Dodge City Raceway Park

Jennings Guns 'Em Down in Dodge City’s ASCS Three-Eighth Mile Nationals
By Lonnie Wheatley

DODGE CITY, Kan. (June 18, 2005) – Danny Jennings led all 25 laps of Saturday night’s Three-Eighth Mile Nationals finale at Dodge City Raceway Park, however it was anything but easy as he had to fight off a dramatic late charge from Gary Wright to secure his fourth O’Reilly American Sprint Car Series National Tour presented by Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores feature victory of the season.

Jennings dominated the opening 21 rounds of the affair, but a caution with four laps remaining offered new life to Friday night’s preliminary winner. Wright charged from fourth to second after the restart and the pair battled in wheel-to-wheel fashion for the point for a lap-and-a-half before Jennings secured a car-length triumph aboard the Folks-powered DJ Motorsports/Lucas Oil Products No. 61J Maxim.

"That last caution almost did us in, the guys I was worried about were Garry Lee (Maier) since this is his home turf and Gary (Wright) since he won last night," Jennings commented after his seventh career O’Reilly ASCS National Tour triumph. "I didn’t see Gary until about two laps to go, I kinda pushed him down the track a little on that last lap but that was the only was I was gonna beat him."

Jennings led the feature field to the green flag by virtue of winning the Foley Equipment five-lap Dash for Cash, which featured Friday night’s top two feature finishers and Saturday’s top four earners in passing points. C.J. Johnson gridded the feature on Jennings outside shoulder, with Darren Stewart and Wright in the second row and Cody Branchcomb and Sam Hafertepe, Jr., in row three.

As the initial green flag flew, Jennings raced to the cushion entering turn one but it was Johnson pulling the big slide through the opening corners. The slide didn’t quite work though, as Johnson looped his mount in front of the field exiting turn two with Derek Drown getting the worst of it by flipping. Drown was uninjured but done for the night, while Jason Martin and Luke Cranston both rejoined the chase at the tail after quick repairs in the work area.

Wright assumed the front row outside slot on the ensuing restart, but it was Jennings once again gunning into the lead as Stewart battled past Wright for second on the opening round. Wright fell another position the next time around as Branchcomb raced into third.

By the time lapped traffic came into play on the eighth round, Jennings had ridden the narrow cushion to a half straightaway advantage over Stewart, Branchcomb, Wright and Hafertepe. The leaders dodged a bullet soon after when Jake Pierson spun directly in front of them at the midway point. Each took evasive action to maintain position.

With three lapped cars separating himself from Stewart and Branchcomb on the restart, Jennings took off again and had the race well in hand until the caution flew with 21 laps in the books for leading Brodix Rookie of the Year contender Tony Bruce, Jr., who looped his mount in turn four while running sixth.

Set for a four-lap dash to the checkered, Wright moved to the middle of the track and raced past Branchcomb for third on the 22nd lap then disposed of Stewart for second the next time around. Wright quickly closed on Jennings and the pair raced under the white flag side-by-side.

Jennings held his ground as the pair battled through turns one and two, then raced through the middle of turns three and four to slip ahead of Wright by a mere car-length as the checkered flag flew.

"The 15 car (Hafertepe) got underneath me right before that last caution and showed me the rubber. I checked it under the caution and knew I could make a run at it from there," Wright explained afterward. "I thought about sliding him (Jennings) in turn two on the last lap, but I didn’t want to wreck both of us."

Stewart crossed the stripe in third, with Hafertepe making a late pass of Branchcomb to claim fourth. Branchcomb rounded out the top five to make it an ASCS sweep of the top five finishing positions in the event co-sanctioned with NCRA.

Former O’Reilly ASCS National Champion and current NCRA point leader Garry Lee Maier crossed the stripe sixth, with Preston Peebles II charging from 18th to seventh. Michael Woodruff raced from 19th to eighth in front of Steven King, with Johnson recovering from his early spin to complete the top ten.

With 50 cars in the pit area, Stewart, Maier, Branchcomb, King, Johnson and Drown topped heat race action, while Woodruff, Dennis Park and Sean McClelland won the 12-lap "B" Mains.

Jeff Crook flipped on the opening round of the sixth heat then returned for "B" Main action.

Results:

Locked-In from Friday Night’s Preliminary Feature: Gary Wright, Danny Jennings.

First Heat (8 Laps): 1. Darren Stewart, 2. Tony Bruce, Jr., 3. Kerry McAlister, 4. Earnest Jennings, 5. Brian Herbert, 6. Derek Cottrell, 7. John Jacob, 8. Cody Caldwell.

Second Heat (8 Laps): 1. Garry Lee Maier, 2. J.D. Johnson, 3. Jon Freeman, 4. Jake Martens, 5. Sean McClelland, 6. Brett Ream, 7. Jeff Heffner, 8. David Wheeler.

Third Heat (8 Laps): 1. Cody Branchcomb, 2. Sam Hafertepe, Jr., 3. Luke Cranston, 4. Preston Peebles II, 5. Mark Walinder, 6. Scott Milan, 7. Landon Brown, 8. Joe Wagner.

Fourth Heat (8 Laps): 1. Steven King, 2. Eric Miller, 3. A.J. Selenke, 4. Gary Taylor, 5. Geoff Dodge, 6. Gavin Punch, 7. Abe Sherwood, 8. Rick Halverstadt.

Fifth Heat (8 Laps): 1. C.J. Johnson, 2. Jake Pierson, 3. Jason Martin, 4. Michael Woodruff, 5. Bob Schaeffer, 6. Josh Fellows, 7. Shane Bangerter, 8. Scott Cochran.

Sixth Heat (8 Laps): 1. Derek Drown, 2. Foster Landon, 3. Brian McClelland, 4. Dennis Park, 5. Dex Eaton, 6. Tim Newman, 7. Cyrus Perme, 8. Jeff Crook.

First B Feature (12 Laps): 1. Michael Woodruff, 2. Gary Taylor, 3. Dex Eaton, 4. A.J. Selenke, 5. Geoff Dodge, 6. Brian Herbert, 7. David Wheeler, 8. Shane Bangerter, 9. Josh Fellows, 10. Scott Cochran, 11. Landon Brown.

Second B Feature (12 Laps): 1. Dennis Park, 2. Brian McClelland, 3. Gavin Punch, 4. Derek Cottrell, 5. Brett Ream, 6. John Jacob, 7. Tim Newman, 8. Cyrus Perme, 9. Earnest Jennings, 10. Jeff Crook. DNS: Joe Wagner.

Third B Feature (12 Laps): 1. Sean McClelland, 2. Jeff Heffner, 3. Bob Schaeffer, 4. Abe Sherwood, 5. Jon Freeman, 6. Jake Martens, 7. Scott Milan, 8. Rick Halverstadt, 9. Cody Caldwell. DNS: Mark Walinder.

Foley Equipment Dash for Cash (5 Laps – Determined Front Three Rows of "A" Feature): 1. Danny Jennings, 2. C.J. Johnson, 3. Darren Stewart, 4. Gary Wright, 5. Cody Branchcomb, 6. Sam Hafertepe, Jr.

A Feature (25 Laps): 1. Danny Jennings, 2. Gary Wright, 3. Darren Stewart, 4. Sam Hafertepe, Jr., 5. Cody Branchcomb, 6. Garry Lee Maier, 7. Preston Peebles II, 8. Michael Woodruff, 9. Steven King, 10. C.J. Johnson, 11. Jason Martin, 12. Foster Landon, 13. Gary Taylor, 14. Sean McClelland, 15. Tony Bruce, Jr., 16. Jake Pierson, 17. Luke Cranston, 18. J.D. Johnson, 19. Jeff Heffner, 20. Dennis Park, 21. Kerry McAlister, 22. Brian McClelland, 23. Eric Miller, 24. Derek Drown.

O’Reilly ASCS National Tour presented by Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores Points (Top Ten): 1. Gary Wright 2,254, 2. Darren Stewart 2,220, 3. Tony Bruce, Jr., 1,999, 4. Sam Hafertepe, Jr. 1,967, 5. Jan Howard 1,851, 6. Jake Martens 1,773, 7. Toby Brown 1,679, 8. A.G. Rains 1,391, 9. Jimmy Taylor 1,350, 10. Lee Sowell 1,348.

ASCS Rocky Mountain Region Points (Top Ten): 1. Gary Taylor 1,130, 2. Jake Pierson 1,120, 3. Eric Miller 1,092, 4. Bob Schaeffer 1,070, 5. Jeff Heffner 1,052, 6. Scott Milan 984, 7. Josh Fellows 968, 8. Joe Wagner 947, 9. John Jacob 924, 10. Nick Haygood 826.

American Bank of Oklahoma ASCS Sooner Region Points (Top Ten): 1. Sean McClelland 1,164, 2. Danny Jennings 1,148, 3. Cody Branchcomb 1,100, 4. Kerry McAlister 1,012, 5. Preston Peebles II 999, 6. Brian McClelland 977, 7. Foster Landon 899, 8. J.P. Bailey 727, 9. Derek Cottrell 717, 10. Jason Martin 686.