Today we share an article by the renowned West Coast racing reporter Tim Kennedy

Thrilling finish to the NASCAR K & N WEST 150 at Irwindale Speedway  

By Tim Kennedy

The first visit to Irwindale Speedway by the touring NASCAR K & N Pro Series-West in two years on Saturday March 30^th was followed by five LKQ Pick Your Part fan-popular events on “Salute to Saugus Speedway Night”. NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Ron Hornaday, Jr. served as grand marshal. He briefly paced the ENEOS/NAPA NASCAR K & N 150 by driving the 1964 Galpin Ford NASCAR No. 97 Ford race car that his father Ron raced in the NASCAR Pacific Coast Division.

All the attractions Saturday resulted in the largest NASCAR racing crowd in years at the San Gabriel Valley speedway that opened in 1999. More than 7,000 spectators packed the grandstand, suites and pit grandstand to watch 22 NASCAR K & N West late models open the evening with a 150-lap feature on the progressively-banked half-mile. Veteran observers called the exciting race the best K & N West point race in track history. Fans and cars were still entering the track parking lot at 7:30 pm as the 150-lap race was nearing the halfway mark.

The 150-lap race had a ten-minute break at the 75-lap mark. Teams pitting in the fourth turn of the third-mile oval made adjustments and changed up to two tires, now supplied by General Tire. The entire race was a thrilling duel among three young drivers. All three of the front-runners led the race at some point and the finish was a two-car photo finish that captivated the attention of everyone. (NOTE: NBCTV Network recorded the race for telecast Monday, April 8 from 5:00 to 6:00 pm.)

Trevor Huddleston, 22, won the 150-lap race by 0.030 in a side-by-side, door banging duel on the final lap from turn four to the finish line. He beat rookie Tanner Gray, 19, from New Mexico, who was making only his second NASCAR K & N start and was racing at Irwindale for the first time. Gray, a third-generation NHRA drag racer, originally from North Carolina, won eight NHRA Pro Stock events and the 2018 NHRA Pro Stock championship.

Huddleston, a second year K & N West driver, experienced some transmission problems enroute to his initial K & N feature triumph aboard the No. 9 Sunrise Ford-sponsored Ford. He had a cut left rear tire send his car spinning into the first turn following the checkered flag. His car hit the crash wall on the drivers' side and Huddleston said he briefly had “the wind knocked out of me”.

Huddleson, the 2015-17 Irwindale and California State NASCAR Whelen All-American Series champion, keyed his radio and asked his long-time spotter Will Kozak if he had won. Assured he was the winner, Huddleston had his winning car towed by the track's official towing service--Jan's Towing--to the finish line for victory ceremonies. His father Tim Huddleston, also a three-time NASCAR Irwindale and California Whelen late model champion, handled PA mic interviews as usual during victory ceremonies.

 

Irwindale Speedway co-promoters had reason to rejoice in addition to warm weather in the 70s, 7,000+ standing room only attendance, an exciting race for all 150 laps, and thrilling photo finish. Car dealer Bob Bruncati's race car won the 150 and his driver Trevor Huddleston is the son of co-promoter Tim Huddleston. It was Trevor's initial K & N West victory after placing second in 2018 series rookie points driving a third Bruncati Sunrise Ford.

Bruncati's second car (No. 6 Sunrise Ford) was driven by Jagger Jones, 16, a Huddleston HPR organization NASCAR late model driver for two years. Jones, from Scottsdale, AZ finished fourth in only his second K & N West race. The son of racer P. J. Jones and grandson of 1963 ‘Indianapolis 500’ winner Parnelli Jones, ran up front all night.

The temperature was in the low 80s at 4:00 pm and still in the low 70s when the 3.5 hours entertaining evening concluded at 10:26 pm with a ten-minute aerial fireworks show. N of D fans normally come out 5,000 to 6,000 strong at IS for mayhem events. This week they also witnessed a classic NASCAR K & N West late model race as well. The pairing of NASCAR K & N West race and fan-popular Night of Destruction events was an experiment by co-promoters Huddleston and Bruncati that will likely be repeated in 2020.

TOP DUO: Winner Huddleston, a business major at Moorpark Junior College, won his 45th Irwindale feature victory. He moved into a fourth-place tie for most main event triumphs (including all divisions) in IS track history. His father Tim and Robert Rice also have 45 feature victories. Huddleston said he won as a birthday present for his girl friend Katie, who cheered him home. He held his impressive first place trophy and said he will give it to car owner Bruncati.

Runner-up Gray has raced micro sprints, outlaw karts, late models, modifieds and local track stock cars. Following his 2018 NHRA Pro Stock championship, Gray decided to switch from NHRA to NASCAR. This year he is contracted to race the No. 15 DGR/Crosley Toyota co-owned by David Gilliland in the NASCAR K & N East Series. He made his series debut during February and placed 12th in the New Smyrna, (FL) 175 lap race. Gilliland, an 11-time Irwindale feature winner in the early years of the track, moved to North Carolina and raced in all three NASCAR National Series. He was present in the pits at Saturday and advised his latest protege about chassis set-up and IS track conditions.

ENEOS / NAPA 150: The feature had 21 starters and ten were K & N series rookies. Six of the top ten finishers were rookies. The top five finishers represented an impressive corps of upcoming NASCAR talented teenage drivers in second through fifth positions. All are ages 16 to 19. Top finishers behind Huddleston and Gary were: Wisconsin-based Derek Kraus, 17, who is a third year NAPA Toyota driver for Bill McAnally, J. Jones, 16, and fastest qualifier Hailie Deegan, 17-year old winner of the 2019 K & N West season opener February 28 at the Las Vegas dirt half-mile.

Cole Cabrera, Matt Levin, rookie Brittney Zamora, 20, from Kennewick, WA, Irwindale late model veteran/K & N rookie Dylan Garner, 20, and Jack Wood completed the top ten. All logged the full 150-lap distance. Eleventh place finisher Todd Souza, finished 17-seconds off the lead, and was the final lead lap finisher. Twenty of 21 starters were racing at the finish. Deegan, from Temecula, ran the fastest lap of 96.951 mph.

The entire K & N field used group qualifying from 5:05 to 5:20 pm with three groups of seven cars qualifying simultaneously on the track. Cars were grouped together based upon practice speeds. Deegan's 18.183 (98.994 mph) was fastest in the McAnally No. 19 NAPA Toyota. She barely edged her teammate Kraus' 18.200 in the No. 16 NAPA Toyota. Gray, Huddleston, and Jones qualified third through fifth quickest. Garner, in his K & N debut, was sixth fastest and occupied the outside row three starting position.

THE RACE: At the 7:04 pm start, Kraus shot into the lead and led Deegan, Gray, Jones, Huddleston, Wood, Zamora and Garner at lap 10. The top three were a tight pack as they began lapping on lap 10. At lap 25 Gray passed Deegan for P. 2 on the inside leaving turn four. He used the same move on lap 26 to pass race-long leader Kraus. At lap 50, Gray extended his lead to 0.645. Second-running Deegan had cut that to 0.545 when the half-time break red flag sent all cars to the pits in the fourth turn of the third-mile.

A two-by-two restart at lap 78 had Kraus shoot back into the lead over Gray, Deegan, Huddleston, Zamora and Jones. On lap 81 third place Deegan spun out low in turn two. She restarted at the back and charged forward to P. 9 by lap 86. Kraus continued leading and opened a 0.8 advantage over Gray. On lap 91 Huddleston executed an inside pass in the fourth turn and took second from Gray as Deegan charged to P. 6 with 11 cars on the lead lap.

At lap 100 Kraus led by 0.8 over Huddleston with Gray 1.7 back. On lap 112 rookie Joey Tanner spun in turn four, causing a brief yellow flag. A side-by-side restart on lap 118 had Huddleston inside and Kraus outside, with Jones and Gray in row two. On lap 119, Gray dropped Jones to fourth place and a lap later Gray took second from Huddlestonn with the top four cars racing in a tight pack. Deegan took fifth from Cabrera on lap 120 and a lap later passed Jones for fourth on the outside.

With 20 laps to go the position order was Kraus, Gray, Huddleston, Deegan, Jones, Cabrera, Levin, Zamora, Garner and Wood. Huddleston took second from Gray in the third/fourth turns on lap 140. On lap 144, leader Kraus lost his brakes and went high in the first two corners. Huddleston took his first lead on lap 144.

Gray passed Kraus for second on lap 145 on the inside at the third corner. He then cut into Huddleston's lead using the inside groove. Gray trailed by one length as they started the final lap. He made a banzai charge on the inside out of turn four and the two leaders bumped there and again at the finish line. Huddleston's car had half a front fender advantage at the dramatic photo finish captured from turn one by photographer Albert Wong.

Night of Destruction events

A 25-lap enduro car race on the third-mile at 8:35 pm used a five-turn”roval” with a cone-marked jog onto the half-mile finish line. Joe Labrasciano led lap. Dewitt Jones' 1992 Honda Accord paced laps 2-23. Back row starter Rodney Argo reached P. 2 on lap 20 and shot past Jones on lap 24 to win by 3.632 seconds over Jones. He collected $300 and Jones $200.

 

 

 

 

Enduro cars race for Irwindale NASCAR track points. This year the enduros have two classes—a sports class with 2.3 liter engines and slower stock class with 2.0 liter engines. Argo won the sport class and Jones won the stock class trophies. Bobby Ozman, Labrasciano and Rick Conti completed the top five with 11 finishers on the lead lap. The all-green flag race took 8:27.555. Former sprint car racer Argo ran the fastest lap of 18.324.

Figure 8: Next was an all-green light 25-lap F-8 race with 14 starters. It lasted 9+ minutes. Pole starter Robbie Salcido, from Perris, led every lap in his Honda Accord. Argo started last in his same Honda Prelude and charged to P. 2 on lap 13. At lap 20 he was pressing leader Salcido. Argo tried an outside pass entering turn three on the final lap, but he got loose and almost spun. He lost 30-yards and placed second. Labrosciano, D. Jones and Joseph Bereiter followed. Only near collisions occurred at the X-intersection.

SKID PLATE 20: A field of 15 enduro cars raced the five-turn “roval” with metal skid plates installed on the back axle instead of tires. It became a Lee family battle for the victory with father Wayne leading the first 17 laps. Son Austin Lee passed him and led the final three laps. He won his second SPC main in a row and fourth ever. Lee's daughter Ashlee Rice started on pole and finished sixth, down a lap. R. Salcido and Mike McIntyre finsihed fourth and fifth and ran all 20 laps in the all-green flag 11-minute event.

Next event was the PYP GMC pickup truck with an aircraft jet engine mounted at the back. It torched an old sedan with jet thrusts in the infield near the light pole. The final event before the ten-minute pyrotechnics show was the always hectic and track-littering trailer race. Various cars and trucks towed trailers with large and small boats, various cargo, and small mobile homes.

The object was to destroy as much as possible and entertain spectators to win their votes as the event winner. After 15+ laps the top position went to rookie trailer racer Jason Jonasson over past winners Cheryl Hyland, Robert Rice and R. Salcido respectively. Earlier, Hyland's decorated boat won the fan vote for best appearing trailer.

The next Irwindale Speedway race will be Saturday, April 13 with a NASCAR night of races on the half and third-mile ovals.

The RJ Allen 100 at Irwindale Speedway

On Saturday night March 23, 2019 Irwindale Speedway hosted 34 Spears Manufacturing SRL Southwest Tour late models presented by Lucas Oil for the ‘RJ Allen Inc.100‘ presented by Traffic Management Inc. The SRL Modified Series and the South West Tour Truck (SWTT) series shared the card for a night full of racing excitement on the ½-mile progressively banked Irwindale oval.

The program opened with qualifying for all classes, and the SRL Southwest Tour late models destroyed the existing late model track record of 17.272 seconds. The first car to eclipse the old record was multi-time Irwindale track champion Trevor Huddleston with a best lap of 17.091 seconds, before Dylan Lupton took to the track and re-set a new track record of 17.055 seconds.

Once time trials were over, the top five late model qualifiers all recorded laps below the old track record while the 2018 Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) champion, 14-year-old Jesse Love, in his first race on a half-mile track, piloted his #38 Naake-Klauer Motorsports Toyota Camry to the 16^th fastest time of the 33 cars that took qualifying laps. The fastest SRL Modified qualifier, Trevor Christani reset the record for that class with a fastest lap of 18.424 seconds which broke the old record by .046 seconds.    

The evening’s racing program opened with a 35-lap feature for the South West Tour Trucks, with the top six qualifiers fully inverted, so the fast qualifier Ronnie Davis Jr. started on the outside of the third row in his #78 truck. Davis used the low groove to move forward and took over from the early leader Curtis Brown in turn two of lap two, while Davis’ his nearest competitor Ron Nava was black-flagged from second place and assessed a stop-and-go penalty for passing before the starting line at the start of the race.

The penalty against Nava left Davis with a huge lead of 12 car lengths over the new second place runner Mike Kelperis. As the race progressed Davis built up a large lead of over five seconds at the checkered flag over Kelperis, Steve Reeves, Robert Vandermooren and Ron Nava who recovered from his early penalty to finish in fifth place.

The SRL Modifieds took to the oval for their first 40-lap segment after the top eight qualifiers re-drew for their starting positions. Jason Irwin took the lead from his outside front row starting position, while behind him back in the pack, cars ran four-wide through the fourth turn on the first lap. Teammates Ryan Schartu and Dylan Cappello settled into second and third place with fast qualifier Christiani in fourth place.

The top four cars separated themselves from the rest of the pack, and after the restart following a caution flag on lap 17, Christiani began to work the low line through the turns and by lap 22 challenged Irwin for the lead. The orange-and-black #24 rode the low line into the lead on lap 22 and Christiani steadily pulled away to win comfortably over Cappello, Irwin, Justin Johnson and Schartu.  The race’s big mover was Ryan Partridge who started 16^th, went a lap a down early in the race and battled back to finish eighth.

The top eight Spears Manufacturing SRL Southwest Tour late model qualifiers also re-drew for starting positions for their first 50-lap segment, with 2018 SRL champion Jeremy Doss and Linny White on the front row and Lupton the fastest qualifier starting on the outside of the third row. At the drop of the green, Doss surged to the point with Derek Thorn in second and Preston Peltier in third place.  After several caution flag periods, Peltier moved to the lead trailed by Thorn, Doss and Lupton, with Jesse Love back in the in 16^th place. At the drop of the checkered flag on lap 50, Peltier took the victory with Doss in second, Thorn third, Lupton fourth, Jacob Gomes in fifth and Craig Raudman sixth while the young phenom Jesse Love finished 17th.   

The second SRL Modified 40-lap segment took the green flag with the top seven finishers from the first segment inverted which resulted in exciting side-by-side action with race cars three wide through the corners at times. Jeremy Kay held the point for the first seven laps, while the first segment winner Christiani settled into second place.

By lap 15, Christiani was pressuring Kay for the lead by utilizing the low groove through the turns, and the #24 car took the lead on lap 18. Christiani then began to stretch his lead which was up to 1.2 seconds to lap 30, and grew to 1.7 seconds by lap 35. Trevor Christiani took the second segment victory by 2.1 seconds over Jeremy Kay, Dylan Cappello, Ryan Schartu, and Justin Johnson. With his two victories, Christiani was declared the night’s overall SRL Modified winner.

For the night’s final event, the second Spears Manufacturing SRL Southwest Tour late model 50-lap segment, the top ten finishers in the first segment were inverted for the start, with winner Preston Peltier on the outside of the fifth row in the 28-car field. From the start, action was torrid with the top half of the field running in close order. The race’s first caution flew when 2018 SRL runner-up Eric Schmidt’s #05 wound up in the outside wall exiting turn two on the second lap.

After the restart on lap five, the #33 car of M.K. Kanke hit the turn four wall, then on lap eleven the #71 car of Kyle Neveau slid into the turn two wall from second place, then rebounded and grazed the right front fender of the third-place car driven by Peltier. Neveau and Peltier’s #18 both continued; Peltier in third place behind Thorn and Doss, but Neveau fell back into the field. 

During the middle laps of the race, there were three separate incidents on the backstretch, as contact between cars caused spin-outs, with the third incident the most serious as Neveau’s car slammed in the third turn wall drivers-side first after apparent contact with Brandon Loverock’s #72. The hard contact necessitated a red flag, but the driver emerged uninjured but the car suffered heavy damage.  

Peltier held the lead for the lap 31 restart ahead of Jeff Bischofberge, Jeremy Doss, Dylan Lupton and Jacob Gomes with young rookie Jesse Love in twelfth place. Unfortunately, on lap 39, Love’s evening came to an end as the cars of Cole Moore and Jack Wood made contact entering turn one, with Moore hard into the outside wall, which left Love nowhere to go but into the outside wall. The accident brought out another red flag, and all three cares were eliminated but none of the drivers were injured. Young Jesse expressed frustration in the pit area after the race, as his chance for a top ten finish in his first SRL Southwest Tour appearance was lost through no fault of his own.

Preston Peltier's winning machine following post-race inspection

After the race restarted, Peltier held a comfortable lead over Bischofberge, while the machines of Doss, Lupton Craig Raudman and Jace Hansen fought for third place, with the running order of those four cars changing literally every lap. The finishing order of the second segment was Preston Peltier, Jeff Bischofberge, Raudman, Hansen, Lupton and Doss in sixth. By winning both segments, Peltier claimed the overall victory in the ‘RJ Allen 100 presented by Traffic Management Inc.’ and the $5,000 winner’s check.

Irwindale Speedway’s favorite son, Trevor Huddleston, suffered problems with his #50 machine all night and was never a factor. In his post-race interview, the new track record holder Dylan Lupton shared that while his car was fast in qualifying, it never handled well in traffic, although the adjustments that the crew made during the break improved the car’s handling for the second segment, Lupton could not match the speed of the leaders.  

On Saturday night March 30 Irwindale Speedway will present the ‘NAPA Auto Parts 150’ for the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West cars together with the ‘Night of Destruction,’ presented by LKQ Pick Your Part. All the K&N West cars and stars are expected to be on hand, including Brittney Zamora, Jagger Jones, Ryan Partridge and the K& N Las Vegas race winner Hailie Deegan.  Also on tap will be the Saugus Speedway Reunion with Grand Marshal Ron Hornaday Jr. Spectator gates are scheduled to open at 4 PM with the first race at 7 PM. 

Check out the websites for the series mentioned in this article at:

https://www.srlsouthwesttour.com/

http://www.southwesttourtrucks.com/home.html

https://hometracks.nascar.com/regional/kn-pro-series-west/

For further information about Irwindale Speedway, check out the website at:

http://irwindalespeedway.com/

Huddleston to do battle with

Spears SRL Late Models at Irwindale

Trevor Huddleston, the 4-time NASCAR All-American Series State of California champion, will compete in the ‘RJ Allen Inc. 100‘  presented by Traffic Management Inc. for the Spears Manufacturing SRL Southwest Tour late models presented by Lucas Oil on Saturday March 23, 2019 at Irwindale Speedway. Expectations for Trevor's performance will be high as the three-time track champion has 44 feature race wins at Irwindale Speedway, with his last Irwindale win on March 9, 2019.

In the 2019 SRL Southwest Tour inaugural event,  Huddleston will do battle with SRL defending champion Jeremy Doss and 2018 series runner-up Eric Schmidt, as well as talented rookie Jesse Love, the 2018 Bay Cities Racing Association (BCRA) Midget  champion and the INEX Legends Cars road course world champion. Love will be the youngest driver to ever compete in a SPEARS Southwest Tour Series event, at the age of 14 driving a Naake-Klauer Motorsports Toyota Camry Super Late Model.

The Spears Manufacturing SRL Southwest Tour late models will run twin 50-lap features on Saturday, and the best combined finisher will collect a $5000 purse offered by Senneker Performance. Also in action on March 23 will be the SRL Modified Series with scheduled twin 40-lap features, and the SRL Tour Truck Series.

After practice sessions Friday afternoon, on Saturday, the pit gates will open at 11 AM, and the spectator gates are scheduled to open at 4 PM. Qualifying for all three divisions will start at 415 PM, with the on-track O’Reilly Autograph Session scheduled for 545 PM, and opening ceremonies at 645 PM.  

For more details check out Irwindale Speedway's website at http://irwindalespeedway.com/

 Irwindale Speedway

hosted seven exciting 

2019 season 

opening races

On Saturday night March 9 Irwindale Speedway opened its 20^th anniversary season with “City of Irwindale Night’ sponsored by Sunrise Ford that featured racing in six divisions and seven feature races.  Despite the chilly local temperatures, approximately 3000 fans saw some hot diverse racing action on both the ½ and 1/3- mile ovals.

The program began with the first of the LKQ Pick Your Park Late Model twin 30-lap features which started the 13-car field “straight up” based on qualifying times. Fast qualifier Ryan Vargas chose the outside front row position for the start. 

The wisdom of Vargas’ choice was proven as the inside front row starter Jace Jones, the 14-year old grandson of racing legend Parnelli Jones spun his car’s tires at the start and fell to third place entering turn one. Jones rode behind Vargas and Blaine Perkins with Jones’ Highpoint Racing teammate four-time track champion Trevor Huddleston in fourth place.

The top four cars distanced themselves from the rest of the field, and at the halfway point, Vargas held a 4-car length advantage over Perkins, then on lap 20 Jones set his sights on Perkins – Jones’ and Perkins’ cars ran three laps side-by-side before Jones dropped back in line in third place.

          

With five laps to go, Huddleston began his march to the front, as he used the low line to pass Jones and Perkins as the leaders raced through lapped cars, but Huddleston could not catch the leader. Vargas went flag-to-flag and won by .648 seconds over Huddleston with Perkins third and rookie Jace Jones fourth.

Next up was the Enduro and Enduro Sport series feature for 1980 and newer compact cars competing for 25 laps around the modified 1/3-mile infield with a dogleg at the starter’s stand. It took a few laps for veteran sprint car racer Rodney Argo to break free of the pack and run down the early leader and he built up a 6-car length lead by lap 6. By lap 13, Argo built a 6-second lead as he ran consistent 18.1 second laps in his black #9 Enduro Sport Honda Accord.  

On lap 19, the second-place car was involved in a hard crash in turn two and eliminated but the driver was uninjured. Once the green flag reappeared, Argo drove away from the pack and won by 8 seconds over Bory Molina with Bobby Ozman in third place. Back in the pack Brad Stellman took the stock Enduro class win.  

Next up on the 1/3-mile track were the super stocks with V-8 powered muscle cars using their original equipment chassis. Young lady racer Bridgette Shaw led the first lap in her 1973 Petty Blue Dodge Dart but was soon passed by Rich Delong’s #84. At the end of 25 laps, DeLong who won three super stock races in 2018, won by ½ a lap over Jerry Toperek.

73-year old racing legend “Cowboy” Kenny Smith claimed a popular win in the YouRaceLA Spec Late Models 20-lap feature over Ventura’s Ed Cutler. 

The INEX Legends series ran an action-packed 35-lap feature to close out the evening’s racing on the 1/3-mile course.  The early laps featured wild three-wide action as the field started the race fully inverted. The fast qualifier Cameron Morga from Albuquerque, New Mexico worked his way through the field and took the lead on lap four. Mora put on a dominating performance as he won by six seconds, while Ricky Schlick just edged out 2018 champion Darren Amidon for second place honors.

In his Victory Lane interview, Mora who flew in from Albuquerque on Thursday afternoon and practiced at Irwindale on Thursday and Friday night, stated that “Irwindale is the most demanding track I run on. 35 laps here in a Legends car is as tough as it gets.”

Defending champion Lucas McNeil worked his way to the lead from his fourth row starting sport by the fourth lap of the Lucas Oil Irwindale Race Trucks 30-lap feature on the1/2-mile oval. McNeil and Andrew Porter battled for the lead as the leader’s brother Jacob McNeil, Ron Peterson, Niko Mongenel and Dennis Arena battled for third place. At the drop of the checkered flag, the McNeil brothers bookended second place finisher Porter.

The evening’s finale was the second LKQ Pick Your Part Late Models 30-lap feature, this time with the top ten finishers from the first race inverted for the start. As the tightly packed field raced three-wide through turn four on the opening lap, Rodney Peacher’s yellow #35 and the #88 of Japanese driver Takuma Koga touched, and Peacher’s car was turned and crashed hard head-on into the outside retaining wall which brought out the red flag to stop the action.

After track emergency workers extracted an uninjured Peacher from the wreckage and cleaned up the fluids spilled onto the track, action resumed with one lap complete. On the restart which included all but Peacher’s car, Trevor Huddleston got caught up in an accordion action as the cars ahead failed to pick up the throttle. Trevor’s blue #50 car spun into infield which brought out the yellow flag and the field reset for another restart, this time with the three-time defending champion at the tail of the field.

When the green flag reappeared Kevin Furden surged into the lead as action behind him was 3 and 4 wide at times as the faster cars came up through the field. On lap five, Furden’s #34 bobbled as he entered the backstretch and he fell to eighth place by the time the field reached the stripe. Lucas McNeil assumed the lead trailed by Blaine Perkins, Trevor Huddleston and Ryan Vargas. Huddleston claimed second place on lap 10, then on lap he dropped to the low side of the track to challenge McNeil for the lead.

The lead pair dueled side-by-side for four laps, then on lap 20 in turns 3 and 4, as they approached two slower cars, Huddleston dove beneath McNeil then split the slower cars to grab the race lead. Huddleston built a comfortable 2-second lead over McNeil over the final nine circuits, with Perkins third, Vargas fourth and rookie Jace Jones in fifth position.

After the first two races, Huddleston holds a four-point lead for the 2019 LKQ Pick Your Part late Model championship over Ryan Vargas, who in turn has a two-marker lead over third place Blaine Perkins.

Next up on Irwindale Speedway’s half-mile oval will be the Spears Modifieds and the RJ Allen 150 SRL Tour and the Southwest Tour Trucks series presented by Traffic Management on March 23.  On March 30, Irwindale Speedway will host the NASCAR K & N West Pro Series for the NAPA Auto Parts 150 along with the Saugus Speedway reunion with Grand Marshal Ron Hornaday Junior.

A fun Fourth of July

at Irwindale Speedway

 

The author attended the Twin Firecracker 50’s at the beautiful Irwindale Speedway on the Fourth of July. A big crowd turned out for an entertaining program that included twin 50-lap features for the Pick Your Part late model stock cars, a jet car demonstration, a demolition derby for front wheel drive compact cars and of course fireworks.

Trevor Huddleston as the fast qualifier started his #50 machine on the pole position for the first 50-lap feature with Jagger Jones, grandson of the 1963 Indianapolis 500-mile race winner Parnelli Jones alongside in his #55 car. After a patriotic salute by the field with American flags carried during the pace laps, at the drop of the green flag, Huddleston moved into the lead closely pursued by Jones, but by the 10^th lap, Huddleston had distanced himself from the field and Jones was under attack from Lawless Alan.

Alan ran a lower line through the turns than Jones lap after lap and after many laps Alan took over second place. In the latter stages of the race, Jones was challenged by Nick Joandies, but Jagger edged out Nick by a fender at the checkered flag for third behind Huddleston and Alan. Kayla Eshleman finished in the fifth position 2 seconds behind Jones and Joanides.   

For the start of the second fifty-lap feature which began just a few minutes after the finish of the first feature the top ten finishers in the first race were inverted. Unfortunately, the scheduled pole position starter Hailie Deegan daughter of motocross racer Brian Deegan was unable to make the call. The first half of the race was relatively uneventful, until there was contact in turn two back in the pack and several cars were eliminated. On the restart, Huddleston moved around Alan and as the pair battled for the lead through turn four their cars touched and Huddleston spun backwards harmlessly to a stop midway down the front straightaway.       

Huddleston rejoined the field at the tail, and was soon joined in the back of the field by Lawless Alan after he was assessed a penalty by NASCAR officials. On the restart with 22 laps to go, there was contact between the leaders and the ensuing melee reduced the field to six cars with Joanides, Eshleman and Alan all eliminated. After a red-flag stoppage to allow track safety workers to clear away the wreckage, the race resumed and Huddleston soon surged into the lead ahead of Ryan Schartau and Jagger Jones and held on to win in race shortened to 45 laps.

Trevor Huddelston captured victory in both features, and Jagger Jones copped third place finishes in both events. In the author's opinion, these are two young racers to watch for the future.

As always, Irwindale Speedway was clean, the admission price and parking fees were reasonable all the track workers were polite and helpful, and the program ran on time. Kudos to the new ownership group.