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Results 8/2/15 Tony Stewart's All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars

Blaney Has the Momentum in All Stars Go at PPMS

by Lou Long

Imperial, PA: Dale Blaney talked of "momentum middle," after his recent World of Outlaws victory at Lernerville Speedway in the Don Martin Memorial, but Sunday at Pittsburgh's Pennsylvania Motor Speedway he demonstrated momentum in a different place. Blaney rode the rim in classic style to the front on his way to win his fifth straight in the UNOH All Stars Circuit of Champions Sprint Car Series. His winning pass was a daring turn three slide job on leader Tim Schaffer, a driver who cut his teeth on Dirt's Monster Half Mile. Blaney's triumph was his eleventh with the All Stars this season and 126th of his career in the series.

"This place was really fun," he said. "You could pound the top, you could run the middle a little bit, you could run anywhere on the racetrack." But, the rim was where he seemed to be most comfortable, and effective. "The top was definitely the place to be with speed up." Blaney noted that his car was "really easy to drive." He attributed that to the tire selection. "I think we put on a little harder of a left rear tire than some of the guys and halfway through the race it really took off."

Schaffer pulled away from Greg Wilson on the opening lap, much to the surprise and delight of the fans. Schaffer may have had the home town following, as he lives just up the road in Aliquippa. But it was Wilson who had the benefit of winning when the touring series last visited the speedway. Plus, Wilson dominated a heat race and was second in the dash, which gave him the preferred outside lane to launch off turn four. Although they ran out front, Dale Blaney quietly moved into third and he methodically cut into the leaders' advantage.

Well before lap ten, Blaney had dispatched Wilson, and he had Schaffer in his sights. Blaney continued to pound the cushion, while Schaffer raced in the middle, just a car width below it. Blaney caught the leader entering the first turn on lap eleven, and then he executed an aggressive slider to assume command coming through the third turn. Instead of a classic slider entering the corner, Blaney entered the turn in the high groove, and turned down midway through to slide by Schaffer. Blaney then drifted to the top again between the third and fourth turns to complete the pass. From there, he had clear sailing in the non-stop affair.

Cody Darrah came alive midway through the race. He caught Schaffer and Blaney, and almost pulled off a surprise move. He dropped to the low side on the front stretch and had a run on both of them. However, he could not get his nose ahead of them when they were detained by the lapped traffic. So, the veterans rolled into turn one and were able to negotiate by the slower cars. While Blaney was able to make the unorthodox slide job work in turn three, it took Darrah another lap to pass Schaffer in turn one. But, Darrah was no match for Blaney the rest of the way. In his post-race interview, Darrah mentioned that he lost a cylinder, so it was remarkable that he kept second on the sprawling speedway.

A fantastic battle developed for positions three through six as the laps were counting down. Hometown favorite, Danny Holtgraver, worked into the top five from sixteenth on the starting grid, and he still had some more moves to make. Holtgraver made it to third by the time the checkers flew, and he had to hold off hard-charging Dave Blaney to keep the podium finish. Dave Blaney came from tenth on the grid this night.

Chad Kemenah took fifth from Sheldon Haudenschild, who found that the low groove was not the fastest way around the big track. Greg Wilson held on for sixth. Ryan Smith, edged out a fading Schaffer for eighth. Ed Lynch, Jr. was never a factor, but he did finish in the tenth spot.

The feature had an unusual start. Travis Philo did a complete 360 spin at the flagstand, got going again, and the race continued without interruption.

The heat race winners were Ryan Smith, Scott Priester, and Greg Wilson. Tim Schaffer copped the dash. Dale Blaney was the evening's fastest qualifier, turning the Monster Half Mile in 18.320 seconds.

Ben Policz cruised to an easy win in the RUSH Late Model twenty lapper that went non-stop. Finishing second was Josh Holtgraver, who did apply some early pressure. Third went to Toby Massie. Tom Schirnhofer, Justin Lamb, Paul Jablonski, Chuck Medved, Jacob Gunn, Tim Schaffer, and Jeffrey Haynes completed the running oder. The pair of heats went to Toby Massie and Ben Pollicz.

Todd Weldon topped the Sportsman Stock Car event. Bryan Mitchell and Dustin Lamb were the othe rpodium finishers. Bill Robertson, Jake Simmons, Nick Kocuba, Steve Webb, Wayne Carbo, Shawn Neupert, and Gary Koteles were the other contestants. Weldon and Robertson led in the qualifiers.

All Stars Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars: Dale Blaney, Cody Darrah, Danny Holtgraver, Dave Blaney, Chad Kemenah, Sheldon Haudenschild, Greg Wilson, Ryan Smith, Tim Schaffer, Ed Lynch, Jr., A.J. Flick, Caleb Helms, Brandon Matus, Travis Philo, Danny Smith, Scott Priester, Brent Matus, Dan Kuriger, Eric L. Williams, Andrew Palker (DNS).

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