trailer – Crescent Electric Supply #32 DRC/Fisher.

“I knew I had to get to the front, and that’s been something that’s cost us this year. We’ve just gotten there too late. We ran real strong most of the night last night, but struggled in the feature. I knew we were really good in the slick, but we got lucky to be able to get down to the rubber before Tracy (Hines) got us. A lot of people have said how this place can take rubber at times, so I knew that was a possibility. At the end, I was just trying not to miss it and we had a pro behind us in Tracy who ran us clean,” Stockon said.

Hines started from the pole and beat Chris Windom off turn-two for the lead, as Stockon jumped to the top and grabbed second. On lap two, Stockon used the cushion in three and four to circle Hines for the lead. He stretched out his lead from there, as Hines dealt with Justin Grant, who also used the high side. Ten laps in, the duo raced side-by-side as Hines found some rubber laying down to retake second.

Stockon’s lead dwindled as Hines ran him down, while both approached traffic. With two cars just ahead, the race went yellow as Mike Spencer blew a right-rear tire. After another tangle on the restart, Stockon had clear track ahead but was visibly getting slower as his tire went away in the closing laps. Hines looked high once and was completely underneath Stockon in turn-one on another occasion, but Stockon got back to the throttle and held on.

With the checkered in sight, Hines was out of options as Stockon made it the distance without any issues. Hines nearly pushed him to the line just .162 seconds behind in The Carolina Nut Company – Hansen’s Welding #4 DRC/Stanton Mopar.

“It’s kind of a sucky second, because I felt like I was good. Once it laid rubber, I was in conserve mode. I caught him once in traffic, and I backed off a little bit because I saw him smoking it. We kinda thought he’d burn it off, and I ran him down when I saw the five-to-go. There just wasn’t much more I could do once I got there. I was surprised it laid rubber like that, and that’s unfortunate, but it was a good racing weekend for everybody,” Hines said.

Grant tucked in line behind the top-two after his early battles with them and came home in third aboard the Baldwin Brothers Racing – Fox Paving #5 DRC/Claxton.

“We fired off pretty good against the cushion, and I wish it would’ve stayed like that. We were pretty good up there. Tracy got by me off of two in the rubber and I got him back low in four, and like an idiot I went back to the top and he got back by me. After that, we pretty much got in line. I tried to pressure Tracy for a few, but then I kinda tried to copy him because he knows what he’s doing,” Grant said.

R.J. Johnson finished fourth in the Weiler Farms – Pecon Builders #51 Maxim/ProFlyer, while Robert Ballou rounded out the top-five in the Rossie Feed & Grain – Farney Motorsports #12 Maxim/Ott.

Friday night winner Bryan Clauson finished seventh and lengthened his point lead to 57 markers over Dave Darland heading into next weekend’s “Oval Nationals” at Perris Auto Speedway.

AMSOIL USAC SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: October 26, 2013 – Peoria, Arizona – Canyon Speedway Park “Arizona Open Wheel Hall of Fame Classic”

QUALIFYING: 1. Mike Spencer, 50, Chaffin-13.747; 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32/TBI-13.775; 3. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 17RW, Dutcher/RW/TriStar-13.842; 4. Bryan Clauson, 20, Stewart/Curb-Agajanian-13.891; 5. Justin Grant, 5, Baldwin-13.924; 6. Nic Faas, 4x, Alexander-13.959; 7. Chris Windom, 11, Walker-13.972; 8. Tracy Hines, 4, Hines-14.032; 9. Tyler Courtney, 23c, Courtney/BRaT-14.078; 10. Dave Darland, 71P, Phillips-14.085; 11. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-14.105; 12. Austin Williams, 2, Jory-14.124; 13. Mike Martin, 16, Martin-14.131; 14. Mike Bonneau, 29, Bonneau-14.154; 15. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.186; 16. R.J. Johnson, 51, Martin-14.194; 17. Michael Curtis, 11c, Curtis-14.200; 18. Damion Gardner, 4A, Alexander-14.200; 19. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-14.218; 20. Charles Davis, Jr., 4G, Cook-14.237; 21. Cody Williams, 44, Jory-14.271; 22. Josh Pelkey, 12A, Allen-14.272; 23. Nick Drake, 55, Cline-14.299; 24. Jon Stanbrough, 73, Ford-14.303; 25. Rip Williams, 3, Jory-14.437; 26. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-14.443; 27. Shon Deskins, 20x, SDR-14.448; 28. Tom Ogle, 48, Ogle-14.558; 29. Andrew Reinbold, 19, Reinbold-14.673; 30. Bruce St. James, 7K, St. James-14.702.

FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Curtis, 2. Grant, 3. Courtney, 4. R. Williams, 5. Martin, 6. C. Williams, 7. Spencer, 8. Reinbold. 1:56.21

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Darland, 2. Faas, 3. Gardner, 4. Stockon, 5. Pelkey, 6. Bonneau, 7. Hodges, 8. St. James. 1:53.51

THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Windom, 3. Ballou, 4. Thomas, 5. Drake, 6. Mitchell, 7. Deskins. 1:54.29

FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Davis, 3. Johnson, 4. Hines, 5. Clauson, 6. A. Williams, 7. Ogle. 1:54.23

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Clauson, 2. Spencer, 3. A. Williams, 4. Martin, 5. Pelkey, 6. Drake, 7. Mitchell, 8. C. Williams, 9. St. James, 10. Reinbold, 11. Deskins, 12. Hodges, 13. Bonneau, 14. Ogle. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Tracy Hines, 3. Justin Grant, 4. R.J. Johnson, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Chris Windom, 7. Bryan Clauson, 8. Damion Gardner, 9. Austin Williams, 10. Josh Pelkey, 11. Brady Bacon, 12. Jon Stanbrough, 13. Matt Mitchell, 14. Nic Faas, 15. Mike Spencer, 16. Charles Davis, Jr., 17. Rip Williams, 18. Nick Drake, 19. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 20. Dave Darland, 21. Cody Williams, 22. Tyler Courtney, 23. Michael Curtis, 24. Mike Martin. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Hines, Laps 2-30 Stockon.

NEW AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT POINTS: 1-Clauson-1,828; 2-Darland-1,771; 3-Bacon-1,658; 4-Stockon-1,582; 5-Thomas-1,574; 6-Hines-1,464; 7-Ballou-1,413; 8-Windom-1,155; 9-Courtney-1,027; 10-Hunter Schuerenberg-1,000.

NEXT AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT RACE: November 1 – Perris, California – Perris Auto Speedway “Oval Nationals”