COCKRUM CAPTURES SECOND-STRAIGHT “TED HORN 100” VICTORY

Shane Cockrum of Benton, Illinois celebrates in victory lane after winning Sunday
night’s “Ted Horn 100” USAC Silver Crown race at the DuQuoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds.
(Richie Murray Photo)

Du Quoin, Illinois…Shane Cockrum backed up his “Ted Horn 100” win from last year
on the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds “Magic Mile” with a convincing victory on Sunday
night. The local Benton, Illinois driver again pleased the partisan crowd as he
led the final 33 laps on his way to a 4.474-second victory in the Hardy Boys Motorsports
– Financial Transportation Services #71 Maxim/Chevy.
“It’s so great to get another one in front of the hometown crowd. Half my town is
here, including our mayor, so it’s cool for me and for the series and Du Quoin.
The Hampshire and DePalma bunch have set the bar in this series, and if you can
beat them, you know you’ve got a good program. To race them for the win and pass
the 63 for the lead is just a testament to the team we have and a car owner who
is always happy but never satisfied, always wanting to find ways to be better.
They told me we had a big lead, so I tried to just maintain and save some there
towards the end, but when they go from saying ‘straightaway lead’ to all of a sudden
‘half straightaway, it was time to kick it back on,” Cockrum said.
After taking his sixth ProSource “Fast Qualifier Award” of the year, Kody Swanson
led at the start from the pole, as Cockrum ducked under front-row starter Aaron
Pierce off turn-four to take the second spot. That started a three-car breakaway
battle that consumed the first sixty laps of the race.
Justin Grant and Levi Jones settled into early top-five spots, while Steve Buckwalter
became the first major casualty on lap twelve, when he pulled off the race track
while running 13th.
Dave Darland took the eleventh spot at lap ten, but he fell out of the race on lap
19, just before the first caution of the race for Joey Moughan, who stopped at the
entrance to turn-three on lap 22. On this restart, Brian Tyler and Jerry Coons,
Jr. were the cars on the move, as they took the eighth and ninth spots, respectively.
While Swanson led, Cockrum and Pierce pushed him for the entirety of the first half
of the race, resulting in a blistering pace and some torrid racing between Cockrum
and Pierce for second. Pierce took second back on lap 34 and was all over the lead,
but Swanson continued to hold him off.

Cockrum and the Hardy Boys Motorsports team collected their second consecutive “Ted
Horn 100” victory Sunday night.
(Richie Murray Photo)

Seventh-running Tyler went up in smoke on lap 37 to bring out the second caution,
setting up a restart with forty laps in the books. Coons again grabbed a spot on
the restart, and Chris Windom came down the hill in turn-four to sneak under Jones
for the fifth spot.
Pierce continued his aggressive display as he stormed the corners in an effort to
make a run on Swanson. He made contact with the outside concrete on both ends during
this stretch, and Cockrum even had a run-in with the outside wall on lap 45. Neither
were losing any ground to Swanson.
On lap 58, Cockrum cut under Pierce to take second down the frontstretch and immediately
started to pressure Swanson for the lead. He had a big run down the backstretch
on lap 61, diving to the inside to slide up with the lead in turn-three, but behind
the leaders, Pierce finally made too much contact with the outside wall. He pancaked
against it and spun around, drawing a caution flag. Under yellow, Jones’ car started
to pop and crack, and he came to a stop on the frontstretch. His race was done.
The restart came with 33 laps to go, and Cockrum wasted no time making a bid for
the lead. He got a run down the frontstretch and buried it into turn-one, sliding
up in front of Swanson with the lead. Swanson crossed back under him off turn-two,
but Cockrum held him off to lead lap 68. As Casey Shuman took sixth from Coons on
lap 71, Cockrum’s lead was visibly growing.
By lap 83, Cockrum’s lead grew to nearly eight seconds as he began to negotiate
slower cars. Windom had moved to the third spot on lap 82 and stayed with Swanson
as they began to carve into that massive lead inside the final twenty laps. With
six laps to go, the lead was down to 2.716 seconds for Cockrum, but he cleared
two more lapped cars to give himself some breathing room. He pulled away over the
final five laps with his second win of the season as the battle for second heated
up.

The tradition of jumping into the infield lake after winning at the DuQuoin Mile
continued for the second year in a row as Cockrum and the Hardy Boys Motorsports
crew decided to cool off in the water during their post-race celebration.
(Richie Murray Photo)

With less than five laps to go, Windom used traffic to make his move on Swanson
for second. The right-rear tire finally gave out on Windom as they rolled to the
checkered, but he held on for second in the Fred Gormly – RPM Auto Enterprise #98
Maxim/Mopar.
“That was literally all we had to give there. I ran a really patient race early,
just got in line for a while. It was actually kinda tough to pass with the way
it was, so it just took a while to get past each car. I picked it up close to the
end, and I think we were good enough at the end, but he’d just built such a big
gap on us. Rob Hart brought a great car once again, and we’re beating on the door
of getting another one. I didn’t think I’d ever pass the 63 for anything but the
lead, but that’s a car you have to beat to win these races, and obviously Cockrum
is in that group now, too,” Windom said.
Swanson lengthened his Silver Crown Championship with another strong podium finish
aboard the DePalma Motorsports – Radio Hospital #63 Maxim/Hampshire.
“I was definitely concerned we were going too fast, too early. Running that high
and that hard, fuel mileage was a concern very early. They were running really
hard behind us, so we had to go faster just to stay in front. I just couldn’t keep
the pace that he was, but towards the end, I don’t think I could have done what
he was doing anyway. No shame in that. No complaints, but a good night to run third.
I started to feel us catching him when he hit traffic, and I was giving it all I
could. A couple of those cars cost us that momentum and eventually the second spot,
but how can you complain about the great year we’ve had and another night towards
the big prize we want. This place bit us last year, and we finished with about two
gallons left tonight, so we gave ourselves a good night and can try to win Eldora
back in Ohio next,” Swanson said.
Grant finished another strong run in the Chris Carli Motorsports – Finish Line Racing
Equipment #8 Beast/Chevy to come home fourth, and Shuman slipped past Cottle to
notch his first-career Silver Crown top-five in the Randy & Patty Bateman – Chance’s
Chassis Repair #55 Beast/Chevy.
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USAC SILVER CROWN CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES RACE RESULTS: September 6, 2015 – Du Quoin,
Illinois – Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – “Ted Horn 100”
QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 63, DePalma-30.784; 2. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-31.040;
3. Justin Grant, 8, Carli-31.098; 4. Jacob Wilson, 07, Wilson-31.103; 5. Shane Cockrum,
71, Hardy-31.165; 6. A.J. Fike, 3, RFMS-31.450; 7. Chris Windom, 98, RPM/Gormly-31.597;
8. Casey Shuman, 55, Bateman-31.701; 9. Levi Jones, 57, Rogers-31.718; 10. Dave
Darland, 19, Longworth-31.795; 11. Shane Cottle, 81, Williams-31.795; 12. Jerry
Coons Jr., 20, Nolen-31.801; 13. Brian Tyler, 7, Classy Chassis-32.100; 14. Chris
Fetter, 88, Fetter-32.144; 15. Steve Buckwalter, 53, SET-32.225; 16. Rickey Hood,
56, Foxco-32.279; 17. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-32.303; 18. Richie Tobias, 117, Tobias-32.450;
19. Austin Nemire, 91, Hemelgarn-32.460; 20. Steven Russell, 41, McQuinn-33.084;
21. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-33.725; 22. Terry James, 23, Satterthwaite-33.844;
23. Joey Moughan, 29, Moughan-33.911; 24. J.C. Bland, 5, Bland-34.029; 25. Danny
Long, 44, Long-34.765; 26. Charles Davis Jr., 21, Swanson-NT; 27. Jackie Burke,
86, Burke-NT; 28. Kenny Gentry, 18, Gentry-NT; 29. Terry Babb, 00, Babb-NT; 30.
Chris Urish, 77, Urish-NT; 31. Brady Bacon, 48, Martens-NT.
FEATURE: (100 Laps) 1. Shane Cockrum, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Kody Swanson, 4. Justin
Grant, 5. Casey Shuman, 6. Shane Cottle, 7. A.J. Fike, 8. Jerry Coons Jr., 9. David
Byrne, 10. Rickey Hood, 11. Chris Urish, 12. Austin Nemire, 13. Steven Russell,
14. Chris Fetter, 15. Richie Tobias, 16. Patrick Lawson, 17. Terry James, 18. J.C.
Bland, 19. Levi Jones, 20. Aaron Pierce, 21. Brian Tyler, 22. Joey Moughan, 23.
Dave Darland, 24. Steve Buckwalter, 25. Danny Long, 26. Kenny Gentry, 27. Charles
Davis Jr., 28. Jacob Wilson, 29. Jackie Burke, 30. Terry Babb. 1:07:37.02
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-67 Swanson, Laps 68-100 Cockrum.
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UPCOMING EVENT INFO

DATE:
Saturday, September 26, 2015
SERIES:
USAC Silver Crown Series
TRACK:
Eldora Speedway (Rossburg, Ohio) – 1/2 mile, high-banked dirt oval
EVENT:
34th “4-Crown Nationals”
STARTING TIMES:
Gates open at Noon
Practice starts at 5pm
TRACK ADDRESS:
13929 OH-118, New Weston, OH 45348
TRACK PHONE:
(937) 338-3815
TRACK WEBSITE:
www.eldoraspeedway.com [http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001gntDgkEBwt6blSfC8GIoE-5dBdSq53WR9ZOU50RCr22yx1TiVKvp06BID95-1CGxYe9UeFkclj8QJzJT7cIv4Ku2TD_eGT7ada5A3cwlhWGfwdcX1rT9EAVii01Hluekj7WV-Nw_zLA9uvGRvO9GEtTbI8bWWe8k5hwfgO-V7i_2sWvbyct9Zw==&c=dkNLfv6QEv38zjqdIUblkD5OLNYFr90lZJgWqg-4JC4KWDHRyWkYqg==&ch=6vKwtLjOllv1tucuV4YewpjVuk_UcLZpbkOWh-vvMBMar3XS5UftAQ==]
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USAC SILVER CROWN FEATURE WINNERS
IN THE “4-CROWN NATIONALS”
AT ELDORA SPEEDWAY

1981 – Steve Kinser

1982 – Ron Shuman

1983 – Ken Schrader

1984 – Rained Out

1985 – Larry Rice

1986 – Jack Hewitt

1987 – Larry Rice

1988 – Jack Hewitt

1989 – Jack Hewitt

1990 – Steve Butler

1991 – Jack Hewitt

1992 – Steve Butler

1993 – Ron Shuman

1994 – Jack Hewitt

1995 – Jack Hewitt

1996 – Jack Hewitt

1997 – Kevin Huntley

1998 – Jack Hewitt

1999 – Jimmy Sills

2000 – J.J. Yeley

2001 – J.J. Yeley

2002 – Brian Tyler

2003 – No Race

2004 – Dave Darland

2005 – Dave Darland

2006 – Mat Neely

2007 – Jerry Coons, Jr.

2008 – Dave Darland

2009 – Dave Darland

2010 – Bryan Clauson

2011 – Kyle Larson

2012 – Bryan Clauson

2013 – Chris Windom

2014 – Jerry Coons, Jr.