Kenny Merchant cruises to I-30 SUPR victory

Kenny Merchant cruises to I-30 SUPR victory

Little Rock, Arkansas (August 14, 2004) – I-30 Speedway was smooth and slick, just like Kenny Merchant likes it and that spelled doom for his competition as Merchant started on the pole, mastered lapped traffic and pulled away to his 31^st career O’Reilly SUPR Late Model victory.

Merchant earned the B&K Underground Top Qualifier money and started on the pole after topping the first heat race. Merchant then rolled his J.D. Caver/J&J Motorsports/Goddard Performance Keith Craft powered Ford Mustang Warrior into the lead with outside pole sitter Jay Blair in close tow. Once Merchant encountered lapped traffic, the battle was for all intents over as Merchant was able to move anywhere on the track that he needed to move his way through the lapped cars. Helping Merchant’s cause was the fact that the first 32 laps ticked off caution free and by the time the first caution waved, Merchant had already lapped all but the top nine cars. By the checkers, Merchant had lapped all but the top seven runners.

Jay Blair for his part fought a race car that wasn’t as good as he’d like but still he was able to maintain a firm hold on second throughout the race. For Blair, it was a case of missed opportunities as he too relished the opportunity to race on I-30 Speedway under such conditions.

For Rob Litton it was a chance of just being thankful to even have a chance to race as he crew and fellow racers like Rusty Cummings and Doug Ingalls pitched in to help the 6x crew change out motors between the heat and feature races. Litton pulled off during the hot laps when the oil pressure light came on but after inspecting the car, Litton and crew were unable to finding anything wrong so they kept the motor in and went out and finished a close second to David Ashley in the second heat race. But this time a check of the oil hinted at some potential damage so the decision was made to swap out motors. A race long battle for position with Ashley ended when Ashley was caught up in a lap 42 tangle that included Tommy Surrett and Doug Ingalls. Ashley pulled off with front suspension damage and Litton was able to hold off Jody Prince for third.

Prince had a battle of his own as he and Allen Tippen swapped positions several times over the closing stages of the race with Jody securing the fourth spot while Tippen rounded out the top five. Donnie Barnhart recovered from a late race slide off the back of turn two as he battled with Litton for third and recovered to finish sixth ahead of Bubba Mullins, the last car on the lead lap.

21 O’Reilly SUPR Late Models were on hand. Kenny Merchant, David Ashley and Jay Blair topped the heat races. Kenny Merchant was the B&K Underground Top Qualifier and Terry Henson was the Creel Brothers Hard Charger.

Official Results:

1. Kenny Merchant

2. Jay Blair

3. Rob Litton

4. Jody Prince

5. Allen Tippen

6. Donnie Barnhart

7. Bubba Mullins

8. Ray Moore

9. Terry Henson

10. Mike Bowers

11. Marlon Wild

12. Brian Holloway

13. Keith Craft

14. Doug Ingalls

15. Danny Mahan

16. Shane Diamant

17. Tommy Surrett

18. David Ashley

19. Rusty Cummings

20. Charlie Cole

21. Jon Mitchell

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