37th 4-Crown Nationals

COURTNEY GETS MIDGET WIN

Rossburg, Ohio………Tyler Courtney picked up right where he left the “4-Crown Nationals” stage one year ago, following up a walk-off homer in the Silver Crown race last year with a dominating performance in the USAC P1 Insurance National Midget event Saturday night at Eldora Speedway.

The Indianapolis, Ind. native set the tone early, recording quick time in time trials, winning his heat and then leading the final 16 laps to capture the victory worth $5000 in his Clauson-Marshall Racing/Driven 2 Save Lives – Indiana Donor Network/Spike/Stanton SR-11.

Courtney launched his assault from the outside of the third row and quickly cracked the whip as he moved up through the field to second behind teammate Justin Grant by the fifth lap and brought along a challenger with him in Spencer Bayston.

Courtney and Bayston exchanged sliders as they tussled for the runner-up spot, while Bayston, the reigning series champ and race winner, showed no rust and no hesitation in his return from a leg injury suffered in an August sprint car crash.

However, Bayston’s bid for a repeat win came to a crashing halt on the tenth lap as he was tucked in behind Courtney in turn one. On entry, Bayston tagged his right rear rubber against the outside wall and partook in a horrifying incident that mangled his Keith Kunz Motorsports/Curb-Agajanian ride. Bayston emerged from the mangled wreckage, but was transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.

On the ensuing restart, Courtney wasted no time, delivering a slider immediately into turn one past Grant. Grant retaliated and made a run back at Courtney as they battled side-by-side for the remainder of lap 10 before he tried his hand at returning the favor in turn one. Instead, Grant slid up the hill in turn two as he attempted to slide up in front of Courtney, but it wasn’t quite enough to slow down Courtney, who plucked out a straightaway lead down the stretch.

Nothing would interrupt Courtney in the waning laps as he powered away for a 4.8 second victory, the fifth of his career and second of the year in the series, over Grant, KSE Racing Products/Larry Rice High Performance Hard Charger Logan Seavey (from 13th), Kevin Thomas, Jr. and Tanner Carrick.

Courtney’s victory allowed the Clauson Marshall Racing bunch to break the stranglehold that the Keith Kunz Motorsports/Curb-Agajanian team had possessed coming into the event, winning six of the last seven and the last three-in-a-row.

“Tim (Clauson) and everybody at Clauson Marshall Racing gave me one heck of a car,” Courtney exclaimed in victory lane. “Anytime you get to win at Eldora, it’s special. To do it during 4-Crown is even cooler.”

Rico Abreu, the 2016 winner of the midget portion of the ‘4-Crown,’ was involved in an accident during hot laps that also included Chris Baue. The 2014 USAC National Midget champ from St. Helena, Calif. was evaluated at the Premier Health Infield Care Center at Eldora and transported to a local hospital for further evaluation.

COURTNEY DOUBLES UP AT 4-CROWN

Rossburg, Ohio………To get to double-digits in the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car win column, you must win at Eldora Speedway.

Maybe it’s an omen, a harbinger or what have you, but history tells us as much.

Courtney reiterated that fact Saturday night during the 37th running of the “4-Crown Nationals” presented by NKT.TV, marking just the tenth occasion a driver has reached at least 10 series wins in a season and the 10th of those select drivers in that club to win at Eldora during their banner year.

Tom Bigelow (14 wins), J.J. Yeley & Robert Ballou (13), Larry Dickson & Pancho Carter (12), Bubby Jones (11), Dickson, Carter & Jay Drake (10) each got it done at Eldora on their magical seasons. Now you can add a little “Sunshine” to that list.

However, the ride to get there on this night was a tad turbulent early on as the team ran into mechanical issues that forced them to swap out the engine for another bullet following qualifying. It seemed to do the trick as Courtney walloped the competition in his heat race, then proceeded to decimate the field for much of the 30-lapper in his Clauson Marshall Newman Racing/Priority Aviation – Competition Suspension, Inc./Spike/Rider Chevy until having to hold off a late surge from hard-charging C.J. Leary left that fairytale ending hanging in the balance momentarily.

Courtney started from the pole position, but it was 2007 “4-Crown” USAC Sprint Car winner Robert Ballou who eked into the lead from his outside front row starting spot to lead the opening lap with Leary and Courtney in tow.

As Leary trailed Ballou, the reigning “4-Crown” Sprint Car winner was amidst a battle with Courtney for second. Courtney threaded the dot of the i around the outside of Leary in turn two. Leary then snagged the concrete and spun completely around down the back straightaway and somehow, someway, avoided catastrophe as the entire field missed him, allowing him to restart, although he would now have to come from the tail in 22nd.

Following the restart, Courtney made his surge, sliding past Ballou entering the third turn. Ballou countered with an uppercut to the chin and clung to his grip of the lead as the pair crossed the line. Courtney reloaded and fired his next shot, sliding to the lead past Ballou entering turn one. By lap 10, Courtney’s advantage was a full-straight ahead of Ballou.

Ballou’s bid to get back into the game hit a literal snag on the 14th lap when he clipped the turn two outside wall and spun around to a stop, ending his evening earlier than anticipated. That moved Justin Grant into second where he and the hard-charging Leary took a full head a steam at running down Courtney. Grant found the demise of his night in the same spot that took caught Leary and Ballou earlier in turn two. Grant’s car churned against the concrete along the back straight before grinding to a halt with four laps remaining.

Leary was in second behind Courtney for the lap 27 restart, but a challenge to Courtney’s throne was discarded almost immediately as Courtney blitzed to a good jump when action resumed. The only race for position was behind Courtney as Leary, Kevin Thomas, Jr. and Isaac Chapple roamed three-wide at times for the runner-up position.

It was all to Courtney’s advantage, however, as he drove away to his tenth series win of the year and joined Jack Hewitt, Kyle Larson, Jerry Coons, Jr. and Dave Darland as the fifth driver to win in a Midget, USAC Sprint Car and Silver Crown car during his “4-Crown” career.

Leary finished second ahead of Chapple, who scored a career-best third-place result. Point leader Thomas was fourth ahead of Chris Windom.

Contingency award winners Saturday night at Eldora Speedway were Justin Grant (Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner & ProSource Fast Qualifier), Kevin Thomas, Jr. (Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner), C.J. Leary (Chalk Stix Third Heat Winner), Tyler Courtney (Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner), Nick Bilbee (KSE Racing Products Hard Charger), Dakota Jackson (Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher), Timmy Buckwalter (Roger & Barb Tapy 13th Fastest Qualifier) and Scotty Weir (Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer).

LEARY WINS THRILLING CHAMP CAR RACE

Rossburg, Ohio………C.J. Leary felt he gave one away earlier Saturday night in the USAC Sprint Car portion of the 37th “4-Crown Nationals” at Eldora Speedway.

When the time came for him to set foot in his USAC Silver Crown car for the season finale, he made it his life’s mission to not let another golden opportunity slip through his fingers.

“The top was so treacherous, I kept making little mistakes and throwing the right front into it,” Leary recalled. “I thought I gave the race away three or four times. This racecar was bad fast, and I had a bad fast sprint car too. But the driver stepped on it in that one.”

Leary’s hunger was palpable after finishing second in the sprinter. You would’ve had to use a jackhammer to crack that lingering “What if” thought out of his head throughout the 50-lap Silver Crown finale. He wasn’t going to let anything go to chance; he was going to put this race in his own hands and be on the attack on the cushion. Although, the cushion at this particular moment of the night was an unmovable concrete wall.

“I’m always one to bang the boards,” Leary admitted. “The top’s the best place to run here at Eldora. The guy who can throw his nut sack over his shoulder and just haul it around here is normally the winner. I’m just glad to be standing down here and have the car in one piece after banging off the fence for the 50 laps.”

Leary had his work cut out for him, starting the race from the eighth position in his Chuck & Tammi Leary/Leary Construction – GreenTech Lubricants/DRC/1-Way Toyota, while Shane Cottle took off from the pole to lead early despite a rough going for others in the field that created a bevy of stoppages within the first eight laps.

On the third lap, David Byrne flipped into the catchfence between turns three and four to bring out the first red flag. Chris Windom, the victor of the two most recent series races, had a rear end break on him just as he was poised to snag the race lead on the seventh circuit. A lap later, defending race winner Tyler Courtney’s bid to sweep the three USAC divisions in a single night came to an abrupt end after tagging the turn one wall and flipping. Both Byrne and Courtney were uninjured.

As he had done throughout the night, Leary was on a mission, sliding into second past Jerry Coons, Jr. in turn one on the 15th go-around. By the time the two hit the back straight, Kevin Thomas, Jr. entered the fray and also ripped past Coons to move into third. Thus began what would be a familiar refrain for the remaining 33 laps – Leary and Thomas side-by-side!

As the two found their distinctive grooves – Leary heaving his car around the top against the outside wall and Thomas keeping his car straight as an arrow through the middle – they were able to cut Cottle’s lead down substantially from a second-plus to pretty much nil within a handful laps.

Leary pulled the bow first, sliding by Cottle momentarily in turn two on lap 30 with Thomas crashing the party as well. Cottle re-emerged with the lead at the line as the trio crossed the stripe three-wide.

Shuffle, repeat, shuffle, repeat like an old five-disc CD changer your grandparents might still own, that was the name of the game. Thomas initially gained the lead on lap 31, controlled three laps before Leary blasted by around the outside. Two laps later, Leary repainted the turn one wall with rubber after blasting the concrete, allowing Thomas to sneak back by for another three-lap stint at the front.

Leary again was pestering Thomas around the top, coming back to snare the lead on lap 39, but for nary one trip around the half-mile – by a half-car-length – before bouncing off the turn one wall again, handing the race back over to Thomas for one lap. Leary once again roared back to reclaim the lead the following time around, then led for four laps before battering the turn one wall again, allowing Thomas to take the advantage with six laps remaining.

Leary was relentless, ripping the topside around Thomas off turn four coming to the stand with three laps to go, beating Thomas by the mere diameter of a wheel. Thomas, never doubting, made one last ditch run at Leary into turn one, nearly getting the deed done, but Leary cleared Thomas by as much as the thickness of a five o’clock shadow exiting turn two.

All that stood in Leary’s way between he and a first series victory since Terre Haute in 2016 was a triumvirate of lapped cars. However, they were all hugging the bottom, which was more of a bugaboo to Thomas’ middle line than it was to Leary skimming the fence.

Leary was untouched the remainder of the way to win his second career Silver Crown race by a half-second over Thomas, a second-place finisher for the third race in a row. Pole sitter Cottle finished third in front of an impressive fourth-place run in Jason McDougal’s series’ debut while new, four-time series champ Kody Swanson rounded out the top-five.

“Winning these Silver Crown races are the crown jewel,” Leary said. “Winning sprint car races are cool, but these are my favorite races to run. This is a dream come true tonight.”

REUTZEL REIGNS SUPREME

ROSSBURG, Ohio (September 22, 2018) – Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions presented by Mobil 1 championship contender Aaron Reutzel made his ninth All Star victory of the season look effortless on Saturday night at The Big E, charging ahead from row four to the top spot in just 12 circuits, eventually driving on to score a first-ever Eldora Speedway victory during the 37th running of the coveted 4-Crown Nationals.

After starting from the outside-pole position and leading the first 11 circuits, Kokomo, Indiana’s Parker Price-Miller held on to finish second at the World’s Greatest Dirt Track, followed by Indy Race Parts teammate Gio Scelzi, Travis Philo, and Cole Duncan.

In response to the tragic loss of sprint car great Greg Hodnett, the All Star 4-Crown Nationals A-main was altered from 25 laps to 27 laps.

“It is unbelievable to win at Eldora,” Aaron Reutzel explained, driver of the Baughman-Reutzel Motorsports No. 87. “This win is all because of my crew chief, Grant Boyum. What a race car. We had the boss’ car out last night during the Outlaw show and we weren’t any good. We tried some things and they didn’t work, but tonight Grant did what he had to do and this car was incredible. It was going to be tough to beat Parker [Price-Miller], but luckily I had a car that could drive through the center and rotate well. This is exciting.”

A dominating performance to say the least, Reutzel’s charge to the front started right from the drop of the green flag, advancing four positions during the first three circuits of the 27-lapper. A red flag incident on lap eight involving Carson Macedo, who was battling within the top-five at the time, gave Reutzel an opportunity to capitalize. The ensuing restart resulted in Reutzel advancing two more positions, ultimately getting by Brock Zearfoss for third, then utilizing a slider in turns three and four to get by Cole Duncan to take second on lap nine.

Caution flags flew again on lap 11 once again setting up a single-file restart, this time putting Reutzel right on the back bumper of race-long leader, Parker Price Miller. When green flag action returned, Reuzel made his move, actually chasing Price-Miller back to the flagstand to complete lap 11 before getting underneath the Indy Race Parts No. 71P entry at the midpoint of turns one and two on lap 12. For the second time in four laps, a big move by Reutzel equaled success, keeping Price-Miller behind him as the duo raced back to the start/finish line to complete the circuit.

Despite caution flags reappearing on lap 15 creating another single-file restart, the field had nothing for Reutzel. The Clute, Texas, native drove on unchallenged, even manhandling a few spurts of lapped traffic during the final five circuits.

“We have one hell of a points battle going on right now and it has taken all the fun out of the racing,” Reutzel continued. “We needed this win bad. I didn’t want to go into the final round behind someone in the point chase. We want to win this championship so bad.”