4/24/2021
BAPS Motor Speedway
Kenny Edkin Returns to Victory Lane for Larry Jackson Nationals Win
YORK HAVEN, Pa.: To say Kenny Edkin has been struggling at BAPS Motor Speedway this season would be an overstatement.
The problem is that Edkin has won so much over the last two seasons that Super Sportsman fans have grown accustomed to seeing the Marysville driver in Victory early and often.
Instead, Edkin has three solid top-five finishes in three events. On Saturday, he improved on those efforts and bagged his first victory of the season in the 30-Lap Larry Jackson Nationals.
The win was Edkin’s first of the season. It was a big one, as he earned $2,569 and a big novelty check to put on the wall.
“We’ve been in the top five every night, but it was nice to close one out,” Edkin said. “We’ve just had a lot of bad luck, if you want to call it bad luck and believe in that stuff. Things kind of fell our way, so I guess tonight was our night.
“I like these big-check races. They could pay $1 or $10,000. You see all the Sprint Car guys brag about those big checks, so it’s pretty special to win a check race.”
Edkin lined up fourth on the grid, but he slid past Tony Jackson and Matt Ondek to take over second on the first lap. Meanwhile, pole-sitter Chase Gutshall blasted out front to take the lead.
Gutshall was setting a pretty good pace, but Edkin was lurking. The two-time defending champion didn't stalk the leader long, wrestling the top spot away by the time the leaders completed Lap 5.
“We’ve been searching a lot,” Edkin said. “This is actually our back-up car. We usually carry it up in the loft just in case something happens.
“We changed some motor stuff around just to catch up with these guys. The 30-Car, 77, and 70D, they all have pretty big powerhouses, so we’re out there just running 90s technology. We finally put together a motor to run with those guys, and we put it in Victory Lane the second week with it.”
The rest of the race distance belonged to Edkin. He opened up a big lead over his fellow competitors, who were left to battle for second.
Russ Mitten won that scrum on the sixth circuit, slipping by Gutshall for the runner-up position. The next time he saw Edkin was after the race was complete.
Edkin sliced through lapped traffic and was gone. By the time he took the checker, he was 7.178 seconds ahead of the rest of the field.
“Confidence is a big thing,” Edkin said. “When I’ve gotten wins in the past, they’ve kind of rattled off after that.
“Every week is tough, and we are still searching. I wouldn’t say we were 100 percent. We still have a way to go, but it definitely felt good being back on the frontstretch.”
Mitten finished second, with Gutshall slipping to third. Tony Jackson and 14th-place starter Scott Dellinger completed the top five.
Chris Meleason finished seventh, advancing 17 spots to claim MAC Tools/Jackson Lawn Care Hard Charger honors. John Edkin earned the Jackson Lawn Care Hard Luck Award.
In the USAC Sprint Car main event, C.J. Leary took the lead on the initial start and held off Justin Grant and Chris Windom to claim the 30-Lap affair.
The event featured two stoppages, the worst of which came on Lap 21, when Ricky Lewis and Brandon Mattox got upside down. Windom made a bid for the lead on the restart, but Leary was up to task in Turn 4 on Lap 21 and came away with the lead and the eventual win.
Grant got past Windom for the runner-up finish. Alex Bright and Brady Bacon followed and completed the top five.
Johnny Palm won an entertaining 20-Lap Superior Homes Extreme Stock main event that featured four lead changes.
Bob Scott led the first lap before Bill Powell took over. Palm won the three-car battle on Lap 5 but lost the lead on Lap 12 for one circuit.
Powell regained the lead on the 13th circuit and held it the rest of the way to take the win over Powell. Scott finished third, with Austin Hogue and Andrew Hogue completing the top five.
USAC AMSOIL NATIONAL SPRINT CAR TOUR
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. C.J. Leary (2), 2. Justin Grant (5), 3. Chris Windom (7), 4. Alex Bright (16), 5. Brady Bacon (11), 6. Robert Ballou (8), 7. Steven Drevicki (6), 8. Jake Swanson (13), 9. Paul Nienhiser (15), 10. Thomas Meseraull (22), 11. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 12. Chase Stockon (3), 13. Matt Westfall (1), 14. Mark Smith (18), 15. Isaac Chapple (12), 16. Briggs Danner (20), 17. Nash Ely (19), 18. Tanner Thorson (14), 19. Ricky Lewis (10), 20. Brandon Mattox (9), 21. Joey Biasi (17), 22. Billy Ney (21). NT
Lap Leaders: C.J. Leary (1-30)
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Steven Drevicki, 19s, DeGre-19.349; 2. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-19.425; 3. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-19.595; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9K, KT-19.639; 5. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-19.802; 6. Ricky Lewis, 11L, Lewis-19.908; 7. C.J. Leary, 77m, Michael-19.926; 8. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-19.927; 9. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-20.036; 10. Isaac Chapple, 52, Chapple-20.110; 11. Alex Bright, 20, Hummer-20.149; 12. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-20.181; 13. Tanner Thorson, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-20.187; 14. Mike Meyers, 10m, Meyers-20.351; 15. Chris Windom, 19, Hayward-20.376; 16. Nash Ely, 3BC, Franckowiak-20.383; 17. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-20.412; 18. Paul Nienhiser, 5N, KO-20.439; 19. Joey Biasi, B1, Biasi-20.559; 20. Mark Smith, 3R, Rock Steady/Mach-1-20.731; 21. Thomas Meseraull, 39, Hogue-20.741; 22. Troy Fraker, 12w, Fraker-20.882; 23. Briggs Danner, 5G, Gallagher-21.130; 24. Billy Ney, 83s, Ney-21.332; 25. Tom Savage, 38s, Savage-21.370.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Tanner Thorson, 3. Nash Ely, 4. Steven Drevicki, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. Joey Biasi, 7. Isaac Chapple, 8. Tom Savage, 9. Troy Fraker. 2:42.437
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Alex Bright, 3. Matt Westfall, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Brandon Mattox, 7. Mark Smith, 8. Mike Meyers. 2:45.519
INDY METAL FINISHING/INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Billy Ney, 6. Paul Nienhiser, 7. Thomas Meseraull, 8. Ricky Lewis. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Isaac Chapple, 2. Mark Smith, 3. Ricky Lewis, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Brandon Mattox, 6. Paul Nienhiser, 7. Joey Biasi, 8. Mike Meyers, 9. Troy Fraker, 10. Tom Savage. 3:26.334
BAPS SUPER SPORTSMAN “LARRY JACKSON NATIONALS”
Feature (30 Laps): 1. 75-Kenny Edkin[4]; 2. 77-Russ Mitten[5]; 3. 1A-Chase Gutshall[1]; 4. 69J-Tony Jackson[3]; 5. 30-Scott Dellinger[14]; 6. 360-Jay Fannasy[17]; 7. 8M-Chris Meleason[24]; 8. 2M-Matt Ondek[2]; 9. 3B-Mike Enders[7]; 10. 70D-Frankie Herr[8]; 11. 8-Rich Eichelberger[9]; 12. 383-Steve Fannasy[20]; 13. 6M-Craig Morrow[15]; 14. 77W-Tom Wyckoff[13]; 15. 10H-Dave Hollar[19]; 16. 25-Tyler Wolford[11]; 17. 5D-Luke Deatrick[10]; 18. 14-Nate Young[22]; 19. 16R-Ryan Rutz[18]; 20. 21R-Jamie Rickert[21]; 21. 88X-Fred Shipley[23]; 22. (DNF) 22-Daniel John[16]; 23. (DNF) 00-Troy Rhome[12]; 24. (DNF) 35-John Edkin[6]; 25. (DNS) 7-Timmie Barrick
Lap Leaders: Chase Gutshall (1-4), Kenny Edkin (5-30)
Super Sportsman Heat 1 Finish (10 Laps/All Qualify): 1. 77-Russ Mitten[4]; 2. 2M-Matt Ondek[1]; 3. 3B-Mike Enders[2]; 4. 5D-Luke Deatrick[7]; 5. 77W-Tom Wyckoff[3]; 6. 22-Daniel John[8]; 7. 10H-Dave Hollar[6]; 8. (DNS) 8M-Chris Meleason.
Super Sportsman Heat 2 Finish (10 Laps/All Qualify): 1. 75-Kenny Edkin[2]; 2. 35-John Edkin[1]; 3. 70D-Frankie Herr[3]; 4. 25-Tyler Wolford[4]; 5. 30-Scott Dellinger[5]; 6. 360-Jay Fannasy[8]; 7. 383-Steve Fannasy[7]; 8. 14-Nate Young[6].
Super Sportsman Heat 3 Finish (10 Laps/All Qualify): 1. 69J-Tony Jackson[3]; 2. 1A-Chase Gutshall[4]; 3. 8-Rich Eichelberger[1]; 4. 00-Troy Rhome[5]; 5. 6M-Craig Morrow[7]; 6. 16R-Ryan Rutz[2]; 7. 21R-Jamie Rickert[9]; 8. 88X-Fred Shipley[8]; 9. (DNS) 7-Timmie Barrick.
EXTREME STOCKS
Feature (20 Laps): 1. 7JR-Johnny Palm[4]; 2. 7-Bill Powell[2]; 3. 47-Bob Scott Jr[1]; 4. 52-Austin Hogue[8]; 5. 25-Andrew Hogue[17]; 6. 64-Brandon Wanner[18]; 7. 27-Doug Hoffman[10]; 8. 97X-Paul Sylvester[12]; 9. 7J-Jordan Fulton[13]; 10. LAZY8-John Wright[16]; 11. (DNF) 97-Donnie Broderick[5]; 12. (DNF) 54-Chase Rehbein[3]; 13. (DNF) 79-Patrick McClane[7]; 14. (DNF) 33-Michael Goodwin[11]; 15. (DNF) 7F-Hunter Fulton[6]; 16. (DNF) 91-Will Long[9]; 17. (DNF) 15-Jeff Gill[14]; 18. (DNF) 97J-Richard Daughtrey[15]
Lap Leaders: Bob Scott Jr. (1), Bill Powell (2-4), Johnny Palm (5-11), Powell (12), Palm (13-20)
Extreme Stock Heat 1 Finish (8 Laps/All Qualify): 1. 54-Chase Rehbein[2]; 2. 97-Donnie Broderick[3]; 3. 52-Austin Hogue[5]; 4. 27-Doug Hoffman[6]; 5. 7F-Hunter Fulton[9]; 6. 33-Michael Goodwin[4]; 7. 7J-Jordan Fulton[8]; 8. 25-Andrew Hogue[7]; 9. 64-Brandon Wanner[1].
Extreme Stock Heat 2 Finish (8 Laps/All Qualify): 1. 79-Patrick McClane[4]; 2. 7JR-Johnny Palm[6]; 3. 7-Bill Powell[8]; 4. 47-Bob Scott Jr[9]; 5. 91-Will Long[5]; 6. 97X-Paul Sylvester[2]; 7. 15-Jeff Gill[3]; 8. 97J-Richard Daughtrey[1]; 9. LAZY8-John Wright[7].
Article Credit: BAPS Motor Speedway
