CRA 1 AM RACE RESULTS

USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: February 28, 2008 – Las Vegas, Nevada – Las Vegas Motor Speedway – “Las Vegas Dirt Classic”

A very nice day with a light breeze, a lot of sunshine and an air show of F' whatevers overhead. The Track started out wet and slushy, but it came in very well, surprise!!! I understand they imported one of the track preparers from the WOO world and I was impressed with his results. Of course, it took a long time to bring it in, and there was one spot on the low groove in turn one that had a right turn only effect when you tried to run down there, but hey, the winner came from 13th and the early leader was passed by 5 cars. And I thought Jesse Hockett was a shoe in when he lined up on the front row.

There were some crashes with Jonas Reynolds probably the worst of it when he came up off the bottom after turning right and went slam into the wall, hooking his rollcage into the fence. It took a long time to unhook the car "drop" it upside down on the track and even longer to get him out on a backboard. He was transported to the hospital and early word is he will be OK with maybe some shoulder pain. It wasn't an Indianafest on this track like normal as our So cal boys took 8 of the first 10 spots in the main. Cory Kruseman tried hard to catch Bullet Blake, but Miller found the fast low groove in turn 3/4 before he did and it launched him to his 3rd all time CRA win. The early slippery conditions caused havoc with many competitiors as the groove was solid, but out of it was some shakey trouble for some.

Blake really came from nowhere as he used the top groove out of turn two to launch into the lead and the low groove in turn three to rid himself of Hockett. Like a surgeon, Bullet Blake was a rocket and only Kruseman pressed him at the end. Locally no preinfo from the local paper and no coverage this morning, so if you don't know the USAC schedule, you wouldn't know we were here. Case in point, Stan Atherton, CRA driver of note from years past, was in town for a family celebration and "discovered" the race! If the dirt magician can redo the track, look for a barnburner tonight. Yes, I have made it very clear how much I like the facility and hate the dirt track here, but last night gets a pass as it was racy and only a hint of black appeared in the groove very late in the race. It helped early to have the Western late models help pack the track and get it better, and them running their feature last so there was a race track for us. If you are in LA or other parts, you might want to come see tonight, if last nights race is any indication!

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Mike Spencer, 50, Chaffin-17.015; 2. Josh Ford, 73, Ford-17.115; 3. Cole Whitt, 5, Kruseman-17.207; 4. Cory Kruseman, 21k, Kruseman-17.399; 5. Nic Faas, 117, Faas-17.412; 6. Danny Sheridan, 18, Kittle-17.639; 7. Rodney Argo, 19, Argo-17.765; 8. Dustin Morgan, 11D, Walker/Guiducci-17.775; 9. Blake Miller, 93, Gardner-17.985; 10. Austin Mero, 71k, Kruseman-18.067; 11. Chad Boat, 30, Boat-18.080; 12. Jim Richardson, 8, Richardson-18.220; 13. Casey Shuman, 0, Price-18.228; 14. Jonas Reynolds, 48, Reynolds-18.653; 15. Jesse Hockett, 75, VKCC-18.843; 16. Tyler Brown, 96, Gardner-19.062; 17. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-19.423; 18. Garrett Hansen, 7, Priestley-19.476; 19. Henry Clarke, 41k, Kruseman-20.643; 20. Kenny Perkins, 34, Perkins-20.761; 21. Joey Franklin, 4E, Franklin-20.945; 22. Levi Jones, 11, Walker/Guiducci-21.167; 23. Kyle Bates, 397, Boisvert-21.276; 24. Seth Wilson, 17, Wilson-22.704; 25. John Butler, 54, Butler-NT; 26. Axel Walker, 62, Walker-NT.

FIRST HEAT: (6 laps) 1. L.Jones, 2. Shuman, 3. Mero, 4. Spencer, 5. Kruseman, 6. Clarke, 7. Argo, 8. Brown. NT

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Mellenberndt, 2. Boat, 3. Morgan, 4. Faas, 5. Ford, 6. Bates, 7. Walker, 8. Perkins, 9. Reynolds. NT

THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Hockett, 2. Hansen, 3. Wilson, 4. Whitt, 5. Miller, 6. Sheridan, 7. Richardson, 8. Franklin. NT

SEMI: (5 laps) 1. Kruseman, 2. Sheridan, 3. Ford, 4. Miller, 5. Brown, 6. Argo, 7. Richardson, 8. Franklin, 9. Bates, 10. Butler. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Blake Miller, 2. Cory Kruseman, 3. Casey Shuman, 4. Cole Whitt, 5. Tyler Brown, 6. Jesse Hockett, 7. Levi Jones, 8. Josh Ford, 9. Garrett Hansen, 10. Austin Mero, 11. Nic Faas, 12. Jim Richardson, 13. Seth Wilson, 14. Rodney Argo, 15. Mike Spencer, 16. Danny Sheridan, 17. Chad Boat, 18. Dustin Morgan, 19. Joey Franklin, 20. Kenny Perkins, 21. Axel Walker, 22. Bret Mellenberndt, 23. John Butler. NT

**Wilson flipped during qualifying. Clarke flipped during the first heat. Reynolds flipped during the second heat and was transported to University Medical Center for treatment. Bates flipped during the semi.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-9 Hockett, Laps 10-14 Whitt, Laps 15-24 Hockett, Laps 25-30 Miller.

NEW USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR POINTS: 1-Kruseman-241; 2-Whitt-203; 3-L.Jones-195; 4-Miller-192; 5-Spencer-192; 6-Hansen-176; 7-Hockett-170; 8-Sheridan-148; 9-Ford-134; 10-Brown-131.

NEXT USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACE: February 29 – Las Vegas (NV) Motor Speedway Dirt Track – “Las Vegas Dirt Classic”