Short Track Nationals Results and Stories

Saturday, October 28, 2006
10/28/06

I-30 Speedway
Little Rock, AR

Short Track Nationals Finale

92 cars

Heat one (started): 1. Dusty Wasmund 20 (1) 2. Eric Baldaccini B4 (2) 3. Zach Pringle 8P (4) 4. Nick Smith 15s (6) 5. Tim Montgomery 32m (10) 6. Ernie Ainsworth 40 (7) 7. Ryan Marsch 2 (3) 8. Scotty McDonald 41m (8) 9. Tommy Bryant 12mt (9) 10. Larry Pinegar II 13F (5)

Heat two (started): 1. Travis Whitney 27 (2) 2. Jesse Hockett 75 (6) 3. Don Young 75Y (1) 4. Skip Wilson 65 (8) 5. Rafe Essary 26E (5) 6. Jon Corbin 33 (3) 7. Justin Sturch 4T (7) 8. Scott Winters R19 (10) DNS – Channin Tankersley 71T (4), Mitch Runge 28 (9)

Heat three (started): 1. Tim Crawley 87 (2) 2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 40R (4) 3. Ryan Anderson 71R (6) 4. Kenny Coke 24w (3) 5. Ron Blair 35R (10) 6. Robert Bell 71B (1) 7. Travis Jenkins 4am (9) 8. Greg Merritt 12m (5) 9. Jack Dover 53D (7) 10. Rodney Droud 2D (8)

Heat four (started): 1. Jan Howard 4x (1) 2. Joe Beaver 53x (3) 3. Brad Best 35B (7) 4. Kevin Ramey 7m (8) 5. Jerry Kamer 5K (4) 6. Foster Landon 11F (6) 7. AJ Bruns 44A (5) 8. Rob Hartman 07H (2) 9. Sam Hafertepe Jr. 15 (10) DNS – Justin Barger 32B (9)

Heat five (started): 1. Preston Peebles II 11P (1) 2. Robbie Standridge 12x (3) 3. Chuck Swenson X (2) 4. Jody Rosenboom K9 (6) 5. Ronny Howard 44 (7) 6. Eric Lutz 5 (9) 7. Dex Eaton 59 (4) 8. Joe Young 12T (8) 9. Kent Buckley 1* (10) 10. Ryan Grubaugh 00G (5)

Heat six (started): 1. Eric Schrock 86s (1) 2. Chris Morgan 7c (2) 3. Lee Sowell 51 (7) 4. Steven Tiner 94T (8) 5. Donny Howard 44H (4) 6. Claud Estes III 74E (3) 7. Joey Montgomery 21c (5) 8. Bryce Vowan 2m (9) 9. Nathan Brown 42 (6)

Heat seven (started): 1. Brad Sweet 77 (2) 2. Brian Brown 21 (5) 3. Travis Rilat 29 (6) 4. Jason Meyers D12 (8) 5. Mike Ward 88 (4) 6. Brian Bell 23 (9) 7. Kent Lewis Jr. 21T (3) 8. Josh Baker 42s (7) 9. Rick Pringle 38 (1)

Heat eight (started): 1. Cody Gardner 1G (1) 2. Raymond Stull 21R (3) 3. AG Rains 3 (4) 4. Clint Garner 40G (2) 5. Brad Bowden 15B (5) 6. Brian McClelland 55 (7) 7. Buster Dickerson 86 (8) 8. Jake Simmons 71s (9) 9. Cody Branchcomb 94B (6)

Last Chance Race one (started): 1. Ward (4) 2. Day (1) 3. R. Howard (2) 4. Eaton (6) / 5. Dickerson (5) 6. Pinegar (9) 7. N. Brown (10) 8. B. McClelland (5) 9. Simmons (7) 10. Hartman (8) DNS – Wilson, Landon, Buckley, Barger

Last Chance Race two (started): 1. Garner (2) 2. Essary (3) 3. Bowden (4) 4. J. Montgomery (8) / 5. Estes (6) 6. Droud (13) 7. Corbin (5) 8. McDonald (9) 9. Marsch (7) 10. R. Pringle (12) 11. J. Young (10) 12. Swenson (1) DNS – Tankersley

Last Chance Race three (started): 1. Mitrisin (4) 2. Rosenboom (1) 3. Hagar (2) 4. Lewis (6) / 5. Dover (11) 6. Kamer (3) 7. Winters (9) 8. R. Bell (5) 9. Sturch (7) 10. Baker (10) 11. Thompson (8) 12. Branchcomb (12) DNS – Grubaugh

Last Chance Race four (started): 1. Lutz (2) 2. Ainsworth (4) 3. Skinner (11) 4. B. Bell (6) / 5. Merritt (7) 6. Vowan (8) 7. Donny Howard (3) 8. Bruns (5) 9. Coke (1) 10. Melton (10) 11. Runge (9) DNS – Jenkins, Hafertepe

Dash (started): 1. Jason Johnson 41 (4) 2. Darren Stewart 91 (1) 3. Tim Kaeding 01 (3) 4. Dale Howard 47 (2) 5. Sean McClelland 1 (6) 6. Dale Blaney 6 (5)

Qualifier one (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Stenhouse (6*) 2. B. Brown (7*) 3. Blair (1) 4. Wright (8*) 5. Beaver (4) 6. Schrock (5) 7. Tiner (2) 8. Day (10) 9. Ward (9) 10. Eaton (12) 11. Josh Howard (3) 12. R. Howard (11)

Qualifier two (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Standridge (4*) 2. Gray (7*) 3. J. Montgomery (12*) 4. Rains (1) 5. Whitney (8*) 6. Garner (9) 7. Baldaccini (3) 8. Bowden (11) 9. Meyers (2) 10. Sowell (5) 11. Jan Howard (6) 12. Essary (10)

Qualifier three (started, *qualified for feature): 1. N. Smith (1*) 2. Crawley (8*) 3. Gardner (5*) 4. Hagar (11*) 5. Rosenboom (10) 6. Wasmund (7) 7. Lewis (12) 8. Ramey (3) 9. Best (6) 10. Mitrisin (9) 11. Rilat (4) 12. Z. Pringle (2)

Qualifier four (started, *qualified for feature): 1. Sweet (8*) 2. T. Montgomery (2) 3. D. Young (1) 4. Stull (4) 5. Skinner (11) 6. Morgan (3) 7. B. Bell (10) 8. Lutz (9) 9. Peebles (6) 10. R. Anderson (5) 11. Hockett (7) DNS – Ainsworth

A main (started): 1. J. Johnson (1) 2. B. Brown (10) 3. Stewart (2) 4. Wright (12) 5. S. McClelland (5) 6. Dale Howard (4) 7. N. Smith (16) 8. Gray (11) 9. J. Montgomery (17) 10. Stenhouse (8) 11. Hockett (19, pr.) 12. Kaeding (3) 13. Sturch (21, pr.) 14. Whitney (15) 15. Crawley (9) 16. Hagar (18) 17. T. Montgomery (20, pr.) 18. Sweet (7) 19. Standridge (13) 20. Gardner (14) 21. Blaney (6)

Hockett, T. Montgomery and Sturch received provisionals to start the 40 lapper.  The track had at the least, two strong grooves, one on the cushion and one down by the tires.  Blaney suffered fuel line problems all night long and elected to start in the rear, pulling out on the first lap.  J. Johnson shot out to a commanding lead over Stewart early on.  The first of two slowdowns came on lap nine, when Standridge and Gardner got together.  Standridge hopped the front end of Gardner’s machine and got upside down in turn four.  He was uninjured.  J. Johnson led Stewart, Kaeding, Stenhouse and Dale Howard back to green on the restart.  The next 25 laps went non-stop.  Kaeding was able to snag second from Stewart as he chased J. Johnson.  The two leaders broke away from the pack and at one time, Kaeding was a ½ a lap ahead of the third-place Stewart.  There was no catching the Row 41, as J. Johnson was moving high, low and in between in traffic.  He had lapped up to seventh place when the final caution flew for a Whitney spin on lap 34.  Whitney was done, as was Crawley who was running in the top ten.  Earlier, T. Montgomery, the defending champ bowed out on lap 14.  Sweet was also sidelined after a very impressive showing in the back-up Hockett machine.  The last six laps went non-stop, with J. Johnson leading Kaeding.  B. Brown was able to get by Stewart for third on the restart.  On the white flag lap, Kaeding got over the cushion in turn one and took a hard tumble.  He was unhurt.  The race was checkered, with J. Johnson winning his 22nd feature event of the season, his first STN and $15K.  Smith earned hard-charger honors.