Lonnie Wheatley, TULSA, Okla. (July 26, 2022) – The former American Sprint Car Series National Champion keeps getting it done.
For the second time in three rounds of Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour Speedweek action, Tim Crawley piloted the Ronnie Pitts Motorsports/AC Sport Auto Conversion No. 1x Sprint Car to victory lane in Tuesday night’s 25-lap feature that made up last Thursday night’s rainout.
Gunning into the lead from the pole position at the outset, the three-time series champ (1994, 1999 and 2002) put his experience to good use atop a slick and dusty oval to keep fellow Mid-Southerner Dale Howard and Canadian Dylan Westbrook at bay throughout to secure the $3,000 payday.
“Old blind squirrel done found two nuts this week,” Crawley quipped in victory lane after his 48th career series win.
“I won’t complain about the racetrack, it’s been 110 degrees all day and they’ve watered and worked hard on it,” Crawley explained. “It was slick and it was dusty and had a lot of character, these type deals aren’t the kind you can just stomp and steer, you’ve gotta make good laps and can’t makes mistakes and be patient and that’s sometimes where experience comes in.”
The experience paid off for the Benton, AR, racer with fellow experienced shoe Howard of Byhalia, MS, settling for runner-up honors.
“I told my crew if we did good on the first two nights, we would come on out here,” Howard said after a pair of top-five runs in the opening two rounds at Batesville and I-30 Speedway over the previous weekend. “I guess if we can run decent five nights in a row out a here and make it worth our trip, it’s a long way for us.”
After missing the opening two legs of ASCS Speedweek, Westbrook returned to action with a podium finish after surviving a heat-race skirmish that resulted in nose wing damage.
“In that heat I was just hoping that the nose wing wasn’t gonna flip up, but it stayed down and actually handled alright,” Westbrook explained. “We got that all fixed up, made some adjustments and ended up running pretty good here.”
Memphis shoe Landon Britt landed his second top-five finish of the season by climbing from ninth to fourth as Jordon Mallett rounded out the top-five to give Mid-South reps four of the top five finishing positions.
Missouri’s Slater Helt crossed the stripe sixth with Blake Jenkins, Rees Moran, Blake Hahn and Brandon Anderson completing the top ten.
The feature got off to a tumultuous start when sixth-starter Jason Martin tagged the wall exiting turn two and went for a wild ride down the backstretch with Landon Crawley and Kevin Cummings enduring race-ending damage as well in the melee.
Matt Covington, Wayne Johnson and Westbrook topped heat race action for the 27-car field. The third heat race went to red immediately when Seth Berman was Redlined coming to the green flag and flipped wildly down the frontstretch. Bergman walked away uninured but was done for the night.
Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour Speedweek Round Three
Tulsa Speedway – Tulsa, OKla.
Tuesday, July 26, 2022
ASCS National Tour Sprint Cars:
Lucas Oil A-Main (25 Laps): 1. 1X-Tim Crawley[1]; 2. 47-Dale Howard[2]; 3. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[3]; 4. 10-Landon Britt[9]; 5. 14-Jordon Mallett[8]; 6. 22S-Slater Helt[10]; 7. 99-Blake Jenkins[17]; 8. 22M-Rees Moran[14]; 9. 52-Blake Hahn[18]; 10. 55B-Brandon Anderson[20]; 11. 10P-Dylan Postier[12]; 12. 45X-Kyler Johnson[16]; 13. 2C-Wayne Johnson[4]; 14. 17-Cannon McIntosh[7]; 15. 77-Dean Drake Jr[19]; 16. 95-Matt Covington[5]; 17. 22J-Jax Redline[24]; 18. 50Z-Zach Chappell[13]; 19. 88-Terry Easum[22]; 20. 38-Jimmy Forrester[25]; 21. 17B-Ryan Bickett[26]; 22. 91-Justin Fine[21]; 23. 2-Dylan Opdahl[15]; 24. 36-Jason Martin[6]; 25. 187-Landon Crawley[11]; 26. 97-Kevin Cummings[23]
SCE Gaskets Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 95-Matt Covington[1]; 2. 17-Cannon McIntosh[2]; 3. 1X-Tim Crawley[4]; 4. 10-Landon Britt[3]; 5. 45X-Kyler Johnson[5]; 6. 52-Blake Hahn[6]; 7. 55B-Brandon Anderson[8]; 8. 88-Terry Easum[7]; 9. 38-Jimmy Forrester[9]
SCE Gaskets Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 2C-Wayne Johnson[4]; 2. 47-Dale Howard[3]; 3. 187-Landon Crawley[1]; 4. 10P-Dylan Postier[2]; 5. 22M-Rees Moran[6]; 6. 99-Blake Jenkins[8]; 7. 77-Dean Drake Jr[9]; 8. 97-Kevin Cummings[7]; 9. 17B-Ryan Bickett[5]
SCE Gaskets Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[3]; 2. 14-Jordon Mallett[1]; 3. 36-Jason Martin[6]; 4. 22S-Slater Helt[5]; 5. 50Z-Zach Chappell[7]; 6. 2-Dylan Opdahl[9]; 7. 91-Justin Fine[8]; 8. 22J-Jax Redline[2]; 9. 23-Seth Bergman[4]
The Drivers Project Qualifying 1 (3 Laps): 1. 1X-Tim Crawley, 00:14.172[7]; 2. 10-Landon Britt, 00:14.496[4]; 3. 17-Cannon McIntosh, 00:14.524[8]; 4. 95-Matt Covington, 00:14.576[5]; 5. 45X-Kyler Johnson, 00:14.962[1]; 6. 52-Blake Hahn, 00:15.011[6]; 7. 88-Terry Easum, 00:15.070[3]; 8. 55B-Brandon Anderson, 00:15.183[2]; 9. 38-Jimmy Forrester, 00:15.563[9]
The Drivers Project Qualifying 2 (3 Laps): 1. 2C-Wayne Johnson, 00:14.313[6]; 2. 47-Dale Howard, 00:14.332[3]; 3. 10P-Dylan Postier, 00:14.874[7]; 4. 187-Landon Crawley, 00:14.892[9]; 5. 17B-Ryan Bickett, 00:15.072[8]; 6. 22M-Rees Moran, 00:15.303[4]; 7. 97-Kevin Cummings, 00:15.415[1]; 8. 99-Blake Jenkins, 00:15.424[5]; 9. 77-Dean Drake Jr, 00:15.542[2]
The Drivers Project Qualifying 3 (3 Laps): 1. 23-Seth Bergman, 00:14.315[1]; 2. 47X-Dylan Westbrook, 00:14.462[4]; 3. 22J-Jax Redline, 00:14.704[2]; 4. 14-Jordon Mallett, 00:14.801[9]; 5. 22S-Slater Helt, 00:14.829[3]; 6. 36-Jason Martin, 00:14.899[5]; 7. 50Z-Zach Chappell, 00:15.014[7]; 8. 91-Justin Fine, 00:15.546[6]; 9. 2-Dylan Opdahl, 00:15.825[8]