The most dominant car in 2021 Speedweeks has a good chance of not earning his spot in the 2022 Big Bud Shootout. John Battista and the Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers Lucas Racing #39 Chevrolet Monte Carlo red, yellow and white organization have accumulated 8 victories, 12 top-5's, 20 top-10's and 1219 laps led. Somehow they have not won a pole. Adam Crapser leads the team in poles with 2, and will tag-team with his brother Alex during the 2022 event if Battista can't nab a pole position at Homestead. If Ken Pettit wins the Championship and Battista wins the most races this season, it will be the first time in Extravaganza history that the Champion and winner of the most events has not one a pole in the same season. 18 other drivers have accomplished the feat and the bonus earnings. Only one race remains.
Ken Pettit enters this race 22 points ahead of Ryan Heuser, with Scott Jackson directly in sight. Pole-sitter Zakk Miller will try to hold those three off and claim his first victory of the season.
Five-wide madness was the initial start, seeing the middle of the pack bunch up while the front and rear scatter. All of the contenders flew through the madness unharmed.
Miller led the first 12 laps before Tim McDonnell earned his status as top-dog of the race. McDonnell came in 85 back in the standings, hoping the bonus points will fulfill his hopes of winning his third straight Championship.
Several contenders look to steal the show away, as Scott Jackson started to fly his way through the field. Craig Lee made an attempt to pass McDonnell on the inside but to no avail, as Randy Dobbins, Alex Crapser and Rick Jackson lurked behind with possibly faster racecars.
Scott Jackson earned his bonus points late in the first run after passing McDonnell. He pulled away from the field, earning a multi-second advantage before the first round of green flag stops.
The first caution came out after a David Butterworth spin in turn-4. His car obliterated while shifting gears exiting the pit lane, and got tagged by another car. Randy Dobbins also blew up during the event while well inside the top-10.
Rick Jackson pulled off a three-wide move on the restart to rummage through the field and catch his cousin up front. The #44 and #38 looked to be the two fastest cars in the field.
Rick would complete the pass on Scott before the halfway point and didn't look back. He would pull away to lead 174 laps on the day, giving R2W half of the laps at Phoenix this season.
Despite a dominant performance in the spring event, Ken Pettit struggled all day long. He went a lap down to Rick before the final pit stop and never gained it back. He would lose the points lead to Scott, falling 8 points behind after a 23rd place finish.
Ryan Heuser had dominated his way to second place, making two passes over Dave Miller and Johnny Reed Foley. He was well-ahead in the points as things stood, and in excellent position to win the Championship heading into Homestead. With two laps to go, he ran out of gas, lost a lap, and fell to 27th position at the finish line. Heuser is now 42 points behind.
Rick Jackson made it look easy again, winning his second race in three events. His team has stepped up very late in the season, showing impressive signs of life coming into 2022 at a racetrack he has not always had success at. Congrats to Rick, crew chief Falco Lombardi, and the entire Race-2-Win team for an excellent victory!
Zakk Miller clinches a spot in the Big Bud Shootout in 2022, becoming the 18th different pole winner this season. Behind him, Tim McDonnell and Craig Lee attempt to re-find their regular season dominance after gridding 3rd and 4th. Points leader Ken Pettit starts a frightening 28th, though he led an unbelievable 154 laps during the spring race here. Second in points Ryan Heuser won that same event and looks to continue his Phoenix domination in grand style despite also starting towards the rear. This will be the first race with the use of the dogleg on the backstretch. It's a completely different ballgame, and the biggest curveball for the Championship crown.
The battle for 11th place heats up! Johnny Red Foley is ahead by 65 points over Rick Jackson and 69 over Zakk Miller. Look for the "AMPIO" mobile to close the gap on all three!
Logan Sheets will join the Dodge Viper brigade for 2022! A completely unexpected move, given the teams' reputation as a two-car tandem for years. Pizza Hut will be the sponsor, looking to bring the "Pizza Wars" on full display between Quantum and Team Danger Zone. The second big-name rookie has been signed! "My contract forces me to eat nothing but Pizza Hut for three years. It's a dream come true for all involved!" The upstart team will look for a realistic top-25 in the points next season!
To compensate for the inevitable higher speeds for 2022, Jeremy Pringle has mandated the Extravaganza teams to use tungsten instead of steel in the chassis of every racecar. In the event of extreme impacts to the outside wall, the tungsten will break apart more easily, but will also dissipate energy to prevent aircraft-like injuries. This will be safer for the drivers, though the cars will suffer more damage during an accident. Expect more attrition for 2022!
Not long after Jeremy Pringle announced the banning of bump stops for 2022, the Goodyear tire company announced the "tread that never dies" campaign as the second big change for next season. They will use the Extravaganza Series as the primary "market of demonstration" for their branding at the gratification of the smaller teams, hoping the new tire will even out the playing field. These tires have been rumoured to be dipped in a "Dr. Pepper like solution" prior to their entrance to the speedways. They will also be softer than any Extravaganza tire in it's 70-year history, increasing the speeds to cataclysmic levels. "This new tire may save my Extravaganza career" says Michael Henson, who has struggled with the squandering Shake N' Bake Racing team all year. "The short tracks will be a free-for-all in 2022". Tim McDonnell doesn't agree with the consensus. "It's like pouring a bottle of Fresca over your favorite lamp. We've worked hard for the setups we have, so we'll have to endure the same growing pains that rookie teams do. It's a huge disadvantage for the established organizations such as Top Geer". Rumours have the average draft lap time at Daytona over 210 miles per hour. Fans expect the residual effects to be on the positive side, bringing faster and more competitive racing to the masses!
Ken Joynt will start on the pole for the first time in his career, with points leader Ken Pettit on the grid in 10th. Pettit led 91 laps in the Rockingham spring race and looks to pull away from John Battista and Scott Jackson for the fan-favorite Championship.
Bill Werkheiser crawled from 7th to first to take the lead on lap 7. Not long afterwards, the points leader was already up front, swapping the lead with Bill three different times before the first round of green flag pit stops.
A frontstretch spin by Alex Crapser brought out the caution flag during the pit cycle. Most of the field was trapped a lap down, ad Johnny Reed Foley, William Perry and Zakk Miller battle three-wide for the top-spot.
Alex Crapser went from spinning to the lead, flying through the abundance of lapped traffic. He would make an unscheduled pit stop halfway through the fuel run, giving Dan Johnston the lead for 30 laps in a miracle run for the Allstate machine.
A Dalton Lucas spin brought out the second caution flag, again in the middle of green flag stops. Johnston had just pitted, while Crapser nabbed his lap back with the fresher tires. There were now seven cars remaining, with a full field ready to pounce on the leaders to get back in the race.
Tim McDonnell led the restart after falling to 30th place earlier in the event. Excellent fuel mileage had brought him and Matthew Dominique to the front of the pack, battling for the lead while Ryan Heuser and Crapser lurked from behind.
Heuser took the lead several laps into the run and pulled away by ten full seconds. A run-in with John Battista put him into the outside wall, though the #138 kept on trucking. An accident on pit road, combined with this accident and an unscheduled pit stop found Battista in 36th place by the end of the event. He would drop from 10 points behind to 103 back in the standings with two races left.
Despite a 17-second advantage by Heuser, Alex Crapser was attempting a three-stop tire strategy that looked to steal the victory away. Crapser was over a second faster than the rest of the field with the fresher tires, but the last set proved to be his setback. Crapser managed to pass the leader as many times as Rick Jackson did at Darlington one year ago, but to no avail for the victory. Heuser still maintained his 17-second lead.
An enormously competitive race for second place between Matthew Dominique, Johnny Reed Foley, Tim McDonnell and Zakk Miller stole the show from behind, McDonnell would eventually race to the spot and keep it, while Heuser battled lapped cars who were getting their lap back from behind with slightly fresher tires during the final laps.
Matt Raboin and Dave Miller blew up Quick-Silver Motorsports engines early in the go. A Craig Lee explosion coming to the final lap caused an enormous melee directly in front of the leader. Jimmie Stevens ran into his oil, spinning directly into Dalton Lucas and flipping the #2 machine into the air. leader Heuser slammed into the rear of Donald Stewart attempting to avoid the accident, severely destroying a racecar that would be deemed unwinnable if the race went back green.
Heuser limped his decimated racecar across the track at caution speed, crossing the finish line battered and bruised on the pit lane with the checkered flag waving. It was his seventh victory of the season, and easily his most dominant of 2021. He would crawl to 2nd in the standings, only 22 points behind Ken Pettit. Congrats to Ryan, crew chief Mustard Mahoney, and the entire Quick-Silver Racing crew for an excellent victory!... Read more »
The points standings have rubber-banded back to a 10-driver race after Scott Jackson and Ryan Heuser crashed at Charlotte last week. Heuser qualified towards the back and fell victim while flying through the field. Jackson lost a lap early after stalling his engine on pit road. It took him 100 laps to get it back, suffering the same fate as Ryan while driving towards the front. This week, all of the Championship contenders will have to fly through the field in danger of the same fate. The top-7 qualifiers are all outside of the chase going into Rockingham.
Ken Joynt wins his first career Extravaganza Series pole with a lap of 23.424. Scott Drake pulled off the greatest qualifying run of his career as well, starting fourth on the grid after a fan-favorite top-10 effort last week at Charlotte. While these drivers start at the front, Charlotte winner Rick Jackson comes off the grid 37th. Eight time winner and second-in-points John Battista will start a rare 31st, leaving his Championship favoritism at risk with only three races to go. Points leader Ken Pettit led 91 laps here in the spring. He may be the one to jump ahead of the rest, qualifying 10th with a possible bunch-up within the top-5 in the early laps.
Ken Joynt wins his first career Extravaganza Series pole in what's easily the biggest Cinderella story in 2021 qualifying. This comes not too long after a horrifying Bonanza Series crash at Richmond that nearly took him out for a full week. As we talk about some of the hot rookies coming out of the woodworks for 2021, Ken Joynt has barely been mentioned. This may be the lap that gets him the big-time support that Bandit Racing needs to compete among the best in Extravaganza. He beat 2nd place Matt Raboin by nearly two-tenths of a second, an unbelievable feat for a driver that has nearly mastered the Rockingham circuit in Bonanza.
