Danny Smith scored his first career USCS Sprint Car Series victory Friday night at Carolina Speedway. Photo by Jacob Seelman
Danny Smith won a sprint car main event for the 42nd consecutive season on Friday night, taking the lead from a slowing Trey Starks with five laps to go and holding off a hard charging Justin Barger to capture his first career USCS Sprint Car Series victory at Carolina Speedway in Gastonia, NC.
Smith, from Chillicothe, Ohio, ran second for most of the race, but was able to take advantage when an ailing motor sent Starks to the pits and dropped the trophy into Smith’s grasp.
“I was settling for second – Starks was gone,” Smith said in victory lane. “I saw a car pull in off turn four though and I thought to myself, ‘I wonder if that was the leader,’ but I was so busy in traffic that I never knew for sure. I saw the (checkered) flag but I didn’t know it was for me until they told me over the radio to go to victory lane.
“I’ll take a win any way I can get it though. This makes 42 consecutive years that I’ve won a sprint car A-main, and I’ve always run well in these USCS races but just had never won one before tonight. It’s really good to win one tonight.”
Johnny Bridges led the field to the green flag from the pole, but Starks was ready on the initial start. He soared from top to bottom entering turn one, surging to the inside of Bridges to go from fourth to first in a half-lap. However, the initial start would be called back after a three-car crash – involving Johnny Petrozelle, Joe Larkin and Tim Perry – slowed the pace in turn four.
The second attempt at the start saw Bridges get away ahead of a furious scrum for second between Starks, Danny Smith and Terry Gray that saw Starks finally prevail on the third round. From there, it took him only two more laps before he passed Bridges for the lead.
As Starks began to pull away, Smith’s car came to life. He passed Bridges for second on lap nine and got the aid of a caution at lap 12, when Perry hit the infield tire in turn two, to close up on the race leader and make a run.
That run would not happen, however, as Starks ran off to a straightaway lead just one lap after the restart. He would extend that to nearly a third of a lap advantage and appeared to be on his way to a win at the four-tenths mile oval before the motor went sour.
“We ended up hurting the motor,” Starks said. “It’s just something that happens that you can’t control. We had a great car all race and it looked like we were gonna get one, but it just wasn’t meant to be tonight. That’s racing.”
It opened the door for Smith, who kept Barger at bay the rest of the distance to notch the victory. Barger second ahead of Johnny Bridges, in third, Terry Gray in fourth and Morgan Turpen in fifth.
Eric Riggins Jr., Mitch Brown, Nick Snyder, Tony Agin and Cumming, Georgia’s Brandon Taylor rounded out the top ten.
Snyder kicked off the evening’s racing action by winning the Hoosier Tire Speed Dash, and Barger scored the win in the first heat. Gray rolled to the victory in the second heat.
Starks was the provisional polesitter after scoring the most passing points in heat race action, but after a four was rolled on the inversion, Bridges received the K&N Filters Pole Award.
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For rules and updated schedule information about the USCS Sprint Car Series, visit USCSRacing.com.
USCS Sprint Car Series
Carolina Speedway – Gastonia, NC
Carolina Clash – April 8, 2016
1. #4 – Danny Smith – Chillicothe, OH
2. #5 – Justin Barger – Montrose, NY
3. #23B – Johnny Bridges – Cherryville, NC
4. #10 – Terry Gray – Bartlett, TN
5. #10M – Morgan Turpen – Cordova, TN
6. #47 – Eric Riggins, Jr. – Charlotte, NC
7. #10B – Mitch Brown – Brantford, Ont., Canada
8. #116 – Nick Snyder – Marco Island, FL
9. #38 – Tony Agin – Ft. Myers, FL
10. #07T – Brandon Taylor – Cumming, GA
11. #67 – Jake McLain – Indian Trail, NC
12. #24D – Danny Sams III – Georgetown, KY
13. #21B – Brandon McLain – Indian Trail, NC
14. #67T – Brian Thomas – Pendergrass, GA
15. #23 – Trey Starks – Puyallup, WA
16. #36 – Tim Perry – Mooresville, NC
17. #33 – Joe Larkin, Suwanee, GA
18. #59III – Johnny Petrozelle – Denton, NC
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