PARK CITY, Kan. (June 7, 2008) - Former
series champion Mike Chadd of Lincoln, Nebraska started
on the pole and never looked back to claim the 25 lap
O'Reilly/NCRA sprint car presented by
ICM/Ethanol feature event Saturday night at 81 Speedway
in Park City, Kansas.
A.J. Selenke started on the outside front row but it was
Chadd who quickly took the lead as the field exited
turns one and two. J.D Johnson ran third while Marc Robe
and Mike Peters were the top five after the first lap
was complete. By the second lap, Chadd had quickly built
a half-stretch lead while behind him, Robe passed
Johnson for the third position, only to slip off turn
four and fading back to sixth position.
As the leader began approaching lapped traffic for the
first time on lap seven, the caution quickly waved when
Robe again spun, this time to a stop, in turn four. As
the field was being realigned for the restart, Oklahoma
City driver Andy Shouse, who was running sixth after
starting tenth, exited to the pits with a blown motor.
On the restart it was Chadd, followed by Selenke,
Peters, Johnson and current series points leader C.J.
Johnson as the 1993 series champion once again jumped
out to a comfortable advantage. Heading down the
backstretch, Peters got sideways and executed a 360 spin
in front of the field but gathered it back up but had
dropped back to ninth. This would move C.J. Johnson into
the third position as he began pressuring Selenke for
the runner up spot.
Just passed the halfway point, the final caution flag of
the evening appeared when Don Droud, Jr. came to a stop
with a broke front end entering turn three, ending his
evening.
On the final restart, Chadd and his Eckley powered Maxim
chassis again jumped out to a comfortable lead while
behind him, the battle for second was heating up between
Selenke, C.J. Johnson and J.D. Johnson. Selenke and his
strong run would fade on lap fifteen when he slid
off the wind-swept turns three and four moving C.J. into
the second position. He would close the distance to six
car lengths behind the leader by lap twenty while behind
him, ninth starting Derek Drown moved the Danny King
owned #85E ICM/Ethanol sponsored sprinter into the
fourth position and set sail on the top three.
But Chadd would again start to pull away from the rest
of the field and went unchallenged the rest of the way
to pick up his seventh career series victory. C.J.
Johnson would hold off several challenges from J.D.
Johnson to finish second while Drown settled for a
strong fourth. Gavin Punch, the first "B" feature
winner, started eleventh and rounded out the top five.
Koby Barksdale had the best finish amongst the series
rookies as he started twelfth and finished seventh.
The ten lap heat races for the twenty-nine car field
were won by Chadd, Selenke and Peters while Punch and
Barksdale won the two "B" features.
O'Reilly
Finish Line
HEAT 1
-
1, Mike Chadd. 2, Derek Drown. 3, Don Droud, Jr.. 4, Andy
Shouse. 5, Kerry McAlister. 6, Steve Richardson. 7, Chris
Morgan. 8, Dwight Schroeder. 9, Jon Freeman. 10, Luke
Cranston.
HEAT 2
-
1, A.J.
Selenke. 2, C.J. Johnson. 3, Larry Neighbors. 4, Koby
Barksdale. 5, Jason Schroeder. 6, Jeff Stasa. 7, Roger
Sundquist. 8, Scott Lehman. 9, Corey Moore. 10, Allan Unruh.
HEAT 3
-
1, Mike
Peters. 2, Marc Robe. 3, J.D. Johnson. 4, Gavin
Punch. 5, David Wheeler. 6, Cody Forshee. 7, John Thomas. 8, Dusty Murray. 9, Ryan
Kitchen.
B Feature 1 - 1, Gavin
Punch. 2, Jason Schroeder. 3, David Wheeler. 4, Jon Freeman.
5, Scott Lehman. 6, Ryan Kitchen. 7, Jeff Stasa. 8, Allan
Unruh.
B Feature 2 - Koby
Barksdale. 2, Kerry McAlister. 3, Dwight Schroeder. 4, Luke
Cranston. 5, Cody Forshee. 6, Roger Sundquist. 7, John
Thomas. 8, Dusty Murrary. 9, Steven Richardson. 10, Corey
Moore. 11, Chris Morgan.
A Feature -
1, Mike Chadd. 2, C.J. Johnson. 3, J.D. Johnson. 4, Derek
Drown. 5, Gavin Punch. 6, Mike Peters. 7, Koby Barksdale. 8, Larry
Neighbors. 9, A.J. Selenke. 10, Luke Cranston. 11,
Kerry McAlister. 12, Scott Lehman. 13, Dwight Schroeder.
14, David Wheeler. 15, Jon Freeman. 16, Cody Forshee. 17,
Jason Schroeder. 18, Don Droud, Jr.. 19, Marc Robe. 20,
Andy Shouse.