Gas City 4-wide Salute (Video Highlight from FloRacing.com)
7/18/19
Gas City Speedway
Gas City, IN
Indiana Sprintweek Night #1
USAC
43 cars
Qualifying was done in two flights. Carson Short (3rd car out to time) set the standard in the first group at 12.046 seconds on the quarter-mile, ahead of Brady Bacon (18th car out), Justin Grant (11th), Kevin Thomas Jr. (20th) and Chris Windom (21st). Jason McDougal (3rd car out to time) led group two with a time of 12.198 seconds, ahead of Dakota Jackson (5th), CJ Leary (16th), Kyle Cummins (14th) and Thomas Meseraull (7th).
Heat one (started): 1. Scotty Weir 4P (3) 2. Windom 5G (4) 3. Grant 4 (5) 4. Josh Hodges 74x (2) / 5. Chad Boespflug 98E (1) 6. Brody Roa 91 (7) 7. Clinton Boyles 57 (8) 8. Koby Barksdale 22 (9) 9. Joe Stornetto Jr. 04 (11) 10. Terry Richards 18M (10) 11. Short 21 (6)
10-lap heats took the top four to the feature. Weir shot to the lead form row two right away, followed by Windom and Grant. Contact with Hodges sent Short upside down a lap in. He was o.k. and would return to the B. The top three stayed strong, but the race for the fourth and final transfer was on between Hodges and Boespflug, who held it most of the way. With two to go, Hodges slid across Boespflug’s bow to take the spot.
Heat two (started): 1. Thomas Jr. 19 (5) 2. Bacon 69 (6) 3. Chase Stockon 32 (4) 4. Brent Beauchamp 34 (1) / 5. Shane Cottle 2E (2) 6. Dustin Ingle 2DI (3) 7. Matt Westfall 33m (11) 8. Jarett Andretti 18 (7) 9. Max Adams 5M (8) 10. Zane Hendricks 27 (9) 11. Matt Moore 9 (10)
Cottle led early over Beauchamp and Stockon. Stockon took second on the second lap, and Bacon moved into the fourth and final transfer on lap three. Moore stopped and exited at that point. Thomas Jr. put himself into contention at that point as well. Hendricks spun three laps in. Thomas jumped into second on that restart on the high side, and carried his momentum to the lead at the halfway point. Bacon followed him into second. Stockon moved into third, while Cottle seemed to stumble a bit. Beauchamp got by him for the final transfer coming to the white flag.
Heat three (started): 1. McDougal 71P (6) 2. Meseraull 47 (4) 3. Dave Darland 42 (7) 4. Leary 19AZ (5) / 5. Dallas Hewitt 18x (8) 6. Cole Ketcham 41 (2) 7. Isaac Chapple 52 (3) 8. Dustin Christie 75 (9) 9. Matt McCarthy 28m (10) 10. Anthony D’Alessio 01 (1) 11. Eric Perrott 45 (11)
The heat of the night saw Ketcham leading Meseraull, D’Allessio and Chapple early. McDougal put on a move to go from sixth to third on lap two, before McCarthy spun to bring a caution. Ketcham led Meseraull, McDougal, Chapple and Leary back to green. Meseraull jumped to the point on the restart, while Chapple got by McDougal for third. McDougal then went from fourth to second on the high side before D’Alessio spun four laps in. Darland passed Ketcham for fourth on that restart, while McDougal pursued Meseraull for the lead. He would make his sliding move to the point with three to go. Darland worked by Leary for third at the checkers in a race that saw a lot of action.
Heat four (started): 1. Tyler Courtney 7BC (4) 2. Jackson 17 (6) 3. Corey Smith 66s (3) 4. Cummins 3R (5) / 5. AJ Hopkins 4J (2) 6. Dickie Gaines 44 (9) 7. Brandon Mattox 28 (7) 8. Matt Goodnight 39 (8) 9. Mitchell Davis 56 (10) 10. Brian VanMeveren 24 (1)
Spins by Cummins and Van Meveren, who exited slowed the start of this one. Smith led Courtney and Hopkins early, but Courtney took control on the next lap and never looked back. Davis went over three and four to bring the yellow out three laps in. Courtney led Smith, Hopkins and Jackson back to green. Jackson took third on the restart, and Cummins would return from the rear of the field after spinning to grab the final transfer with two to go.
C main (started): 1. Adams (1) 2. Richards (7) 3. Goodnight (2) 4. Davis (10) / 5. Christie (4) 6. Barksdale (3) 7. Gaines (6) 8. Hendricks (5) 9. Moore (9) 10. McCarthy (8) 11. Perrott (11) DNS – Stornetto, Westfall
Adams led the distance in the 10-lapper. Richards was a steady mover, and was into the fourth and final transfer by lap three, third the next lap, and second by lap five. Davis went from row five to grab the fourth and final transfer.
B main (started): 1. Cottle (5) 2. Short (1) 3. Chapple (2) 4. Hopkins (6) 5. Ketcham (4) 6. Adams (15) / 7. Roa (10) 8. Boespflug (7) 9. Hewitt (14) 10. Ingle (3) 11. Andretti (11) 12. D’Alessio (8) 13. Boyles (13) 14. Davis (18) 15. Mattox (12) 16. Goodnight (17) 17. Richards (16) 18. VanMeveren (9)
Short led Chapple and Ingle early in the 12-lapper. Cottle was steady on his traditional low groove, grabbing third and then second on the second and third laps. From there, he pulled away. Adams continued his alphabet run after winning the C. He was in the sixth and final transfer by lap five.
A main (started): 1. Cottle (18) 2. Leary (2) 3. Windom (9) 4. Bacon (5) 5. Thomas Jr. (1) 6. McDougal (6) 7. Jackson (4) 8. Cummins (8) 9. Beauchamp (20) 10. Grant (3) 11. Ketcham (17) 12. Stockon (11) 13. Adams (22) 14. Hodges (16) 15. Boespflug (23, prov.) 16. Short (7) 17. Chapple (14) 18. VanMeveren (24, prov.) 19. Smith (15) 20. Darland (19) 21. Hopkins (19) 22. Meseraull (10) 23. Courtney (12) 24. Weir (13)
What started as a runaway for Leary ended in an exciting, finish with some controversy. Leary took the early lead in the 30-lapper over Thomas Jr. and McDougal. Weir and Chapple contacted and spun in turn one, bringing the caution out three laps in. The lead trio stayed the same six laps in when Smith came to a stop atop turn two. Cummins claimed fourth from Jackson on lap 11, and Leary entered lapped traffic on lap 14. Meseraull got sideways in turn three on lap 17, and collected Courtney as both were just inside the top ten. Both had to retire. Leary started with two lapped cars between he and the field. All heck broke loose after the restart, with Cottle appearing in the top five from row nine, joined by Windom and Bacon. Chapple caught the infield tire in one, bringing a final caution with six laps to go. Cottle was smooth on the low side and snagged second when the green fell. With three to go, Windom took third. Cottle edge closer to a rim running Leary with each lap and at the checkers, he was declared the winner in a close one. Race Monitor actually had Leary ahead by .002 seconds, but scorers determined Cottle was first to the actual finish line. Adams finished his night by passing 18 cars in his route from the C to the B to 13th in the A.