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Lucas Oil ASCS -- Shane Stewart Takes Two-Point Lead to I-30 Speedway TULSA, Okla. (April 8, 2009) -- Oklahoma native Shane Stewart carries the narrowest of leads into the Saturday night, April 18, event at Little Rock's I-30 Speedway when ...

Published: Jun 19, 2009, 7:50 PM

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Lucas Oil ASCS -- Shane Stewart Takes Two-Point Lead to I-30 Speedway

TULSA, Okla. (April 8, 2009) -- Oklahoma native Shane Stewart carries the narrowest of leads into the Saturday night, April 18, event at Little Rock's I-30 Speedway when the Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car Dirt Series presented by K&N Filters fires back to life.

Stewart escaped the season-opening Devil's Bowl Spring Nationals in Texas on March 20-21 with the meager margin, with the series scheduled weekend double at Oklahoma City's State Fair Speedway the following weekend nixed by weather.

Piloting Paul Silva's Wesmar-powered Palmer Properties/ProBilt Construction No. 57 A.R.T. Chassis, Stewart snared his 16th career Lucas Oil ASCS feature win by topping a field of 65 entries on the opening night of the Devil's Bowl Speedway Spring Nationals.

Defending series champion Jason Johnson of Eunice, LA, bounced back the following night to take the $6,000 Devil's Bowl Spring Nationals crown after a hard-fought duel with defending Short Track Nationals champion Tony Bruce, Jr.

When Bruce was disqualified for failing to meet the minimum required weight, Stewart moved up to the runner-up position. And that was just the bump Stewart needed to escape a wild opening weekend of competition with just a two-point margin over Johnson. Four-time series champion Gary Wright of Hooks, TX, is just six points off the lead pace in third.

Stewart has enjoyed some past success at I-30 Speedway, including a Lucas Oil ASCS triumph in 2003 and then Short Track Nationals preliminary feature wins in both 2003 and 2007.

Johnson, gunning for a second consecutive Lucas Oil ASCS championship, has a pair of series victories at I-30 Speedway in addition to a Short Track Nationals triumph in 2006.

Of the 30 or so drivers that have announced pursuit of the Lucas Oil ASCS title in 2009, none have enjoyed as much success atop the high-banked, 0x00bc-mile I-30 Speedway clay oval as Gary Wright. Wright has collected a dozen of his 124 career series wins at I-30 along with an unmatched four Short Track Nationals crowns.

New Mexico's Johnny Herrera escaped the opening weekend of competition ranked fourth, with Danny Wood and Nick Smith tied for fifth. The balance of the current top ten includes Paul McMahan, Brian Brown, Eric Baldaccini and Michael Dupuy.

The April 18 Lucas Oil ASCS event at I-30 Speedway offers up $6,000 to win and $500 to start the feature event.

The Series:
Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car Dirt Series presented by K&N Filters

When & Where:
Saturday night, April 18 at 7:30 p.m. -- I-30 Speedway

Track Information:
I-30 Speedway (Little Rock, AR) -- 0x00bc-mile high-banked clay oval located seven miles southwest of Little Rock off I-30 Exit 126 (Alexander Rd.), then south to frontage road, then east. For more information, contact the track at 501-455-4567.

Lucas Oil ASCS I-30 Speedway History:
A staple of the ASCS National Tour, I-30 Speedway hosted the first official ASCS National Tour event on May 15, 1993, with Memphis shoe Mike Ward dropping in on victory lane. Since that time, 16 different drivers have posted at least one ASCS National Tour feature win in the 41 events contested at I-30.

Gary Wright has enjoyed the most success at I-30 with a dozen triumphs, including a Speedweek and Short Track Nationals preliminary victory last year. Tim Crawley snapped a series victory drought with an STN prelim win, Tony Bruce, Jr., posted his first I-30 triumph with a $15,000 STN victory and Nick Smith topped last April's series stop at I-30 Speedway.

I-30 Speedway ASCS National winners include: Gary Wright 12, Tim Crawley 4, Garry Lee Maier 4, Terry Gray 3, Mike Ward 3, Jason Johnson 2, Wayne Johnson 2, Travis Rilat 2, Shane Stewart 2, Tony Bruce, Jr. 1, Pete Butler 1, Ricky Logan 1, Jason Meyers 1, Eric Sandage 1, Tim Shaffer 1, Nick Smith 1.

The Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car Dirt Series presented by K&N Filters is currently slated for approximately 35 nights of racing action at 17 different tracks throughout the nation, with the country's top Sprint Car drivers set to battle it out for their share of the $250,000 points fund.

The American Sprint Car Series, in its 18th year of sanctioning Sprint Car racing events, brings the best of Sprint Car racing to nearly 100 different tracks throughout 25 states and Canada in 2009. Anchored by the Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car Dirt Series presented by K&N Filters, ASCS also consists of a dozen different Regions throughout the nation.

Additional information regarding the American Sprint Car Series is available at www.ascsracing.com.

-credit: ascs

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