By Ken Wagner
Nov 1, 2008

The thirteenth annual Oval Nationals was different from the word go. From the economy forced reduced purse, the prelim wins of two local drivers, the smaller crowds than usual, one of the biggest car counts, all the way to the hockey like run thru the field by the winner in the 40 lap finale. It was perhaps the most brutal race in the 13 year history of the Oval Nationals. And it was on a Midwest type track surface with no reference to USAC rules, what rules? For the uninformed, the action was blistering and very exciting, especially the first two nights, but to the real fans, Saturday wasn’t fun to watch as it unfolded. Pass the cheese for my whine, but that’s not what I am feeling here. I would be still be just as concerned if a local driver had gotten away with that performance, and I love successful slide jobs! I predicted the Saturday results just like the past 8 years, if there is no tacky track, there is no local winner. Don’t expect anything different at the Western if they get the normal blue groove going on Saturday there.

For Mrs Wags pics Click here. For Wags pics Click here. Doug Allen's Click here. For TOHF Click here.

There were two nights of great racing on good surfaces, but the invaders didn’t think so when they didn’t go right to the front and were beaten to the $1000 each night. When Saturday gave them a slick home track, it was all over. The locals held their own on the tackier tracks with five of the top ten on the opening night and four the second night, but with slick track racing on Saturday, no contest, only one made the top ten. Of course it is not unexpected when the National crews pull in with 100 races under their belts and the local boys only 25 or so. It was too much to ask for a third night of tacky track surface, so the beat goes on. Maybe an expert on dirt prep could make a difference on the final nights in the future.

The opening night saw a monster run by the Cowboy as Tony Jones was 10th in qualifying, ran 2nd in his heat and started 8th in the main event. He went on in the La Villa Restaurant, Alexander Trucking, Ferreira Dairy # 4 to smash the field and leave them all behind. Tony made all the right moves and was never threatened in his quest for a second Oval Nationals win. The second night wasn’t so good for the Cowboy as he had a tire explode in his heat and even though he was ready to push off within 10 seconds, they went without him, and with only a lap of line-up? Where was that rule that allows two laps before a restart? Bubby always said you don’t leave your heroes in the pits! Tony then missed the cutoff in the semi and could have run the main with a provisional. The team decided it wasn’t worth it for them since they are not running for points, and lord knows they only won $1000 in victory the night before, so what could they possibly have won from the back, plus the cost of running 25 laps? Saturday wasn’t much better for Tony as he started 12th and discovered “it wasn’t his kind of track”, so just pedaled it as much as possible to finish 11th.

Runner-up behind the Cowboy was Blake Miller who ran a great race after coming out next to last in qualifying and still getting 7th fast time. He started on the front row and was only passed by the winner as he was never bothered the whole race. Driving the blue Roy Miller Freightliner, Black Widow Racing, Gardner Pipe and Mechanical # 93, Blake looked like he had a shot at a win, but never mounted the charge. On Friday he was 9th quick and had to run the semi before starting 10th in the main. There he finished 7th and was locked into the main for the final. He was very aggressive on Saturday following his teammate, who was leading for a long time, but something broke on the car and he was in the pits too early listed 18th on the final tally. He ran a dandy three days, but got nothing in return.

Damion Gardner came home to the track where he won two weeks ago and was the CRA champion two years ago to get a strong third from his 13th starting spot. Driving his familiar silver and green, Pace Electronics, Team ASE, Stanton Mopar # 71, he was very good in traffic as he moved up to the podium finish. The second night he won his heat and started 4th in the feature. There was a three way battle for this one from the start. With Damion, Jesse Hockett and David Cardey, each leading twice during the 25 laps, Cardey grabbed the win when Jessie tried a move on Gardner that slowed both and Dynomite David took charge the last three laps with Damion claiming second place and his second night on the podium. He would have made it three, but for a failed slide job that ran over his front end. In the Saturday main, he started 6th on an inversion of 6 as he was the high point getter from the first two nights. The battle up front was torrid, but when he went for second late in the race he slid Jerry Coons legal and Coons responded by running over his front end. I guess Damion is used to that style as he ran National for the last two years. The Demon was 16th and deserved another podium.

David Cardey was enjoying his birthday on Friday when he qualified 19th and still ended up on the front row! The race started with him getting shuffled to third as Damion and Jesse fought for the lead. He stayed close and burst into the lead on lap 12 and held it until Jesse came back on him. While Damion and Jesse battled, David stayed close and watched. When Jesse came off the top to block Damion, the Demon went up top and unsettled the Slammer enough that Jesse banged him on an attempt to pass with but three laps to go, and Cardey bolted to the lead that he kept to the end. Cardey drove the ITI house car, ITI Performance Motorsports, HK Construction, Sander Engineering # 38 hard and really charged out of the corners to get this win. On Thursday he ran 6th and started the big 40 lap main in 4th with high hopes. Unfortunately, he was one of the victims of the winner’s slide jobs as the slammer hit him hard enough to spin him helicopter style to a stop, done for the night. He applauded the slammer when he came by as opposed to other forms of sign language. David was running very well when that un-penalized thrust happened.

Jerry Coons Jr was 4th on Thursday, 3rd on Friday and 2nd on Saturday for a very consistent three days. He was charging hard in the Hoffman # 69 the entire event and except for parking Damion on Saturday night, he was looking like a contender for the big win. Jesse Hockett didn’t make the main on Thursday when he was 15th in the semi. He was 4th on Friday and started 19th in the big show. He touch passed a lot of cars to win this one, too bad the many “incidents” weren’t just racing! Cardey’s takeout was the worst, but Rickie Gaunt probably wasn’t happy about his nudge either.

Boy the list of problem kids this event was really sad. Danny Sheridan’s first night started off with a mid pack qualifying time that quickly turned into a motor change. He missed his heat and started late in the semi to prove the car would run. He was one of 4 provisional starters as he started 25th and rolled up to 7th at the end. A great job for Showtime, but because he took a provisional, there were no Oval points. The next night he came out late when unlike the first night when times were pretty close thru all the cars, the last 30 or so had nothing to hold them and bad times resulted. This time he ran his heat and was third, allowing him with his slow time to start 23rd. He was only able to get up to 13th at the end, but was the hard charger for the second night in a row.

On Saturday night he started 14th in the semi, but due to some exciting traffic problems, he was one spot out of a transfer and took another provisional at 26th starting spot. He was cruising just fine in about 10th place in the main until an errant red car lost it and caused him to tip over pretty hard under the starter’s flag. They tipped him back on his wheels and a fire broke out. A yellow clad fireman with the red helmet drug him out of the car, slammed him to the ground and rolled the fire out. A few minutes later, while he was being interviewed, one of his crewmen, that half longhaired nice guy named Jimbo, asked him if he could still drive? Why not and they had him back in the car with it all fixed, they thought. Then after a restart that didn’t go, he went to the back for the next one. He then started going and knew there was a problem as he was shaking like a milkshake maker under power. It was only the right radius rod or strut, or whatever the bar that holds the rear end to the chassis, it was gone. Danny held on to get lucky thirteenth again, the third in a row in two nights, and it was Halloween wasn’t it. Danny gets the “passes the most cars” award and the crew gets the “busiest worker bee’s for the weekend” award. All in all, they worked hard and rolled it in the trailer each night before partying hard to make up for the unfortunate bad luck. It happens, but they took it and kept coming back.

Alan Ballard had his problems as something broke both prelim nights and that sent him to the C main on Saturday on the front row. He led 19 of the 20 laps, but ran out of gas and ended up on the outside of the transfer by 2 spots. Tyler Brown ran 13th and 11th before starting on the pole on Saturday night. He looked pretty good for 36 laps until something broke in the steering and he ended up in the wall, his hopes dashed after a great run for an unlucky 17th. At least no one took him out! Teammate Blake Miller ran 2nd and 7th before starting 3rd on Saturday night. He was running a strong second when something broke on his car and he was done in 18th. When the other teammate “Super Rickie” got tagged and took the hook to 20th place, the Gardner blue power team was done. They too had to struggle a lot, and with four cars running, it can’t be easy.

Probably the most startling “crash” came when two team cars got together. On several restarts Tracy Hines and teammate Levi Jones were running 3rd and 4th in that order behind the two blue Gardner cars. The track was slick from the get go and so Tracy made several runs at Blake Miller but had to hold back under him each time as Blake protected the spot up top. On one particular restart Tracy did his normal attempt, but this time so did Levi. As Tracy backed off one more time, Levi continued on and slid right up and into his teammate and they both went crashing wildly pretty hard, causing those behind them to play avoidance. I would hate to be in that team meeting as Levi was 2 points out of first place when the weekend started behind Coons who did pretty well each night leaving Levi 90 points behind now, with just two races left this coming weekend at Phoenix.

R J Johnson came over from Phoenix to get 16th, 19th and 25th on Saturday when he was taken out. Cory Kruseman had a forgettable Ovals without making a main and running 9th and 13th in the two prelim Semis and then was crashed out in Saturday’s semi for 24th there. Subbing for injured Garrett Hanson, Hunter Scheurenberg was 24th the first night in the beautiful yellow Mark Priestley # 7. Then he missed the second night and started 28th on Saturday with a provisional. He finished 12th for a great drive there. There were probably many more that overcame their own problems, or not, as crashes and equipment failures were no stranger to the Ovals again this year.

It was a fun 4 days, including the practice night, and all in all I am sure the fans that came enjoyed most of the racing. There was some grumbling, like me, that didn’t take kindly to the slammin going on, but the excuse heard most often was “that’s racing”! It takes a lot of work to put on a race like this and there was no shortage of motor home’s camping out all over the facility, so the national prominence is noted. I was personally surprised at the total of 62 cars racing, what with the low car counts and all, but it is a big race. There were 25 coming from the National world, and that is a lot! What does the future have in store for our racing in 2009? Will there be racing for CRA? Will the Victorville open races return? Will there be enough tracks to fill the schedule? Will the Oval Nationals return to the higher purse, will the economy help the racers out? Is there a crystal ball available to answer these and many more questions as our nation goes to the polls to make better or just change?

Some of the things I’ll keep in my cherished memories will be, camping out with the Kittle Motorsports bunch, watching the practice from the “suites” up above, hearing about the Diva’s bikini contest and the huge crowd, Tony Jones romp to win and David Cardey's awesome pass to win in the prelims, Brian’s pork tenderloin’s, seeing a lot of missed faces and the conversations to catch up, the Wagtimer’s section bustling with friends, Damion’s charges thru the pack with wheels up, Showtime passing and passing and passing cars and his fire act, Karen’s mom’s carrot cake, the packed pits (so much so I had very few parking places when I wanted to stop and visit), and the feeling you always get when you go sprint car racing with Mrs Wags. Don’t look for me at Manzy, I’ll stay home and relax and get ready for the last two races of the season. It has been a good one, hasn’t it?

10/30 FEATURE: (25 laps - With Starting Positions) 1. Tony Jones (8th), 2. Blake Miller (2nd), 3. Damion Gardner (13th), 4. Jerry Coons Jr. (7th), 5. Mike Spencer (6th), 6. David Cardey (12th), 7. Danny Sheridan (25th), 8. Brad Sweet (20th), 9. Cole Whitt (19th), 10. Bud Kaeding (23rd), 11. Darren Hagen (17th), 12. Tracy Hines (21st), 13. Tyler Brown (4th), 14. Chris Windom (16th), 15. Josh Ford (14th), 16. R.J. Johnson (24th), 17. Dave Darland (10th), 18. Daron Clayton (11th), 19. Thomas Meseraull (3rd), 20. Levi Jones (9th), 21. Rickie Gaunt (5th), 22. Matt Mitchell (22nd), 23. Chad Boat (15th), 24. Hunter Scheurenberg (27th), 25. Shane Cottle (26th), 26. Brady Bacon (1st), 27. Alan Ballard (18th), 28. Dustin Morgan (28th). NT.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Brady Bacon, Laps 6-7 Blake Miller, Laps 8-25 Tony Jones.

10/31 FEATURE: (25 laps - With Starting Positions) 1. David Cardey (1st), 2. Damion Gardner (4th), 3. Jerry Coons Jr., (5th), 4. Jesse Hockett (2nd), 5. Levi Jones (6th), 6. Rickie Gaunt (9th), 7. Blake Miller (10th), 8. Tracy Hines (14th), 9. R.J. Johnson (16th), 10. Bud Kaeding (3rd), 11. Tyler Brown (8th), 12. Tim Kaeding (12th), 13. Danny Sheridan (23rd), 14. Chad Boat (7th), 15. Kevin Swindell (11th), 16. Casey Shuman (18th), 17. Dave Darland (17th), 18. Darren Hagen (19th), 19. Alan Ballard (28th), 20. Josh Ford (20th), 21. Thomas Meseraull (15th), 22. Mike Spencer (26th), 23. Shane Cottle (27th), 24. Brad Sweet (13th), 25. Jeff Bland Jr. (21st), 26. Robert Ballou (24th), 27. Brady Short (22nd), 28. Cole Whitt (25th). NT.

****Cole Whitt, Mike Spencer, Shane Cottle, & Alan Ballard Used Provisionals.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-8 Jesse Hockett, Laps 9-11 David Cardey, Laps 12-16 Damion Gardner, Laps 17-19 Jesse Hockett, Laps 20-22 Damion Gardner, Laps 23-25 David Cardey

D-MAIN: (15 laps - With Starting Positions) 1. Cody Williams (1st- #3 Jory), 2. Rusty Carlile (2nd- #51X Carlile), 3. Brian Camarillo (4th- #22C CamLand), 4. Brandon Thomson (7th- #91T Thomson), 5. Brent Camarillo (3rd- #51C CamLand), 6. Matt Stewart (11th- #55 Everhart), 7. Brien Kinney (9th- #85 Persall), 8. Lawrence O’Connor (12th- #10X, Adderson), 9. Ludwig Solberg IV (6th- #84 Persall), 10. Royal Adderson (5th- #40 Adderson), 11. Adam Frith-Smith (8th- #62, Frith-Smith), 12. Hunter Scheurenberg (10th- #7 Priestley). NT.

11/01 C-MAIN: (20 laps - With Starting Positions) 1. Cory Kruseman (6th- #21K Kruseman), 2. Matt Mitchell (1st- #87 Mitchell), 3. Robert Ballou (5th- #2A Smiley), 4. Greg Bragg (3rd- #92 Sertich), 5. Dustin Morgan (8th- #67 Kunz), 6. Brady Short (4th- #36 Riggs), 7. Brett Burdette (9th- #17B Burdette), 8. Henry Clarke (10th- #41K Kruseman), 9. Jordan Hermansader (14th- #32 Rase), 10. Alan Ballard (2nd- #75 Stansberry/Bach), 11. Rodney Argo (11th- #19 Argo), 12. Seth Wilson (13th- #17 Wilson), 13. Rusty Carlile (17th- #51X Carlile), 14. Brian Camarillo (18th- #22C CamLand), 15. Cody Williams (16th- #3 Jory), 16. Ludwig Solberg IV (24th- #84 Persall), 17. Christian Stover (15th- #83X VanDyke), 18. Shane Cottle, (7th- #4 Contos), 19. Brent Camarillo (20th- #51C Camland), 20. Brein Kinney (22nd- #85 Persall), 21. Kyle Hirst (12th- #3F Finkenbinder), 22. Brandon Thomson (19th- #91T Thomson), 23. Lawrence O’Connor (23rd- #10X Adderson), 24. Matt Stewart (21st- #55 Everhart). NT.

11/01 SEMI-MAIN: (20 laps - With Starting Positions) 1. Brad Sweet (1st- #9 Kahne), 2. Mike Spencer (4th- #50 Chaffin), 3. Chad Boat (2nd- #30 Boat), 4. Dave Darland (5th- #2B 2B Racing), 5. Cole Whitt (8th- #67K Kunz), 6. Daron Clayton (13th- #83 Crossno), 7. Jesse Hockett (7th- #2 McMillan), 8. Josh Ford (3rd- #73 Ford), 9. Thomas Meseraull (6th- #5 Baldwin), 10. Brady Bacon (15th- #99 Kahne), 11. Kevin Swindell (9th- #10K Rolfe), 12. Chris Windom (11th- #17 Windom), 13. Danny Sheridan (14th- #18 Kittle), 14. Dustin Morgan (21st- #67 Kunz), 15. Jeff Bland Jr. (16th- #10T R & B), 16. Casey Shuman (12th- #32X Foster), 17. Robert Ballou (19th- #2A Smiley), 18. Matt Mitchell (18th- #87 Mitchell), 19. Greg Bragg (20th- #92 Sertich), 20. Brady Short (22nd- #36 Riggs), 21. Henry Clarke (24th- #41K Kruseman), 22. Brett Burdette (23rd- #17B Burdette), 23. Tim Kaeding (10th- #83JR Roth), 24. Cory Kruseman (17th- #21K Kruseman). NT.

11/01 FEATURE: (40 laps- With Starting Positions) 1. Jesse Hockett (19th- #2 McMillan), 2. Jerry Coons, Jr. (5th- #69 Dynamics), 3. Kevin Swindell (23rd- #10K Rolfe), 4. Brad Sweet (13th- #9 Kahne), 5. Darren Hagen (11th- #10 R&B Racing), 6. Bud Kaeding (9th- #29 BK Motorsports), 7. Chad Boat (15th- #30 Boat), 8. Thomas Meseraull (21st- #5 Baldwin), 9. Dave Darland (16th- #2B 2B Racing), 10. Mike Spencer (14th- #50 Chaffin), 11. Tony Jones (12th- #4 Alexander), 12. Hunter Scheurenberg (28th- #7 Preistley), 13. Danny Sheridan (26th- #18 Kittle), 14. Brady Bacon (22nd- #99 Kahne), 15. Josh Ford (20th- #73 Ford), 16. Damion Gardner (6th- #71 Leffler), 17. Tyler Brown (1st- #96 Gardner), 18. Blake Miller (3rd- #93 Gardner), 19. David Cardey (4th- #38 Crossno), 20. Rickie Gaunt (8th- #93J Gardner), 21. Tracy Hines (2nd- #21 Stewart), 22. Levi Jones (7th- #20 Stewart), 23. Cole Whitt (17th- #67K Kunz), 24. Chris Windom (24th- #17 Windom), 25. R.J. Johnson (10th- #15 Martin), 26. Dustin Morgan (27th- #67 Kunz), 27. Daron Clayton (18th- #83 Crossno), 28. Shane Cottle (25th- #4X Contos). NT

NOTES: *Brein Kinney Flipped After The C-Main Checkered Flags. **Levi Jones, Tracy Hines, & Danny Sheridan Flipped During The Feature ***Shane Cottle, Danny Sheridan, Dustin Morgan, & Hunter Scheurenberg Used Provisionals.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-26 Tyler Brown, Laps 27-37 Jerry Coons Jr., Laps 38-40 Jesse Hockett.

NEW USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Coons-1,290; 2-Jones-1,201; 3-Whitt-1,121; 4-Hines-1,102; 5-Hagen-985; 6-Darland-970; 7-Cottle-954; 8-Sweet-939; 9-Gardner-931; 10-Bacon-920.

NEW LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Spencer-1,473; 2-Miller-1,427; 3-Sheridan-1,363; 4-.Jones-1,146; 5-Brown-1,066; 6-Garrett Hansen-1,039; 7-Cardey-963; 8-Kruseman-952; 9-Ford-839; 10-Ballard-627.

NEXT USAC NATIONAL & LUCAS OIL USAC/CRA SPRINT CAR RACES: November 7-8 – Phoenix, AZ - Manzanita Speedway