Tracks: Sammy Swindell 'Locks Up' Lebanon Valley A Main
31 May 2000
SAMMY SWINDELL "LOCKS UP" LEBANON VALLEY A-MAIN
MOORE CAPTURES MODIFIED WIN
WEST LEBANON, NY-A record sellout crowd greeted The Pennzoil World of Outlaws
as they made their annual stop at the high banks of Lebanon Valley Monday
night. Sammy Swindell dominated the 25-lap sprint car A-main. The modifieds
were also in action Monday night for a 30-lap feature and Chris Moore took
home the win in that race. CARQUEST Auto Parts brought us all the great
Memorial Day racing action.
Sammy Swindell completely dominated the whole night's racing action. He
shattered the track record in time trials with a time of 16.656, breaking the
old record by almost half a second. Steve Kinser looked to give Swindell a
run for his money but flipped the Quaker State sprinter on his second timed
lap.
Swindell took the lead right at the start of the 25-lap A-Main Outlaw
feature. Swindell began to encounter lapped traffic as early as lap five. The
lapped traffic seemed to be the only thing that gave Swindell fits Monday
night. The slower lapped cars allowed second place runner, Danny Schatz, to
close in on Swindell. Two caution flags slowed the lightning fast feature,
both of which came out on lap 15. The first was for the #17 of Joey Saldana
as he exploded a right rear tire down the frontstretch. Saldana did a
masterful job of not crashing the car and was able to continue after a tire
change.
The top five at this point were Swindell, Schatz, Stevie Smith, Mark
Kinser and Lance Blevins. The restart saw Blevins encounter some problems
allowing Johnny Herrera to get by in turn one. Blevins problems continued in
turn four as his racecar shut down collecting the Amoco #93 of Dale Blaney in
the process both would be done for the evening. Swindell remained untouchable
and cruised home to the victory. Schatz held off Smith for second, Mark
Kinser came home fourth and Herrera rounded out the top five.
Honorary starter, ABC Television's Jack Arute Jr, fresh from covering the
Indianapolis 500, gave the command to start twenty-nine modifieds for the
30-lap modified feature. Danny Sanchez took the lead at the start of the
feature and held the top spot until lap ten. The first caution came on lap
two taking Chris Kokosa, Ronnie Johnson and Maynard Forrette out of
contention for the night. Matt Quinn had a tough night crashing his primary
car in the consolation and dropping out of the feature on lap four with his
backup.
The most serious crash came on lap eight as for the second night in a row
a ten-car pileup occurred. Donnie Corellis, J.R. Heffner, Mike King, Russ
Blair, Dave Leckonby and Denny Soltis were some of the cars involved in the
incident. Kenny Tremont, coming off his career setting victory Saturday
night, was up to third by lap eight. Chris Moore began to pressure Sanchez
for the lead on lap nine and made the pass stick on lap ten. Tremont scooted
by Sanchez on the same lap and set after Moore. Rich Ricci dropped from the
feature with mechanical woes on lap twelve.
Moore and Tremont began to pull away from the rest of the field just
before the halfway point. Sanchez, John Hewitt and Mike Ricci sat on the back
half of the top five at the halfway point of the race. Several outsiders were
on hand Monday night including Tim Fuller, Brett Hearn and Jack Johnson.
Fuller ran a very consistent race and finished sixth. Hearn was never really
a factor for the victory and came home seventh. Jack Johnson started the
feature deep in the field as a result of qualifying though the consi. He came
up steadily through the pack and finished ninth.
The leaders began to encounter lapped traffic on lap 20 and Moore made
his way through it cleanly. Tremont was never able to mount a serious
challenge as Moore took home his first victory of the season. Sanchez had a
career best finish of third, with Mike Ricci fourth and Hewitt fifth.
NASCAR modified star, Ted Christopher was on hand to compete Monday
night. He was behind the wheel of the Jody Tornabene #2J modified.
Christopher had a little trouble getting used to the dirt surface and did not
make the main event.
5-29 CARQUEST AUTO PARTS MODIFIED SUMMARY (30 LAPS) - 1) CHRIS MOORE, 2)
Kenny Tremont Jr, 3) David Sanchez, 4) Mike Ricci, 5) John Hewitt, 6) Tim
Fuller, 7) Brett Hearn, 8) Rob Pitcher, 9) Jack Johnson, 10) Guy Sheldon, 11)
Dickie Larkin, 12) Donnie Corellis, 13) Ronnie Johnson, 14) Dave Leckonby,
15) Maynard Forrette, 16) Steve Devine, 17) Mike King, 18) Dave Mosher, 19)
Jerry Pennock Jr, 20) Matt Delorenzo, 21) Lee Nutting, 22) Rich Ricci Jr, 23)
Russ Blair, 24) J.R. Heffner, 25) Eddie Marshall, 26) Jason Goff, 27) Denny
Soltis, 28) Matt Quinn, 29) Chris Kokosa
PENNZOIL WORLD OF OUTLAWS SPRINT CARS PRESENTED BY CARQUEST AUTO PARTS
SUMMARY (25 LAPS) - 1) SAMMY SWINDELL, 2) Donny Schatz, 3) Stevie Smith, 4)
Mark Kinser, 5) Johnny Herrera, 6) Jac Haudenchild, 7) Andy Hillenburg, 8)
Steve Kinser, 9) Tim Shaffer, 10) Lance De Wease, 11) Danny Lasoski, 12)
Daryn Pittman, 13) Greg Hodnett, 14) Joey Saldana, 15) Dean Jacobs, 16) Danny
Wood, 17) Brooke Tatnell, 18) Lance Blevins, 19) Dale Blaney, 20) Bob
Bennett, 21) Carmon Carnibucci, 22) Dick Spadaro, 23) John Karklin, 24) Billy
Pauch