John O'Neal, Jr.
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Du Quoin, IL (September 1, 2008) Brian Shaw and Jonathan Rowan woke up this morning feeling confident about their chances today for a victory at the Magic Mile in Du Quoin. After all, they dominated their qualifying heat races just a day earlier and were set to start on the front row of the 20 lap main event. However, both drivers experienced major problems during the morning practice session that threatened to force both drivers to scratch from the event. Shaw blew an engine and Rowan broke a drive shaft during practice. Both scrambled fiercly to get their cars ready while the ARCA Series ran their qualifying session. Shaw took the engine from teammate Jeff Masson's machine. They frantically pulled the engines from both cars and put the engine from Masson's machine into Shaw's car. At the same time, Rowan's team worked feverishly to get his car back together as well.
Both cars were able to answer the call and make the start of the main event. However, both driver's would experience problems again very early in the race and be sidelined. At the drop of the green flag, Rowan jumped out to the early lead from the outside front row starting spot. The caution would fly quickly as a four car crash in turn two on lap two collected Chris Cobin, Jeff Parks, John Bohn and Bobby Regot III. Regot would be the only one of the four cars that would be able to the make the restart. Parks and Bohn did drive their cars back to the pit area, but were unable to make repairs while Cobin went off on the hook. Parks, a two-time winner of this event, found himself starting near the back of the field after he blew a tire during his qualifying heat race on Sunday.
Rowan would pace the field down for the restart, but the caution would wave again on the same lap as Rowan's car once again threw the drive shaft out the car and ended his chances of victory. That turned the lead over to Brian Shaw on the restart, but once the green flag fell, Shaw began to fade quickly through the field and he would pull off the track and onto the infield just one lap later. That turned the lead over to Curt Rhodes. Rhodes would pace the field for several laps before Jesse Snyder moved past Rhodes and assumed the lead. Snyder looked strong and led for several laps. As the race began to wind down, John O'Neal, Jr. moved in to challenge Snyder for the lead. O'Neal would quickly move past Snyder and stretch out his lead and take his first ever win at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds. Snyder would finish in the second spot with Emmett Groves finishing third. Curt Rhodes took the fourth spot with Tim Burdell completing the top five.
Heat Winners: Brian Shaw, Jonathan Rowan, Curt Rhodes
Feature:
1. 15 John O'Neal, Jr.
2. X Jesse Snyder
3. 21 Emmett Groves
4. 10 Curt Rhodes
5. 14R Tim Burdell
6. 500 Steve Adams
7. 7H Brian Higgerson
8. 8 Randy McMahon
9. 44 Jared Kneemiller
10. 9J Terry James
11. 1X Chris Winters
12. 95 Danny Sissom
13. 9 Lake Cook
14. 4UW Bobby Regot III
15. 17 Jesse Wisely
16. 11K Casey Burch
17. 00 Danny Snow
18. 85G Joe Giesler
19. 77S Jim Shipman
20. 1J Kenny Kennedy
21. 1 Brian Shaw
22. 56 Jonathan Rowan
23. 95S Richard Simms
24. 2C Chris Cobin
25. 75 Jeff Parks
26. 3J John Bohn
DNS. 14J Jeff Masson
DNS. 58 Larry Ferguson
