{"id":13153,"date":"2012-08-21T17:46:41","date_gmt":"2012-08-21T17:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/?p=13153"},"modified":"2012-08-21T17:46:41","modified_gmt":"2012-08-21T17:46:41","slug":"stewart-wins-sod-race-at-plymouth-speedway-bullring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/front-page-news\/stewart-wins-sod-race-at-plymouth-speedway-bullring\/","title":{"rendered":"Stewart wins SOD race at Plymouth Speedway Bullring"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/strong>Racing fans were given a special treat at the Plymouth Speedway Saturday night as Tony Stewart competed in the ARP Engine Pro ASCS Sprints on Dirt Battle at the Bullring presented by Hastings Manufacturing, Mahle\/Clevite and Melling Engine Parts.<\/p>\n

The three-time NASCAR champion won the 30-lap feature, leading wire to wire and holding off Ryan Grubaugh in the homestretch to seal the win as Grubaugh spun off the 1\/5-mile dirt oval and onto the asphalt in turn three of the final lap challenging Stewart. ASCS SOD point leader Gregg Dalman finished second, Steve Irwin placed third, and Grubaugh salvaged a fourth-place finish in the feature. \u00a0\u201cI was a little worried I gave that one away,\u201d Stewart said from Victory Lane after the race. \u201cI could see (Grubaugh) down there, and I was getting a little worried I opened up the door for him.\u201d Stewart, who supplements his busy NASCAR schedule with Sprints On Dirt and other non-NASCAR events throughout the summer, took time out to sign autographs in the pit area following his feature win. He was originally scheduled to make his SOD debut at the Plymouth Speedway back on June 16 but was forced to reschedule after untimely showers rained out the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s been a lot of fun this summer,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is our ninth win of the year with this car, so we’ve had a lot of fun with it. Unfortunately, it’s kind of like kids leaving summer vacation; my schedule’s starting to dwindle down, and I’ve got to go back to that boring stock car stuff.\u201d \u00a0\u201cSmoke\u201c also praised track owner Ed Kennedy, race organizer Irish Saunders and promoter Eric Saunders for their efforts following the addition of the 1\/5-mile dirt track bullring \u2014 positioned inside the 3\/8-mile asphalt track at Plymouth Speedway \u2014 which was completed in March. \u00a0\u201cIt was a lot of fun. I’ve never been on a track this small before, but it made for good racing. It’s pretty neat. Mr. Kennedy and Irish Saunders and everybody, Eric, they do an awesome job here\u2026 It’s been a lot of fun, and thank you guys from Plymouth. I appreciate you guys having me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saturday night also marked track promoter Eric Saunders’\u00a0 return to racing after a motocross accident left him paralyzed from the chest down and forced a two-year hiatus from competition.
\nSaunders, a Lakeville native and rising motocross star before sustaining life-changing injuries while practicing on his home track the day before his 18th birthday, returned to action in the 600 mini sprint class in a Tony Stewart Racing\/ Calico Coating-sponsored car specially modified to run on hand controls. He finished seventh in his heat before mechanical problems sidelined him from the A feature. His crew was able to get the problem under control in time for him to run in the second B feature, however, where he placed ninth a little under 10 seconds behind the winner.
\n\u201cBeing out here with all the Plymouth Speedway fans, its just awesome to see the support for me,\u201d Saunders told WNDU after the race. \u201cBeing paralyzed, it’s basically a challenge that I overcome, but I am making the best out of it. I don’t know, I just can’t really even explain the words. Words that I can’t even describe what it feels like with the joy and with all the people out here, and it definitely is awesome with all of the support.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sara Elrod won the 600 mini sprints race, marking the second straight time a woman was able to take the checkered in the class at the speedway. Last Saturday, Courtney Erfurth won her first-ever mini sprint race. \u00a0Zeke Lewis placed second, Randy Shilling finished third, and\u00a0Ryan Leek\u00a0was fourth.<\/p>\n

Next race\u00a0Saturday, September 1st the Plymouth Speedway will play host to the 410 winged sprints, the 600 winged mini sprints. Cost is $15 for adults and $5 for children 6-12 with kids 5 and under receiving free admission. Pit passes are $30. \u00a0The pit gates will open at 3 p.m. EDT with the grandstand scheduled to open at 4 p.m. Hot laps are slated for 6 pm. with races to follow at approximately 7 p.m. Log on to the track’s website at www.plymouthspeedway.net<\/a> for more details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Racing fans were given a special treat at the Plymouth Speedway Saturday night as Tony Stewart competed in the ARP Engine Pro ASCS Sprints on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"publish_to_discourse":"","publish_post_category":"","wpdc_auto_publish_overridden":"","wpdc_topic_tags":"","wpdc_pin_topic":"","wpdc_pin_until":"","discourse_post_id":"","discourse_permalink":"","wpdc_publishing_response":"","wpdc_publishing_error":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured","category-front-page-news","category-race-results"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13153"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13159,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13153\/revisions\/13159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/karnac.com\/flanews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}