Smoky Mountain Speedway
Clanton hangs on, grabs Smoky Mountain victory
By Kevin Kovac
World of Outlaws Late Model Series
Shane Clanton heads to victory at Smoky Mountain. (Chad Wells)
MARYVILLE, Tenn. (April 26) — Everything fell Shane Clanton’s way on Friday night at Smoky Mountain Speedway.
Taking advantage of an outside pole starting spot and some well-timed caution flags, Fayetteville, Ga.’s Clanton had just enough speed to hold off a late challenge from Steve Casebolt of Richmond, Ind., and capture the Mountain Outlaw 50. | Slideshow | Video
Clanton, 37, registered his second victory of the season on the World of Outlaws Late Model Series, which made its first visit to Smoky Mountain since 2004. He steered his Kennedy Motorsports Capital Race Car under the checkered flag a scant 0.164 of a second ahead of Casebolt, who overtook Jimmy Owens of Newport, Tenn., for second on a lap-38 restart and kept his Dishman Motorsports MasterSbilt car there to earn a career-best WoO finish.
Owens settled for third in a Team Zero by Bloomquist mount after running in the second spot for laps 10-38. Josh Richards of Shinnston, W.Va., maintained the WoO points lead with a solid fourth-place finish in his father Mark’s Rocket Chassis house car and Billy Ogle Jr. of Knoxville, Tenn., made a late charge to complete the top five in a Blount Motorsports Rocket fielded by Smoky Mountain co-owner Larry Garner.
Clanton was succinct after the race when asked for the key to his $10,550 triumph: “The laps run out,” he said with a smile.
The WoO veteran’s assessment was actually somewhat serious. Before a caution flag on lap 38 ended a 20-lap stretch of green-flag action, Clanton appeared to be in trouble with Owens, Casebolt and Richards all bearing down on him. He put some space on Casebolt following the restart but saw that gap shrink to virtually nothing a few laps later because his car’s right-rear tire simply wasn’t able to handle an extended run of uninterrupted racing.
“They said he was coming there at the end,” Clanton said of the signals his crew provided him concerning Casebolt’s last-ditch bid. “Luckily we had a caution there at the end (on lap 38) to cool the tires off. We went a little softer on right-rear tire, just trying to get the lead (at the start) and hopefully dictate the pace. I liked every caution, especially since they seemed to fall right my way. I didn’t even have to lap a car. We got in lapped traffic twice and luckily a caution came out.”
Casebolt stuck the nose of his machine inside Clanton’s off turn two on lap 44 and stayed close the remainder of the distance, but Clanton held strong to score his 18th career win on the WoO and close to within four points of Richards in the tour standings.
“I was just using most of the racetrack,” said Clanton, whose previous victory this season came in the tour opener on Feb. 8 at Screven Motor Speedway in Sylvania, Ga. “We got tight there in the middle and I was just floating in the bottom, letting it float across and then using the brown to leave the corner. I was trying not to spin the tires because I knew we had a softer right-rear.
“It feels good that we were able to hold on. We’ve had a lot of good runs so far this year but we wanted another win.”
Casebolt, 34, was left wondering if he could have done anything differently to change the outcome.
“I felt like we had the fastest car, but I think I missed my mark a couple of times with a few laps to go,” said Casebolt, who started fourth. “Once my tires cooled off after those cautions it was so hard for me to hit my mark coming off (turn) two. I needed to be low, but I had to get so crooked entering one with those cold tires that I didn’t feel like I had enough drive. So I just carried momentum in one and two, and that was probably a mistake. I maybe could’ve drove a little bit different and had a better shot at winning.
“In my opinion, I felt like I would’ve had a much better shot at winning the race had that last caution not come out,” he continued. “I think I was passing Owens (for second) at the time and we were really coming on, but the caution killed me.”
Casebolt tried to put on a happy face, but it wasn’t easy after threatening to bag his first-ever WoO victory.
“A second is great — it’s another great run for us this year — but we’re here to win,” Casebolt said. “And we were so close to winning. It’s not like we were a half-straightaway away. We were half a car-length away, and that’s just a little bit hard to handle.”
Four caution flags slowed the event. The most serious incident occurred on lap 19 when Vic Hill of Morristown, Tenn., slapped the turn-three wall after apparent contact with another while racing just outside the top 10. Other cautions flew on lap 14 for Tommy Kerr of Maryville, Tenn., who slowed with a flat tire; lap 18 for Eric Wells of Hazard, Ky., who slowed with his car’s rearend sparking after catching the wall; and lap 38 for Rick Eckert of York, Pa., who relinquished sixth place to a broken rear axle.
Other casualties of the race were Mike Marlar of Winfield, Tenn., and Scott Bloomquist of Mooresburg, Tenn. Moments after Kerr brought out the lap-14 caution, Marlar slowed between turns one and two with mechanical trouble that caused flames to appear under his car. He collected Bloomquist and both drivers retired from further action.
Dillon Wood of New Smyrna Beach, Fla., who started from the pole position, slipped to sixth at the finish but earned the $250 WoO top-rookie bonus and matched his career-best run on the circuit.
Notes: Clanton’s Kennedy Motorsports Capital Race Car is powered by a Clements Racing Engine and sponsored by Core Construction, Keyser Mfg., Ironco and b3 Architecture + Planning. ... Seventeen of 25 starters completed 50 laps. ... Tim McCreadie of Watertown, N.Y., fifth in series points, finished ninth after using a provisional to start 24th because he was involved in a heat-race tangle that busted his car’s radiator. ... Defending WoO champion Darrell Lanigan of Union, Ky., finished a quiet 14th after using a provisional to start 23rd. His night went downhill when he blew a right-rear tire while leading the second heat with two laps remaining. ... The event was held before a near-capacity crowd despite the threat of rain that forced track and series officials to push the program. ... Among drivers failing to make the feature lineup: Bretty Miller, Bobby Giffin, Chuck Laney, Tommy Kerr, Skylar Marlar, Dale McDowell, Mark Douglas, Josh Collins, Ryan King and Jeff Franklin. ... The WoO’s weekend tripleheader in the Volunteer State is scheduled to continue on Saturday at Tazewell Speedway and Sunday evening at Duck River Raceway Park in Wheel.
World of Outlaws @ Smoky Mountain: (1) Shane Clanton, (2) Steve Casebolt, (3) Jimmy Owens, (4) Josh Richards, (5) Billy Ogle, (6) Dillon Wood, (7) Jonathan Davenport, (8) Bub McCool, (9) Tim McCreadie, (10) Riley Hickman, (11) Scott James, (12) Mark Vineyard, (13) Chub Frank, (14) Darrell Lanigan, (15) Tim Fuller, (16) Tommy Kerr, (17) Morgan Bagley, (18) Rick Eckert, (19) Michael Asberry, (20) Clint Smith, (21) Vic Hill, (22) Chad Ogle, (23) Eric Wells, (24) Mike Marlar, (25) Scott Bloomquist. Fast qualifier (among 35 cars): Marlar, 14.990 seconds. Heat race winners: Casebolt, Davenport, Marlar, Clanton. Consolation winners: Ogle, Hill. Provisional starters: Lanigan, McCreadie, Bagley.
