ASA: St. Amant Notches ASA Win at Irwindale

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

IRWINDALE, Calif. (March 10, 2001) - Columbus, Ohio's Gary St. Amant put on a show for his primary sponsor Wynn's, whose headquarters are only five minutes away from the Irwindale Speedway, winning his 16th career American Speed Association national event in front of a large crowd in Irwindale, Calif. St. Amant pocketed $23,580 for the victory.

"This is the biggest win of my career with the Wynn's offices so closes to the race track here in Irwindale," said Miller. "This is the one race we wanted to win all season long and my team really did it for me tonight. The team gave me a good pit stop and got us out front. Without that, I could have never have won this event."

St. Amant and eventual second place finisher Kevin Cywinski battled door to door, trading the laps several times within 50 laps of the finish. Cywinski stayed on St. Amant's bumper to the finish, but could never build up enough momentum to pass him.

"I could never get in front of Gary," said St. Amant. "I could only get to his side. We raced clean all night long. I raced him how I would like to be raced."

Cywinski also inherited the points lead through two events in the 2001 season, adding to his sixth place finish in the season opener.

Butch Miller's third place finish made it a trio of former ASA Champions on the podium. Miller, who was the pole sitter for ASA's initial trip to the West Coast, was a top-five contender all day long, but could not get past St. Amant and Cywinski.

Rookies Scott Fraser and Tim Jedrzekek rounded out the top five. Fraser led 50 laps in the middle section of the event and was a contender for a podium finish until Miller snuck by him in the late stages of the event.

The event was slowed by 11 cautions for 89 laps. There were five lead changes among the three different leaders. The biggest accident of the night occurred on lap 197 that took out veteran Mike Garvey and rookies Johnny Spaw and Ricky Bryant.

Cywinski is followed by Scott Hansen in the point standings. St. Amant, Miller and Mark Dismore Jr. round out the top-five.

The American Speed Association takes a week off before heading back to the Sunshine State of Florida for the Florida 200. The 200-lap event will take the green flag at 9 p.m. (Eastern) at USA International Speedway. The event will be televised live on TNN Sports.

IRWINDALE, CA - The unofficial final results from Saturday's $274,810 American Speed Association ACDelco Series tires.com 300 at the half-mile Irwindale Speedway. Listed is finishing and starting position (in parenthesis), driver, make of car, laps complet ed and reason out, if any.

1)(5) Gary St. Amant, Chevrolet, 300
2)(2) Kevin Cywinski, Chevrolet, 300
3)(1) Butch Miller, Pontiac, 300
4)(17) Scott Fraser, Chevrolet, 300
5)(31) Ted Jedrzejek, Pontiac, 300
6)(13) Scott Hansen, Ford, 300
7)(16) Tim Taylor, Chevrolet, 300
8)(22) Mark Dismore Jr., Chevrolet, 300
9)(12) Kenny Phillips, Chevrolet, 300
10)(10) Mike Miller, Pontiac, 300
11)(9) Greg Stewart, Pontiac, 300
12)(20) Matt Sielsky, Chevrolet, 300
13)(11) Rick Beebe, Ford, 300
14)(6) Chris Wimmer, Chevrolet, 300
15)(18) Pat Kelly, Chevrolet, 299
16)(29) Bruce Driver, Pontiac, 298
17)(15) Russ Tuttle, Pontiac, 297
18)(27) Greg Williams, Chevrolet, 297
19)(24) J.C. Beattie Jr., Chevrolet, 297
20)(34) Ed Brown, Chevrolet, 297
21)(36) John Silverthorne, Chevrolet, 297
22)(35) Tully Esterline, Ford, 295
23)(21) Brian Schwartz, Chevrolet, 295

24)(33) Glenn Allen Jr., Chevrolet, 295

25)(37) Mark Cole, Pontiac, 286

26)(32) Dennis Lampman, Chevrolet, 273

27)(4) Joey Clanton, Chevrolet, 264

28)(30) Kenny Bumbera, Pontiac, 254

29)(19) Tristan Dupuis, Pontiac, 250

30)(38) Tommy Grimes, Chevrolet, 239, handling

31)(8) Mike Garvey, Chevrolet, 231

32)(14) Mike Cope, Chevrolet, 227, suspension

33)(25) Brandon Miller, Chevrolet, 216

34)(28) Craig Smith, Pontiac, 197, accident

35)(7) Johnny Spaw, Chevrolet, 195, accident

36)(26) Ricky Bryant, Chevrolet, 195 accident

37)(3) Johnny Sauter, Chevrolet, 96, accident

38)(23) Francesco Gaudesi, Chevrolet, 66.

RACE STATISTICS:

Time of Race: 2 hours, 17 minutes, 47.451 seconds
Average Speed: 65.316 mph
Margin of Victory: 0.923 seconds
Lead Changes: 5 among 3 drivers

Lap Leaders: Cywinski, 1-89; St. Amant, 90-150; Fraser, 151-199; St. Amant, 200-252; Cywinski, 253-255; St. Amant, 256-300.

Cautions: 11 for 89 laps.

Unofficial ASA ACDelco Series points standings after 2 of 20 events: 1) Cywinski, 366; 2) Hansen, 350; 3) St. Amant, 341; 4) B. Miller, 335; 5) Dismore, 315; 6) Taylor, 316; 7) Clanton, 290; 8) M. Miller, 286; 9) Fraser, 258; 10) Wimmer, 258.

Text Provided By Jeremy Troiano

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