Buckeye State Hosts Series Return To Short-Track Racing
Mansfield Motorsports Park hosts the NASCAR Camping World Series East’s return to short-track racing with the Mansfield 150 Saturday, August 23.
Following last week’s final road-course event of the season, many teams welcome the return to the more familiar ovals, especially the .500-mile short-track showcase in central Ohio.
“I’m excited to go back there,” said Eddie Mac Donald, (No. 71 Grimm Construction Chevrolet).
“We’re bringing one of my favorite cars that we’ve run for the past three years. It’s a pretty good car and we know where to start (setting up) with it. We’re looking forward to going there and having a good run.”
MacDonald’s car was built originally as a superspeedway car for use exclusively at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
“We just ran it at Loudon all the time,” MacDonald said. “We put a lot of effort into it when we first built it and it’s been very good to us. We won at Stafford with it and we ran it at Irwindale (Toyota Speedway at Irwindale for the 2007 NASCAR Toyota All Star Showdown, where he qualified 10th and finished fifth.)
“At one point, it was the only car we had and we’ve just kept learning it and improving it. I can’t wait to get back on an oval track.”
Jamie Hayes (No. 52 J.L. Hendrick Auto Group Chevrolet) will arrive wheeling a proven contender as well.
“We’re taking the car we ran at Music City last year,” Hayes said.
Hayes led 93 laps of that race. He qualified second fastest and was a contender to win. He was driving away until a late race caution flag changed the dynamics of the event, and he came away with a sixth-place finish.
“It’s an intermediate track car and I like the Mansfield track,” Hayes said. “We finished eighth there last year, and we’re looking for some more good finishes.”
Brian Ickler (No. 15 Ickler Motorsports Chevrolet) won the second and third races of the season and has since cooled off a bit. He’s ready to get his program back on track at Mansfield. He made an exploratory East series start there last year in preparation for moving from the NASCAR Camping World Series West.
“Mansfield is one of the few tracks in the East I’ve been to before 2008,” Ickler said. “We tested at Mansfield with Austin Dillon recently and we were extremely fast. We’re very optimistic going back to Ohio.
“We’ve had some bad luck here and there, but we’re finally getting caught up.”
 |
|
| The Race | Mansfield 150 |
|---|---|
| The Place | Mansfield (Ohio) Motorsports Park |
| The Date | Aug. 23, 2008 |
| The Time | 5:30 p.m. ET |
| TV Schedule | HDNet (Live), SPEED (enhanced replay) Sept. 12, 1 p.m. ET |
| Track Layout | .500-mile paved |
| Race Purse | $119,192 |
| 2007 Winner | Sean Caisse |
| 2007 Pole | Sean Caisse |
| Schedule | Saturday: Practice 10:40 a.m.-12:10 p.m., Time Trials 1:40 p.m. |
| Track Contact | Charles Krall, (419) 524-0183, (419) 262-0558 |
News & Notes
The Race … The Mansfield 150 is the 10th of 13 races on the 2008 NASCAR Camping World Series East schedule. The series visited Mansfield Motorsports Park for the first time in 2007.
The Procedure … The starting field is 30 cars including provisionals. Starting positions 1-26 will be determined by time trials. The four remaining spots will be determined through the provisional process. The race is scheduled for 150 laps (75 miles).
The Track … Mansfield Motorsports Park’s .500-mile oval features compound banking of 12, 14 and 16 degrees in the turns, and six degrees on the straightaways. It has hosted an annual NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event since 2004.
The Records … Qualifying: Sean Caisse, Aug. 25, 2007, 109.170 mph, 16.488 seconds. 150-lap, 75-mile race: Sean Caisse, 61.433 mph, 1 hour, 13 minutes, 15 seconds.
The History … Sean Caisse drove Andy Santerre Motorsports Chevrolet to victory in the inaugural Mansfield 150 last year, leading 138-laps. The other 12 laps were led by Matt Kobyluck, who finished second. Eventual series champion Joey Logano finished third. The race was part of a double header with the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, with James Civali winning that event.
Ohio Road Racer Cowen At Home At Mansfield
Champion sports car driver Tim Cowen will again test the waters of NASCAR when he runs in his native Ohio.
The 50-year-old Cowen, from nearby Ashland, is entered in Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Series East race at Mansfield Motorsports Park. The race, his third series start at the season, comes at a track that is only 20 miles from his home.
“We’re really looking forward to going back home,” Cowen said. “Mansfield is my home track. It’s close to home and we’ve been able to test there. We feel good about our car.”
Cowen has already posted a career-high eighth-place finish in the series earlier this year at Watkins Glen International. Cowen did a lot of passing in the event after qualifying 23rd.
He backed up that performance with a respectable 16th-place, lead-lap finish on Lime Rock Park’s road course in Connecticut Aug. 16.
Cowen won the 2002 SCCA GT-1 national championship, and is a veteran of sports car racing at Lexington, Ohio’s Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
“I actually learned how to drive race cars at Mid-Ohio,” Cowen said. “That’s only about a half hour from home. We feel real comfortable on road courses and we have a lot of fun at them.”
In recent years, he has made four starts in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. This Saturday’s Mansfield 150 would mark his eighth career NASCAR Camping World Series East start. Prior to Watkins Glen, his best career finish in the series was 15th at Lake Erie Speedway in North East, Pa., in 2006.
“We had a good car for the Mansfield race last year, too. Unfortunately I got a little ambitious at the beginning of the race,” said Cowen of his 27th-place finish. “We’re really looking forward to making up for that this year.
“We feel just as comfortable racing at Mansfield with all our testing there. We have a big following in the area and a lot of friends and co-workers come out to watch.”
Fast Stats …
Max Dumarey, (No. 16 Bodycoach.net Chevrolet) 19, of Gent Belgium, posted a career-high finish of eighth at Lime Rock Park. He is a veteran of European road racing.
Marc Davis (No. 18 Slim Jim Toyota), 18, of Mitchelville, Md., matched his career-high mark at Lime Rock with his second runner-up finish of the season.
Mike Olsen (No. 61 Fadden Racing/Jack’s Auto Service Chevrolet), 40, of North Haverhill, N.H., continued to add to his impressive career stats at Lime Rock. The race was only the second start of the year for the 2001 and 2006 series champion. Olsen now has 284 starts, 136 top-10s and $1,215,530 in career winnings, good enough for third in series all-time standings in all three categories
Cattanach, Spraker Campaign No. 37 “A Journey For 9/11” Chevy At Mansfield
Kyle Cattanach will have a very special sponsor when he makes his second career NASCAR Camping World Series East start this weekend.
Cattanach’s Spraker Racing Chevrolet will carry the logo for “A Journey For 9/11.” The non-profit charity was established by former NFL star George Martin to raise awareness and funds for rescue and recovery workers who assisted at The World Trade Center site in 2001 and are now ill.
Martin, a retired defensive end for the New York Giants, recently completed a walk across the nation from the George Washington Bridge in New York City to San Diego, Calif., to raise awareness for the cause. The 3,003-mile journey concluded on June 21.
The 23-year-old Cattanach, of Redding, Calif., relocated to Mooresville, N.C., and works for Spraker Racing Enterprises.
He became interested in the cause through Misty Cary and Marty Melo. The pair, who are supporters of Cattanach’s racing career, are from northern California and are both career Fire Captains. Pepper Jack Kennels is also supporting the effort.
Cattanach competed in the season-opening race with the Spraker team at Greenville-Pickens Speedway in Greenville, S.C.
In that event, Cattanach qualified 23rd and was running 12th before being involved in a late-race incident that resulted in a 19th-place finish.
Spraker competed with driver Alex Kennedy recently at Lime Rock Park, where they qualified 23rd and finished 10th.
A Journey For 9/11 Board of Directors includes former NY Giants quarterback Phil Simms, and a cross-section of local business and community leaders,
Dillon Enters Nationwide Race
NASCAR Camping World Series driver Austin Dillon will enter the Sept. 5 NASCAR Nationwide Series race at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway for Richard Childress Racing.
“It’s going to be a tough race to make, but I think we’ll have some of the best equipment out there and my grandpa is 100% behind me on this,” Dillon told NASCAR.com. “I’m ready for the next step and this will help us get prepared for next year.”
Dillon, 18, has been a leading driver in the NASCAR Camping World Series East this year. His No. 3 Garage Equipment Supply Chevrolet is fielded by Team Dillon Racing, operated by the driver’s father, Mike, as a developmental team for Richard Childress Racing. The young driver is Childress’ grandson.
Dillon’s rookie season in the NASCAR Camping World Series East has been impressive. The Sunoco Rookie of the Year leader has been among the championship points leaders throughout the season, and has one win, five top-5s and six top-10s in nine starts.
Columbus & Kil-Kare Are Mainstays Of NASCAR
NASCAR was introduced to central Ohio in 1950, when what would become the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series first visited the half-mile high-banked Dayton Speedway in 1950.
Up the road in the state capital, Columbus Motor Speedway hosted its first stock car race in 1951. A year later, closer to Dayton, Kil-Kare Speedway in Xenia opened.
Columbus is a .333-mile paved oval, while Kil-Kare is a .375-mile irregularly shaped oval. Both tracks joined the NASCAR Whelen All American Series in 1989. Over the years, Late Model drivers have generally competed at both tracks on a regular basis.
Dick Dunlevy Sr. and Jr., Neal Sceva and Dave Sceva, Jim Cushman and Dick Freeman are just a few of the generational stars the tracks produced.
Long-time regional star John Vallo currently leads the NASCAR Whelen All American Series Ohio state standings. Vallo scored his 300th career feature win July 5th at Columbus.
Vallo’s record this year includes 10 wins and 21 top-5s in 24 starts.