USAR: Agnew Drives His Way to Historic Victory
Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel
August 28, 2001Nelles Corner, Ontario, Canada – It just goes to show that its never over until its over – especially in stock car racing. Jeff Agnew proved that truth Saturday night when he won the first-ever United Speed Alliance Racing Hooters ProCup Series event to be held in Canada.
Agnew, who was forced to switch to a backup car during practice, passed Mike Herman, Jr. on lap 158 and held off Mardy Lindley late in the race to win the Lucas Oil 200 at Cayuga 2000 Speedway. The win was the second this season and third overall for the 1998 USAR Hooters ProCup Series champion.
“I can’t thank my car owner and crew enough,” Agnew said. “We worked hard all day long getting this car right and thankfully it worked out for us tonight. I have the best sponsor in the world in the NGA Hooters Golf Tour and Eddie Ashbury is the best car owner in the world. Thanks to them we had the resources to go to a backup car tonight and it proved to be the right call.”
Brian Vickers rebounded from damage suffered in an early incident on the track to finish third, with Mike Herman, Jr. scoring fourth. Charlie Ford completed the top-five.
Donnie Hill led a group of four rookies in the sixth through tenth positions. Jason McLellan, a local favorite and the only Canadian to compete full-time this year in the Series, finished seventh with Dave Houpt and Sam Fullone in eighth and ninth, respectively. Glenn Sullivan completed the top-10.
“Man we really want to win one of these races,” said Lindley. “We had a good car but the tires just went away and we held on for a second-place finish. We are still leading the points and we want to finish first in the division to give us an advantage for the championship series.”
The race was the first-ever for the USAR Hooters ProCup Series north of the United States border and Ontario proved there were many great race fans in the region as over 4,000 people came to the 5/8-mile facility located about 70 miles east of Buffalo, New York.
“We really enjoyed racing here in Canada tonight and I hope we come back,” added Herman. “We came out here Friday night and saw over 100 campers and tents here at the track and we knew then we were going to have a great weekend. The Canadian race fans have proved to me they love stock car racing.”
Brian Vickers won the Sunoco Pole Award and led the first 69 laps of the race before he pitted for tires on lap 70 giving the lead to Lindley, under a caution brought out by Jeremiah Kuntz when he spun in turn two on lap 69.
The fireworks continued at the restart on lap 73. The brakes locked up on the Ford of Bill Plemons, Jr. causing him to make contact with B.J. Underdown. Plemons was in third place on the restart. This made the field stack up, causing 12 cars to eventually be involved in the incident. The two cars receiving the most damage were Lonnie Rush and Plemons. Plemons returned to finish 22nd, while Rush was forced to end his night early.
Vickers also received damage in the incident and was forced to make numerous pit stops to correct the damage sustained on his Chevrolet.
“We have a really fast race car and I hate that we got collected in the accident,” added Vickers. “We worked hard to get back into the top-10 and ran out of laps there at the end. We were able to pass for third there at the end of the race and that will help us in the points.”
Lindley remained out front in the race until he pitted under caution on lap 101. Lindley led at lap 100 to win the Lucas Oil Products Halfway Leader Award and surrendered the lead to Herman during the round of pit stops.
Lindley can clinch the USAR Hooters ProCup Series Northern Division championship by finishing sixth or better in two weeks when the Series returns to Chemung Speedrome for the regular-season final event.
Text provided by Tim Southers
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