Devil's Bowl III: Friday Prelim results

Wright Aces O'Reilly ASCS Devil's Bowl Winter Nationals Prelim

MESQUITE, Tex. (October 21, 2005) -- Gary Wright sewed up his second consecutive O'Reilly American Sprint Car Series National Tour presented by Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores championship in style by wiring the field in Friday night's 20-lap preliminary feature at the 32nd Annual Devil's Bowl Speedway Winter Nationals.

Wright fought off a pair of early challenges from Wayne Johnson then sputtered across the finish line on fumes nearly a half straightaway ahead of a closing Brian Brown to capture his 13th series victory of the season and 103rd of his career. It was Wright's twelfth ASCS triumph atop the famed Devil's Bowl clay.

After a pair of attempted starts were waved off, including one for a four-car front stretch melee that eliminated Steven King and Jake Martens, polesitter Wright outgunned Travis Rilat for the early lead with fourth-starter Johnson making a quick move into second.

Johnson briefly slid in front of Wright in turns one and two following a pair of early restarts, only to have "The Texan" slide back underneath exiting the corner to regain command. Wright then slipped away from Johnson, leaving the latter to dice with Rilat for second. Rilat and Johnson swapped the runner-up slot a pair of times before contact exiting turn two on the sixth lap sent Rilat spinning to the low side of the track with a flat left front tire. Rilat rejoined the chase only to get caught up in a tangle with J.D. Johnson at the race's midway point.

With the final ten laps run in non-stop fashion, Wright raced away from the field aboard the Wesmar-powered Southwest Express/The Shop/Richwood Construction No. 9 Maxim, leaving Johnson to fight off an advancing Brown.

After starting ninth, Brown was up to fourth when Rilat spun from contention then took third from Danny Jennings on the eighth lap. Brown and Johnson raced side-by-side for several laps before Brown took the position for keeps on the 18th lap. Brown took the checkered flag almost a half straightaway behind Wright, who crossed the stripe with a nearly depleted fuel cell.

Eleventh-starter Kevin Ramey made a last lap pass to snare the show position, with Johnson settling for the fourth and final lock-in position to Saturday night's O'Reilly ASCS National Tour season finale.

South Dakota's Gregg Bakker charged from 14th to round out the top five, with 18th-starter Jerrod Hull, Preston Peebles II, 20th-starter Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., 16th-starter Jan Howard and Rick Ziehl completing the top ten.

Jennings, Wright, Rilat, Andy Shouse, Johnson and Jesse Giannetto topped heat race action for the 49-car field, with Johnny Anderson and Howard splitting victory honors in the twin 12-lap "B" Mains.

Brad Welborn, Mike Sitzmann, Jr., Mason Hill and George White each escaped injury in separate "B" Main flips, while Chris Shirek continued on in the "A" Main after toppling over in turn two on the second lap.

The O'Reilly ASCS National Tour presented by Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores wraps up the 2005 season with Saturday night's finale for the 32nd Annual Devil's Bowl Winter Nationals.

Results:

First Heat (8 Laps): 1. Danny Jennings, 2. Preston Peebles II, 3. Skip Wilson, 4. Rick Ziehl, 5. Natalie Sather, 6. Mike Sitzmann, Jr., 7. Eric Payne, 8. Russ Fletcher, 9. Koby Barksdale.

Second Heat (8 Laps): 1. Gary Wright, 2. J.P. Bailey, 3. Gregg Bakker, 4. Jan Howard, 5. Brad Welborn, 6. Larry Neighbors, 7. Mason Hill, 8. Trey Robb.

Third Heat (8 Laps): 1. Travis Rilat, 2. Brandon Erwin, 3. Brian Brown, 4. George White, 5. J.D. Johnson, 6. Cody Branchcomb, 7. Jake Martens, 8. Lee Sowell.

Fourth Heat (8 Laps): 1. Andy Shouse, 2. John Carney, Jr., 3. Johnny Miller, 4. Johnny Anderson, 5. Chris Shirek, 6. Landon Brown, 7. Toby Brown, 8. Earnest Jennings.

Fifth Heat (8 Laps): 1. Wayne Johnson, 2. Shawn Sander, 3. Kevin Ramey, 4. Darren Stewart, 5. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., 6. Zach Chappell, 7. Steven King, 8. Jimmy Taylor.

Sixth Heat (8 Laps): 1. Jesse Giannetto, 2. Sam Hafertepe, Jr., 3. Matt Clevenger, 4. Jerrod Hull, 5. Wade Nygaard, 6. Tony Bruce, Jr., 7. Larry Hartwell, 8. Eric Baldaccini.

First B Feature (12 Laps): 1. Johnny Anderson, 2. J.D. Johnson, 3. Chris Shirek, 4. Steven King, 5. Cody Branchcomb, 6. Natalie Sather, 7. Koby Barksdale, 8. Toby Brown, 9. Lee Sowell, 10. Sam Hafertepe, Jr., 11. Jimmy Taylor, 12. Johnny Miller, 13. Darren Stewart, 14. Brad Welborn, 15. Mike Sitzmann, Jr., 16. Mason Hill. Disqualified: Brandon Erwin. DNS: Russ Fletcher.

Second B Feature (12 Laps): 1. Jan Howard, 2. Jerrod Hull, 3. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., 4. Matt Clevenger, 5. Tony Bruce, Jr., 6. Zach Chappell, 7. Trey Robb, 8. Landon Brown, 9. Eric Payne, 10. Eric Baldaccini, 11. Larry Hartwell, 12. Shawn Sander, 13. Larry Neighbors, 14. Earnest Jennings, 15. Wade Nygaard, 16. George White. DNS: Jake Martens.

A Feature (20 Laps): 1. Gary Wright, 2. Brian Brown, 3. Kevin Ramey, 4. Wayne Johnson, 5. Gregg Bakker, 6. Jerrod Hull, 7. Preston Peebles II, 8. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., 9. Jan Howard, 10. Rick Ziehl, 11. Johnny Anderson, 12. Skip Wilson, 13. J.P. Bailey, 14. Matt Clevenger, 15. J.D. Johnson, 16. Danny Jennings, 17. Chris Shirek, 18. Travis Rilat, 19. Andy Shouse, 20. Jesse Giannetto, 21. John Carney, Jr., 22. Darren Stewart, 23. Steven King, 24. Jake Martens.

O'Reilly ASCS National Tour presented by Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores Points (Top Ten): 1. Gary Wright 4,556, 2. Darren Stewart 4,270, 3. Tony Bruce, Jr., 3,958, 4. Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 3,943, 5. Toby Brown 3,478, 6. Jake Martens 3,449, 7. Jimmy Taylor 2,693, 8. Jan Howard 2,584, 9. Zach Chappell 2,395, 10. Lee Sowell 2,366.

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