Bruce Bags First Lucas Oil ASCS Win of the Year in
Rock ‘N Roll 50 Prelim!
BY: Lonnie Wheatley
WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. (October 1, 2010) – Tony Bruce, Jr., shook
the monkey off his back by racing to victory lane in Friday night’s 30-lap
Lucas Oil ASCS presented by K&N Filters preliminary event at the fabled
Riverside International Speedway.
The Liberal, KS,
racer/promoter battled past early leader Brian Brown on the tenth round in
heavy traffic atop the ¼-mile gumbo clay oval and held the top spot the rest
of the way to snare his first ASCS National win of the year aboard the Bruce
Racing No. 18 Maxim.
“Lapped traffic
comes into play here big and I couldn’t wait to get to it,” Bruce explained
in victory lane. “We had a hell of a car and made it happen.”
With his fifth
career Lucas Oil ASCS National triumph, Bruce locked himself into Saturday
night’s Second Annual Rock ‘N Roll 50 finale along with the balance of
Friday’s top four that included runner-up Danny Wood, 24th-starter
Shane Stewart and local rep Derek Hagar.
After the initial
feature start was waved off for Andy McElhannon’s turn two flip, pole
starter Brown outgunned Josh Fisher for the lead at the drop of the green
flag and paced the early circuits in front of Hagar as Bruce worked up to
third by the fifth round.
Bruce made his way
past Hagar for second on the sixth circuit and went to work on Brown for the
point as traffic came into play on the eighth round. Bruce drove underneath
Brown exiting turn four to take command on the tenth circuit, with Hagar and
then Wood following suit in subsequent laps with Wood taking second away
from Hagar by the time the caution flew just after the midway point when
Brown and Fisher tangled in turn one. Both Missouri shoes retired to the
pit area for the night.
After working his
way from 14th to fourth in the opening 16 laps, Jack Dover
clipped an infield tire exiting turn four two laps later and came to a stop
to bring out another caution.
With Bruce holding
steady over Wood out front, defending series champion Shane Stewart was
climbing towards a lock-in position after using his third provisional of the
year to start the feature in 24th.
Just after Stewart
had raced past the battling duo of Marshall Skinner and Jeff Swindell to
stake a claim on fourth as the laps clicked off, the red flag flew one last
time when Swindell flipped entering turn one after contact with Skinner just
five laps shy of the checkered flag.
Bruce was flawless
over the final five rounds to secure the win, with Wood holding strong in
the runner-up position aboard the Fisher-powered H&H Enterprises No. 94
Maxim. Stewart’s surge resulted in a third-place showing aboard Paul
Silva’s Rockstar Energy Drink No. 57 A.R.T., while Marion, AR, shoe Hagar
matched his previous best ASCS National finish by crossing the stripe in
fourth.
Current Lucas Oil
ASCS National points leader Jason Johnson rallied from 16th to
round out the top five aboard the JJR Don Ott-powered Haynes No. 41 Maxim,
missing out on a lock-in position to Saturday’s Rock ‘N Roll 50 championship
main event by just one position.
Utilizing a
provisional just as Stewart did, Brady Bacon raced from 23rd to
sixth, with Skinner, Darren Stewart, Ernie Ainsworth and 20th-starting
Brodix Rookie of the Year contender Matt Covington completing the top ten.
Skinner, Ricky
Logan, Anthony Nicholson, Wood, Fisher and Darren Stewart topped heat race
action for Friday’s 48-car field, with Channin Tankersley and Justin Sturch
winning the twin “B” Mains.
Eddie Gallagher’s
night came to an early end when he flipped after contact entering turn one
on the second lap of the night’s fourth heat race, with Kevin Kilpatrick
turning over contact with a spinning car on the opening round of the second
“B” Main.
The Second Annual
Rock ‘N Roll 50 at Riverside International Speedway concludes on Saturday
night, with racing action going green at 7:30 p.m.
Lucas Oil ASCS
Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters
Second Annual Rock
‘N Roll 50 Preliminary
Riverside Speedway
Results:
Heat Races (Top 16
in Passing Points to "A" Main; Balance to 2 "B" Mains):
Heat One (10
Laps): 1. 26-Marshall Skinner, 2. 40-Ernie Ainsworth, 3. 53-Jack Dover, 4.
3-A.G. Rains, 5. 57-Shane Stewart, 6. 88-Tim Crawley, 7. 44c-Wes Shepard.
DNS: 6-Kyle Hirst.
Heat Two (10
Laps): 1. 10a-Ricky Logan, 2. 58-Wade Oliver, 3. 50z-Zach Chappell, 4.
93-Dustin Morgan, 5. 3x-Michael Dupuy, 6. 8x-Chris Williams, 7. 22-Kevin
Kilpatrick, 8. C4-Casey Rowland.
Heat Three (10
Laps): 1. 16-Anthony Nicholson, 2. 0-Andy McElhannon, 3. 41-Jason Johnson,
4. 9-Justin Sturch, 5. 99-Brady Bacon, 6. 90-Jeff Swindell, 7. 3g-Darren
Long, 8. 24-Justin Carver.
Heat Four (10
Laps): 1. 94-Danny Wood, 2. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 3. 71-Channin Tankersley,
4. 44-Ronny Howard, 5. 35-Rick Wright, Jr., 6. 46-Jan Howard, 7. 1x-Gary
Taylor, 8. 1-Eddie Gallagher.
Heat Five (10
Laps): 1. 5h-Josh Fisher, 2. 21-Brian Brown, 3. 9h-Derek Hagar, 4. 17-Brad
Bowden, 5. 01-Jeremy Newkirk, 6. 17x-Jeff Leach, 7. 16p-Dewayne Prince, 8.
14-Jordon Mallett.
Heat Six (10
Laps): 1. 91-Darren Stewart, 2. 21x-Taylor Velasquez, 3. 51s-Lee Sowell, 4.
95-Matt Covington, 5. 47-Dale Howard, 6. 9x-Gary Wright, 7. 5-Jerod Roller.
DNS: 11-Carl Zaniboni.
"B" Mains (Top 3
From Each Advance to "A" Main):
First "B" Feature
(15 Laps): 1. 71-Channin Tankersley, 2. 93-Dustin Morgan, 3. 17-Brad
Bowden, 4. 88-Tim Crawley, 5. 99-Brady Bacon, 6. 46-Jan Howard, 7. 47-Dale
Howard, 8. 6-Kyle Hirst, 9. 3g-Darren Long, 10. 14-Jordon Mallett, 11.
3-A.G. Rains, 12. 8x-Chris Williams, 13. 44-Ronny Howard, 14. 16p-Dewayne
Prince, 15. 9x-Gary Wright, 16. 5-Jerod Roller.
Second "B" Feature
(15 Laps): 1. 9-Justin Sturch, 2. 95-Matt Covington, 3. 90-Jeff Swindell,
4. 57-Shane Stewart, 5. 1x-Gary Taylor, 6. 51s-Lee Sowell, 7. 24-Justin
Carver, 8. 35-Rick Wright, Jr., 9. 17x-Jeff Leach, 10. 44c-Wes Shepard, 11.
3x-Michael Dupuy, 12. 01-Jeremy Newkirk, 13. 22-Kevin Kilpatrick. DNS:
c4-Casey Rowland, 1-Eddie Gallagher, 11-Carl Zaniboni.
Riverside Speedway
Rock ‘N Roll 50 Preliminary “A” Main:
“A” Feature (30
Laps): 1. 18-Tony Bruce, Jr., 2. 94-Danny Wood, 3. 57-Shane Stewart, 4.
9h-Derek Hagar, 5. 41-Jason Johnson, 6. 99-Brady Bacon, 7. 26-Marshall
Skinner, 8. 91-Darren Stewart, 9. 40-Ernie Ainsworth, 10. 95-Matt Covington,
11. 93-Dustin Morgan, 12. 10a-Ricky Logan, 13. 71-Channin Tankersley, 14.
50z-Zach Chappell, 15. 16-Anthony Nicholson, 16. 9-Justin Sturch, 17.
21x-Taylor Velasquez, 18. 90-Jeff Swindell, 19. 17-Brad Bowden, 20. 53-Jack
Dover, 21. 21-Brian Brown, 22. 5h-Josh Fisher, 23. 58-Wade Oliver, 24.
0-Andy McElhannon.
Lap Leaders: Brian
Brown 1-9, Tony Bruce, Jr. 10-30.
Note: Shane Stewart
used his third provisional of the year, a partial-point provisional, and
Brady Bacon used his mid-season bonus full-point provisional to start the
main event. Stewart has one partial-point provisional remaining, while
Bacon has two partial-point provisionals remaining.
Lucas Oil ASCS
Sprint Cars presented by K&N Filters Points (Top 15): 1. Jason Johnson
2,531, 2. Brady Bacon 2,466, 3. Shane Stewart 2,437, 4. Tony Bruce, Jr.
2,271, 5. Tim Crawley 2,264, 6. Zach Chappell 2,238, 7. Jack Dover 2,233, 8.
Danny Wood 2,133, 9. Ricky Logan 2,071, 10. Kyle Hirst 2,054, 11. Matt
Covington 1,989, 12. Dustin Morgan 1,865, 13. Darren Long 1,817, 14. Channin
Tankersley 1,739, 15. Justyn Cox 1,513.
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