Tim McDonnell's kryptonite of the year 2022 continues through the sixth week of the season, becoming plagued with a multitude of disasterous finishes that bewilder the Extravaganza faithful crowd. Many have rumoured the Volkswagen as a defunct entity, with no wishes of producing a model product that can compete with the big-time American brands. Some think they are making an honest attempt at giving McDonnell the resources, but have so far fallen short. "We have no horsepower." said McDonnell after Friday's event at Texas. "I made the mistake at the end and it killed us, and we've made several throughout the season. Sadly, we've been running poorly too. We've never been this far behind." Some say the spreading of recourses to the #3 and #46 teams have been the ultimate detriment to McDonnell's goal of his fourth Championship crown. With the short track stretch up ahead, the newly named CFM Motorsports organization prays for a turnaround quickly.
Ryan Heuser will be back after a three-race absence, looking to continue his so-far dominating performances in 2022. He has averaged 50 laps led per race this season, and could've been higher if it wasn't for his high-speed accident at Homestead. With Richmond, Martinsville and Bristol coming up, this may be the break Ryan needs to fold back into the Championship race. He is currently 422 points behind Alex Crapser in 10th. The car is definitely on it's usual rails, with replacement Trey Larkin earning three-straight top-20 finishes in his Extravaganza debut. "My vision is still off-kilter, but I am virtually painless and in my best shape of the season." says Ryan. He was rumoured to have lost 15 pounds during the hiatus.
The top-35 in points for 2022 will now be the provisional bubble spot for the rest of the season. High-profile drivers Michael Henson and William Perry will be on the outside looking in, hoping to keep their Extravaganza careers alive by making the next few shows on speed. Rookies Geno Sphere and Logan Sheets have taken their former spots on the grid. Tim McDonnell, Zakk Miller and Adam Crapser look to stray themselves from the same fate, less than 100 points ahead of Henson for the 36th spot in the standings.
Tonight the superstars of stock car racing battle for Superspeedway supremacy at one of the fastest racetracks in all of Extravaganza. There have been five different winners in five different races so far, mostly related to the new Goodyear racing tire. The parody may continue with two drivers outside the top-35 in points qualifying extremely well, Michael Henson on the pole and William "Tex" Perry in third.
Michael Henson succeeded in a miraculous pole birth as he led the field to the green in his Black + Decker #144. His bid for a good finish and a top-35 birth in the standings started off extremely well, leading the first two laps before Johnny Reed Foley took over at the helm. He and Bill Werkheiser would sail off into the sunset during the first green flag run as the rest of the field fought for the third position.
A lap-98 caution involving a turn-4 spin from Rob Scarberry brought out the first caution flag of the evening. John Battista flew by Foley on the ensuing restart and led the following six laps. From here, he would attempt to hold off the Race-2-Win brigade from behind just as he did the previous race at Atlanta.
Rick Jackson took the lead on lap 113 but couldn't hold his Bob Marley teammate off for long. Champion Ken Pettit would finally find his way to the front on speed in 2022, grabbing the lead on lap 118 with draft help from John Battista. The Wendy's machine would take it back just 20 laps later in a high-horsepower speed-run.
The #39 and #44 swapped the top position a couple more times before a Dave Miller battery issue forced out the second caution. Miller would finish two laps down in 32nd place and drop from third to fifth in the standings, disappointing the Marlboro fan club crowd. Up front, John Battista led the first 25 laps after the restart before getting run down by Rick Jackson and rookie Logan Sheets.
Battista led the halfway bacon bonus, though the rest of the crowd was ready to pounce on his parade. Jackson, Sheets, Craig Lee, Donald Stewart and Alan Nesfeder had all managed to creep up to the front at crunch time, looking to deviate from the Battista-Jackson domination of the event. Sheets led two laps before Craig Lee took the helm on lap 196. It had taken him only 28 laps to gain 18 positions and find his way to the front.
Riding in the 6th position, Bink Lucas tangled with the lapped car of William Perry sending both drivers hard into the turn-3 outside wall. Bink was able to limp to a 24th place finish, though Perry would wind up 39th. It would be his sixth-straight finish of 29th or worse to begin the season, winding up 37th in drivers points and having to qualify for the field at Richmond.
Logan Sheets had found his way past leader Craig Lee before the caution flag and stayed atop for the first five laps after the restart. The big-dogs ran the rookie down rapidly, flying past the Pizza Hut machine in shades of Crown Royal purple lurking in the shadows. Rick would eventually lead a race-high 96 laps on the evening.
What should be the final green flag pit stops of the night came towards lap 300 mark. Zach Michael and Johnny Reed Foley both came in before Rick Jackson, who had developed a full three-second lead over the #20 machine. Out of the pits, Alan Nesfeder recorded a miraculous stop and stormed out with a near 2-second advantage ahead of Michael, Logan Sheets and Ken Pettit.
Rick Jackson and Johnny Reed Foley stormed through the field with their slight tire advantage. It took no less than ten laps for Jackson to rummage from 6th to 2nd, with 25 laps left to spare to make his move on leader Nesfeder. On lap 315 he pulled off the feat, leaving 20 laps on the board to pull away from the rest of the pack. Somehow, Nesfeder was able to keep within one second of the #44 for most of the run. Jackson was about to close to his first victory of the season when disaster stuck! His car was out of fuel! Him, Johnny Reed Foley, Ken Pettit, Donald Stewart, Jonathan Skrabacz, Matt Raboin and Bill Werkheiser all missed the mark on gasoline and ran out. A devastating blow to the crew chiefs and fuel mileage wives of E
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A miracle pole-sitting performance for Michael Henson gives the #144 team the ammunition to put themselves back into the top-35 in owners points before the week-6 cutoff. Behind him in third, William Perry comes in 37th in owners points, looking to knock out Jonathan Scrabacz, Zakk Miller or Aaron Cummings to keep themselves out of the Provisional Danger Zone for the 2022 season. Here is the current cutoff:
2022 Owners Points After Five Events 31. Adam Crapser: +58 32. Tim McDonnell: +53 33. Aaron Cummings: +44 34. Zakk Miller: +34 35. Jonathan Scrabacz: +23 --------------------------------------------------- 36. Michael Henson: -23 37. William Perry: -68 38. Kevin Corbat: -88
The winner of the last two events at Texas Motor Speedway will be watching this event from the sidelines for a third straight week. Replacement driver Trey Larkin will remain at the helm, nabbing the top lap time in Happy Hour and attempting to earn his third straight top-20 finish for Quick-Silver. Towards the top of the standings, Tony Pizzaro, Donald Stewart and Dave Miller battle it out for supremacy towards the 1/6th mark of the season. Russ Charneski himself is the grand marshal of the event. Good luck to all!
Points leader John Battista and the rest of the Extravaganza crew looks to conquer the fastest 1-1/2 mile racetrack in the entire United States. Matt Raboin becomes the fifth pole winner in five races thus-far. With many of the Extravaganza elite currently without a victory, we could see our fifth different winner as well at the bullring of Atlanta.
Rick Jackson started on the outside front row and wasted no time passing the #87 Valvoline Viper. Matt would become the rare pole sitter who did not lead a lap all day, crawling to an honest 9th place finish by the races end. It was a dominant effort by the Race-2-Win and Lucas Racing brigade early on in the going.
The Crown Royal machine would dominate the first green flag run, with only minor attempts from Tony Pizzaro and Craig Lee to take the top-spot away. It was smarter to stay behind him, as they pulled away from some of the dominant cars who were mired back in traffic after a bad qualifying run. Johnny Reed Foley, John Tharp, Bill Werkheiser and Zakk Miller all seemed to have the speed of the leaders if they could just find the track position.
The excellent crew work of the Lucas Racing teams propelled John Battista and Alex Crapser out to the front. The two would work traffic together while Craig Lee lurked eerily from behind. The other former leaders scurried over three seconds behind in hopes of finding their earlier speed to re-catch the lead group.
Craig Lee would interrupt the Lucas Racing strategy to pull away from the field and race himself to the front, grabbing his five bonus points but helping Rick Jackson crawl towards the lead. He re-took it prior to the halfway bacon bonus, and took the $100,000 check and racking his led lap total to 137 by the end of the race.
A big crash by the leaders after the halfway mark saw Craig Lee blow a right-front tire on the quad-oval. Mark Guthrie slammed into him, spinning the NOS Energy machine into oncoming traffic. John Battista tried to pass him high but slammed into Craig head-first, sending him down the racetrack and into Ken Pettit's Marley mobile. Pettit, Guthrie and Lee would finish 41st through 39th and unable to continue. Battista would drop from 1st to 4th in the points, continuing the race but limping to a 35th place finish.
The only caution of the event was over as the remaining Race-2-Win drivers battle it out for the lead. Both drivers are looking for redemption, as Pizzaro looks to re-earn the points advantage that was lost at Rockingham. Rick Jackson has been the most dominant driver all season, averaging over 50 laps led per race though earning three DNF's in four events so far. A victory today will help both of their causes.
Crossing the 250-lap mark, Zach Michael had arrived to break-up the Race-2-Win domination. He would lead 33 laps en-route to possibly becoming the first two-time winner of the season, battling Pizzaro for that right. From behind, Tony Long, Bill Wekheiser, Johnny Reed Foley, Dave Miller and Zakk Miller were all in a frenzy trying to catch the remaining three up front.
Tony Pizzaro was the first of the three leaders to come in for a stop just 15 laps to the finish. Rick Jackson came in the following lap, with Zach Michael making his way to the pits two circuits later. Pizzaro came out with a 1-1/2 second lead. All drivers took on two tires, including Johnny Reed Foley who had miraculously found his way to the front after an unbelievable stop from his AC Delco Top-Gear crew.
Johnny Reed Foley suddenly had the fastest car out of the four. Michael came out ahead of Rick Jackson in an attempt to run down the #12 machine, though his three lap tire advantage could not pull the mustard. Foley was able to scatter by the #20 and make his way towards the Fenway Park mobile with just a handful of laps to go. He would catch him on the final lap, and run side-by-side to the finish.
John Battista redeems the points lead after earning his third top-10 of the season at Rockingham. He's led in every event so far, something only Dave Miller, Tony Pizzaro and Rick Jackson have accomplished. On the contrary, pole-sitter Matt Raboin has failed to lead a lap all season, looking to hold off the pack to get to the line first after the first 1.5 miles. Speeds will veer well over 200 miles per hour during the early stages of each run, leading some to believe that the big crash is imminent. Look for Tim McDonnell and Rick Jackson to fly through the melee's and get their season back on track at Atlanta. Good luck!
In a world filled with endless madness and misery lies the Extravaganza root-based Rockingham Speedway. Ghosts and ghouls of Extravaganza past haunt the facility after 50+ years of racing, with drivers looking to dominate the masses and extricate from the graveyard of doom. Rookie Geno Sphere pulls of a miraculous Rockingham pole looking to dive deep into the points standings after missing one race earlier in the year.
Geno Sphere led the first 22 laps before Rick Jackson separated himself from the pack. This would be the fourth straight event that the #44 has led this season, looking to turn back to form despite two straight DNF's. Disastrously, Rick and his cousin Scott wrecked entering turn 3 on lap 81, sending the purple and white Race-2-Win mobile into the fence as the rest of the field dove safely into the inside lane.
A log-jam of lapped traffic caused a near collision-course to break out on the ensuing restart. Aaron Cummings took the lead away from new leader Craig Lee and led his first two laps of the season. Johnny Reed Foley wasted no time in his bid, scurrying through lapped traffic after taking the top-spot away with his new-found Top-Gear Motorsports horsepower.
Donald Stewart came into this event 7th in the Extravaganza standings, nabbing a 10th at Daytona and a 3rd place at California. He has always been known for stepping up to the plate at the bigger tracks, though his one top-5 and only 21 laps led in 2021 made it seem that his glory days may be through. The Geer-5 team renewed his contract against immaculate odds to be released to another team, though he would be proving his worth today after taking the lead on lap 130.
Stewart and Foley would swap the top-spot several times during the next 80 laps. The caution came out on lap 212 after contact between Bink Lucas and Matt Raboin in turn-4. Both slid up into the wall, collecting Zach Michael and Rick Jackson in the process. Both Zach and Rick would finish with a DNF, marking Rick's third of the season and dropping Zach to 11th in the standings. Bink would miraculously repair his racecar and finish 6th, with Matt still nabbing a top-20 by the end of the day.
The following restart saw contact between lapped cars Tony Pizzaro and William Perry. Points leader Pizzaro came up the racetrack after the initial hit and catapulted Steven Spears into mid-air. The #65 slid across the racetrack, nearly getting railroaded by the field until Alex Crapser hit the front-end of his car. Both drivers were out of the event after the crash, with Spears out of the top-20 in points and Crapser outside the top-10 by the end.
The cautions continued to breed after contact between Pizzaro and Mark Murphy in the same part of the racetrack. Murphy power-slammed the inside wall and flew 90 degrees up the racetrack into the turn-3 traffic. Randy Dobbins body-slammed his passengers side, slamming hard into the outside wall and into Jim Fitzmaurice, who obliterated Randy back into Murphy's rear end. All three drivers would fail to finish the event. The final crash of the race resulted in Rick Jackson and Michael Henson wrecking while Jonathan Skrabacz was entering the pits. Rick blew his engine in the accident, while Skrabacz and Henson limped to top-25's after the attrition.
Finally green flag racing was at the forefront, with David Butterworth leading the charge on the restart. John Battista took the lead on lap 229 with lapped traffic looming ahead. He wouldn't get by all of it, getting passed by Craig Lee who dominated the rest of the run. The Henson-Scrabacz-Jackson caution initiated a 100-lap shootout to the finish, coming out towards the very end of green flag pit stops. Battista, Dave Miller, Matthew Dominique, Ken Pettit and Tony Long all stayed out on the tires they recently took, while the rest of the pack received fresh rubber while coming in during the yellow. Dave Miller would take the lead on lap 298.
Dave Butterworth pulverized through the field, becoming the first driver with fresh tires to reach the top-spot. It's been a remarkable season for the #81 team thus far, entering the race 13th in points and on the up with two top-15 finishes despite qualifying 30th or worse in all three races. Donald Stewart and Bill Werkheiser are also hungry for the victory and ready to pounce from behind.
The Rockingham victory this week will be fully up for grabs with Ryan Heuser recuperating up in Vermont. Rookie Geno Sphere pulls off a miracle pole run in shades of Ken Joynt last season, with Kevin Corbat directly behind. A very versatile field, with Trey Larkin off the grid in 7th in his first Extravaganza start. Favorites John Battista, Tim McDonnell and John Tharp all start in the rear of the field, looking to powerhouse through the pack to prevent getting lapped early. Good luck!
An intense third event of the season at the second ever pre-spring race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Dominator of the fall race in 2021 Rick Jackson will start on the pole, with points leader and teammate Tony Pizzaro directly behind. Race favorites John Battista and Ryan Heuser start 2nd and 5th respectively.
The first laps saw Rick Jackson lead the first 28 laps before teammate Pizzaro flew by. Two laps later John Battista took the helm, leading 2 circuits before Heuser stole the show for a one-lap extravaganza. There was four different leaders during the first 33 laps. Towards the middle of the pack, Tim McDonnell would suffer an unknown liquid leak and lose 6 laps, adding to an already frustrating start to the season.
Adam Crapser held nothing back with his Lucas Racing horsepower, coming from 16th to first in just 35 laps to nab his first lead of the night. Dave Miller took it for good on lap 40 and never looked back, taking his QSM rocket-ship for a ride to the moon. He would lead through and beyond the first set of green flag stops.
An early pit stop saw drivers with fresher tires catch the #90 on lap 83. A 10-car pack led by rookie Bink Lucas flew past the Marlboro machine and into the lead. Him and Rick Jackson would swap the top-spot a couple of times before handing it back to Miller.
Tony Pizzaro took hold of the lead and stayed there for the next 8 laps before a miracle run by Bandit Racing came to the forefront. Ken Joynt worked his way from 26th to the lead and battled side-by-side with Pizzaro and Ryan Heuser for several laps. Heuser took the point in the end, hoping to reach victory for the first time in 2022.
Tragedy struck on lap 113. Ryan Heuser and the lapped car of Tim McDonnell made contact coming out of turn-4. Heuser's spotter missed the closing rate of the #22 as Ryan spun into oncoming traffic, initially getting creamed by BInk Lucas, who sailed into the inside wall. Heuser spun around a couple of times before a head-on collision from Rick Jackson in the drivers door sent him for a seven-time flip. Alan Nesfeder was the last car to knock Heuser, collecting him in the drivers-side door while stile flipping. Heuser would barrel-roll two more times before coming to a full stop in turn-1. Johnny Reed Foley, William Perry, Dan Johnston, Craig Lee, Mark Heron, Zakk Miller, Matt Raboin, Donald Stewart, Kevin Corbat, Michael Henson and Steven Spears were also involved in the accident.
Ken Joynt had to come in for a pit-road penalty after leading on the ensuing restart, leaving Tony Pizzaro as the leader coming to the halfway point. John Battista would win the halfway bonus money after a pass on lap 132, looking to bring home the full prize in just 133 more laps.
Dave Miller re-took the lead on lap 135, constantly swapping with Miller and Pizzaro throughout the rest of the run. From behind, Matthew Dominique, Bill Werkheiser and Adam Crapser all stayed in touch with the leaders and looked to steal the show for the second upset victory of 2022.
Green flag pit stops saw Dave Miller come in a lap or two after Battista and Pizzaro. The Wendy's crew pulled the #39 ahead of Miller by almost four full seconds. Pizzaro drifted back, though Miller and Zach Michael were able to tag-team past lapped traffic and onto the #39's rear bumper. Miller was able to make the pass on lap 216, with one more pit stop to go.
The Marlboro machine would come in only one lap early, giving him a 3.5-second advantage over Michael and Battista with only 30 laps to go. Battista couldn't keep up with the Team Danger Zone horsepower, as Michael left him in the dust and caught Dave Miller with 10 laps remaining. Coming to 8-laps to go, Michael made his move on the outside lane in turn four and took the top-spot outright.
A horrendous crash on lap 114 involving 15 cars sent Ryan Heuser to the hospital with moderate head trauma. He is in good condition, but received a severe concussion and internal ear injuries during the accident. The crash started when Heuser and Tim McDonnell made contact off of turn 4 while leading the event. He meandered off of the #22 and straight into Bink Lucas, who clobbered the left-front at 179 miles per hour. Ryan spun around three times before getting walloped on the drivers side by Rick Jackson, sending him flipping seven times in four seconds before a deadly blow into the driver window knocked him out cold. The NOS Energy car flipped two more times before coming to a rest. He would be airlifted to the nearby Homestead Hospital where he finally awoke from his hour-long stupor.
The Extravaganza Impact Rating ranked the accident as a 10286, indicating an estimated 2 to 3 week absence abstaining from the analysis of his doctors. Quick-Silver has the highest standards for injury recovery in all of Extravaganza, with an entire wing of their enterprise devoted to therapy and fitness. We all wish Ryan a safe and full recovery. There is no word on who will replace him at Rockingham in seemingly the fastest car in all of Extravaganza.
Homestead-Miami is back for another early springtime spectacle. John Battista and Tony Pizzaro finished 1-2 in both events here last season, and look to continue the trend this week after qualifying 2nd and 3rd on the grid. Fall dominator Rick Jackson will start on the pole. Donald Stewart grids 15th after a spectacular start to his young season, finishing 10th and 3rd so far. On the opposite end, Michael Henson, William Perry, Zakk Miller and Bill Werkheiser look to just finish the event, earning 7 of 8 possible DNF's in 2022. They are all outside of the top-35 on points. Ryan Heuser is the odds-on favorite for victory after leading 60+ laps in both races so far. Good luck!
