Williams Grove Report 4/2/2010

Cars in attendance: 0-Rick Lafferty, 07-Mark Coldren, 1-Stevie Smith, 3w-Kyle Moody, 4-Kasey Kahne, 5w-Lucas Wolfe, 7-Chad Layton, 7m-Mark Smith, 8m-Chris Meleason, 14-Doug Dodson, 15-Adam Wilt, 17-Daryn Pittman, 17b-Steve Buckwalter 19m-Brent Marks, 20s-Derek Sell, 21-Brian Montieth, 22-Greg Hodnett, 25-Aaron Ott, 27-Tyler Walker, 30c-Lance Dewease, 35-Justin Henderson, 39-Doug Esh, 45-A.J. Michael, 48-Danny Dietrich, 49-Brad Sweet, 51-Fred Rahmer, 65-Johnny Mackison, Jr., 69k-Don Kreitz, Jr., 71-Brian Leppo, 75-Dave Ely, 87-Alan Krimes, 89g-David Gravel

Temps in the 70s and a sky full of sun greeted teams and spectators for the 3rd race at Williams Grove. Tonight marks the first race of the season to use the PA handicapping system. In attendance tonight is NASCAR Cup star Kasey Kahne as well as KKR team driver Brad Sweet. 32 410s signed in, with three drivers making their 2010 Grove debuts including David Gravel in addition to the KKR duo.

Hot laps went off without a hitch tonight. The 27 of Walker did encounter some problems however and would retire for the night. The format for the racing will include four 10-lap heat races, a consolation and a 25-lap feature. Starting spots in heats were determined by money average with low averages starting up front and drivers making their first starts tagging the rear of the field. The top 5 in each heat transfer, with the top 3 being handicapped in the top 12 based on average, again with the low average up front.

Heat 1(Starting position in parentheses):

1. 14-Dodson(1), 2. 15-Wilt(4), 3. 17-Pittman(7), 4. 5w-Wolfe(8), 5. 65-Mackison(3), 6. 45-Michael(2), 7. 30c-Dewease(6), 8. 0-Lafferty(5)

Dodson leads the distance. Pittman up to 3rd and Wolfe up to 5th on lap 2. Dodson out front by half straight-away by lap 5. 5w passes 45 and begins chasing the 17 for the inversion. 5w is unable to get by 17 and settles for 4th. Mackison takes final transfer at the end by less than .02 seconds.

Heat 2:

1. 3w-Moody(1), 2.35-Henderson(2), 3. 7-Layton(6), 4. 21-Montieth(7), 5.75-Ely(5), 6. 4-Kahne(8), 7. 69k-Kreitz(4), 8.7m-M.Smith(3)

Moody gets out to early lead. On first lap, Smith contacts the guardrail in turn 3 and is done for the night. Layton up to 3rd for the restart with 1 lap in the books. On lap 3, Kahne moves by 69k for 6th and begins tracking down Ely for the last transfer spot. Cars get strung out by lap 7 and no positions change hands during the last half of the race.

Heat 3:

1. 1-S.Smith(1), 2. 8m-Meleason(2), 3. 71-Leppo(3), 4. 49-Sweet(8), 5.22-Hodnett(7), 6. 87-Krimes(5), 7. 07-Coldren(3), 8.27-Walker(4)

Walker DNS for heat three and scratched for the night. Outside lane slides up a row. On initial start, Sweet gets into turn 1 guardrail and also involved is Coldren who is forced to drop out with a flat rear tire. Sweet tags the rear of the field. Only 6 cars left. Sweet passes Krimes on lap 2 to move up to 4th. Smith by half of a straight. Hodnett not looking too good and sits in 6th place. Hodnett passes Krimes for last transfer on lap 8. Smith leads the distance, winning by almost a half-lap.

Heat 4:

1. 19m-Marks(3), 2. 51-Rahmer(7), 3.17b- Buckwalter(4), 4. 25-Ott(2), 5. 39-Esh(6), 6. 48-Dietrich(5), 7. 89g-Gravel(8), 8. 20s-Sell(1)

Initial start waved off for a false start. Front two rows change, Marks now on the pole. Gravel spins in turn 1. Marks leads over Buckwalter. Esh up to 4th and Rahmer to 5th after one lap. Rahmer then moves by Esh on lap 2. Rahmer to 3rd on lap 3. Dietrich gets by Esh for last transfer on lap 7. Marks lead is a half straight. Dietrich appears to be having problems. 51 to 2nd on lap 8. Dietrich breaks on last lap going down backstretch. Esh reclaims 5th and Dietrich comes across 6th with a plug wire off.

Consolation:

1. 4-Kahne(2), 2. 87-Krimes(3), 3.0-Lafferty(9), 4. 30c-Dewease(5), 5. 69k-Kreitz(4), 6. 45-Michael(1), 7. 89g-Gravel(7) 8. 07-Coldren(8), 9. 20s-Sell(8), 10. 48-Dietrich(10) DNS, 7m-M.Smith, 27-Walker

Lafferty passes Dietrich on lap 1. Dewease and Kreitz move by Michael on lap 2. Gravel brings out yellow, spinning in turn 1 on lap 4. Dietrich is moved back 2 spots for jumping the start, moving Coldren and Sell up one spot each. 89g rejoins field. Lafferty begins to move up after restart. After passing the 45, Lafferty passes Kreitz for the last transfer spot. Dietrich also passes Kreitz and is now one spot out of transferring. Dietrich gets right up to the 30 in turn two of the final lap and appears to make contact, but cannot pull off the pass. The 48 breaks then and fails to cross the line.

Feature:

1. 1-S.Smith(3), 2. 22-Hodnett(19), 3. 35-Henderson(4), 4. 15-Wilt(7), 5. 21-Montieth(14), 6. 14-Dodson(1), 7. 7-Layton(9) 8. Leppo(10), 9. 5w-Wolfe(13), 10. Rahmer(12) 11. 17-Pittman(11), 12. 49-Sweet(15), 13. 39-Esh(20), 14. 25-Ott(16), 15. 75-Ely(18), 16. 87-Krimes(22), 17. 17b-Buckwalter(8) 18. 65-Mackison(17), 19. 3w-Moody(2), 20. 19m-Marks(6), 21. 0-Lafferty(23) 22. 8m-Meleason(5), 23. 30c-Dewease(24), 24. 4-Kahne(21)

Dodson leads early on with Henderson moving into the runner-up spot on the first tour of the speedway. Wilt also moves up from 7th to 4th as Stevie Smith drops back. Leppo moves to 6th on lap 3 and passes Smith for 5th on the next go-around as the leaders start to spread out. Last week’s winner, Wolfe falls to around 17th. On lap 9, Kahne makes hard contact with the turn 3 guardrail, gets airborne and spins twice while up in the air, yet somehow manages to keep the car moving. Dewease is also involved and brings out the yellow. Kahne would retire with front end damage, including a collapsed front wing. Lap 8 RO: 14, 35, 3w, 15, 71, 1, 7, 19m, 51, 17, 22, 25, 8m, 17b, 21, 5w, 39, 49, 65, 75, 0, 87, 30c, 4. Henderson goes to the lead following the restart and Smith moves back into 4th while Leppo drops back. 35 extends his lead to over 25 car-lengths. Hodnett passes Moody for 6th and Dewease pulls off. Moody, Rahmer and Leppo battle for 7th on lap 14. Dodson starts tracking down Henderson and on lap 16, the lead is back to about 10 car-lengths. Hodnett cracks the top 5 after a pass on Layton and begins reeling in the 1 and 15. The top 5 really gets tight on lap 20. On lap 20, Smith passes Wilt for 3rd and then Dodson for 2nd on the next lap. Wilt passes Dodson on lap 22. Smith blasted past Henderson in turn 4 of lap 23 for the lead. Hodnett also passes Henderson but doesn’t have enough time to run down Smith. Smith wins and Hodnett records his 2nd runner-up finish of the season.

The win was Stevie Smith’s 22nd career at the Speedway.

Notes:

Pat Cannon won the 358 feature

The track was very dusty for the 410 feature race

Defending track champion Todd Shaffer was not in attendance, the team announced earlier this year that they would be scaling back their schedule to about 30 races

Late models make their return next week with the sprint cars