Droud Charges to NCRA Sprint Victory at Dodge City

By David Smith, Jr.

DODGE CITY, Kan. (May 3, 2008) - Sprint car veteran Don Droud, Jr. took the lead late, then cruised the rest of the way to win the season opening O'Reilly NCRA Sprint Series presented by ICM/Ethanol feature Saturday night at Dodge City Raceway Park.  The NCRA sprint opener was also part of the tracks season opening Rebein Bangerter Spring Nationals.

 

   Series veteran Mike Peters of Wichita started on the pole for the thirty lap feature but it was Amarillo, Texas driver Derek Drown taking the lead as the green flag fell. Cody Forshee, Andy Shouse and Droud were your top five after the first lap as Drown would quickly move out to a ten car length lead by lap three.

 

   The first of two cautions of the feature would wave late on lap three when David Wheeler went for a spin on the front stretch.

 

   Once racing action resumed, Drown, aboard the #85 Danny King owned, ICM/Ethanol sponsored sprinter, again jumped out front and by the races midway point had built a comfortable half stretch lead. Behind him, however, the battle for the runner up position waged as Peters tried to hold off fifth starting Shouse. Shouse tried for several laps to over take the former NCRA sprint car champion and on lap nineteen, finally went around Peters in turns three and four for the second place.

 

   As Shouse had rid Peters for position, he then sent his sights on the leader Drown. Both drivers entered lapped traffic on lap twenty-three and Shouse was fixing to make his move when the second and final caution flag of the night fell when Stu Snyder rolled to a stop at the top of turn four.

 

   On the final restart it was Drown, Shouse, Droud and C.J. Johnson for a seven lap showdown to the finish. Drown would get a good start up front while Shouse would begin to slow allowing Droud to take over the runner up position. With the leader up high and Droud down low, the driver of the famed Ochs Brothers #1x would drive underneath Drown to take the lead with three laps to go.

 

   From then on there was no catching Droud as he went on to claim his third career NCRA sprint car victory. Drown would hold on to second with C.J. Johnson third and Peters settling for fourth. 

 

O'Reilly Finish Line

Heat 1 - 1, Mike Peters. 2, Andy Shouse. 3, C.J. Johnson. 4, Don Droud Jr. 5, Chris Miller. 6, A.J. Selenke. 7, Scott Lehman. 8, Ryan Kitchen. 9, Roger Sundquist.


Heat 2 - 1, Derek Drown. 2, Mike Chadd. 3, Koby Barksdale. 4, Jeff Dodd. 5, Jon Freeman. 6, Gavin Punch. 7, J.D. Johnson. 8, David Wheeler. 9, Marc Robe.

Heat 3 - 1, Cody Forshee. 2, Landon Brown. 3, Brian Herbert. 4, Mike Boston. 5, Stu Snyder. 6, Steven Richardson. 7, Corey Moore. 8, Luke Cranston.

B Feature - 1, A.J. Selenke. 2, J.D. Johnson. 3, Luke Cranston. 4, Chris Miller. 5, David Wheeler. 6, Jon Freeman. 7, Marc Robe. 8, Gavin Punch, 9, Scott Lehman, 10, Ryan Kitchen, 11, Steven Richardson, 12, Jeff Dodd, 13, Roger Sundquist, 14, Corey Moore.

A Feature - 1, Don Droud Jr. 2, Derek Drown. 3, C.J. Johnson. 4, Mike Peters. 5, Andy Shouse. 6, Mike Chadd. 7, Luke Cranston. 8, Mike Boston. 9, Marc Robe. 10, Gaven Punch. 11, Cody Forshee. 12, J.D. Johnson. 13, Stu Snyder. 14, Brian Herbert. 15, Jon Freeman. 16, Koby Barksdale. 17, Chris Miller. 18, David Wheeler. 19, Landon Brown. 20, A.J. Selenke.