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Kevin Thomas Jr. captures Indiana Sprint Week title
PUTNAMVILLE -- Kevin Thomas Jr. cemented himself in the United States Auto Club history books Sunday evening, claiming the Indiana Sprint Week championship with a fifth-place run at Lincoln Park Speedway.
Robert Ballou did everything within his power to knock Thomas from the top spot, winning the battle, but not the war. Ballou picked up his second USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship victory of the season.
Just 23 points separated the two hotshoes after Saturday's race at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt. Thomas would take care of business early in the evening as he gained six crucial points by recording the ProSource/B&W Auto Mart Fast Qualifying time, which placed him outside of the third row for the 30-lap feature with a six-car invert. Thomas would have to finish eighth or better in the feature if Ballou picked up the win, which admittedly was in the back of Thomas' mind before the green flag.
"Right before the feature, I knew it was 23 points going in," Thomas said. "It does put a little pressure on you, but I normally like pressure. You don't want to think about points, but at the end of the day, no matter who you are, it's in the back of your head when it's Indiana Sprint Week. This is such a historical week. Everybody wants to win it."
Thomas came painfully close in 2013, leading the point standings into the final race before watching it get away from him.
Ballou started on the pole and worked the bottom line on the opening circuit as Chad Boespflug rocked the cushion on the high side. Boespflug led the opening lap as Ballou furiously gave chase and eventually snagged the point coming off turn four of the second lap.
Farther back in the pack, Thomas had his hands full as he worked traffic and tried to maneuver his way toward the lead pack. Thomas hopped the turn two cushion on lap nine and dropped two positions back to the all-important eighth spot. With 10 laps completed, Thomas' lead stood at just two as Ballou held the lead and Thomas sat in eighth. He admitted that nerves might have been a factor as he sought a smooth line around the Putnamville oval.
"It does put a little pressure on you," Thomas admits. "I normally like pressure, but right there at the start, I got a good jump and I kind of got shuffled around. From there, I just made some bad driving mistakes. I jumped the cushion a few times, then I got flustered. I got a run on Kyle Cummins, jumped his right rear going down the backstretch and almost turned it over. I made a lot of dumb mistakes, to be honest. I knocked my floor pan off and the gas pedal wouldn't even go all the way down. It was touching the brake; I couldn't even use the brakes."
With just nine laps remaining, Brady Short had charged into the runner-up spot and was putting pressure on Ballou for the lead. Ballou opened up a bit of breathing room on lap 21, but C.J. Leary got upside down while making contact with Ryan Bernal in turn three. The accident effectively gave Thomas a bit of a cushion as all three drivers were running in the top-eight. The red flag gave the drivers a chance to catch their breath before the final dash for the checkered flag.
Perhaps most importantly for Thomas was the chance to make a few crucial adjustments to his car for the final stretch run.
"Normally I don't like stoppages like that. This time I did," Thomas explains. "I made a few shock adjustments because I was pretty tight out there for where I was having to run. I just really wasn't running a great enough race to be able to run the cushion the way I'd normally want to. I had to make a few adjustments to be able to rotate on the bottom and to not get myself tight. I knew I had to go get going and I knew I had to do something. I just had to keep myself calm and get back to doing what I wanted to do and pass some race cars. Sometimes you like to see the red, sometimes you don't. This time, I did. I had time to gather my thoughts and had to make a few decisions."
Ballou noted that he wasn't exactly sure what to expect as he entered turn one on the restart with eight laps remaining.
"I was biting my tongue when I headed into turn one on the restart," Ballou detailed. "You aren't sure if you're going to tip over, if it's going to toss the nose or what's going to happen. It's a guessing game and I hoped I entered the corner just right. It was tricky, but that's what makes racing racing."
Ballou was able to make his last two re-starts stick and outdistanced Short, who dropped several spots as Tyler Courtney hammered through into the second position. A spin by Tyler Thomas set up a two-lap dash that Ballou led across the finish line ahead of Courtney and Boespflug.
Thomas came out on top of the points standings by 11 markers to pick up the $5,000 top prize and a custom made Bridgeport Rocker from John Youngs.
"It's just a relief to be able to win this thing," Thomas exhaled. "It's a lot of hard work not only from myself and my family, but the guys back at the shop. Both of them have day jobs and they are as hard-working and passionate about the team as hard as anybody I've ever seen. Like Saturday night at Haubstadt, we ran second and I think they were as mad, if not madder, than I was. That's what I like to see. It's an intense week and you have to be intense about it."
Kenny Carmichael Sr. picked up the UMP Modified feature win ahead of Jeff Deckard, Tyler Loughmiller and Kenny Carmichael Jr.
PROSOURCE/B & W AUTO MART QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 9K, KT-12.594; 2. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-12.628; 3. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-12.638; 4. Chad Boespflug, 69, Dynamics-12.643; 5. Tyler Courtney, 23c, TOPP-12.662; 6. Aaron Farney, 15F, DCT-12.675; 7. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-12.774; 8. Justin Grant, 11, McGhee-12.790; 9. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.814; 10. Brady Short, 11p, Pottorff-12.849; 11. Ryan Bernal, 17GP, Dutcher-12.886; 12. Kody Swanson, 2E, Epperson-12.909; 13. Jerry Coons Jr., 21K, Krockenberger-12.928; 14. Josh Hodges, 74x, Hodges-12.966; 15. Thomas Meseraull, 5B, Briscoe-12.995; 16. Chris Windom, 5, Baldwin-13.013; 17. Dave Darland, 17x, Dutcher-13.065; 18. Kyle Robbins, 17R, Robbins-13.081; 19. Tyler Thomas, 04, Burton-13.106; 20. Jarett Andretti, 18, Andretti-13.163; 21. Brent Beauchamp, 34, Olson-13.181; 22. Jon Stanbrough, 77, Wingo-13.220; 23. Nate McMillin, 24m, McMillin-13.372; 24. Joe B. Miller, 51B, Miller-13.545; 25. Dave Darland, 71p, Phillips/Curb-Agajanian-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT (10 laps): 1. Windom, 2. B. Short, 3. Coons, 4. Boespflug, 5. K. Thomas, Jr., 6. T. Thomas, 7. Cummins, 8. Stanbrough. 2:10.33
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT (10 laps): 1. Hodges, 2. Bernal, 3. Darland (#17x), 4. Courtney, 5. Andretti, 6. Stockon, 7. Grant, 8. McMillin. 2:11.08
CHALK STIX THIRD HEAT (10 laps): 1. Ballou, 2. Leary, 3. Meseraull, 4. Beauchamp, 5. Farney, 6. Swanson, 7. Robbins, 8. Miller. NT
INDY RACE PARTS SEMI: (12 laps): 1. Stockon, 2. Cummins, 3. Swanson, 4. Grant, 5. T. Thomas, 6. Stanbrough, 7. McMillin, 8. Robbins, 9. Miller. 2:45.90
FEATURE (30 laps): 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Tyler Courtney, 3. Chad Boespflug, 4. Brady Short, 5. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 6. Justin Grant, 7. Josh Hodges, 8. Aaron Farney, 9. Chris Windom, 10. Dave Darland, 11. Thomas Meseraull, 12. Chase Stockon, 13. Ryan Bernal, 14. Jerry Coons, Jr., 15. Jarett Andretti, 16. Tyler Thomas, 17. Kody Swanson, 18. Nate McMillin, 19. Kyle Cummins, 20. C.J. Leary, 21. Jon Stanbrough, 22. Brent Beauchamp. NT