Meyers
Masters Tri-City for
Granite City, IL — May 7, 2005 — By Chris Dolack,
After several close encounters with Victory Lane this season,
Meyers picked up his first
With leader Swindell running a consistent line, Meyers took advantage of
building rubber in Turns 3 and 4 by diving to the inside of Swindell on Lap 16.
Swindell couldn’t block the aggressive move in Turn 3 as Meyers shot in front
and made the lead stick in Turns 1 and 2.
After that, Meyers needed only to be smooth on restarts and work through some
light traffic. After lapping rookie contender Brandon Wimmer, Meyers built a
2.5-second advantage as Swindell and third-place runner Kraig Kinser struggled
to carve a path around Wimmer.
But Meyers would be tested four laps from the finish when the left rear tire on
Jason Solwold’s machine shredded, bringing out a caution for
This time, Meyers went right back to what had put him in front and again
powered out to the lead. With rubber laying down in the turns, Meyers made
certain to stick his Elite Racing Team car right in the middle of it,
preventing anybody from getting around him.
Swindell wound up second followed by Kraig Kinser, Tim Shaffer and Jason Sides,
who put together his best finish of the season with consistent laps all night.
“On that last restart, I made sure I got to the rubber and took off right in it,”
said Meyers, of Clovis, Calif. “I tried to take off as early as I could without
getting in trouble to have as much speed as I could going into Turn 1. The last
thing I wanted to do is go into Turn 1, get tight in the rubber and let
somebody slip by me.”
Meyers was unaware Swindell and the rest of the lead pack was hung up behind
the lapped car. He believed Swindell was ready to pounce at any moment.
“I didn’t know that lapped car was between us,” Meyers said. “I saw Sammy poke
his nose under me at one point and then I got by Wimmer. When I got by Wimmer
going into Turn 3, I assumed that Sammy had gotten around him, too. I guess
from the crew standpoint they got to relax a little bit but I didn’t get to
relax in the racecar, I had to stay going hard.”
Swindell, Kinser, Shaffer and Sides did slide past Wimmer on that final
restart, but none had a chance to reel in Meyers.
“I was out front just going along and the track changed and it was too late,”
said Swindell, a three-time series champion from Germantown, Tenn. “When Jason
got there I had to back off from running over him. He dove right in under me.
The track changed and it got better down there but I didn’t know that because
we never really got to lapped cars. I passed one guy before that and we just never
got in any traffic. If you’re out front, you usually don’t change your line. We
were keeping a pretty good pace but a lot of guys got to running through the
middle and it got rubber down and it got a whole lot better there. He was able
to find it, got down there and snuck right in there on me. I never had a chance
to defend myself.
“I still think once I got behind him I was able to push him pretty good. If he
made just a little mistake I could have gotten by him.”
But it was a mistake-free feature for Meyers, who gained a measure of
redemption after finishing second April 22 at Outlaw Motor Speedway in
Muskogee, Okla.
“The difference between tonight and
“I was actually very thankful for the [caution with four to go]. We were coming
up on lapped traffic that was really thick and I didn’t think I’d be able to
get through it. For me, it was a relief to have open track. I didn’t know how
close to the end we were but I knew we had to be close.”
Kinser’s third-place run was made all the more remarkable after he got into the
wall in Turn 1 on the first lap but was able to keep his car moving. An ensuing
crash that developed in Turn 2 with cars scrambling from top to bottom resulted
in a red flag with Brooke Tatnell’s machine on its side. That break allowed
Kinser to calm down and refocus on the feature.
“First of all, I learned what not to do,” said Kinser, the 2004 Kevin Gobrecht
Rookie of the Year Award winner from
With no laps down, a complete restart didn’t benefit Shaffer, who had one of
the fastest cars for the second night in a row.
“We were great all night until the feature,” said Shaffer, who won Friday at
Lake Ozark Speedway. “It doesn’t make sense. We had such a good car that
[finishing fourth] is disappointing.”
After the red flag on the first lap, Meyers restarted from the inside of the
second row. He again charged into second with Shaffer, Kinser and Sides in tow,
and that group never was threatened during the feature.
“Meyers was really good on the bottom and he got by a bunch of us at the start.
We followed Kraig through there and rode it out,” said Sides, of
In the Stacker 2® Dash, Swindell charged into the lead to win his second pole
of the season as Meyers slid around the inside of Kraig Kinser to finish second
with Shane Stewart, Danny Lasoski and fast-qualifier Travis Rilat making up the
rest of the top six starting positions on the inside row of the A-main.
In the second Dash, Shaffer picked up where he left off Friday night and locked
his car to the bottom of the track and drove off to victory with Sides, Paul
McMahan, Joey Saldana, Donny Schatz and Daryn Pittman securing the top six
starting positions in the outside row of the feature.
In the B-main, Terry McCarl, who was second fastest in time trials, led all 10
laps with Brooke Tatnell and Craig Dollansky in tow. Joey Moughan, Jim Moughan
and Derek O’Dell also advanced to the feature.
In the first heat race, pole-sitter Steve Kinser got the jump coming off of
Turn 4 and led the entire way. In the battle for the sixth and final transfer
position to the feature, Rilat spun in Turn 4 with three laps down and
collected Brooke Tatnell and Kevin Swindell. Rilat kept his car running and
restarted in fifth while Swindell held off Tatnell to earn the final transfer
spot.
In the second heat, Donny Schatz led flag-to-flag but the action behind him was
wild. Shane Stewart and Jason Solwold fought for second while Jason Sides
advanced with a fourth-place run. Paul McMahan fended off a surging
In the third heat, Tim Shaffer surged into second as the green flag waved and
grabbed the lead from pole-sitter Brandon Wimmer coming off of Turn 4 to
complete the first lap. The top six then pulled away with Wimmer, Tim Kaeding,
Joey Saldana, Sammy Swindell and
Travis Rilat, who Friday night became the fourth different driver this year in
the Rick Wright-owned No 35 car, paced the 27-car field with a lap around the 1/2-mile
oval in 16.819 seconds at 107.022 mph. Mark Kinser established the single-lap
record of 15.917 seconds on June 16, 1999.
“This is a new car we’re trying out,” said Rilat, of
The
All the action from Tri-City Speedway can be seen at
If fans can’t get to a track to see the series, they can experience the
excitement of the
The
Qualifying
1) Travis Rilat,
Wright 35, 16.819
2) Terry McCarl, McCarl 24, 16.832
3) Joey Saldana, Woodward 2, 16.832
4)
5) Paul McMahan, Helm 11H, 16.885
6) Brooke Tatnell, Rush Racing 8, 16.934
7) Kraig Kinser, Kinser 11K, 16.973
8) Jason Sides, Sides Motorsports 7S, 16.976
9) Sammy Swindell, Forbrook 5, 16.998
10) Tim Shaffer, Parsons 6, 17.005
11) Shane Stewart, Rudeen Racing 26, 17.031
12) Daryn Pittman, Titan Racing USA 21, 17.034
13) Danny Lasoski, Stewart 20, 17.046
14) Donny Schatz, Schatz 15, 17.049
15) Tim Kaeding, Roth 83, 17.053
16) Brandon Wimmer, Wimmer-Luck Motorsports 7TW, 17.118
17) Jason Solwold, Carnahan R19, 17.152
18) Steve Kinser, Kinser 11, 17.157
19) Bill Rose, Rose 6R, 17.158
20) Craig Dollansky, Karavan 7, 17.178
21) Jim Moughan, Moughan 59, 17.310
22) Kevin Swindell, Swindell 1, 17.333
23)
24) Derek O’Dell, Farmer 11D, 17.887
25) Mike Deavers, Deavers 72, 18.023
26) Joey Moughan, Moughan 2M, 18.049
27) Eddie Lynch, Lynch 29, 18.170
First Heat Race (8 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Steve Kinser
2) Danny Lasoski
3) Kraig Kinser
4) Daryn Pittman
5) Travis Rilat
6) Kevin Swindell
7) Brooke Tatnell
8) Bill Rose
9) Mike Deavers
Second Heat Race (8 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Donny Schatz
2) Shane Stewart
3) Jason Solwold
4) Jason Sides
5) Paul McMahan
6)
7) Terry McCarl
8) Joey Moughan
9) Craig Dollansky
Third Heat Race (8 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Tim Shaffer
2) Brandon Wimmer
3) Tim Kaeding
4) Joey Saldana
5) Sammy Swindell
6)
7) Jim Moughan
8) Eddie Lynch
9) Derek O’Dell
Stacker 2® Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined inside first 6 rows of
A-feature)
1) Sammy Swindell
2)
3) Kraig Kinser
4) Shane Stewart
5) Danny Lasoski
6) Travis Rilat
Second Dash (6 laps, finishing order determined outside first 6 rows of
A-feature)
1) Tim Shaffer
2) Jason Sides
3) Paul McMahan
4) Joey Saldana
5) Donny Schatz
6) Daryn Pittman
B-main (12 laps, top 6 finishers transferred to A-feature)
1) Terry McCarl [$20]
2) Brooke Tatnell [$20]
3) Craig Dollansky [$20]
4) Joey Moughan [$20]
5) Jim Moughan [$20]
6) Derek O’Dell [$20]
7) Eddie Lynch [$200]
8) Mike Deavers [$180]
9) Bill Rose [$175]
A-main (30 laps)
1)
2) Sammy Swindell [$5,500]
3) Kraig Kinser [$3,200]
4) Tim Shaffer [$2,800]
5) Jason Sides [$2,500]
6) Donny Schatz [$2,300]
7) Danny Lasoski [$2,200]
8) Steve Kinser [$2,100]
9) Shane Stewart [$2,050]
10) Daryn Pittman [$2,000]
11) Paul McMahan [$1,500]
12) Joey Saldana [$1,200]
13) Tim Kaeding [$1,100]
14) Craig Dollansky [$1,050]
15)
16) Travis Rilat [$900]
17) Brooke Tatnell [$800]
18) Terry McCarl [$800]
19) Kevin Swindell [$800]
20) Jason Solwold [$800]
21) Brandon Wimmer [$800]
22) Joey Moughan [$800]
23) Derek O’Dell [$800]
24) Jim Moughan [$800]
Lap leaders: Sammy Swindell 1-15,
Notes:
WoO Sprint Series Standings (Unofficial)
Rk. Driver Points Back
1 Steve Kinser 2630 0
2 Craig Dollansky 2504 -126
3
4 Kraig Kinser 2439 -191
5 Donny Schatz 2377 -253
6 Danny Lasoski 2367 -263
7 Daryn Pittman 2271 -359
8 Joey Saldana 2269 -361
9 Tim Shaffer 2257 -373
10 Tim Kaeding 2243 -387
11 Paul McMahan 2240 -390
12 Shane Stewart 2235 -395
13 Terry McCarl 2084 -546
14
15 Jason Sides 2063 -567
16 Brooke Tatnell 1998 -632
17 Jason Solwold 1947 -683
18 Brandon Wimmer 1854 -776
19 Sammy Swindell 1657 -973
20 Mark Kinser 1333 -1297
21 Kevin Swindell 1312 -1318
22 Randy Hannagan 1306 -1324
23 Chad Kemenah 1048 -1572
24 Danny Smith 946 -1684
25 Peter Murphy 836 -1794
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