ASA: Clanton Goes Flag to Flag at South Boston
Posted By Terry CallahanMotorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
April 8, 2001
2000 Rookie of the Year Fastest in Practice, Top Qualifier, Wins 3rd Career Event
SOUTH BOSTON, Va. – Georgia’s Joey Clanton continued his dominance of the .400-mile South Boston Speedway on Saturday night, leading all 300 laps of the event and collecting his second win of the season and third career race, capturing the Textilease Medique 300 presented at Hardee’s. Clanton’s race win came from the pole position, which he earned on Friday afternoon after being the fastest car all day during practice.
Clanton is the first driver since 1996 to lead a race from wire-to-wire, when Gary St. Amant led all 300 laps at Columbus Motor Speedway.
“I was surprised that I was able to lead all 300 laps, it is kinda like throwing no-hitter,” said Clanton. “I expected pressure all race long, but that didn’t seem to happen. I was able to save my left side tires. We were slipping near the end when I was trying to put (Billy)Parker a lap down. That heated the tires up and the caution allowed us to cool them back down.”
The caution late in the event for Dennis Lampman’s stalled car allowed Clanton to save his tires from the charging Kevin Cywinski and Mike Garvey.
“The last caution made the difference in the race,” said Clanton. “I was able to cool the tires back down. Once that happened, I could run back on the low side.”
Clanton’s win from the pole earned him a $20,280 payday, including a $3,000 bonus from VP Fuels for winning the race from the pole position.
It was another narrow miss for Cywinski, still looking for a win since his return to the series in 2000. A late race charge on lap 240 allowed him to pull up on Clanton through turns three and four, but at the line Clanton held him off and used a lapped ca r to keep the position.
Cywinski’s teammate Garvey followed to the checkered flag for a third place finish with St. Amant and rookie points leader Scott Fraser rounding out the top-five.
Seven cautions slowed the race for 42 laps with several minor accidents being the major culprits. Clanton crossed under the checkers .341 sec. ahead of Cywinski, also clocking the fastest lap of the race on the event’s third lap.
Butch Miller, with his ninth place finish, continues to lead the ASA ACDelco Series points standings by 17 over Clanton as the series take a three week break before next heading to Hawkeye Downs Speedway in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The Iowa 300 is set for April 28 at 2 p.m. (Central) and will be telecast live on TNN Sports.
ASA TEXTILEASE MEDIQUE 300
SOUTH BOSTON, VA – The unofficial final results from Saturday’s $189,660 American Speed Association’s ACDelco Series Textilease Medique 300 presented by Hardee’s at the .400-mile South Boston Speedway. Listed is finishing and starting position (in parenthe sis) driver, make of car, laps completed and reason out, if any.
1)(1) Joey Clanton, Chevrolet, 300.
2)(5) Kevin Cywinski, Chevrolet, 300
3)(6) Mike Garvey, Chevrolet, 300
4)(10) Gary St. Amant, Chevrolet, 300
5)(8) Scott Fraser, Chevrolet, 300
6)(7) Danny Edwards, Chevrolet, 300
7)(2) Billy Parker, Chevrolet, 300
8)(19) Mike Miller, Pontiac, 300
9)(4) Butch Miller, Pontiac, 300
10)(12) Glenn Allen Jr., Chevrolet, 300
11)(21) Mike Eddy, Chevrolet, 299
12)(13) Mike Cope, Chevrolet, 299
13)(3) Scott Hansen, Ford, 298
14)(28) Tim Jedrzejek, Pontiac, 298
15)(9) Chris Wimmer, Chevrolet, 296
16)(18) Tristan Dupuis, Pontiac, 295
17)(14) Johnny Sauter, Chevrolet, 294
18)(25) Matt Sielsky, Chevrolet, 293
19)(30) Dennis Lampman, Chevrolet, 290
20)(17) Greg Stewart, Pontiac, 290
21)(16) Ricky Bryant, Pontiac, 276
22)(20) Tim Taylor, Chevrolet, 272
23)(23) Nick Woodward, Pontiac, 253, suspension
24)(15) Robbie Pyle, Chevrolet, 193
25)(24) Russ Tuttle, Pontiac, 165
26)(29) John Silverthorne, Chevrolet, 159, accident
27)(26) Craig Smith, Pontiac, 134, suspension
28)(22) Davin Scites, Chevrolet, 70, suspension
29)(27) Doug Stevens Jr., Ford, 67, rear end
30)(11) Johnny Spaw, Chevrolet, 52, accident
31)(31) Pat Kelly, Chevrolet, 52, accident
32)(32) Greg Williams, Chevrolet, 1, handling
RACE STATISTICS:
Time of Race: 1 hour, 47 minutes, 56.001 seconds
Average Speed: 66.708 mph
Margin of Victory: 0.341 seconds
Lead Changes: none
Lap Leaders: Clanton 1-300
Cautions: 7 for 42 laps
Unofficial ASA ACDelco Series point standings after four of 20 events: 1) B. Miller, 687; 2) Clanton, 670; 3) Hansen, 651; 4) Cywinski, 633; 5) Garvey, 631; 6) St. Amant, 621; 7) Fraser, 599; 8) M. Miller, 596; 9) Wimmer, 533; 10) Taylor, 516.
Text provided by Jeremy Troiano
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