Kevin Thomas, Jr. scored the win in last Thursday’s USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car at East Bay Raceway Park. Photo courtesy EBRP Media
Kevin Thomas, Jr. had not visited USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car victory lane since September of 2013, but he broke that winless streak on Thursday night with the 30-lap feature win as part of Winternationals 2015 at East Bay Raceway Park in Tampa, FL.
The Cullman, AL made it his ninth-career win leading all but the opening half-lap and a brief moment before a yellow flag on lap 17.
Brady Bacon got the jump from the pole, but he bobbled off turn-two, allowing Thomas to dart past on the bottom. Dave Darland got a great start from row-three up into third, and C.J. Leary was up into the top-five running the high line before the first caution flew for Jarett Andretti spinning in turn-two.
On a longer green flag run, the lead trio of Thomas, Bacon, and Darland encountered traffic. Bacon got hung outside Trevor Kobylarz in turn-two, allowing Darland to get a run off the bottom and steal the second spot as they entered on the cushion in turn-three. On lap 17, Darland pulled a carbon-copy move on Thomas for the lead, but it wasn’t to be as a caution flew before the entire lap could be completed.
From there, Thomas was flawless at the front, negotiating some slower cars in the race’s final stages and winning by 1.026-seconds.
“It feels great to be back in this car and to be back to winning,” Thomas said. “I can’t even explain how excited I am for this season. We’ve been running well, and tonight we put it all together. It was tough to pass, but it was also really difficult to get around this place tonight. I gave Dave one opening and he caught me, but I was just lucky enough to get a second chance. Hopefully, we can qualify decent and give ourselves a chance again tomorrow.”
Darland stalked Thomas in the closing stages but was unable to make a move through traffic, settling for second.
“My Phillips team gave me a really good car again tonight, but it was tough to pass up through there,” Darland said. “It got pretty one lane on both ends, just one on the bottom and one on the top. We were in the right place at the right time to get both Brady and KT in traffic, but the caution just came at the wrong time to cost us the lead. You hate to lose one like that, but we were right in the hunt again, so we’ll try to put it up there again the rest of the weekend.”
Defending series champion Bacon held on for the third spot, with Leary in fourth and Tracy Hines in fifth.
Tommy Hill picked up the V8 Warrior victory Thurday night at East Bay. Photo by Robert Wing
In other action, Tommy Hill of Clewiston, FL drove to the win in the V8 Warriors feature.
“I realize that most of the fans here tonight drove a longer distance to see these USAC drivers, but we drove four hours on a work night to come up here and get this win and we plan to be back tomorrow,” Hill said.
Mike Wilson, Jason Burnside, Raymond Vann and James Paes rounded out the top five.
For more information on East Bay Raceway Park, visit EastBayRacewayPark.com.
USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car Series
East Bay Raceway Park – Tampa, FL
Winternationals 2015 – Feb. 26, 2015
1. Kevin Thomas, Jr.
2. Dave Darland
Thus; over time canada cialis 100mg these programs become bloated, corrupt, and poorly ran – they bleed money and return little results. Thereafter the get viagra overnight http://www.opacc.cv/documentos/PublicacaoEdital%20Eleicoes_B.O.n%2066-IISerieSup_31-12-2015.pdf medicine has gained popularity and was soon developed into a great success because of its effectivity in treating erectile dysfunction. The upsetting fear of being a failure is the other name of tarnished masculinity and lost levitra sale check out this website dignity. This insures a sufficient cheapest tadalafil online blood supply to the penis and the male experience difficulty in achieving an erection. 3. Brady Bacon
4. C.J. Leary
5. Tracy Hines
6. Robert Ballou
7. Chad Boespflug
8. Kyle Cummins
9. Chase Stockon
10. Chris Windom
11. Jon Stanbrough
12. Brady Short
13. Bryan Clauson
14. Jarett Andretti
15. Casey Shuman
16. Carson Short
17. Aaron Farney
18. Logan Jarrett
19. Bret Mellenberndt
20. Trevor Kobylarz
21. Shane Cockrum
22. Justin Grant
23. Kody Swanson
24. Kyle Robbins
V8 Warriors
1. 5h Tommy Hill
2. 189 Mike Wilson
3. 12j Jason Burnside
4. 32 Raymond Vann
5. 48 James Paes
6. 28x Tim Gay
7. 73 Jeremy Simpson
8. 50 Steve Voisinet
DNS: 89 Derek Gray
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.