ISW: Cummins Takes First In Kokomo

KOKOMO, IN -RIS- Back-to-back first time winners don't happen too often but Kyle Cummins made it happen in Kokomo as he won his first USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car series feature in front of packed stands on the second night of the 29th Indiana Sprint Week.

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After qualifying second fast behind first night winner Tyler Courtney (13.069 sec.) Kyle started sixth next to Bryan Clauson. Second place starter Chris Windom took the lead at the start and held it for the first 21 laps. A caution came on lap 10 for Josh Hodges who stopped on track which closed things up.

At the first restart Kevin Thomas Jr. was second and Chad Boespflug third. Cummins was in fourth and dealing with Brady Bacon and Bryan Clauson. They ran green until lap 14 when a four car incident happened involving Tyler Thomas, Max McGhee Thomas Meseraull and Jon Stanbrough.

The lap 14 restart order was Windom, Kevin Thomas Jr., Stockon, Boespflug, Bacon and Cummins. The first attempt to restart failed when Thomas Meseraull spun in turn two. The second attempt at restart saw Bacon spin in turn three and involve Hunter Schuerenberg, who flipped. Red came out for the flip. Also involved were C.J. Leary, Logan Jarrett and Tyler Thomas.

With each restart Kevin Thomas Jr. took another shot at Chris Windom. Kevin had taken the lead on the second restart but that was canceled by the red flag.

Finally, on the third try racing resumed as Cummins began to advance in the order. On lap 20 he had gotten around Thomas for second place. Then the caution came out on lap 22, right after Cummins had nosed ahead of Windom. Windom had spun and collected Stockon and Clauson.

That accident changed the whole complexion of the race as 2015 champion Robert Ballou moved from sixth to third with nine laps remaining.

Thomas went after Cummins on the restart but then fell into the sights of Ballou who took second place on lap 25. Ballou was closing on Cummins when the yellow flag fell one more time on lap 28.

Dave Darling, Aaron Farney, C.J. Leary and Max McGhee were in a mass in turn four.

The restart came off with no problems as Ballou pressed Cummins in his own desperate style. On the last lap Robert was inside Kyle and made a move out of turn four which failed only by inches.

Kyle Cummins was new to the winner's position but had many seconds and thirds in his 13 years of sprint car racing. "Finally," Cummins exclaimed. "I about teared up when I got out. I'm so tired of second and third; I started sixth and looked at those guys ahead of me and thought, man, this is going to be a tough race to win.” “That yellow with one to go had me all sorts of nervous. I knew if I slipped up even a little bit, Robert would pounce.”

Kevin Thomas Jr. hung on for third place. Jerry Coons Jr. was the winner of the 'Hard Charger' award for his run from 22nd to fourth place.

Tyler Courtney finished seventh after claiming fast qualifier. That was good enough to give him a two point lead over Brady Bacon in the sprint week points. Bacon finished fifth. Ballou and Coons are tied for third in the standings, nine points back.

So the 'Sprint Week' faithful leave the plains of northern Indiana for the riverside charm of Lawrenceberg for round three. If you like speed and high banked corners, you'll like Lawrenceburg on Sunday night.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: July 9, 2016 - Kokomo, Indiana - Kokomo Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week" - "Tony Elliott Classic"

PROSOURCE QUALIFYING: 1. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-13.069; 2. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.095; 3. Bryan Clauson, 63, Dooling/Hayward-13.113; 4. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-13.115; 5. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-13.135; 6. Dave Darland, 11, Walker/Curb-Agajanian-13.192; 7. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.210; 8. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4J, 4J Motorsports-13.213; 9. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-13.225; 10. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.276; 11. Hunter Schuerenberg, 2E, Epperson-13.292; 12. Logan Jarrett, 29, Jarrett-13.297; 13. C.J. Leary, 17GP, Dutcher-13.303; 14. Robert Ballou, 1, Ballou-13.310; 15. Mario Clouser, 6, Clouser-13.329; 16. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-13.336; 17. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-13.355; 18. A.J. Hopkins, 42G, Jackson-13.383; 19. Cole Ketcham, 41k, Ketcham-13.389; 20. Shane Cottle, 57, Hazen-13.400; 21. Thomas Meseraull, 66, Amati-13.404; 22. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.436; 23. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-13.450; 24. Kent Schmidt, 5k, Schmidt-13.513; 25. Jerry Coons Jr., 10E, Edison-13.517; 26. Max McGhee, 17, McGhee-13.522; 27. Brian Karraker, 23k, Karraker-13.530; 28. Joe Bares, 19, TEST-13.554; 29. Justin Grant, 71p, Phillips-13.582; 30. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-13.589; 31. Colten Cottle, 1RL, Lambertson-13.617; 32. Landon Simon, 24, Simon-13.628; 33. Jeff Bland Jr., 38, Bland-13.633; 34. Tim Creech, 2c, Creech-13.636; 35. Ted Hines, 12, Hines-13.657; 36. Tony DiMattia, 50, DiMattia-13.674; 37. Aaron Farney, 15F, Farney-13.701; 38. Critter Malone, 7, Seven LLC-13.702; 39. Dickie Gaines, 44, Soudrette-13.724; 40. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-13.727; 41. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.763; 42. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.766; 43. Bret Mellenberndt, 97, Mellenberndt-13.788; 44. Jimmy Light, 23, Two-Three-13.798; 45. Josh Spencer, 66J, Spencer-13.818; 46. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-14.020; 47. Jamie Williams, 31, Williams-14.119.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Meseraull, 3. Leary, 4. Coons, 5. Hodges, 6. Beauchamp, 7. Courtney, 8. Grant, 9. Farney, 10. Bland, 11. Mattox, 12. Spencer. 2:14.91

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Bacon, 2. Andretti, 3. Ballou, 4. Cummins, 5. Daum, 6. Darland, 7. Malone, 8. McGhee, 9. Goodnight, 10. Robbins, 11. Creech, 12. Hopkins. 2:14.89

BENIC ENTERPRISES THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. T.Thomas, 2. Windom, 3. Clauson, 4. Ketcham, 5. C.Cottle, 6. Schuerenberg, 7. Clouser, 8. Karraker, 9. Gaines, 10. Mellenberndt, 11. Hines, 12. Williams. NT

INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. S.Cottle, 3. K.Thomas, 4. Jarrett, 5. Stanbrough, 6. DiMattia, 7. Light, 8. Schmidt, 9. Simon, 10. Chapple, 11. Bares. NT

C MAIN: (10 laps) 1. Bland, 2. DiMattia, 3. Farney, 4. Light, 5. Goodnight, 6. Mellenberndt, 7. Gaines, 8. Robbins, 9. Mattox, 10. Chapple, 11. Spencer, 12. Malone, 13. Williams, 14. Creech, 15. Hines. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Darland, 3. Schuerenberg, 4. Courtney, 5. Hodges, 6. Schmidt, 7. McGhee, 8. Clouser, 9. Daum, 10. Farney, 11. Grant, 12. DiMattia, 13. Bland, 14. C.Cottle, 15. Karraker, 16. Goodnight, 17. Light, 18. Beauchamp. 2:47.54

FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Chad Boespflug, 7. Tyler Courtney, 8. Jarett Andretti, 9. Chris Windom, 10. Shane Cottle, 11. Thomas Meseraull, 12. Tyler Thomas, 13. Logan Jarrett, 14. Chase Stockon, 15. Dave Darland, 16. Aaron Farney, 17. Max McGhee, 18. C.J. Leary, 19. Bryan Clauson, 20. Kent Schmidt, 21. Hunter Schuerenberg, 22. Jon Stanbrough, 23. Josh Hodges, 24. Cole Ketcham. NT

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**Bares flipped during the fourth heat. Schuerenberg flipped on lap 14 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-21 Windom, Laps 22-30 Cummins.

KSE/B & W AUTO MART HARD CHARGER: Jerry Coons Jr. (22nd to 4th).

NEW USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Bacon-1,626, 2-Meseraull-1,464, 3-Ballou-1,458, 4-Stockon-1,433, 5-Darland-1,351, 6-Boespflug-1,288, 7-Leary-1,279, 8-Windom-1,148, 9-McGhee-1,148, 10-Farney-934.

NEW USAC INDIANA SPRINT WEEK POINTS: 1-Courtney-137, 2-Bacon-135, 3-Ballou & Coons-128, 5-Windom-121, 6-S.Cottle-119, 7-Cummins-116, 8-Clauson-109, 9-Boespflug & Thomas Jr.-97.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: July 10 - Lawrenceburg (IN) Speedway - "Indiana Sprint Week"

Results Courtesy USAC