Irwindale Speedway, California - American Speed Association (ASA) 300-laps.
Even steering problems couldn’t slow down the hard charging Joey Clanton today, as he easily had the field covered all day long. Try as they did, it seemed the other ASA competitors couldn’t do anything about it.
“We experienced a problem with our steering around lap 100, and I couldn’t seem to get underneath anyone. But the top lane was working great and we managed to stay out front,” said the victorious Clanton from winners circle.
Said 2nd place finisher Gary St Amont, “ Except for Joey, we had most of the other guys covered today. But we was too strong and we did as good as we could.”
Mike Garvey rounded out the top three positions and stated; “There was some great three wide racing out there today. But unfortunately we went the wrong way with tires on our last pit stop, so we had to hold on until the end.”
In a series that bills itself as “Short Tracks…Short Tempers” … Sundays show seemed rather mundane. The ASA racers could always find a groove that best suited their cars handling characteristics. The Irwindale surface provided lots of room to race on which resulted in minimal contact.
Thirty-two cars took the green flag as pole sitter Clanton paced the field with St. Amont along side. Garvey quickly worked past St. Amont and set sail after Clanton.
It was clean and green until lap 73 when Mike Cope got into Chris Wimmer sending the Wisconsin native into the turn four wall, effectively ending Wimmers day. The subsequent caution period gave the back markers an opportunity to make a pit stop, while the lead pack stayed on-track.
The restart saw Clanton, Garvey, and St. Amont in the top three positions, with thirteen cars still on the lead lap. By lap 100 it appeared as if Clanton’s car had tightened up, as his line got higher and higher with each lap.
On lap 109 Brandon Butler got loose and was collected by Brandon Miller bringing out another caution flag. This time the lead pack came down pit road for tires, fuel and needed adjustments, while most of the back markers stayed on-track.
At the restart it was Tim Taylor out front followed by Clanton and Garvey. But by lap 121 Clanton reassumed the lead and never looked back. However behind the fast-flying leader, the action was getting real interesting. Several three and four wide wars ensued as positions were swapped throughout the rest of the pack.
At halfway (lap 150) it was Clanton still out front and pulling away with Garvey and Kevin Cywinski in tow. By lap 200 Clanton had almost lapped the entire field and was hunting down St Amont who was now in third place.
However the ASA officials decided to throw a “Competition Integrity” yellow flag to keep Clanton from putting everyone a lap down. That also gave everyone one more chance to adjust their cars for the final run to the finish.
On lap 285 Reed Sorenson got into Tim Taylor who ended up in the turn three wall. By the time Taylor’s crash was cleaned up has finished it was lap 292, which set up an eight-lap dash for the cash. But it was follow the leader to the end as the top five cars all maintained their positions.
At lap 300, it was Clanton taking his second win in a row, followed home by St. Amont, Garvey, Sorenson and Cope.
Next up for the ASA series is round number three at Big Daddy’s South Boston Speedway in Virginia on April 13.
Full Field Results
1. (1) Joey Clanton, Chevrolet, 300.
2. (2) Gary St. Amant, Chevrolet, 300.
3. (3) Kevin Cywinski, Chevrolet, 300.
4. (8) Reed Sorenson, Chevrolet, 300.
5. (5) Mike Cope, Chevrolet, 299.
6. (6) Dan Fredrickson, 299.
7. (15) Kyle Busch, Ford, 299.
8. (17) Russ Tuttle, Chevrolet, 298.
9. (10) Rick Beebe, Ford, 298.
10. (7) Mike Garvey, Chevrolet, 298.
11. (22) Tim Taylor, Chevrolet, 296.
12. (9) Zach Neissner, Chevrolet, 296.
13. (12) Todd Kluever, Chevrolet, 296.
14. (13) Wayne Anderson, Chevrolet, 295.
15. (23) J.C. Beattie Jr., Chevrolet, 293.
16. (14) David Stremme, Ford, 292.
17. (18) Chad Wood, Chevrolet, 292.
18. (26) Ed Brown, Chevrolet, 289.
19. (19) Jeff Emery, Chevrolet, 287.
20. (11) Brandon Miller, Chevrolet, 285.
21. (25) Doug Mahlik, Chevrolet, 279.
22. (21) Robbie Pyle, Chevrolet, 265.
23. (16) Pat Kelly, Chevrolet, 258.
24. (28) Rich Gardner, Chevrolet, 253.
25. (24) John Silverthorne, Chevrolet, 167.
26. (20) Chris Wimmer, Chevrolet, 73, accident.
27. (4) Greg Stewart, Pontiac, 44, clutch.
28. (27) Jake Hodges, Chevrolet, 31, accident.
29. (31) Scott Null, Chevrolet, 14, mechanical.
30. (33) Glenn Allen Jr., Chevrolet, 9, mechanical.
31. (32) Tony Bruncali, Chevrolet, 9, rear end.
32. (34) Greg Williams, Chevrolet, 2, handling.
TIME OF RACE: 1 hr., 50 min., 33.463 sec.
AVERAGE SPEED: 81.405 mph.
MARGIN OF VICTORY: 1.083 sec.
LEAD CHANGES: 2 among 2 drivers.
LAP LEADERS: Clanton 1-110, Taylor 111-120, Clanton 121-300. CAUTIONS: 5 for 37 laps.
ASA point leaders after 2 of 20 events: 1) Clanton, 408; 2) St. Amant, 379; 3) Cywinski, 368; 4)
Fredrickson, 341; 5) Cope, 326; 6) Sorenson, 320; 7) Beebe, 310; 8) Busch, 310; 9) Wood, 282; 10)
Stremme, 281.
