Darland
Collects Fist Full of Sprint Bandits TNT Dollars in
Husker Nationals!
Lonnie Wheatley, GREENWOOD, Neb. (August 12, 2008) –
For the second year in a row, Indiana's Dave Darland
left Nebraska Raceway Park's I-80 Speedway with a
fistful of two-dollar bills.
Two
thousand of them to be exact, as he collected the $4,000
winner's share by topping the second round of the Fourth
Annual O'Reilly Sprint Bandits Tour 'N Topless Midwest
Swing in Tuesday night's 30-lap Husker Nationals main
event.
Darland
fought off Brady Bacon much of the way, then survived a
late restart to take the checkered flag in front of
Damion Gardner, Robert Ballou,
13th-starter Darren Hagen and Charles Davis, Jr.
Darland
did more than "survive" the final caution that
set up a three-lap dash to the checkered flag, as he
checked out to take the checkered flag aboard Scott
Benic's Gaerte-powered RWB No. 2b Maxim with a
0.852-second advantage to claim Husker Nationals honors
for the second year in a row, delivering car owner Benic
his sixth career TNT feature win in the process.
"That
was a lot of fun," Darland exclaimed after his
fifth overall victory in the past eight nights. "In
one and two the top was the way to go, and in turns
three and four the bottom was the quickest. I kept
seeing a nose under me from time to time so I knew I had
to keep hustling."
Darland
earned the front row outside starting position for the
main event, but it was Oklahoma's Brady Bacon outdueling
Darland for the point on the opening round from the pole
position in Mike and Megan Eubanks' Tel-Star
Communications No. 99 Triple-X.
Bacon's
lead was short-lived however, as Darland slid in front
to take command upon the completion of the third lap.
Darland was unable to shake Bacon though, with the young
shoe keeping the pressure on as Gardner and Ballou
battled for position close behind with Jesse Hockett
next in the chase as the top five separated themselves
from the field.
Working
through heavy traffic, Darland cleared a group of cars
on the 20th lap to break away from his chasers. And when
the race's first caution flew on the 24th lap, Darland
had already lapped up to ninth place and had a cushion
of three lapped cars between himself and Bacon with
another pair of lapped machines between Bacon and the
battling duo of Ballou and Gardner.
As
Darland took off on the restart, Bacon's mount stumbled
and he pulled pitside moments later with fuel pickup
problems.
On
the move was Gardner, who blasted past Ballou and then
cleared the five lapped cars before the red flag flew
after 27 laps for Mike Leslie's turn four tumble. Leslie
walked away uninjured.
While
Gardner restarted on Darland's tailtank, he was no match
this time as Darland breezed to victory lane. Gardner
settled for runner-up honors in the Pace Lighting/Team
ASE No. 71 Beast, with Ballou taking show honors in the
MPHG Promotions No. 81 Maxim.
Darren
Hagen raced from 13th to snare fourth in the Trucker's
24-Hour Road Service No. 10 DRC, with Charles Davis,
Jr., climbing a handful of positions to round out the
top five in Mark Swanson's No. 21s.
Casey
Shuman crossed the stripe sixth, with Hockett, Cory
Kruseman and Chris Windom the final cars on the lead
lap. Gary Taylor climbed from 21st to complete the top
ten.
Bret
Mellenberndt, Darland and Shuman topped heat race action
with Gardner, Ballou and Darland victorious in the
qualifying races.
The
Fourth Annual O'Reilly Sprint Bandits Tour 'N Topless
Midwest Swing moves on to Oklahoma City's State Fair
Speedway on Wednesday night, with ensuing stops at Creek
County Speedway near Tulsa (Thursday) and then Kansas
City's Lakeside Speedway (Friday and Saturday).
O’Reilly
Sprint Bandits Tour ‘N Topless I-80 Speedway Husker
Nationals Results:
Heat
Races:
First
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 97-Bret Mellenberndt, 2. 10T-Thomas
Meseraull, 3. 75-Jesse Hockett, 4. 17-Chris Windom, 5.
76-Mike Leslie, 6. 14-Coleman Gulick, 7. 71x-Robert
Bell, 8. 83-Tim Kaeding.
Second
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 2b-Dave Darland, 2. 99-Brady Bacon, 3.
71-Damion Gardner, 4. 81-Robert
Ballou, 5. 21k-Cory Kruseman, 6. 71k-Alex
Schutte, 7. 77-John Klabunde.
Third
Heat (8 Laps): 1. 32-Casey Shuman, 2. 15-R.J. Johnson,
3. 1-Levi Jones, 4. 21s-Charles Davis, Jr., 5. 10-Darren
Hagen, 6. 5*-Gary Taylor, 7. 41k-Henry Clarke.
Qualifying
Races:
First
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 71-Damion Gardner, 2. 99-Brady
Bacon, 3. 10-Darren Hagen, 4. 10T-Thomas Meseraull, 5.
15-R.J. Johnson, 6. 83-Tim Kaeding, 7. 76-Mike Leslie,
8. 71x-Robert Bell.
Second
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1.
81-Robert Ballou, 2. 75-Jesse Hockett, 3.
1-Levi Jones, 4. 71k-Alex Schutte, 5. 32-Casey Shuman,
6. 14-Coleman Gulick, 7. 77-John Klabunde.
Third
Qualifier (8 Laps): 1. 2b-Dave Darland, 2. 21s-Charles
Davis, Jr., 3. 17-Chris Windom, 4. 21k-Cory Kruseman, 5.
41k-Henry Clarke, 6. 97-Bret Mellenberndt. DNS: 5*-Gary
Taylor.
O'Reilly
Sprint Bandits I-80 Speedway Husker Nationals
"A" Main
“A”
Main (30 Laps): 1. 2b-Dave Darland, 2. 71-Damion
Gardner, 3. 81-Robert Ballou,
4. 10-Darren Hagen, 5. 21-Charles Davis, Jr., 6.
32-Casey Shuman, 7. 75-Jesse Hockett, 8. 21k-Cory
Kruseman, 9. 17-Chris Windom, 10. 5*-Gary Taylor, 11.
15-R.J. Johnson, 12. 10T-Thomas Meseraull, 13. 1-Levi
Jones, 14. 97-Bret Mellenberndt, 15. 71k-Alex Schutte,
16. 14-Coleman Gulick, 17. 41k-Henry Clarke, 18.
71x-Robert Bell, 19. 83-Tim Kaeding, 20. 76-Mike Leslie,
21. 99-Brady Bacon, 22. 77-John Klabunde.
Lap
Leaders: Brady Bacon 1-2, Dave Darland 3-30.
O'Reilly
Sprint Bandits TNT Midwest Swing Points (Top 15): 1.
Dave Darland 296, 2. Robert
Ballou 294, 3. Casey Shuman 282, 4. Darren
Hagen 280, 5. Gary Taylor 270, 6. (tie) Damion Gardner,
Levi Jones and Jesse Hockett 266, 9. Thomas Meseraull
260, 10. Cory Kruseman 256, 11. R.J. Johnson 252, 12.
Coleman Gulick 246, 13. Tim Kaeding 238, 14. Bret
Mellenberndt 234, 15. Henry Clarke 232.
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