Kenny Merchant a natural in the Natural State

Kenny Merchant a natural in the Natural State!

Little Rock , Arkansas ( June 7, 2003 ) – “Luck went our way again, I guess.” That’s how Kenny Merchant summed up his night but clearly Kenny is on a roll. Merchant continues to find a way to the front of the pack and once again he did it when it counted, at the checkers winning his 6^th O’Reilly SUPR Late Model feature in 13 races. With the victory at I-30 Speedway, Kenny Merchant remains unbeaten in the Natural State in 2003 claiming his third feature of the season in three visits to Arkansas .

Kenny started the feature in third place and he had formidable pair of drivers starting in front of him as two-time winners Jody Prince and James Ward shared the front row. Ward blasted to the front at the start and survived a batch of early cautions as the drivers struggled to get a handle on the tricky I-30 Speedway surface. Persistent rains prevented I-30 Speedway officials from working the track all week and it made for some rough going early but once the racers settled down, the action heated up and the drivers were able race multiple lines around the ¼ quarter mile facility.

Ward would hold the lead until lap 16 but he was under increasing pressure from Jody Prince and then Merchant. And while Prince kept seeking an opening Merchant was the first to make it by Ward as he worked under Ward on lap 17 in lapped traffic to take the lead as the trio continued to jockey for position. As the race reached the middle point, Merchant began to pull away and he soon built his lead to a half track and he began to lap much of the field, eventually lapping all but the top 4 positions.

Merchant felt his J.D. Caver/Bayou Fabricators/Goddard Performance Keith Craft-powered Ford Taurus Warrior got better as the race wore on. “It was like the longer we ran the better we got. Once again Binky (James Ward) went on little softer tires than we did and I felt like he was definitely better than us at the start and we got better and better the longer we ran and I felt a lot of that was just the tires.”

Merchant was utilizing a Keith Craft motor borrow from Garrett Durrett but it had no impact on Merchant’s performance. Merchant settled into 4^th at the start behind Ward, Prince and Ryan Plaisance but by lap 10 he had made it past Plaisance and it soon became a three-way battle for the lead with Ward running the top, Prince working the bottom and Kenny working between the two.

For Prince, it was another solid finish for the part-time SUPR competitor. But when queried about his recent success and his new looking racer it turns out the GRT is actually the same car that Prince ran last year but with a different color. “The first late model I had was yellow so I figured I’d go back and try it, do something different.” What ever the change it’s been working for Jody. “Me and James were battling hard and I felt like I was better than him. I was worried at the beginning the way Ward took off and I was struggling there but I started adjusting on stuff and we run Afco gas shocks and I think that helped on the rough track.”

For Ward, another solid finish has him solidly in second position in the 2003 O’Reilly SUPR Late Model standings and he continues to learn in the process. “As long as I could stay on that top in three and four but when that went away I didn’t have anything for the rest of the track.” Still Ward continued to seek a different line. “I tried to move around on the track but every time I’d move around Jody would stick his nose under me and I’d try to protect my line again.”

And while, Kenny Merchant was a familiar face up front as were Ward and Prince, Shane Harris was not so familiar. Harris had his Mopar battling for a top 5 position with Doug Ingalls. Harris would reach as high as 4^th until late race contact with Donnie Barnhart led to a cut down left rear and an early exit. As for Barnhart, he was late entry in the show, arriving after the heat races were completed. Barnhart started at the rear and proceeded to pick his way through the field to finish fourth, just ahead of race winner Kenny Merchant as the checkers were waving.

Doug Ingalls was in the thick of the battle for much of the race but felt tire selection hurt him in the latter stages and he feel back to fifth at the checkers. Terry Henson recorded his strongest finish so far with his new spec motor package as he came home sixth ahead of David Ashley, who recovered from an early flat to finish 7^th with Curt Lipsey, Ryan Plaisance and Cody Chisolm rounding out the top 10.

20 O’Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand with Jody Prince, James Ward and Ryan Plaisance taking the heat race wins. Jody Prince earned the B&K Underground Top Qualifier award as he passed 3 cars to win his heat race while Donnie Barnhart’s run from 20^th to 4^th earned him the Lloyd Wild Jr. Logging Hard Charger award.

Official Results:

1. Kenny Merchant

2. Jody Prince

3. James Ward

4. Donnie Barnhart

5. Doug Ingalls

6. Terry Henson

7. David Ashley

8. Curt Lipsey

9. Ryan Plaisance

10. Cody Chisolm

11. Bill Gordon

12. Shane McCloud

13. Brian Holloway

14. Shane Harris

15. Charlie Armstrong

16. Jon Mitchell

17. Trey Beene

18. Bobby Russell

19. Tommy Surrett

20. Odie Green

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