June 24th, 2009

Concord, NC – Clay Rogers will be on Speed51 Radio tonight (Wenesday) at 6:30pm.  The show airs live from Buffalo Wild Wings in the Afton Ridge Shopping Center in Concord, NC.  Clay will be there in person to chat with Bob Dillner and the rest of the Speed51 gang to discuss the USARacing Pro Cup Series, his three consecutive wins and the upcoming Aaron’s 250 this weekend at Lanier National Speedway in Braselton, GA.  If you can’t make it out, you can listen live on www.racetalkradio.com/speed51.html.

June 24th, 2009

CAR #	DRIVER	CAR	HOMETOWN
00S	LUCAS RANSONE	CHEVROLET	MADISON, NC
04S	LARRY BARRETT	CHEVY IMPALA	RINGGOLD, VA
06S	BOBBY GILL	FORD FUSION	CONCORD, NC
07S	MATT LOFTON	CHEVROLET	MOORESVILLE, NC
1N	BRETT BUTLER	CHEVROLET	LAWRENCEVILLE, GA
22N	DEREK KALE	CHEVROLET	BECKLEY, WV
22S	DREW HERRING	FORD	BENSON, NC
23N	TBA	CHEVROLET	BECKLEY, WV
23S	JP MORGAN	CHEVROLET	ETHER, NC
28N	JEREMY GODDARD	FORD FUSION	NAPLES, FL
28S	BILLY BIGLEY JR	FORD FUSION	NAPLES, FL
31S	JUSTIN BOSTON	CHEVROLET	LAKEVILLE, MN
4N	KYLE FOWLER	FORD	SMYRNA, GA
54S	CLAY ROGERS	CHEVROLET	TROUTMAN, NC
55S	TOM POWERS	FORD FUSION	MIDDLEBURG, FL
56S	BRANDON WARD	CHEVROLET	MOORESVILLE, NC
65N	AJ FRANK	CHEVROLET	TROUTMAN, NC
73N	JEFF AGNEW	FORD FUSION	FLOYD, VA
75N	RONNIE SOUDERS, JR	CHEVY IMPALA	BELOIT, OH
75S	CALEB HOLMAN	CHEVROLET	ABINGDON, BA

June 23rd, 2009

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Concord, NC (June 23, 2009) – The USARacing Pro Cup Series announced today that Langley Speedway in Hampton, VA, will replace Southern National Raceway Park and will change the date from August 15th to August 22nd. After a mutual agreement was made between the Southern National Raceway Park and USAR, the decision was in the best interest of both the track and the series. The Southern National Raceway Park is currently for sale and with the tough economic times, USAR felt it would be best for the series to move their race date elsewhere.

“We do not like to adjust the schedule during the season. Southern National is a great facility for our cars, but right now with the track being for sale, it is not the best fit for the event to be promoted properly and track ownership to be able to move forward in selling the track. We wish Kirk and the staff at Southern National the best,” explained Jimmy Wilson, Vice President/ Series Director of USARacing Pro Cup Series. “Currently we are looking forward to returning to Langley and by moving the date; this will get rid of a set of back to back races which will make it easier on our teams.”

The USARacing Pro Cup Series visited the Langley Speedway earlier this season for the HAMPTON VIRGINIA 250 presented by Racing Electronics for the first time since 1998. The series won over the fans and the track won over the drivers after one of the wildest and exciting finishes in the series history. Clay Rogers, Lucas Ransone, Woody Howard and Bobby Gill fought four-wide coming to the checkered flag and got the crowd standing on their feet and cheering wildly as Rogers went on to take the checkered flag.

June 23rd, 2009

 

TEAM RELEASE
CONTACT: Lindsey Holman

Myrtle Beach Speedway is one of those tracks hated by many, and loved by few. One of those few is the Abingdon, VA, native, Caleb Holman. “I’ve loved this place since the first time I ran it back in 2006.  It’s so worn out and old with the sand ground into the pavement, it’s really a drivers track.”, commented the driver of the No. 75s Food Country USA Chevrolet. 

 

Holman and his team chose to test on Thursday, where he posted some competitive laps times among the other drivers who chose to test. The USARacing Teams had Friday to lounge around on the beach, but then Saturday morning they all got down to business.  Holman was 2nd fastest after Saturday’s practice session, and ran a lap of 21.440 seconds during qualifying that put him on the pole for the 2nd time this year.
At the drop of the green flag, Caleb got the jump on Clay Rogers going into turn 1 and led until lap 8 when Rogers took over.  Holman stuck close and took the lead back on lap 16 after choosing to run the high line.  When the caution came out on lap 109, Holman had fallen back to 7th.  He came in for gas and went back out in the 4th position.

 

Caleb had been fighting a loose condition all night that seemed to get worse as the night went of, despite the team making changes as they could throughout the night.  They later found out that the sway bar arm bump pad had broke off, causing the car to be extremely loose. When the third caution came out on lap 181, Caleb had fallen back to 8th place and gone 1 lap down.  They came in for 4 fresh stickers and restarted on lap 115 in 11th.

 

As if Holman did not already have his hands full, on lap 190, Caleb was attempting to pass the No. 65 of AJ Frank going into turn 1, and they got together. The right front fender was pushed in, so Caleb made another trip down pit road to let the crew go to work. Then on lap 200 the No. 65 and Caleb got together once again, which sent Holman spinning.

 

“From there we just wanted to finish the race and collect points. It wasn’t the best night for us, but I’m sure it could have been worse”, said Holman after the race.

 

Caleb ended up finishing in the 8th position 2 laps down.
This coming weekend the USARacing Pro Cup Series will make their first stop in Braselton, Georgia at Lanier National Speedway for the Aaron’s 250. Be sure to tune it and watch live timing and scoring from Lanier!

June 22nd, 2009

USARacing Double-Header with ASA Southeast Asphalt Tour This Weekend at Lanier National Speedway

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Concord, NC (June 22, 2009) – There will be no breaks this week for the USARacing Pro Cup Series as they will head straight to Lanier National Speedway this weekend in Braselton, GA for the Aaron’s 250. The event is scheduled to take place on Saturday, June 27, 2009, and will be a combo event with the ASA Southeast Asphalt Tour.

This will be the first time the USARacing Pro Cup Series has held an event at the 3/8 mile asphalt oval and the first ever combo event with ASA. The USARacing Pro Cup Series will run a 250 lap event followed by a 100 lap event by the ASA Southeast Asphalt Tour. This event is set to be one of the biggest events in Northern Georgia this summer.

“USAR is very excited to partner up with the ASA Southeast Asphalt Tour,” said Jimmy Wilson, Vice President/ Series Director. “John Kee and Micky Cain have done an outstanding job building their series and we look forward to a great partnership with this doubleheader and the Lanier National Speedway staff.”

“It’s great to partner up with the USARacing group,” said Micky Cain, ASA SAT Series Director. “Fans will get to attend two great events on the same night. Plus, they’ll have a chance to see plenty of short-track fireworks the week before July 4th.”

Kyle Fowler’s first appearance with Pro Cup ended early after a transmission issue took him out of the race at Myrtle Beach Speedway last weekend. Fowler, who made his USARacing Pro Cup Series debut at Myrtle Beach is a Georgia native and is excited to get back on the horse and run this weekend at Lanier, a track the youngster has plenty of familiarity with.

“I do have about a million laps at Lanier, I definitely will have a better chance there than [at Myrtle Beach],” commented Fowler after the Grand Strand 250 presented by Black’s Tire & Auto Service. “I’m pretty familiar with Lanier, so hopefully we can go there and get a good showing in.”

Current series point leader and three time 2009 winner, Clay Rogers will be coming to Lanier National Speedway for the first time in his racing career.

“We look at this track as any other track that we’ve never seen before. We’ll take it as it comes. Nine times out of ten we run fairly the same setup and just make a couple of changes. We’ve been really competitive so far this year and I don’t really expect anything different here,” commented the driver of the No. 54s C&C Boiler Sales & Service Chevrolet. “The ASA series is a totally different type of car, they run a different tire and it’s a little different rubber that they lay down. We race super late models too when we get the opportunity, it’s a cool series. I’ve heard a lot about the track and the series at this track and hopefully we can continue to put on a good show for them.”

For more information on the Aaron’s 250 at Lanier National Speedway, log on to: www.laniernationalspeedway.com or check out the new and improved www.usarprocup.com.

Contact: Erica Kron
USARacing Media Relations
ekron@usaprocup.com
704.788.7979 Ext. 8

June 21st, 2009

Myrtle Beach, S.C. (June 20, 2009) – Clay Rogers and A.J. Frank may be close friends, even neighbors, but relationships are irrelevant on the race track, as Rogers out-performed Frank for his third victory this season in Saturday night’s Grand Strand 250 presented by Black’s Tire & Auto Service at Myrtle Beach Speedway.

“We’ve been friends for a long time and we used to be teammates,” Rogers said about Frank after recording his third career victory at Myrtle Beach Speedway. “It’s great to see him have a great run like that and, of course, he had my old championship crew chief calling the shots for him. I knew he would be tough tonight; he was good.”

Even though Frank out-qualified Rogers, earning the outside front row starting position while Rogers had to settle for third, there were several side-by-side battles between the close friends throughout the event.

“I felt like our car was really good on the long run, but I didn’t really know what pace to run,” Frank said after his second start this season.

“Clay and I had a blast. That was so much fun racing with him. He is one of my best friends and it is irreplaceable to have moments like that with your friend. We have done that a lot. He just always ends up winning.”

Rogers led six times for 86 laps in his C&C Boiler Sales & Service Chevrolet Impala, while Frank set the pace on four occasions for 49 laps in his Mac Hill Racing Chevy Monte Carlo. The other top lap leader was Michael Ritch in his Smith Paving Inc./Fountain Graphics Monte Carlo. He led three times for 50 laps before having to settle for ninth, three laps down in the 250-lap race.

“We are excited!” said a jubilant Rogers, who averaged 86.417 mph in the race slowed for 33 laps by five caution periods. “Man, they put good race cars on the race track, cars that are reliable. They’ve got great equipment. They spend the money where they need to. They got good looking race cars, and I just need to thank everybody involved for letting me do it.”

Brandon Ward fought a tire rub on his One Source Solutions Mac Hill Racing Chevrolet Monte Carlo for the last 25 laps, but managed to nurse it home to a second-place finish, 8.484 seconds behind Rogers.

“We didn’t have anything for Clay; he was good,” Ward said. “I felt like we did (have something for him) until we got into the wall. We got into the wall a little bit on the back straightway, so that hurt us some. We tried a new setup with this thing earlier today [Saturday], and it worked really well, but we didn’t have what we needed. I feel like we are going to be a lot better in the next couple races, so we are looking forward to that.”

For 16-year-old Kyle Fowler, who made his Pro Cup debut, it was a frustrating night as he finished 23rd in the 24-car field.

“We had a good start, running on the high line and saving tires,” Fowler said. “Then on about lap 40 there was a caution and I went to shift from third to fourth and it wouldn’t go into gear. Something was broken on the transmission. We dropped down to the bottom trying to get it into gear, and it wouldn’t come into gear, so we just decided to pull it into the pits to see if we could fix it. We figured out that the linkage was a little bit wound up, which is probably what our problem was.

“It’s unfortunate. I know we had a pretty good race car and probably could have finished (in the) top 10. We will go back next weekend at Lanier (Raceway in Georgia) and see if we can do better. Hopefully, we got all the bad luck out of the way.”

Lucas Ransone was the top finishing rookie, taking sixth, while Ronnie Souder had to settle for 15th.

Caleb Holman earned the pole with a lap of 21.440 seconds/90.336 mph, but it was downhill for the Abingdon, Va., driver soon after the green flag waved. However, the Food Country Chevrolet driver was still able to pull off an eighth-place finish.

Drew Herring, whose sponsor Black’s Tire & Auto Service was the event’s presenting sponsor, had a rough day and fell out of the race early. Herring had nowhere to go when Frank’s Concrete Express Chevrolet spun on lap 190. Frank limped away with minimal damage to his car, but Herring was sidelined with front end damage to his Ford Fusion.

Next on the USARacing Pro Cup Series schedule is the June 27 event at Lanier, Ga. Check www.usarprocup.com for the latest news and updates.

GRAND STRAND 250 presented by BLACK’S TIRE & AUTO SERVICE
MYRTLE BEACH SPEEDWAY, MYRTLE BEACH, SC
OFFICIAL RESULTS 6/20/09
Start Finish Car Driver Laps Remarks
Position Position # Finished
3 1 54 s Clay Rogers 250 Running
5 2 56 s Brandon Ward 250 Running
2 3 65 n A J Frank 250 Running
13 4 O6 s Bobby Gill 250 Running
16 5 O7 n Matt Lofton 250 Running
10 6 OO s R Lucas Ransone 249 Running
19 7 31 s Justin Boston 249 Running
1 8 75 s Caleb Holman 248 Running
14 9 52 n Michael Ritch 247 Mechanical
12 10 28 s Billy Bigley Jr 247 Running
9 11 23 s J P Morgan 247 Running
4 12 22 n Derek Kale 246 Running
15 13 13 s John Gibson 246 Running
11 14 68 n Allen Purkhiser 246 Running
22 15 75 n Ronnie Souders 244 Running
21 16 O2 n Tyler Young 242 Running
23 17 O4 s Larry Barrett 239 Running
6 18 22 s Drew Herring 188 Accident
7 19 7 n Gary St Amant 172 Mechanical
17 20 73 n Jeff Agnew 81 Mechanical
8 21 1 n Brett Butler 70 Mechanical
24 22 28 n Wally Smith 60 Mechanical
18 23 4 s R Kyle Fowler 32 Mechanical
20 24 3 s Dana White 21 Accident

June 17th, 2009

June 6th, 2009

Saturday, June 06, 2009 5:39:00 PM Qualifying Results and Starting Lineup for the Lucas Oil 200

1. Clay Rogers 16.212 111.029
2. Derek Kale 16.349
3. Matt Lofton 16.393
4. JP Morgan 16.423
5. Drew Herring 16.442
6. Caleb Holman 16.452
7. Jeff Agnew 16.453
8. Billy Bigley Jr. 16.624
9. Brandon Ward 16.634
10. Lucas Ransone 16.634
11. Bobby Gill 16.641
12. Allen Purkhiser 16.655
13. Jim Crabtree 16.804
14. Brett Butler 16.854
15. Mike Hennessy 16.888
16. Jeremy Goddard 16.888
17. Ronnie Souders 17.575

Qualifying for the Lucas Oil 200 has come to a conclusion. Clay Rogers shot to the pole on his second qualifying lap shattering the old track record of 16.522 seconds after running a blistering 16.212 seconds.

“We’ve been really happy with the car since we unloaded yesterday. We really haven’t made a lot of changes, Kevin and the guys have done a great job preparing the car. We spent a lot of time today not practicing, but tightening everything, making sure we have a good solid piece for 200 laps,” commented Rogers. “This is a pretty demanding racetrack on your equipment. I did not think we were going to go as fast as we did in qualifying but I’ll take it, it was enough to scare me.”

Matt Lofton qualified third in today’s qualifying session and was one of the top seven drivers to break the old track record here at Winchester Speedway.

“I’m really happy with qualifying. I’m not that good of a qualifier, so anytime we can start that close to the front is a plus for me,” explained Lofton. “Everybody did a heck of a job today on the crew and we made big gains on the car. Every time we did a qualifying run we got a little bit faster, I had a lot of fun out there.”

When asked about the main event:

“We’ve been debating and trying to figure out what is going to happen on lap one, if we can get past the first corner and get single file I think we will be good after that.”