Terre Haute, Indiana…….Shane Cockrum survived a late-race challenge and used a little luck to hold on for Thursday night’s “Sumar Classic” win at the Terre Haute Action Track. After capturing his first Silver Crown Series win last fall at Du Quoin, Illinois, Cockrum led most of the night’s 100-lap feature only to see his lead taken away in the late stages by C.J. Leary, but a timely caution and strong finish propelled the Benton, Illinois driver to a .424-second victory in the Hardy Boys Motorsports – Financial Transportation Services #71 Maxim/Chevy.
“This is championship dirt car racing, and it’s exciting right now with a ton of talented drivers out there, and it’s awesome to be able to come out on top of them. It’s a thinking man’s game in these races, so you have to be methodical and move around to find where you need to be. I knew being out front put us in a tough spot, and the bottom usually comes in here, so I wasn’t surprised to see someone coming. Leary is a talented kid and is gonna win a lot of races; it’s a tough deal to lose the lead like that late, but we’ll definitely take it. We’ve worked hard with our team to stay up front after last year, and it’s satisfying to get another big win in this series,” Cockrum said.
Cockrum got the jump on the start over polesitter Kody Swanson, who helped his series point lead by taking the ProSource “Fast Time Award” to begin the night. Cockrum led Jerry Coons, Jr. and Swanson early, as the top-three opened up on the rest of the field. A few laps later, Brady Bacon reeled in Swanson and took third. Coons got a run on Cockrum for the lead on lap 21 as he came roaring off turn-two, but Cockrum held him off. By lap 28, Coons was back again, this time riding the cushion off turn-two to the lead.
Cockrum didn’t let Coons get away, however, as he stuck with him for a lap before scooting underneath to re-take the lead as they completed lap 29. A caution a few laps later put the race past lap 40, with Cockrum leading Coons, Bacon, Swanson, and Shane Cottle. Just before halfway, Cottle too went by Swanson to take over fourth.
After a restart with 35 laps to go, the track was changing rapidly, and C.J. Leary was on the move into the top-five as the leaders searched all over the track to find the fast way around. Another quick caution with 25 laps to go produced a restart that saw Leary surge forward on the very bottom, getting all the way to third on lap 81.
With 13 to go, a restart after Aaron Pierce stopped on the fronstretch saw a chain reaction in turn-four, with tenth-running Kevin Thomas, Jr. spinning and collecting Joey Moughan, who flipped over. He had been running 12th. He was unhurt but done for the event.
Leary reeled in Cockrum on the restart and was all over him for the lead as the race hit ten laps to go. Leary hit the bottom on lap 92 to wrestle the lead away from Cockrum, but before the lap could be completed, Tyler Courtney spun in turn-four to bring out the final caution of the night. That put Leary back behind Cockrum on the ensuing restart.
Cockrum pulled away from Leary in the final six-lap run to the checkers, leaving the young Greenfield, Indiana driver just short of his first USAC National win as Leary came home second in the Leary Construction Company – Jet Star #30 DRC/Claxton Toyota.
“That was a heartbreaker. I was biding my time for a while, and I knew we had something towards the end. I made my move after the restart there as we hit ten to go, and I got up next to Cockrum and cleared him, but the yellow came out just as we were completing the lap. He saw what I was doing and knew where to be on the restart, so we had to get the finish and come home second. This is Joe Devin’s baby, and he’s been working on this thing for a long time, so it’s fun to go out and race such a strong DRC car,” Leary said.
Coons made a bid on the final restart by running the extreme high side, but he could only threaten the top-two over the first set of corners before fading to a comfortable third aboard the Nolen Racing – Columbus Container #20 Eagle/Chevy.
“I was pretty good still in one and two up high, but I had to hit it just right, and it was easier on the restarts with coming to it just a little slower pace. I got a real good restart on that end, but once the top went away in three and four, I couldn’t get through there at all. We’ve gotta get a little bit better, but a pretty good night. This is a new car to the Nolen team and to me, so we’re still figuring it out some but we’ve got great race cars and hopefully take what we learn to the busy stretch coming,” Coons said.
Cottle’s run ended in the fourth spot aboard the Williams Precision Engines – QS Components #81 Maxim/Chevy, and Bacon rounded out the top-five in the Martens Machine Shop – Womack Machine Supply #48 DRC/Chevy.
Chase Stockon earned the B&W Auto Mart “Hard Charger Award” for his drive from 18th to finish 11th.
————————————–
USAC SILVER CROWN RACE RESULTS: July 2, 2015 – Terre Haute, Indiana – Terre Haute Action Track – “Sumar Classic”
QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-20.712; 2. Shane Cockrum, 71, Hardy-21.162; 3. Brady Bacon, 48, Martens-21.212; 4. Jerry Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-21.227; 5. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary/6R-21.351; 6. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-21.466; 7. Justin Grant, 8, Carli-21.495; 8. Steve Buckwalter, 53, SET-21.650; 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 17, RW-21.765; 10. Chris Windom, 99, RPM/Gormly-22.074; 11. Tracy Hines, 98, RPM/Gormly-22.075; 12. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-22.208; 13. A.J. Fike, 3, RFMS-22.216; 14. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-22.224; 15. Tyler Courtney, 153, Capie-22.265; 16. Joey Moughan, 29, Moughan-22.347; 17. Jacob Wilson, 07, WBR-22.380; 18. Chase Stockon, 14, McQuinn-22.498; 19. Rex Norris III, 16, Norris-23.441;0 20. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-23.672; 21. Terry James, 23, Satterthwaite-23.679; 22. Dave Darland, 19, Longworth-NT (time of 21.091 disallowed), 23. Kent Wolters, 21, Swanson-NT (Time of 22.904 disallowed), 24. Austin Nemire, 91, Hamelgarn-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps) 1. Shane Cockrum, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Jerry Coons Jr., 4. Shane Cottle, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Justin Grant, 7. Kody Swanson, 8. Chris Windom, 9. Tracy Hines, 10. Kevin Thomas Jr., 11. Chase Stockon, 12. Tyler Courtney, 13. A.J. Fike, 14. Jacob Wilson, 15. Patrick Lawson, 16. Terry James, 17. Rex Norris III, 18. Dave Darland, 19. Joey Moughan, 20. Aaron Pierce, 21. Russ Gamester, 22. Kent Wolters, 23. Austin Nemire, 24. Steve Buckwalter. NT
——————————
**Nemire flipped during practice. Moughan flipped on lap 88 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-27 Cockrum, Lap 28 Coons, Laps 29-100 Cockrum.