Speedway Blog

Weekend Blog - Saturday

Saturday, September 29, 2012

11:55 pm - And that’s a wrap on this weekend’s racing action at LVMS.

Nelson Piquet, Jr. and Tanner Foust were the big winners and the fans were treated to two extremely different but very exciting events. Thanks for joining us….and good night!

11:45 pm - Tanner Foust wins the GRC Main Event.

2nd-8th: Deegan, Isachsen, Heikkinen, Verdier, Millen, Block, Lasek.

Ericksson and Pastrana did not finish.

11:20 pm - Andreas Eriksson wins the last chance qualifier followed by Pastrana Verdier, Lasek, Moro, Hubinette, Mirra and Binks. The top four advance to the Main Event.

The lineup for the Main Event (6 laps): Foust, Block, Deegan, Heikkinen, Millen, Isachsen, Eriksson, Pastrana, Verdier, Lasek

10:50 pm – Brian Deegan wins the third heat race. 2nd -5th: Heikkinen, Verdier, Hubinette, Pastrana.

The lineup for the last chance qualifier is: Mirra, Verdier, Moro, Eriksson, Lasek, Hubinette, Pastrana, Binks

10:31 pm – Ken Block wins the second heat race. Millen, Moro, Erickson and Binks finish 2nd through 5th.

Binks spun in the dirt on the final lap while leading and falls to last place.

10:17 pm - Tanner Foust wins the first heat race followed by Isachsen, Mirra and Lasek.

Richard Burton misjudged the gap jump on his first attempt on the 1st lap and lands hard between the ramps. He is awake and alert but is being transported to UMC by ambulance for observation and further evaluation.

9:25 pm – The track crew is busy reassembling the GRC course and the drivers are getting ready for the heat races.

Bracket 1A: Tanner Foust, Sverre Isachsen, Bucky Lasek, Dave Mirra, Richard Burton

Bracket 1B: Ken Block, Rhys Millen, Andreas Erikssen, David Binks, Pat Moro

Bracket 1C: Travis Pastrana, Toomas Heikkinen, Brian Deegan, Samuel Hubinette, Stephan Verdier

9:10 pm - Despite his run-in on pit road during the 6th caution, Ty Dillon held onto the points lead after a 10th place finish. “We had an awesome truck tonight,” said Dillon, who leads James Buescher by 1 point with five races to go. “I’m disappointed that our night kind of got ruined on pit road. I’m proud of the team. We fought back but it still hurts. We still have the points lead. Everything’s going to be all right.”

9:00 pm - Nelson Piquet, Jr. started 13th and posted his 2nd career victory. His first was at Michigan, 5 races ago. He led four times for 30 laps.

“I have no idea what happened,” said Piquet, Jr. about his last lap pass on Matt Crafton. “I stuck it in there and God gave me the grip I needed. We really needed this win. For sure, it’s one of the best wins of my career. It’s difficult to put into words what I felt when I crossed the checkered flag and even on the back straight when I was in front of the No. 88 (Crafton). I hit the wall 10 laps from the end but I wasn’t giving up. Luckily, it didn’t damage the truck enough to run down the tires. It’s for sure one of the best feelings I’ve had in 19 years of my career. Winning in Vegas is amazing.”

Crafton’s runner up finish was his 12th top 10 finish of the season. “That sucks,” said Crafton, who led twice for 15 laps. “Just plain and simple sucks. My God, that’s a tough one to lose on the last lap.”

Smith's 350 - Race Results

7:52 pm - Piquet takes a run at Crafton with 5 laps to go but loses his momentum and falls back. Piquet has a faster truck but Crafton isn’t going to make it easy. White flag – Piquet peeks underneath Crafton in Turn 2 and takes the lead. Piquet wins for the second time this season. 2nd-5th are Crafton, Coulter, Gaughan and Bodine.

7:45 pm - The green flag waves on Lap 131. Coulter takes the lead. Crafton goes three wide on the inside and takes the lead on Lap 133. Gaughan takes ‘em 4 wide and comes out 4th. Piquet is back to 3rd. Gaughan and Bodine are side by side for 4th. Gaughan gets the position. With 9 laps to go the top 5 are Crafton, Piquet, Coulter, Gaughan and Bodine.

7:34 pm - Back to green on Lap 121. Kligerman scrapes the outside wall on Lap 124. He hits it again one lap later and now he’s falling backwards from 14th place. Crafton gets underneath Piquet trying to take the lead but Piquet fights back and keeps it. Kligerman blows a tire and brings out the Caution for the 8th time on Lap 127.

Pastrana gets the free pass and is back on the lead lap, running 17th. The top five under caution: Piquet, Crafton, Coulter, Bodine and Mayhew. Gaughan is running 6th.

7:27 pm - A handful of drivers pit including Kligerman, Dillon and Townley. Up front the top five under caution are Piquet, Bodine, Crafton, Mayhew and Coulter. Vegas’ own Brendan Gaughan is running 9th. Sauter and Lofton were evaluated and released from the infield care center. “We’ve got people out here that just shouldn’t be racing,” said Sauter. “That’s just the way I feel.” Lofton’s take on the deal: “I should have just turned right and put into the fence,” said Lofton. “Bummer it had to end this way. I really think we had a chance to win this.”

7:21 pm - Piquet takes the lead from Mayhew. Bodine gets around Mayhew as well and sets his sights on Piquet. Dillon is mired back in 16th after the mishap on pit road. Crash on the front stretch on Lap 114 involving Johnny Sauter and Lofton. Yellow #7. Lofton lost control and Sauter had nowhere to go. Buescher barely makes it by with no contact. Kligerman gets the free pass and is back on the lead lap.

7:11 pm - Brennan Newberry (running 14th) crashes in Turn 4 to bring out the 6th caution of the race. Peters and Kligerman battle for the free pass spot and Peters gets it to put himself back on the lead lap. The leaders pit. Piquet takes 2 tires and 1 can of fuel. Bodine and Dillon take 2 tires. Coulter takes 4 tires. Mayhew and Dillon make contact on pit road. Dillon has a flat tire after contact on pit road and has to come in again. Green flag with 40 laps to go. The top five are Mayhew, Bodine, Miguel Paludo, Lofton.

7:00 pm - Kligerman gets the free pass and is now 1 lap behind the leaders. Dillon takes the lead off of pit road  followed by Coulter, Piquet, Crafton and Gale. Back to green on Lap 80. Dillon gets loose and falls all the way back to 8th. Coulter takes the lead. Crafton gets around Piquet for 2nd. Lap 95: Coulter has a 2.0 second lead over Piquet, Justin Lofton, Bodine and Crafton.

6:51 pm - Kligerman gives up the lead to pit on Lap 71. He only took 1 can of fuel on an early stop and he needs more. He loses a lap. Piquet takes over the top spot. Kligerman gets a penalty for speeding on entry to pit road. He heads back in for a stop and go penalty and loses a 2nd lap. The caution flag flies for the fifth time on Lap 77 for debris in Turn 4. Brian Silas gets the free pass putting 17 trucks on the lead lap. Piquet leads the field onto pit road.

6:40 pm - Peters heads to pit road under green on Lap 52. He thinks he has a tire going down. The crew changes all four tires. He rejoins the race in 21st , 1 lap behind the leaders. Coulter and Dillon are back up to 3rd and 4th , respectively. Peters’ crew lets him know he did not have a flat tire and he is still complaining the truck is loose. Hornaday is out of the race with a blown engine.

6:31 pm - Some drivers take two tires to shake up the running order. The top three before pit stops take 4 tires and restart 8th through 10th . Back to Green on Lap 36: Kligerman, Buescher, Grant Enfinger are now 1st through 3rd. Enfinger takes the lead briefly but Kligerman grabs it right back. The top 5 on Lap 42 are Kligerman, Gale, Piquet, Coulter and John Wes Townley. Lafferty was checked and released from the infield center.

6:15 pm - Travis Pastrana gets the free pass and is back on the lead lap. Several trucks come to pit road for service. The top 13 stay out on the track. Back to green on Lap 19. Coulter and Dillon get around Peters for 1^st and 2nd.

Ron Hornaday is off the pace on Lap 22. Bodine slides up the track and scrapes the wall off Turn 4 on Lap 28. Chris Lafferty slams the wall in Turn 4 and Parker Kligerman gets sideways to avoid the contact and makes it through. Yellow #4 flies on Lap 30. Top 5:  Coulter, Dillon, Peters, Mayhew and Nelson Piquet, Jr.

6:06 pm - Pastrana says there is nothing wrong with his truck. He lost control because the air pressure in the tires hasn’t had time to build up yet. Green flag on Lap 8. Chris Lafferty spins off Turn 4 and Yellow #3 flies on Lap 15. He doesn’t hit anything and drives around to the attention of his crew. Peters continues to lead followed by Coulter, Dillon, Mayhew and Crafton.

6:00 pm - Back to green on Lap 5. Timothy Peters takes the lead. Travis Pastrana spins off Turn 4 in almost the same place where Bodine spun and we’ve got Yellow #2 on Lap 7. The top five are Peters, Coulter, Ryan Reed, Ty Dillon and Matt Crafton.

5:50 pm – Green Flag! Todd Bodine spins off Turn 4 as the field completes Lap 1 and under caution for the first time. Joey Coulter leads the first lap followed by Timothy Peters and David Mahew. Bodine heads to pit road with a flat left, front tire.

5:40 pm – We’ve just wrapped up driver introductions and we’re ready to go racing. The fans, drivers and crew members observed a moment of silence for Chris Economacki, the undisputed Dean of Motorsports, who passed away earlier yesterday morning. Julianna Erdesz performed the National Anthem and Tate Jorgensen, account manager for Smith’s is about to give the command to start engines.

2:30 pm – NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Pre-Race Stats:

  • This is the 16th series event at LVMS
  • Joey Coulter is the 11th different pole winner.
  • There have been 13 different winners with Mike Skinner and Jack Sprague the only repeat winners.
  • This race has been won from the pole 7 times. Ron Hornaday was the last driver to do it in 2011.
  • Ten drivers in the field are making their LVMS debut. Of them, Ty Dillon posted the best qualifying effort and starts 5th .
  • Matt Crafton, Brendan Gaughan and Ron Hornaday lead the all-time list with 11 starts each. Hornaday (2011) and Gaughan (2003) have 1 victory apiece while Crafton’s best finish was a 3nd in last year’s event.

1:30 pm – The GRC drivers have finished their seeding session with Tanner Foust at the top of the list with a lap completed in 25.447 seconds. Ken Block was second in the Monster World Rally Ford at 25.640 seconds. Travis Pastrana was third at 25.651 seconds.

11:25 am – Tanner Faust, from Dana Point, CA, was the fastest GRC driver during the morning’s first practice session. Faust toured the course in 29.617 seconds in his Rockstar Energy Ford Fiesta. Sweden’s Andreas Eriksson was second fastest at 30.106 seconds in the Best Buy Ford Fiesta. UK driver David Binks made it a top three sweep for Ford in the eBay Motors entry with a lap of 30.227 seconds.

10:45 am – GETTING TO KNOW GLOBAL RALLYCROSS – Take some highly modified all-wheel-drive turbocharged compact cars generating 600 hp. Add some water and a little dirt, throw in drifting, jumping and aggressive drivers with big…uh…talent and you get Global Rallycross.

The course is oval-ish and is laid out with half of it on the LVMS frontstretch and the other half on pit road. Drivers negotiate a variety of elements, including the car wash, a dirt turn, a chicane, a tabletop that looks like a giant speed bump and a 70-foot gap jump. Drivers have a choice of going over the gap or turning hard left and going under it but they can only take the shortcut once per event and must time it strategically to take full advantage.

Heat races feature multiple cars competing from a standing start for four laps. Winners advance to the A Main, which is a five-lap race. Described by some drivers as motorcross with a roll cage, the sport debuted at the X games in 2010.

10:00 am – Welcome back for Day 2 at LVMS. The Global Rallycross cars are practicing for tonight’s main event. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series teams will get the command to start engines at 5:40 pm this evening with RCR Racing’s Joey Coulter leading the field to green. Ticket gates and the Neon Garage open at 3 pm. There are still tickets left and we’ve got great weather, so come on out and join us!

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