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Clauson is USAC king in North Carolina

Concord, NC - May 22, 2006
By: USAC

Withstanding several mid-race challenges and dodging a plethora of incidents, Bryan Clauson broke a streak of eight different winners in as many races to open a season Sunday with his second victory of the 2006 season, winning a wild and long Mopar All Star Showcase USAC National Sprint Car Series race at Concord Motorsports Park.

Clauson, who earlier this season became the youngest driver in series history to win a USAC National Sprint race, made it two-for-three in pavement races after charging to the checkered flag with Mike Murgoitio and Dave Darland in tow. It marked the first time any one driver has won two races in 2006.


But the feature victory was celebrated long after the initial green flag flew for the 50-lapper, with cautions and red flag periods plaguing the event. The biggest incident of the night came only 16 laps into the event, one which coincidentally provided Clauson’s best opportunity to wrest the point away.

Early, Ron Gregory led, trying to extended the streak of consecutive features with a different winner in a car owned by stepfather Gary Irvin. Clauson shadowed Gregory around the tri-oval, slicing high and low, never making an attempt but staying close enough to pounce if the opportunity presented itself.
It did – in a big way.

On Lap 16, an eight-car melee broke out as the mid-pack rounded Turn 3. Brady Short spun at the turn’s exit, and collected Dave Steele, Daron Clayton, Levi Jones, Shawn Norris and Mario Marietta.
Behind, Rex Norris III braked to avoid the incident, but Jones’ teammate Kyle Nicholas ran over the right tires of Norris’ machine, sending him in the air. The car plowed into the wall, then into Steele’s car and flipped in a fiery ball before coming to a stop. He was helped by Steele out of the car and was not seriously injured.

The pile-up led to more than a half hour cleanup of cars and fuel, but only Nicholas, Steele and Marietta were proclaimed out of the race.
Once the green flew, Clauson – who said after the race he was sizing Gregory up for a pass in the track’s dogleg – instead made the pass immediately, getting alongside Gregory in Turn 1 and completing the pass exiting Turn 2. Less than 10 seconds later, he held a five car length lead.

But that lead was sliced and diced by way of cautions and another red flag, as competitors claimed they needed fuel. On Lap 40, drivers stopped on the front stretch to top off.

From there, it was a race for second. Murgoitio, who set the night’s fast time and started sixth, waited patiently and made moves around Eric Gordon, then Josh Wise, Gregory and finally Darland, the last pass coming on Lap 46.

However, it was not enough to test Clauson’s patience. He turned in at least a one-second performance when the checkered flags flew, besting Murgoitio, Darland, Gregory and Darren Hagen.

Clauson gave car owner Keith Kunz praise, saying their team has turned a question mark on the pavement into an exclamation point.

Marietta, Clayton and Brian Gerster tamed their eight-lap heats. Despite finishing seventh, Wise increased his point advantage to 22 markers over Bud Kaeding heading into Wednesday’s “Sam Pierce Chevrolet 50” at Anderson Speedway in Indiana.

Bobby Santos III took advantage of his sister Erica's car Sunday to win a competitive "Mopar All Star Showdown" USAC National Midget Car Series race.

USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: May 21, 2006 – Concord, North Carolina – Concord Motorsports Park – “Mopar All-Star Showdown”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Mike Murgoitio, 80, Hamilton-15.040; 2. Dave Darland, 11D, Walker/Guiducci-15.071; 3. Josh Wise, 20, Stewart-15.089; 4. Eric Gordon, 51, Bowman-15.121; 5. Bryan Clauson, 67, Kunz-15.134; 6. Ron Gregory, 23, Irvin-15.186; 7. Justin Barger, 32, Barger-15.223; 8. Tracy Hines, 69, Dynamics-15.235; 9. Darren Hagen, 71, Hagen-15.265; 10. Bobby Santos III, 98s, Santos-15.278; 11. Jay Drake, 62, BWB-15.296; 12. Tom Hessert, 5H, Hessert-15.300; 13. Bud Kaeding, 2B, 2B Racing-15.313; 14. Mat Neely, 6, Neely-15.323; 15. Kody Swanson, 50m, Ram-15.337; 16. Marc Jessup, 14J, Jessup-15.348; 17. Levi Jones, 21, Stewart-15.362; 18. Brady Short, 36, Short-15.424; 19. Dave Steele, 11, Walker/Guiducci-15.475; 20. Brian Gerster, 27, Davis/Gerster-15.558; 21. Daron Clayton, 92, Clayton-15.595; 22. Mario Marietta, 37, Marietta-15.603; 23. Rex Norris III, 63, Norris-15.655; 24. Shawn Norris, 04, Norris-15.730; 25. Kyle Nicholas, 29, Stewart-15.997; 26. #67k, Kunz-NT.

FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Marietta, 2. Jessup, 3. Nicholas, 4. B.Santos, 5. Steele, 6. Kaeding, 7. Murgoitio, 8. Barger, 9. Gordon. 2:06.33

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Gerster, 2. Hines, 3. Neely, 4. Darland, 5. Jones, 6. Drake, 7. Clauson, 8. R.Norris. 2:05.92

THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Clayton, 2. S.Norris, 3. Short, 4. Hessert, 5. Swanson, 6. Gregory, 7. Hagen, 8. Wise. 2:06.53

FEATURE: (50 laps) 1. Bryan Clauson, 2. Mike Murgoitio, 3. Dave Darland, 4. Ron Gregory, 5. Darren Hagen, 6. Tom Hessert III, 7. Josh Wise, 8. Bud Kaeding, 9. Jay Drake, 10. Mat Neely, 11. Levi Jones, 12. Brady Short, 13. Marc Jessup, 14. Daron Clayton, 15. Shawn Norris, 16. Brian Gerster, 17. Rex Norris III, 18. Tracy Hines, 19. Bobby Santos III, 20. Eric Gordon, 21. Kody Swanson, 22. Justin Barger, 23. Dave Steele, 24. Mario Marietta, 25. Kyle Nicholas. NT

**Nicholas flipped during a multi-car tangle on lap 16.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-15 Gregory, Laps 16-50 Clauson.

NEW NATIONAL SPRINT CAR STANDINGS: 1-Wise-436; 2-Kaeding-414; 3-Jones-402; 4-Clauson-388; 5-Neely-371; 6-Hagen-362; 7-Jerry Coons Jr.-349; 8-Drake-335; 9-Darland-320; 10-Short-258.

NEXT NATIONAL SPRINT CAR RACE: May 24 – Anderson (IN) Speedway – “Sam Pierce Chevrolet 50”

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USAC NATIONAL MIDGET CAR SERIES RACE RESULTS: May 21, 2006 – Concord, North Carolina – Concord Motorsports Park – “Mopar All-Star Showdown”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Billy Wease, 80, Western Speed-15.430; 2. Bryan Clauson, 67, Kunz-15.461; 3. Bradley Galedrige, 129, Galedrige-15.485; 4. Josh Wise, 20, Stewart-15.499; 5. Tracy Hines, 1, Wilke-Pak-15.511; 6. Brad Loyet, 05, Loyet-15.527; 7. Jay Drake, 97, Kunz-15.530; 8. Darren Hagen, 71, Kunz-15.546; 9. Travis Miniea, 77, Fast Track-15.567; 10. David Gough, 82, A & G-15.595; 11. Jason Leffler, 38, Lefturn Racing-15.615; 12. Dave Steele, 91, Nine Racing-15.650; 13. Kevin Swindell, 25, Venture-15.658; 14. Jerry Coons Jr., 11, Wilke-Pak-15.664; 15. Ron Gregory, 22, Irvin-15.664; 16. Dave Darland, 9, Nine Racing-15.712; 17. Cole Carter, 7, Carter-15.757; 18. Teddy Beach, 125, Beach-15.768; 19. Erica Santos, 98s, Santos-15.775; 20. Michael Lewis, 93, Wagner-15.778; 21. Stephanie Mockler, 6, East-15.790; 22. Levi Jones, 21, Stewart-15.796; 23. Aaron Fike, 32A, RFMS-15.826; 24. Tom Hessert III, 5, Hessert-15.835; 25. Ben Seitz, 17, Valeri-15.853; 26. Kyle Nicholas, 29, Stewart-15.864; 27. Brandon Wagner, 92, Wagner-15.904; 28. Ryan Durst, 191, Kahne-15.927; 29. Randy Cabral, 35, Cabral-15.962; 30. David Byrne, 20B, Byrne-15.974; 31. Scott Thoman, 88, Thoman-16.046; 32. Alex Pruett, 40, Western Speed-16.111; 33. Joe Liguori, 28, Owen-16.121; 34. Adam Cantor, 7ny, Cantor-16.142; 35. A.J. Fike, 32, RFMS-16.150; 36. Mario Marietta, 37, Marietta-16.228; 37. Mike Ordway, 99, Desrosiers-16.338; 38. Bobby Santos III, 4, Klatt-NT; 39. #19, Nine Racing-NT.

FIRST HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Mockler, 2. Hines, 3. Seitz, 4. Carter, 5. Miniea, 6. Wease, 7. Ordway, 8. Liguori, 9. Cabral, 10. Swindell. NT

SECOND HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Beach, 2. Coons, 3. Byrne, 4. Loyet, 5. Clauson, 6. Gough, 7. Jones, 8. Cantor, 9. Nicholas. NT

THIRD HEAT: (8 laps) 1. B.Santos (#98s), 2. Aaron Fike, 3. Galedrige, 4. Leffler, 5. Gregory, 6. Drake, 7. A.J. Fike, 8. B.Wagner, 9. Thoman. NT

FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps) 1. Lewis, 2. Hessert, 3. Hagen, 4. Steele, 5. Wise, 6. Darland, 7. Pruett, 8. Durst. NT

SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Wease, 2. Clauson, 3. Wise, 4. Drake, 5. Miniea, 6. Gregory, 7. Gough, 8. Darland, 9. Swindell, 10. A.J. Fike, 11. Jones, 12. Wagner, 13. Durst, 14. Thoman, 15. Ordway, 16. Cantor, 17. Pruett, 18. Cabral. NT

FEATURE: (50 laps) 1. Bobby Santos (#98s), 2. Brad Loyet, 3. Josh Wise, 4. Bryan Clauson, 5. Jay Drake, 6. Dave Steele, 7. Jerry Coons Jr., 8. Travis Miniea, 9. Stephanie Mockler, 10. Dave Darland, 11. Darren Hagen, 12. Michael Lewis, 13. A.J. Fike, 14. Ron Gregory, 15. Bradley Galedrige, 16. Tom Hessert III, 17. David Byrne, 18. Cole Carter, 19. Teddy Beach, 20. Billy Wease, 21. Ben Seitz, 22. Aaron Fike, 23. Tracy Hines, 24. Jason Leffler. NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-46 Loyet, Laps 47-50 Santos.

NEW NATIONAL MIDGET CAR STANDINGS: 1-Steele-116; 2-Drake-103; 3-Lewis-98; 4-Coons-88; 5-Loyet-84; 6-Santos-81; 7-Darland-75; 8-Carter-75; 9-Gregory-74; 10-Wease-71.

NEXT NATIONAL MIDGET CAR RACE: May 27 – Indianapolis (IN) Raceway Park – 61st Coca-Cola “Night Before the 500” Classic