Toledo Speedway

Scott Hantz and the Toledo Speedway are becoming fast friends this season as he found himself again in victory lane Friday night, winning round #3 of the Hantz Group/Allegiant Air Gold Cup 75.

And for those of you wondering, there is no relationship between the driver and sponsor. It took Scott 27 laps to get up to second place from his ninth place starting spot. It took another 28 laps of hounding Andrew Hagen for the lead before he could pass him. "The car was good tonight. I could see the 00 (Andrew Hagen) was starting to struggle about lap 55 and knew it was time to go. I want to thank my sponsors EMF Corp., Indiana Wire Assemblies and Richard Poe," said the driver from Pleasant Lake, Ind. "We were really close to the track record tonight in qualifying, the car handled great all day long." (Note: track record is 14.817 by Jr. Hanley when the track was repaved. Hantz came .019 of a second short of the record with his 18.836 second lap).

Australian driver rookie Andrew Hagen started on the pole, and came home in second place. Tonight's race was only his fourth career oval track start for the driver who started racing on road courses. The first Gold Cup race at Toledo he dropped out of the event, but his next two races he finished sixth and fourth (at Auto City in Flint). Tonight he led the first 64 laps of the race. Hagen held back race winner Hantz for about 25 laps before Hantz passed him for the lead. I wasn't able to catch him after the races on Friday so here's the email quote he sent me (it's a little long, but I couldn't think of anything to edit):

   " The Brad Keselowski Racing Super Late Model was fantastic from the moment we unloaded it off the hauler. I really have to thank my crew chief Ron Keselowski who puts so much hard work into this car, it is great to bring home a result for him. The night wasn't without problems though, before qualifying I had a left rear tire deflate just before my run. We replaced it with an old tire, so the balance of the car wasn't too good in qualifying. I put that aside and still managed to qualify ninth, we were lucky with the invert of nine and then started on pole. It felt great leading the race around Toledo for so long, I knew that there was a whole lot of good guys chasing me down and I just needed to be smart in lapped traffic, relax and do what I could do. In only four races I have so much more confidence in the car and myself, it's amazing how far I have come with Ron's guidance. I was able to hold the lead until about lap 64 when I lost momentum behind a lapped car and Scott managed to get by me. I didn't give up, I kept my head down and managed to not lose any ground to Scott, but he didn't make any mistakes and I finished in 2nd.

   I really have to thank my family back home who are so supportive of me being over here and chasing my dream, as well as the whole Keselowski family. My first ever race in a super was at Toledo and unfortunately we ended up in an accident and I was out of the race. I remember sitting on the infield watching the 71 and 72 run away with the race and thinking, I have so far to go until I get to that level. Now I come back and in only my fourth race was up there with them, it really makes me feel like all the hard work of the last few years to get here has been worth it.

   We are going to keep working hard and pushing on and hopefully soon I can make that phone call back to Australia to tell my family that I have won my first oval race!"

Ron Allen was back in the #88 for tonight's race (at Flat Rock he drove his own car) and finished third. "It was a good race. It was a good race. It's fun to drive a good car down here (Toledo). We were a little tight. I want to thank Butch, Henry and Jack for letting me drive the car and Giles Auto Body for the sponsorship," said Allen.

Fourth went to current point leader, Mike Root, a Gold Cup rookie. "It was a good night for the Universal Graphic Solutions, Creatingaccents.com, Renegade, Amsoil, Ace Auto Body and Jant Group #9. We have a conservative engine program so we know we can't run with some of the cars here, but it was a good night overall. We're still in the points lead with a couple races remaining," said the driver from the west side of Michigan.

The top five drivers will get money from the point fun. Root has a 55 point lead on Stevie Cronenwett, 70 points over both Dennis Strickland (who was tied for the points lead going into tonight's race), defending series champion, Harold Fair Jr. is 90 points back and Paul Pelletier, 105 points back round out the top five in points. Hantz with his two wins is 30 points out of 5th place.

Steve Peters suffered a catastrophic engine failure and backed hard into the turn one wall after hitting the oil (caused by a hole in the oil pan). Beside the engine failure, the car also needs a rear clip.

Dennis Strickland who entered the event tied with Mike Root for the point lead had a trailing arm bolt break. He finished 18th and fell to third in points (tied with Harold Fair Jr.).

Eric Huston won the A main for the Factory Stocks. "This is my second win of the season. I took over the points lead with the win, so I'm happy about both winning and the points lead. I want to thank Cynet Automotive, Jeff Maran, A&D Auto Parts. Also I want to thank my family and crew," said the driver of the #26. It was his eighth career Factory Stock win, putting him in a tie with Jeff King in sixth on the all time Factory Stock win list.

Also congrats to the other Toledo winners, Brad Turner in the 4 cylinders and Kent Jones in the Factory Stock B main.

Onto Flat Rock... Sorry no quotes, didn't get any emails from anyone.

Ronnie Allen drove Dennis Randall's car to the win the A division Street Stock feature. It is Allen's 43 Street Stock feature win, putting him eight wins behind Brian Norton the all time Street Stock winner.

Paul Faulkenberg won the B main. I'll check this week, but I think this may be his first career B main win. If it isn't, he hasn't won a B main in the last four seasons... quite a few C main wins during this time, but no B mains.

Billy Earley won his second consecutive Figure 8 feature at Flat Rock. It is his fourth win a Flat Rock this year and 11th career win at Flat Rock.

And get well wishes go out to Danny Slater, driver of the #3 car who is recuperating from surgery for a stomach aneurysm last week. Also heard the Ben Harris suffered a wrist injury last Saturday during the B main.

If you want to send me any tidbits, please email them to me at icechips@hotmail.com