By LONNIE WHEATLEY

ASCS

LAWTON, Okla. (June 13, 2009) - "This track owed me one," Nick Smith declared as he put the finishing touches on the 17th Annual F&J Construction ASCS Speedweek featuring the Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car Dirt Series presented by K&N Filters in Saturday night's 30-lap Speedweek finale at Lawton Speedway.

Three years ago, Smith had seemingly captured his first Speedweek win in the Lawton finale, only to come up light at the scales after purging his machine of most of its precious fluids (oil and water) in the closing rounds.

This time though, neither rain, lightning, a fleet Tim Crawley nor the scales could stop the Broken Arrow, OK, shoe from collecting his first career Speedweek triumph.

Smith raced around Crawley on a lap 17 restart en route to becoming the fifth different winner in as many nights of ASCS Speedweek action one night after his father-in-law Gary Wright cracked victory lane in Oklahoma City.

"He beat me to the punch last night," Smith commented of Wright's victory lane announcement that Smith and Wright's daughter Lauren would be making a grandpa of "The Texan". "I had to get here so I could announce it too."

While Smith took the checkered flag in front of Washington native Gary Taylor, it was third-place runner Crawley taking his second career ASCS Speedweek title with a mere eight-point advantage over Paul McMahan.

Entering the night just six points out of the Speedweek lead, Crawley found himself on the pole position for the feature while the drivers he needed to overtake (Brady Bacon and Paul McMahan) both started deep in the field after transferring from "B" Main action.

Crawley gunned into the lead at the outset and paced the early rounds in front of fellow front row starter Travis Rilat and fourth-starter Smith.

Smith battled past Rilat for second on the tenth round and found himself on Crawley's tailtank when the red flag flew at the midway point when Eric Baldaccini flipped in turn four after contact with Dustin Morgan.

That red flag, the second of the race after Don Young's turn four tumble on the tenth round, proved to be Crawley's undoing. "I heard the bleeder valve in the left rear give out under that red, I knew I was in trouble."

Smith slid by Crawley entering turn three a lap after action resumed only to have the move negated as Seth Bergman coasted to a stop in turn four.

"Tim's such a good racer, I didn't think I could make that move work again," Smith explained. "The way our week has gone, we would have been happy enough with second."

But, with Crawley struggling with a deflating left rear tire, he was no match for Smith, a 2003 ASCS Sooner Region winner at Lawton Speedway.

Smith raced into the lead on the lap 17 restart and kept his pursuers at bay before finally taking the checkered flag aboard the Wesmar-powered Sooner Network Solutions No. 15s J&J with a five car-length advantage at the checkered flag.

Close behind him, the battle raged for second between Crawley, Travis Rilat and Gary Taylor as lightning filled the sky around the º-mile clay oval. Taylor took the runner-up slot in the final pair of laps for his top run of the week aboard the Wells-powered Sparks Construction No. 91 Eagle.

Crawley held on for the show position in Mike Ward's McCarver-powered Boater Sports No. 88 Maxim, revealing that, "Another lap and we'd have been lucky to finish tenth, the left rear was on the rim on the backstretch on the last lap and was coming off going in to one after the checkered flag." That proved to be the difference in capturing the 17th Annual ASCS Speedweek championship.

Rilat was a close fourth in the Shark-powered F&J Construction No. 29 Triple-X, while Kenneth Walker posted his best run of the week by rounding out the top five in the Wesmar-powered Goodyear No. 2 Triple-X.

Jason Johnson climbed from 17th to finish sixth, with Dustin Morgan, 19th-starter Paul McMahan, Danny Wood and 18th-starter Gary Wright completing the top ten.

Morgan, Crawley, Wood and Taylor topped heat race action for the 32-car field, with McMahan winning the 12-lap "B" Main.

A total of 66 different drivers competed in at least one round of the 17th Annual ASCS Speedweek, with 18 drivers competing in all five completed events. Thursday night's event at Devil's Bowl Speedway was rained out.

Washington's Seth Bergman and Oklahoma's Kenneth Walker both picked up a set of ASCS Brodix cylinder heads in a drawing among the 18 drivers that competed in each event. Others taking in each event included Brady Bacon, Eric Baldaccini, Matt Clevenger, Tim Crawley, Claud Estes, Jason Johnson, Andrew Marshala, Sean McClelland, Paul McMahan, Dustin Morgan, Nick Smith, Shane Stewart, Gary Taylor, Colt Treharn, Danny Wood and Gary Wright.

Lucas Oil ASCS Sprint Car Dirt Series presented by K&N Filters

17th Annual F&J Construction ASCS Speedweek

Round Six - Lawton Speedway

Heat Races (Top 18 in Passing Points to "A" Main):

Heat One (8 Laps): 1. 93-Dustin Morgan, 2. 74e-Claud Estes, 3. 57-Shane Stewart, 4. 72-Sherman Davis, 5. 1J-Danny Jennings, 6. 45-Martin Edwards, 7. 7m-Kevin Ramey, 8. 61-Earnest Jennings.

Heat Two (8 Laps): 1. 88-Tim Crawley, 2. 75-Don Young, 3. 77-Colt Treharn, 4. 41-Jason Johnson, 5. 9x-Gary Wright, 6. 1-Sean McClelland, 7. 99-Brady Bacon, 8. 31m-Matt Clevenger.

Heat Three (8 Laps): 1. 94-Danny Wood, 2. 4-Eric Baldaccini, 3. 29-Travis Rilat, 4. 25-Robert Sellers, 5. 12w-Dale Wester, 6. 5m-Glenn Martin, 7. 17-Bruce Griffith, Jr., 8. 87a-Andrew Marshala.

Heat Four (8 Laps): 1. 91-Gary Taylor, 2. 71-Channin Tankersley, 3. 2-Kenneth Walker, 4. 15s-Nick Smith, 5. 23-Seth Bergman, 6. 3d-Paul McMahan, 7. 20s-Sheldon Barksdale, 8. 9-Brian Parker.

"B" Main (Top 6 Advance to "A" Main):

"B" Feature (12 Laps): 1. 3d-Paul McMahan, 2. 23-Seth Bergman, 3. 7m-Kevin Ramey, 4. 99-Brady Bacon, 5. 1-Sean McClelland, 6. 31m-Matt Clevenger, 7. 1j-Danny Jennings, 8. 20s-Sheldon Barksdale, 9. 61-Earnest Jennings, 10. 17-Bruce Griffith, Jr., 11. 45-Martin Edwards, 12. 5m-Glenn Martin. DNS: 9-Brian Parker, 87a-Andrew Marshala.

ASCS Speedweek Round Six "A" Main Event:

"A" Feature (30 Laps): 1. 15s-Nick Smith, 2. 91-Gary Taylor, 3. 88-Tim Crawley, 4. 29-Travis Rilat, 5. 2-Kenneth Walker, 6. 41-Jason Johnson, 7. 93-Dustin Morgan, 8. 3d-Paul McMahan, 9. 94-Danny Wood, 10. 9x-Gary Wright, 11. 7m-Kevin Ramey, 12. 31m-Matt Clevenger, 13. 99-Brady Bacon, 14. 1-Sean McClelland, 15. 72-Sherman Davis, 16. 77-Colt Treharn, 17. 12w-Dale Wester, 18. 57-Shane Stewart, 19. 23-Seth Bergman, 20. 4-Eric Baldaccini, 21. 25-Robert Sellers, 22. 74e-Claud Estes, 23. 75-Don Young, 24. 71-Channin Tankersley.

Lap Leaders: Tim Crawley 1-16, Nick Smith 17-30.

Final 17th Annual F&J Construction ASCS Speedweek Points (Top Fifteen): 1. Tim Crawley 682, 2. Paul McMahan 674, 3. Jason Johnson 670, 4. Brady Bacon 668, 5. Sean McClelland 652, 6. Gary Wright 648, 7. Matt Clevenger 644, 8. Nick Smith 631, 9. Shane Stewart 620, 10. Danny Wood 602, 11. Eric Baldaccini 592, 12. Dustin Morgan 591, 13. Kenneth Walker 577, 14. Gary Taylor 561, 15. Seth Bergman 553.