McCarl Pounces on Jackson Spring Nationals Victory
JACKSON, Minn. (May 22, 2015) – A $10,000 payday was less than a mile away for Bill Balog at Friday night’s FVP National Sprint League event at Jackson Speedway.
But when the caution lights flickered to set up a two-lap dash to the stripe in the 25-lapper, Terry McCarl pounced to take the big money in the Folken Brothers Trucking Spring Sprint Car Nationals atop the ½-mile clay oval.
Less than two weeks since fracturing his L4 vertebrae in a nasty Knoxville crash, McCarl was able to take advantage of a hobbled Balog on the final restart. Hobbled in the sense of a bare right rear tire that had lost the battle with the Jackson Speedway surface.
Starting from the pole position, McCarl outgunned Tim Kaeding not just once and not twice, but three times before the race finally got under way.
Following an open red after three laps in which third-runner Aaron Reutzel was forced pitside with mechanical issues, McCarl and Kaeding led the way ahead of Mark Dobmeier and Brian Brown.
Tenth-starter Balog was on the move though, breaking into the third on the fifth round. The “North Pole Nightmare” made his way past Kaeding and then scooted past McCarl to take command on the eighth circuit.
With the track locking down soon after, Balog worked traffic well enough to keep McCarl at a distance and seemingly had the race well in hand.
But when Ryan Bickett rolled to a stop off the top of turn two with a worn out right rear tire, Balog was in trouble.
With chords showing in the right rear, Balog did his best to keep enough heat in the tire to keep it going.
He had little chance. On the restart, McCarl dove underneath Balog entering turn one with Kaeding blitzing the top side.
McCarl and Kaeding split Balog getting into the corner, with McCarl propelling into the lead in the preferred line off of turn two and then keeping the field at bay in the closing moments aboard the Country Builders Construction No. 24.
“Being in the car is the only time it’s comfortable,” McCarl said of his recent injured back in victory lane.
Kaeding settled for his second NSL runner-up finish in a row. “The right rear started shaking with about five to go. We had one chance at it on the restart but just didn’t quite come up with it,” he said.
Mark Dobmeier filled out the podium in third with Justin Henderson and Brian Brown rounding out the top five. Ian Madsen rallied from 17th to sixth with Brooke Tatnell, Davey Heskin, Austin McCarl and Travis Whitney completing the top ten.
The feature got off to a choppy start when Danny Lasoski, who led points entering the night, got over the cushion in the opening pair of corners and collected Wayne Johnson and Matt Juhl. On the second try, Dylan Peterson looped it in turn four.
Three laps later, the caution flew as Josh Schneiderman slowed on the frontstretch. The yellow lights turned to red when Chris Martin got into the turn three rail and flipped moments later.
With 35 cars on hand, Brian Brown stopped the clocks at 15.713 seconds to top qualifying before Madsen, Whitney, Lasoski and Balog topped heat race action. Schneiderman won the “B” Main.
FVP A Main (25 Laps): 1. 24-Terry McCarl[1]; 2. 3-Tim Kaeding[2]; 3. 13-Mark Dobmeier[3]; 4. 17W-Justin Henderson[4]; 5. 21-Brian Brown[5]; 6. 18-Ian Madsen[17]; 7. 55-Brooke Tatnell[7]; 8. 56-Davey Heskin[13]; 9. 17A-Austin McCarl[16]; 10. 16-Travis Whitney[9]; 11. 7TAZ-Tasker Phillips[24]; 12. 35-Skylar Prochaska[14]; 13. 81-Austin Johnson[18]; 14. 17B-Bill Balog[10]; 15. 25-Dylan Peterson[22]; 16. 82-Dusty Zomer[20]; 17. 17BX-Ryan Bickett[19]; 18. 14-Jody Rosenboom[21]; 19. 87-Aaron Reutzel[8]; 20. 49-Josh Schneiderman[11]; 21. 44-Chris Martin[23]; 22. 2-Danny Lasoski[6]; 23. 09-Matt Juhl[12]; 24. 77X-Wayne Johnson[15]
B Feature 1 (10 Laps): 1. 49-Josh Schneiderman[1]; 2. 09-Matt Juhl[2]; 3. 44-Chris Martin[3]; 4. 7TAZ-Tasker Phillips[6]; 5. 15-Joe Riedel[9]; 6. 6-Bryan Gossel[5]; 7. 5H-Dakota Hendrickson[7]; 8. 4W-Matt Wasmund[4]; 9. 2K-Kevin Ingle[10]; 10. 0-Brandon Stevenson[12]; 11. 12-Lynton Jeffrey[13]
Folkens Bros. Trucking Dash (8 Laps): 1. 24-Terry McCarl[2]; 2. 3-Tim Kaeding[4]; 3. 13-Mark Dobmeier[1]; 4. 17W-Justin Henderson[3]; 5. 21-Brian Brown[8]; 6. 2-Danny Lasoski[9]; 7. 55-Brooke Tatnell[6]; 8. 87-Aaron Reutzel[7]; 9. 16-Travis Whitney[5]; 10. 17B-Bill Balog[10]
Fuel Safe Heat 1 (8 Laps): 1. 18-Ian Madsen[2]; 2. 55-Brooke Tatnell[4]; 3. 24-Terry McCarl[5]; 4. 3-Tim Kaeding[6]; 5. 35-Skylar Prochaska[3]; 6. 7TAZ-Tasker Phillips[1]; 7. 4X-Eric Schulz[8]
DMI Heat 2 (8 Laps): 1. 16-Travis Whitney[4]; 2. 87-Aaron Reutzel[5]; 3. 17A-Austin McCarl[2]; 4. 82-Dusty Zomer[1]; 5. 56-Davey Heskin[3]; 6. 49-Josh Schneiderman[6]; 7. 2K-Kevin Ingle[8]
Kaeding Performance Heat 3 (8 Laps): 1. 2-Danny Lasoski[4]; 2. 77X-Wayne Johnson[2]; 3. 17W-Justin Henderson[6]; 4. 14-Jody Rosenboom[7]; 5. 17BX-Ryan Bickett[1]; 6. 12-Lynton Jeffrey[9]; 7. 4W-Matt Wasmund[3]; 8. 15-Joe Riedel[8]; 9. 44-Chris Martin[5]
Maxim Heat 4 (8 Laps): 1. 17B-Bill Balog[3]; 2. 21-Brian Brown[6]; 3. 13-Mark Dobmeier[4]; 4. 81-Austin Johnson[1]; 5. 25-Dylan Peterson[8]; 6. 09-Matt Juhl[5]; 7. 5H-Dakota Hendrickson[7]; 8. 6-Bryan Gossel[2]; 9. 0-Brandon Stevenson[9]
Minnesota Mafia Qualifying (2 Laps): 1. 21-Brian Brown, 15.713[17]; 2. 17W-Justin Henderson, 15.936[21]; 3. 49-Josh Schneiderman, 15.953[3]; 4. 3-Tim Kaeding, 15.979[10]; 5. 09-Matt Juhl, 15.995[8]; 6. 44-Chris Martin, 16.038[13]; 7. 87-Aaron Reutzel, 16.067[19]; 8. 24-Terry McCarl, 16.073[26]; 9. 13-Mark Dobmeier, 16.082[1]; 10. 2-Danny Lasoski, 16.084[33]; 11. 16-Travis Whitney, 16.123[35]; 12. 55-Brooke Tatnell, 16.129[16]; 13. 17B-Bill Balog, 16.170[12]; 14. 4W-Matt Wasmund, 16.173[2]; 15. 56-Davey Heskin, 16.175[23]; 16. 35-Skylar Prochaska, 16.212[11]; 17. 6-Bryan Gossel, 16.232[6]; 18. 77X-Wayne Johnson, 16.258[22]; 19. 17A-Austin McCarl, 16.295[28]; 20. 18-Ian Madsen, 16.296[25]; 21. 81-Austin Johnson, 16.346[29]; 22. 17BX-Ryan Bickett, 16.364[4]; 23. 82-Dusty Zomer, 16.441[9]; 24. 7TAZ-Tasker Phillips, 16.457[7]; 25. 5H-Dakota Hendrickson, 16.529[15]; 26. 14-Jody Rosenboom, 16.626[5]; 27. 23S-Stuart (Stu) Snyder, 16.684[18]; 28. 7-Kaley Gharst, 16.752[20]; 29. 25-Dylan Peterson, 16.753[30]; 30. 15-Joe Riedel, 16.800[24]; 31. 2K-Kevin Ingle, 17.036[27]; 32. 4X-Eric Schulz, 17.174[14]; 33. 0-Brandon Stevenson, 17.514[32]; 34. 12-Lynton Jeffrey[31]; 35. 23W-Scott Winters[34]
