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THE ROCKET SOARS TO OVAL NATIONALS CROWN
By Robert Mayson
Perris, Calif…(November 1, 2008) Warsaw, Missouri’s Jesse Hockett was a man on a mission Saturday night at the Perris Auto Speedway during the 40-lap running of the 13th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals. Charging his way from the 19th starting spot, “The Rocket” took the lead three laps from the finish to become only the second non-California driver to win the Oval Nationals.
“It was a wild night,” Hockett said of the race which carried USAC National and Lucas Oil USAC/CRA Sprint Car points. “Last night, I kind of felt like I gave one away and these guys gave me a great car again tonight. Whatever it took to get a win that’s what I was going to do. No more friends. I’ve given up a lot of inches and I’ve take some too, but tonight I wasn’t going to give up an inch and I had to take every inch I could get. This is a very prestigious race and it’s just awesome to be able to come out and win it for Duke and Scott McMillan.”
Driving Duke McMillan’s No. 2 Maxim which is dedicated to the memory of J.F. McCray, Hockett’s road to the $12,500 first prize actually began by having to first transfer out the B-Main thanks to a poor opening night that resulted in a 15th finish in the Semi.
“We weren’t very good the first night (Thursday) and we made some big changes with the shocks and we were definitely better last night,” Hockett explained. “We made a few more changes for tonight and the track kind of came to us. I had a few lucky breaks tonight and had some good cautions at the end which really helped.”
The early stages of the race looked like it was going to be a battle between teams as much as drivers with pole-sitter Tyler Brown setting the pace while his Gardner Motorsports teammate Blake Miller ran second ahead of Tony Stewart Racing teammates Tracy Hines and Levi Jones.
But things would change rapidly during a lap-17 restart after teammates Hines and Jones tangle and flipped in turn-two. Neither driver was hurt, but both Stewart cars were done for the night. The situation would also change for Team Gardner five-laps later when Miller developed a shock problem that eventually forced him to retire from the race.
Meanwhile, Hockett had slide-jobbed his way to the fifth position on lap-18 and had just moved into the fourth spot three-laps later when Danny Sheridan flipped along the front-straight and caught on fire. Amazingly, Sheridan returned to action and went on to finish 13th. The restart saw Hockett attempt a daring slide-job on fourth-place David Cardey. Unfortunately for last night’s feature winner, he was unable to avoid contact with Hockett and was sent hard into the turn-two wall.
“I hated that deal with David Cardey because I wouldn’t want anyone to do that to me, but I knew I was running out of laps,” Hockett admitted. “Like I said, I’ve given a lot of inches through the years and there’s usually time to back-off. I don’t know if he had enough time to or not, but I had to do what I had to do because I came out here to win.”
Ironically, Brown had held a comfortable lead for most of the race, that is, until his teammate Miller stopped on the racing surface bring out a lap-27 caution flag. On the subsequent restart, Jerry Coons, Jr., Tucson, Ariz., put his Dynamics, Inc. / Kroger-Tide, No. 69. F-5 into the lead with a textbook slide-job entering turn-one. Brown regrouped and was beginning to closing-in on the USAC National point leader when he jumped the turn-four cushion and stopped after hitting the wall on lap-36.
With Damion Gardner now running in second and Hockett in third, the stage was set for another exciting finish. Gardner immediately tried a slide-job on the restart only to have Coons beat him to the turn-two cushion. Trying to take advantage of Gardner’s failed slide-job, Hockett tried to slide under Gardner entering turn-three. Anticipating such a move, Gardner successfully prevented the move by taking the low line into turn-three.
Three laps from the finish, Gardner had a tremendous run off the second corner and pulled along side of Coons on the back-straight before sliding into the lead entering turn-three. Coons darted off the cushion and inadvertently clipped Gardner’s left front wheel as he was driving past him. The contact left “The Demon” without any steering which forced him to spin to a stop on the front straight.
Coons didn’t have his best restart coming down to accept the green flag which allowed Hockett to race even with him into the first turn. Hockett’s final slide-job of the night proved to be the race winning pass as he comfortably led the final three laps after moving ahead of Coons in turn-two.
“Jerry was just kind of a sitting duck and he restarted up high not knowing there was rubber all the way down to the middle of the track. I was able to peel off (the cushion) and restart in the middle and I got a good run on him and was side-by-side with him down the front straight which made it pretty easy to make the slider work getting into (turn) one,” Hockett recalled.
Although he was disappointed with his runner-up finish, Coons takes an 89-point lead (over Jones) to the Western World Champions at Manzanita Speedway (Phoenix, Ariz.) for the final weekend on the 2008 USAC National Sprint Car schedule.
Kevin Swindell, Germantown, Tenn., finished third in the Tom Rolfe / Tom Wolfe Trucking No. 10K Maxim. Swindell’s run from the 23rd starting spot earned him the Hard-Charger Award for the race.
Brad Sweet, Grass Valley, Calif., also had a fine run driving his Kasey Kahne Racing / Mopar No. 9 JEI from 13th to fourth. Darren Hagen, Riverside, Calif., finished fifth in the R&B Racing / Truckers 24 Hour No. 10 DRC. Defending Oval Nationals champion Bud Kaeding finished sixth.
USAC/CRA point leader Mike Spencer finished tenth. Heading into the final four races of the season, Spencer now leads Miller by just 46 points.
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