Chuck Barnes Jr., Makes Rare CRA Street Stock Series Appearance Count; Wins LOR 125 At Lucas Oil Raceway
Qualifying Results – OFFICIAL Race Results
(Special from Ken De La Bastide – The Herald Bulletin)
Brownsburg, Indiana (Friday, July 31, 2015): Veteran Kentucky driver Chuck Barnes led all but nine laps to capture the Visit Hendrick County 125 for the Champion Racing Association’s Street Stocks at Lucas Oil Raceway on Friday.
Barnes, a former CRA Super Series Late Model champion, was able to hold off a determined Colby Lane, looking for his third CRA Street Stock Series win of the year.
Briefly after a break at the 75-lap mark, Lane surrounded the second spot to Elwood’s Jacob McElfresh. But Lane returned to the second position on lap 80 with an inside pass entering turn three.
As they did for the first 75 laps there was a tight battle between Barnes and Lane for the lead, with the two drivers clearly the class of the field.
Barnes took the lead at the start but Lane was never more than a few car lengths back. Lane did take the point on lap 63, but Barnes returned to the point on lap 70.
Throughout most of the race Lane would close the gap in the corners with Barnes stretching the margin on the straightaways. Several times Lane attempted to make the pass on the inside coming off the fourth corner, but Barnes maintained the momentum in the high groove to maintain the lead.
At the finish Jeff Lane finished third after making an inside pass on McElfresh with eight laps remaining with Mason Keller coming home in fifth.
After dropping back as far as fifth at the 30 lap mark, Jeff Lane gained three spots over the next nine laps to finish at the 75-lap mark in third followed by Jacob McElfresh and Mason Keller.
Current CRA point leader Jason Atkinson retired from the race on lap 60 with an apparent mechanical problem while running fourth at the time. The New Castle driver entered the night with a 17 point margin over Josh Poore. Poore finished ninth to close the point gap.
Fast qualifier Brett Hudson saw his night come to an end on lap 21 when he went high in turn three and bounced off the outside retaining wall. Prior to that Hudson worked his way up to second after starting seventh in the 22-car field.
The ref flag waved on lap 15 for a multiple car incident in turn four when Jason Thompson, running fourth at the time, spun to the inside of the track and bounced off of several other cars
In addition to Thompson the cars of Robert Amos and Danny Adams suffered significant damage and couldn’t continue in competition.
