PERRIS, Calif. — Robert Ballou made a late-race challenge to win Friday night’s 30-lap feature for the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship on night two of the Oval Nationals at Perris Auto Speedway.
Running as deep as fourth with just 10 laps remaining, Ballou found a sudden burst that put him right back into the thick of the hunt. It came just as he foretold during the earlier stoppage, that he would be a player for the win once the fuel load began to burn off.
Ballou charged under Brady Bacon for third on the back straight with nine to go. One lap later, Ballou glided his way into second with a turn one slide past Emerson Axsom to put him within a full two seconds of leader Kevin Thomas Jr., who seemingly held a commanding lead.
Finding his way into his front-running position by utilizing the bottom side of the racetrack, Thomas cut a swath of land for his own use by entering turns one and three on the bottom, then letting his car sweep to the top at the exit of turns two and four.
But with two laps remaining, Thomas faced a bout of traffic. Charging into turn one hot on the heels of the 24th place car of Chris Gansen, Thomas was forced to alter his line on the bottom, skating his ride up the track a tad earlier in the corner than he had all race long.
The loss of momentum for Thomas was all Ballou needed to dig his talons in on the low line and drive his way past on the back straight to rise to the top of the leaderboard.
Ballou negotiated turns three and four splendidly, scraping the infield berm with his left front wheel along the way as he dipped under Gansen who cleared a courteous path for the frontrunners by swinging wide on the front straightaway just as the white flag was being presented.
Ballou, Thomas and now Leary entered the final lap separated by a single car length between each driver. Ballou beat Thomas to the finish by .632 seconds aboard his Ballou Motorsports/Suburban Subaru – Dragonfly Aviation – Berks Western Telecom/Triple X/Ott Chevy.
Thomas collected a second-place result after leading a race-high 27 laps, while Jake Swanson made a last-corner surge to beat Leary to the line for the third position. Thursday night’s Oval Nationals opening night winner Brady Bacon rounded out the top five.
Ballou’s sixth series victory of the year equals him with Justin Grant as the season’s winningest driver, making it his most successful and winningest campaign since his 2015 championship year.
“When you’re out front, you don’t know where to go, especially on a long green. I just saw him sliding out,” Ballou recalled of Thomas’ lap 29 misfortune.
Three-time and defending Oval Nationals champion Thomas nearly provided Michael Dutcher Motorsports with its first USAC National Sprint Car feature win since February of 2015 at Florida’s East Bay Raceway Park.
“We just got a little bit free at the end,” Thomas acknowledged. “I lost brakes with about eight or 10 laps to go. I’m kind of bummed, but we’ve been making a lot of gains on this thing. I’ve never won a prelim night feature here, but as long as we’re locked in, tomorrow’s what we care about.”
Swanson put together a redeeming third-place performance on Friday night at Perris. After a crash into the turn four wall the night before, Swanson zipped by Leary on the last lap to grab the final spot on the podium.
“I think we needed a 40-lapper there,” Swanson admitted. “It was just getting faster and faster the more the track opened up and we were able to pass. I felt like we were really fast, but it was just a matter of getting the room to get by. We were on C.J.’s tail tank there at the end and we’re able to make something happen. C.J. did a good job, but he just got a little bit crossed up there racing with (Thomas). I was working the middle and trying to make it work early, but it wasn’t really working for me. Brady was able to do it then I think I finally figured it out by the end.”
Six drivers are locked into Saturday night’s 40-lap Oval Nationals feature event by virtue of their accumulated point totals throughout Thursday and Friday’s programs: Brady Bacon (275), C.J. Leary (274), Robert Ballou (271), Kevin Thomas Jr. (268), Justin Grant (258) and Emerson Axsom (244).
Here are Friday’s results:
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR / WOODLAND AUTO DISPLAY QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 77m, Michael-16.477; 2. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-16.519; 3. Logan Seavey, 42, Cheney-16.660; 4. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.700; 5. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-16.716; 6. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.742; 7. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-16.771; 8. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-16.779; 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 17GP, Dutcher-16.785; 10. Cody Williams, 44, Williams-16.801; 11. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.826; 12. Austin Williams, 2, Williams-16.842; 13. Max Adams, 73, Ford-16.897; 14. Sterling Cling, 34, Cling-16.964; 15. A.J. Bender, 21, Bender-17.009; 16. Logan Williams, 5w, McCarthy-17.027; 17. Jadon Rogers, 14, Engler-17.031; 18. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-17.058; 19. Austin Grabowski, 72, Grabowski-17.065; 20. Damion Gardner, 1, Alexander-17.085; 21. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-17.119; 22. Brody Roa, 91R, BR-17.137; 23. Daniel Whitley, 3F, Finkenbinder-17.147; 24. Logan Calderwood, 6, Calderwood-17.193; 25. R.J. Johnson, 51, Johnson-17.193; 26. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-17.271; 27. Chris Gansen, 4G, Gansen-17.284; 28. Tommy Malcolm, 5x, Napier-17.333; 29. Matt McCarthy, 28m, McCarthy-17.537; 30. Chris Bonneau, 15, Bonneau-17.546; 31. Nate Schank, 1$, Schank-17.628; 32. Ricky Lewis, 41, Stensland/Halley-17.729; 33. Troy DeGaton, 39T, DeGaton-17.742; 34. Jake Neal, 214, Kracht-17.801; 35. Gary Marshall Jr., 23, Bellegante-18.391; 36. Jason McDougal, 22AZ, Team AZ-NT; 37. Chase Johnson, 8m, May-NT; 38. Kyle Edwards, 39E, Edwards-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS / FLOWDYNAMICS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Charles Davis Jr., 3. Max Adams, 4. C.J. Leary, 5. R.J. Johnson, 6. Jadon Rogers, 7. Matt McCarthy, 8. Troy DeGaton, 9. Mitchel Moles.
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) / BILLSJERKY.NET SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Cody Williams, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. Brody Roa, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 6. Matt Mitchell, 7. Sterling Cling, 8. Jake Neal, 9. Chris Bonneau.
PIT STOP USA / IN MEMORY OF JIM & CHET GARDNER THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Austin Grabowski, 3. Daniel Whitley, 4. Matt Westfall, 5. A.J. Bender, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Chris Gansen, 8. Nate Schank, 9. Gary Marshall Jr.
ROD END SUPPLY / LASERWORX MANUFACTURING FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Damion Gardner, 2. Austin Williams, 3. Logan Williams, 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Justin Grant, 6. Ricky Lewis, 7. Logan Calderwood, 8. Tommy Malcolm, 9. Chase Johnson.
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS / FACTORY WRAPS SEMI: (12 laps, top-8 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. A.J. Bender, 4. Tommy Malcolm, 5. Jadon Rogers, 6. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 7. R.J. Johnson, 8. Ricky Lewis, 9. Mitchel Moles, 10. Sterling Cling, 11. Chris Gansen, 12. Matt McCarthy, 13. Logan Calderwood, 14. Chase Johnson, 15. Nate Schank, 16. Jake Neal, 17. Gary Marshall Jr., 18. Troy DeGaton, 19. Matt Mitchell.
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Robert Ballou (4), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (1), 3. Jake Swanson (5), 4. C.J. Leary (6), 5. Brady Bacon (8), 6. Emerson Axsom (2), 7. Matt Westfall (3), 8. Justin Grant (11), 9. Cody Williams (7), 10. Max Adams (13), 11. Damion Gardner (9), 12. R.J. Johnson (22), 13. Austin Williams (12), 14. Tommy Malcolm (23), 15. Logan Seavey (10), 16. Jadon Rogers (16), 17. Brody Roa (20), 18. Logan Williams (15), 19. Mitchel Moles (25-N), 20. Charles Davis Jr. (19), 21. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (17), 22. A.J. Bender (14), 23. Matt Mitchell (26-C), 24. Chris Gansen (27-C), 25. Ricky Lewis (24), 26. Daniel Whitley (21), 27. Austin Grabowski (18).
Keyword: Ballou Stops Thomas At Perris