ASCoT: October racing preview

Big Month of October Looms for O'Reilly ASCoT National Series!

TULSA, Okla. (September 24, 2008) -- With the month of October around the corner, the O'Reilly American Sprint Cars on Tour National series is gearing up to put the wraps on the 2008 season with three consecutive blockbuster weekends of competition.

With the $50,000 championship hanging in the balance, three tracks will play host to the nation's premier touring Sprint Car series for multiple day events during October.

The action gets under way at Cowtown Speedway in Kennedale, TX, on October 10-11, moves across the DFW Metroplex to Devil's Bowl Speedway in Mesquite, TX, on October 17-18 and then wraps up at Little Rock's I-30 Speedway on October 23-25.

The monster month of October ignites with the Inaugural Cowtown Sprint Nationals in Kennedale, TX, on October 10-11, as the ASCS National Tour takes to the "Fastest Lil' Track in Texas" for the first time since 2005. Additional information regarding the Inaugural Cowtown Sprint Nationals is available at www.cowtownspeedway.com/nationals.html.

The following Thursday, October 16, serving as a prelude to the Devil's Bowl event, Smiley's Racing will host the Second Annual Steve King Foundation golf tournament at the Buffalo Creek Golf Club in Rockwall, TX. A bar-b-que dinner will follow the tournament at Smiley's in Mesquite, TX. Additional information regarding the golf tournament is available at www.smileysracing.com/steve-king-golf.php.

Then, the racing action heats up once again with the 35th Annual Devil's Bowl Winter Nationals in Mesquite, TX, on Friday and Saturday, October 17-18, an event that Jason Johnson swept in 2007 to deliver car owner Lanny Row his first Winter Nationals triumph. Additional information regarding the Devil's Bowl Winter Nationals is available at www.devilsbowl.com/2008/headlines/101708.html.

The O'Reilly ASCoT season concludes the following weekend with the nation's premier Sprint Car racing event, I-30 Speedway's 21st Annual O'Reilly Short Track Nationals presented by Hoosier Tires. The three-night extravaganza in Little Rock, AR, on October 23-25 culminates with the Short Track Nationals championship feature event, which offers up a $15,000 winner's share and a hefty $2,100 to start the main event.

Closing in on a first ASCS National championship, Louisiana's Jason Johnson holds a 91-point advantage over four-time and reigning series champion Gary Wright entering the final three-weekend stretch of racing action.

"The Ragin' Cajun" has amassed his lead on the strength of ten ASCoT National feature wins this season, picking up a second career Toyota Tundra ASCS Speedweek championship along the way.

Wright, who has picked off three series wins this season to run his career total to a series best 122, holds the second position by 49 markers over Oklahoma City native Wayne Johnson, who added a second ASCS Knoxville Nationals title in August.

Talala, Oklahoma's Zach Chappell holds down the fourth position, just 30 points behind Wayne Johnson, with Garry Lee Maier of Cimarron, KS, rounding out the current top five.

Eric Baldaccini is the top-ranked Brodix Rookie of the Year contender by sitting sixth in points, with the balance of the current top ten including Nick Smith (Broken Arrow, OK), Kenneth Walker (Sapulpa, OK), Travis Rilat (Forney, TX) and Washington-native Gary Taylor. Seventeen-year-old Bedford, TX, shoe Kathryne Minter is just outside the top ten in eleventh.

-credit: www.ascsracing.com.