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KENSETH AND BECK SHARE JENNERSTOWN VICTORY LANE
JENNERSTOWN, PA (July 23, 2005) .... The NASCAR Nation invaded
Jennerstown Speedway Saturday evening, as former Nextel Cup champion
Matt Kenseth picked up the checkered flag over Sterling Marlin, Ken
Schrader and Kasey Kahne in the Tom Clark Auto Family 'Race of
Champions' exhibition contest.
The race attracted a sell out crowd of over 10,000 fans, marking the
largest spectator turn out in the 75-year history of the venerable
Somerset County half-mile paved oval.
Kenseth swapped the top spot back and forth with Marlin during the
course ot the eight-lap event, and had the edge coming off the fourth
corner to win by half a car length at the line. Schrader prevailed over
Kenseth, Marlin, and Kahne in the preliminary heat.
In NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series Wheeler Bros, super late model action,
Tommy Beck dominated the 27-car starting field in the 30-lap main event,
despite a rash of late race yellow flags.
The Murrysville driver, who is the current division points leader,
nailed down his second victory of the season by passing early leader
Paul Urso on the fifth lap. Once in command Beck never looked back and
was able to pull away on every restart.
"I started to get concerned when we got all those late race yellows,"
said the University of Pittsburgh mechanical engineering graduate,
"especially after what happened a couple of weeks ago when we lost the
lead right at the end of the race. Tonight we had everyone covered. I
could drive the car high or low...it worked everywhere I put it."
Motordrome Speedway champion Rick Miller finished a distant second in
his first Jennerstown appearance. Barry Awtey recovered from an early
race incident to nail down third place ahead of Mark Poole and Jeff
Dunmyer. Mark Cottone, Todd Price, Kyle Martel, Jayme Beck and Todd
Goble rounded out the top-10.
Top contenders Richard Mitchell and Mark Smith were eliminated in
pre-feature event crashes. Mitchell was sidelined after spinning in oil
during hot laps, while Smith hit the inside front straight barrier
during his heat after breaking a sway bar. McConnelsburg's Branden
Taylor was involved in a firey first heat crash, but escaped uninjured.
Due to curfew the scond scheduled 30-lap super late model feature cevent
was cancelled.
Rick Boyer continued his hot streak, by driving past Wade Champeno on
the final lap to win the very competitive late model event.
Champeno had led from the drop of the green, but slipped up the track
allowing Boyer to enter victory lane. Dusty Rhoads, Daniel Angelicchio
and Dink Colarusso were next in line.
Roger Onstead collected his second win in the Advance Auto Parts Street
Stock class after passing Tom Knight Sr early in in the 20-lap event.
Richard Nicola finished second, trailed by Scott Bowman, George Nicola
and Adam Kostelnik.
Defending champion Patrick Parlock is back in the groove, as he drove
away from Gregory Lohr, John Steeley, Cindy Shaulis and Deidre Petrie to
annex the 15-lap Pizza Hut hobby stock feature.
PJ Ehrlich continues to be the driver to beat in PA legacy competion as
he easily outdistanced David Capbell, Chris Brink Jayme beck and Martel
to win the 20-lap finale.
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Complete Race Results
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