Another good night of racing in SoCal. Sadly the Oval Nationals marks the completion of the USAC National Sprint Car season. The Demon, Damian Gardner became the first 3 time winnner in the 21 year history of the Oval's.

Once again SpeedShift provided great live PPV coverage of night #3 and as always Scott Daloisio was superb with his handling of the announcing.









GARDNER VICTORIOUS; TAKES OVAL NATIONALS WIN #3 AT THE PAS

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Perris, California………On a night in which he had been awarded the hardware of a hard-earned USAC/CRA AMSOIL Sprint Car season title, Damion Gardner collected the biggest single-night reward of his championship season – and the addition of his name to the list of the only three-time winners in the 21-year history of the Budweiser “Oval Nationals” presented by All Coast Construction at Perris Auto Speedway.

Gardner, of Concord, California, trailed for all of one half-straightaway Saturday night before retaking the lead from Richard Vander Weerd on the back straightaway with 13 laps remaining and cruising to a one-second victory in his Mark Alexander/Scott Sales Company - Weld Racing/Spike/J & D.

Gardner joined Bud Kaeding and Dave Darland as the only drivers to capture an “Oval Nationals” crown for a third-time in the richest dirt-track race in the state of California.* Furthermore, Gardner kept the Eagle trophy in the hands of a USAC/CRA regular for the first time since Mike Spencer in 2012.

“We worked together really well tonight,” Gardner said. *“We made some big decisions tonight and did some different things and, ultimately, that’s what won us the race.* I looked at the track and knew it was going to be middle/bottom. *I just didn’t know if the top would come late. *I knew it would slow down enough on the bottom that the top would come late, but I just wasn’t sure when. *It’s tough being out front for 40 laps because you just don’t know where to go. *On the same hand, running second or third is tough when you have one of these guys running out front.* Getting to them and getting around them is a tough task. *I knew I was pretty fast and I knew it was slowing down, but I was getting really good runs off the corner. *They gave me a good car and, everywhere it went, it worked. *Mark and Steve (Alexander) always talk about having bad luck at the ‘Oval Nationals’ and I wanted to be the one to turn it around for them.* That meant a lot to me.”

Bad luck plagued Gardner throughout the early portion of the USAC/CRA schedule.* It wasn’t until late August when Gardner finally broke through for his first triumph of the season.* Prior to this year’s campaign, the latest Gardner has gone through a season as a full-time USAC/CRA competitor before scoring his first win was mid-April of 2013, but despite the setback, Gardner and the Alexanders persevered to win five races in the final two-and-a-half months of the season to take their fourth consecutive series title together as a team.

“Mark and Steve and everybody on the team have stuck together and kept digging,” a prideful Gardner said. “It’s been a tough season, not because we haven’t been fast, but because we’ve had to go to the back I don’t know how many times and it wasn’t because of our doings. *Maybe a couple of them, but we always managed to fight back and have a decent finish.* We missed the first race, but we battled back and those guys stuck with me. I knew we could do it, but to win the championship and the ‘Oval Nationals’ in one year is huge.”

USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL & CRA SPRINT CAR RACE RESULTS: November 12, 2016 – Perris, California – Perris Auto Speedway – 21st Budweiser “Oval Nationals” presented by All Coast Construction

PROSOURCE/WOODLAND AUTO DISPLAY QUALIFYING: (Top 6 in points excluded – No Points) 1. Bud Kaeding, 16, Martin-16.587; 2. Austin Williams, 2, Jory-16.634; 3. Josh Hodges, 17, McGhee-16.645; 4. C.J. Leary, 30, Leary-16.665; 5. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 1, Ballou-16.754; 6. Mike Spencer, 4s, Gansen-16.768; 7. Hunter Schuerenberg, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-16.810; 8. Jake Swanson, 92, Sertich-16.851; 9. Chase Stockon, 32, 32 TBI-16.881; 10. Chad Boespflug, 98E, NineEight/EZR-16.903; 11. Joe Stornetta, 3T, Finkenbinder-16.921; 12. Danny Faria, Jr., 17v, Faria-16.956; 13. Isaac Chapple, 52, LNR-16.960; 14. R.J. Johnson, 51, Martin-16.967; 15. Colton Slack, 3F, Finkenbinder-16.979; 16. Jon Stanbrough, 81, Stanbrough-16.994; 17. Ryan Bernal, 56, Phulps-17.093; 18. Logan Williams, 5w, Jory-17.141; 19. A.J. Bender, 21, Bender-17.171; 20. Austin Liggett, 83, Liggett-17.191; 21. Tommy Malcolm, 5x, Napier-17.260; 22. Thomas Meseraull, 42x, Bates-17.270; 23. Troy Rutherford, 4D, Gansen-17.273; 24. Cody Williams, 44, Jory-17.318; 25. Carson Macedo, 42, Cheney-17.345; 26. Aaron Farney, 17GP, Dutcher-17.364; 27. Chris Gansen, 4G, Gansen-17.370; 28. Kyle Edwards, 39E, Edwards-17.476; 29. Max Adams, 5m, Adams-17.546; 30. Parker Colston, 64, Gore-17.548; 31. Jeremy Ellertson, 98, Ellertson-17.730; 32. Cody Majors, 81x, Watt-17.763; 33. Verne Sweeney, 98v, Tracy-17.787; 34. Anthony Lopiccolo, 36, Springstead-17.817; 35. Randy Waitman, Y69, Waitman-17.881; 36. Eddie Tafoya, 51T, Tafoya-17.965; 37. Matt McCarthy, 55, McCarthy-18.227.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS/EXTREME MUFFLERS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stockon, 2. Kaeding, 3. Chapple, 4. Bernal, 5. Thomas, 6. Macedo, 7. Adams, 8. Malcolm. NT

COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI)/DJ SAFETY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Boespflug, 2. Johnson, 3. A. Williams, 4. Spencer, 5. L. Williams, 6. Farney, 7. Colston, 8. Meseraull. NT

BENIC ENTERPRISES/CIRCLE TRACK PERFORMANCE/KEIZER ALUMINUM WHEELS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stornetta, 2. Schuerenberg, 3. Hodges, 4. Rutherford, 5. Gansen, 6. Bender, 7. Slack, 8. Ellertson. NT

INDY RACE PARTS/STAND 21 RACER GOES SAFER FOUNDATION FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Stanbrough, 2. Leary, 3. Faria, 4. Swanson, 5. Liggett, 6. Majors, 7. Edwards, 8. C. Williams. 2:54.53

KEIZER ALUMINUM WHEELS SUPER SIX DASH: (6 laps) 1. Roa, 2. Gardner, 3. Bacon, 4. Vander Weerd, 5. Windom, 6. Darland. NT

BROWN & MILLER RACING SOLUTIONS FIRST SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Thomas, 2. Hodges, 3. Bernal, 4. Liggett, 5. Chapple, 6. Farney, 7. L. Williams, 8. Majors, 9. Sweeney, 10. Ellertson, 11. McCarthy, 12. Lopiccolo, 13. Tafoya. NT

BROWN & MILLER RACING SOLUTIONS SECOND SEMI: (12 laps) 1. Swanson, 2. Meseraull, 3. A. Williams, 4. Spencer, 5. Gansen, 6. Malcolm, 7. C. Williams, 8. Slack, 9. Edwards, 10. Rutherford, 11. Waitman, 12. Faria. NT

FEATURE: (40 laps) 1. Damion Gardner, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Richard Vander Weerd, 4. Brody Roa, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Bud Kaeding, 7. Chad Boespflug, 8. Dave Darland, 9. Chase Stockon, 10. R.J. Johnson, 11. Kevin Thomas, Jr., 12. Austin Williams, 13. Joe Stornetta, 14. Jon Stanbrough, 15. Mike Spencer, 16. Austin Liggett, 17. Jake Swanson, 18. Hunter Schuerenberg, 19. Isaac Chapple, 20. Chris Gansen, 21. Aaron Farney, 22. C.J. Leary, 23. Thomas Meseraull, 24. Logan Williams, 25. Max Adams, 26. Josh Hodges, 27. Ryan Bernal. NT