| Miller Cops Jani-King 200 at USA International in ASA Opener | Lakeland, FL (March 23, 2003) – Butch Miller won the Jani-King 200 at USA International Speedway in the ASA Racing Series’ 36th season opener on Saturday, March 22. Miller of Coopersville (MI) passed leader Kevin Cywinski on the 193rd circuit and then powered to the victory. This is his 47th career ASA Racing Series victory.
“I think at the end we probably had the best set of tires on the whole race track. I’ve got to thank Deon (Daneau) (crew chief) because he made the right calls the entire race,” Miller said. “We put fuel in when we were inside the fuel window and kept putting tires on them. I think we out-tire(d) them.
With eight laps remaining in the season-opening event, after Georgia rookie Reed Sorenson made slight contact with race leader Cywinski, three-time ASA National Champion Butch Miller powered his Timber Wolfe car to the outside lane and advanced from third to first.
“I raced Jimmy Cope here on a little quarter-mile,” said Miller. “Jimmy said that whatever you do, get to the bottom, don’t go to the outside, its to dangerous out there. So they started the race, waved the green, I dove to the bottom and Jimmy Cope passed me on the outside and passed everybody else on the outside that he’d snookered on that deal.”
1997 ASA National Champion Kevin Cywinski finished in second position with the $50,000 rookie candidate Sorenson finishing third. St. Augustine (FL) freshman racer Scott Lagasse Jr. produced a career best fourth with fellow Florida rookie Travis Kittleson crossing the line in fifth. “Reed had a heckuva car on the restarts.
We took about two to five laps on the restarts to get our cars going,” said Cywinski. “He just bumped me a little bit in the left rear and got me a little crossed up. I went down to block him and Butch jumped up on the outside. Butch is a great racer and I know if I did that to him he would have given me the room to race.
Where here to win races but we don’t want to wreck our equipment” 1997 ASA Rookie of the Year Steve Carlson charged from 27th starting position to grab sixth place honors in the Jani-King 200. Greg Edwards of Virginia finished seventh with rookie Ryan Hemphill, Robbie Pyle and Bill Plemons filling out the top-10 finishers.
The second event of the 2003 ASA Racing Series is set for Saturday, April 12 at Houston Motor Speedway in Houston (TX). The Texas 250 will take the green flag at 8 p.m. (Central) will be telecast live on the SPEED CHANNEL. For additional information on the ASA Racing Series visit asaracing.com. or call Toll-Free 1-888-ASA-1020.
Jani-King 200 Results
Pos. # Driver Make Laps
1 52 Butch Miller Chev. 200
2 1 Kevin Cywinski Chev. 200
3 R 29 Reed Sorenson Chev. 200
4 R 20 Scott Lagasse Chev. 200
5 R 30 Travis Kittleson Chev. 200
6 36 Steve Carlson Chev. 200
7 26 Greg Edwards Chev. 200
8 R 11 Ryan Hemphill Chev. 200
9 63 Robbie Pyle Chev. 200
10 3 Bill Plemons Ford 200
11 31 Russ Tuttle Chev. 200
12 R 16 Tracy Gordon Chev. 200
13 R 66 Boris Jurkovic Chev. 200
14 80 Bryan Reffner Chev. 200
15 60 Ed Brown Chev. 200
16 09 J.C. Beattie Chev. 200
17 5 Rick Beebe Chev. 200
18 17 Mike Garvey Chev. 200
19 25 Mike Cope Chev. 199
20 R 12 Justin Drawdy Pont. 199
21 32 Troy Wangerin Chev. 198
22 R 91 Jesse Klug Chev. 198
23 98 Doug Stevens Ford 194
24 53 Glenn Allen Chev. 194
25 05 Chris Wimmer Ford 189
26 2 Chad Wood Chev. 178
27 7 Gary St. Amant Chev. 175
28 71 Brett Sontag Chev. 175
29 33 Greg Stewart Chev. 171
30 R 23 Stephen Leicht Chev. 145
31 55 Todd Kluever Chev. 144
32 44 Peter Cozzolino Chev. 140
33 15 Joey Miller Chev. 131
34 0 David Hole Chev. 63
35 10 Greg Williams Chev. 53
36 R 22 Brent Downey Chev. 51
37 R 39 Shane Sieg Chev. 21
38 R 07 Kris Stump Chev. 19
Race Statistics
Time of Race: 1 hour, 54 minutes, 37.486 seconds
Average Speed: 78.517 mph
Margin of Victory: 0.525 seconds
Lead Changes: 6 among 7 drivers
Lap Leaders: Garvey, 1-63; Lagasse, 64-86; Stevens, 87-118; Leicht, 119-132; Wimmer,
133-139; Cywinski, 140-192; B. Miller, 193-200
Cautions: 11 for 80 laps
ASA Driver Standings (After 1 of 19 Events):
Pos. # Driver Points Points Back
1 52 Butch Miller 195 0
2 1 Kevin Cywinski 190 -5
3 29 Reed Sorenson 180 -15
4 20 Scott Lagasse 178 -17
5 30 Travis Kittleson 170 -25
6 36 Steve Carlson 165 -30
7 26 Greg Edwards 160 -35
8 11 Ryan Hemphill 155 -40
9 63 Robbie Pyle 152 -43
10 31 Russ Tuttle 141 -54
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