DAYTONA BEACH, Florida -- Craig Raudman of Bakersfield, Calif. lengthened his point's lead after dominating the AutoZone "125" at Stockton 99 Speedway Saturday night. Raudman started in the sixth position and within five laps, bolted past leader Mike Mendenhall for the lead. Raudman held off a late race challenge from Eric Holmes to when his second NASCAR AutoZone Elite Division, Southwest Series race of the season and 19th triumph of his career. Holmes finished second, with Jim Pettit II in third. Burney Lamar and Nick Lynch rounded out the top five finishers.
Lamar topped all competitors in qualifying to collect his third Bud Pole Award of the season. Lamar toured the quarter-mile paved oval in 13.934 seconds/64.590 mph, with Pettit, Raudman, Lynch, and Holmes rounding out the top five. Only three tenths of a second separated the 26 competitors and relegated Danny Burson, Thomas Martin, Todd Burns, Richard Johnson, Jason Fensler, and Darrell LaMoure to have to race their way into the feature event through the 10-lap non-qualifiers race. Fensler and LaMoure transferred into the show after finishing first and second.
Lamar drew an 8-car invert putting part-time competitor Mike Mendenhall on the front row to start the AutoZone "125". Mendenhall led the first four laps before a hard-charging Raudman took the lead on lap five. Raudman would hold the lead for the rest of the event but race several challenges during portions of the race.
The first of four caution flags flew on lap 15 when Phil Perry got into leading Autometer Rookie-of-the-year contender Rip Michels as the duo exited turn two. Michels spun down the backstretch and was unable to re-fire the car before the leaders were bearing down on him. Michels would finish in the 18th position, two laps down.
By lap 20, Raudman expanded his lead over Holmes to four car lengths. Mendenhall held down the third position with Lamar and Lynch rounding out the top five. Pettit led the second five with Cajon Speedway winner Jeff Seifert, Nick Joanides, Bob Lyon, and Tracy Bolin occupying the rest of the top ten in the running order.
As the lead pack exited turn two on lap 30, Jason Fensler got into 2002 Series champion Eddy McKean sending the championship contender spinning into the dirt apron of turn two. McKean was able to keep his car moving and got back on the track in front of leader Raudman. Raudman passed McKean on lap 31 going down the backstretch, but McKean was able to get back by the next lap. McKean had clear race track in front of him and hoped for a caution in order to catch back up the field. Unfortunately, he was the caution as Raudman tagged McKean as the pair exited out of turn four, sending the former champion out of contention.
Raudman held the point on the lap 41 restart with Holmes breathing down his neck. By lap 50, Lamar had moved into third and started to pressure Holmes. Lamar wanted to move around Holmes and have another one/two finish with his teammate Raudman. Pettit moved up to fourth, followed by Lynch, Mendenhall, Seifert, Joanides, Lyon, and Bolin.
The third caution flew on lap 85 for Jeff Belletto as he ended his night against the inside turn three retaining wall. When the action resumed on lap 90, Pettit started to press the issue with Holmes for second place.
Over the next 25 laps Pettit would move his Ford to the inside of Holmes only to have Holmes slam the door thwarting each attempt.
Pettit would settle for third as Raudman claimed a .200 second victory over Holmes to win his second event of the season. Bud Pole winner Burney Lamar rallied to finish fourth to score his fifth straight top four finish. Rookie contender Nick Lynch scored his best finish of the season to round out the top five. Tracy Bolin, Mendenhall, Darrell LaMoure, Phil Perry, and Joe Herold finished on the lead lap to round out the top ten.
"We came here to win," Raudman said. "We had a great car and we just hung on after we made contact with the 6 car (Todd Souza). It was a great run for this team."
Finishing second to record only his second top five of the season (both coming at Stockton) was Eric Holmes. "Stockton is always a good track for me," Holmes said. "The finish moved us up in the points and will make it interesting over the final five races."
Pettit, a two-time winner this season, scored his sixth top five finish of the season but was not all that satisfied with the outcome. "I really thought I had a shot at the win tonight," Pettit said. "I tried to get under Eric (Holmes), but he made his car pretty wide and I am not going to turn him to get the position. I lost a few points tonight but I am looking forward to our next event. I always run great at Colorado, so we'll see what happens there.
Autometer Rookie-of-the-Year contender Nick Lynch was please with a fifth place finish. "We have had some bad luck this year and it feels great to finally run up front," Lynch said.
Darrell LaMoure had the drive of the night, starting 22nd on the grid to finish in the 8th position to win the PowerAde Power Move-of-the-Race and the $750 bonus. Tracy Bolin collected the $300 Featherlite Award for improving the most positions from the previous event (19). The race took just 37 minutes, 52 seconds to complete and there were four cautions for 22 laps. The was one lead change between two drivers (Mike Mendenhall 1-4, Craig Raudman 5-125) with Raudman leading 120 of the races 125 laps.
Raudman (1419) extends his point lead over Pettit (1391) to 28 points, with Lamar (1336), Holmes (1180), and Herold (1173) rounding out the top five. The next race for the AutoZone Southwest Series is Saturday, August 21 at Colorado National Speedway in Erie, Colo.
