Crawley wins USCS Sprints ‘King Of The Hill’ at Clayhill

ATWOOD, Tenn. – Tim Crawley scored the victory Saturday night in the USCS Sprint Car Series “King of the Hill” race at Clayhill Motorsports in Atwood, Tennessee.

For the first half of the race, Crawley, of Benton, Arkansas, was settled into the third spot behind early race leader Dale Howard and Derek Hagar. Hagar dropped out of the race on lap 16, and Crawley stalked Howard until lap 22 when he dove for the bottom groove.

Crawley raced Howard side-by-side down the front straightaway and into turn one. Crawley was able to take the lead coming off the second turn on lap 23, and then led the final two laps to take the win.

“At first, it was kind of a single file groove around the top, so while I was riding behind Derek and Dale, I kept checking out the middle to bottom grooves to see if there was anything down there to race on,” Crawley said. “After Derek dropped out, I pulled the wing back, dove for the middle, got under Dale and it worked out.”

Howard was able to hang on for the second spot, Morgan Turpen in third, Marshall Skinner in fourth and Terry Gray in fifth. Teammates Turpen and Gray continue their battle for the 2016 series title.

Dustin Homan, Howard Moore, Brad Bowden, Danny Sams III and Jeff Willingham rounded out the top ten.

After earning the K&N Filters Pole Award, Howard took the lead at the drop of the green flag followed by Crawley, Hagar, Moore, and Gray. Hagar got by Crawley to take over the second spot on lap two, while Gray passed Moore for the fourth spot on lap three. Skinner moved up to challenge Moore for the fifth spot on lap four, but Moore reclaimed the spot on lap five.

On lap 15, Hagar closed in on Howard to challenge for the lead, and pulled to the inside of the leader in turn four. Howard held on to the point through turns one and two on lap 16, but Hagar suddenly slowed off the pace going down the backstretch to bring out the only caution flag of the race.

Howard led the field back down to the restart. Crawley was put an inside move on Howard to take the lead on lap 23, and went on to take the victory.

In preliminary action, the six-lap Hoosier Tire Speed Dash was won by Skinner, while Howard Moore and Dale Howard took heat race victories.

In USCS 600 Mini Sprint action, B.J. Gatewood scored a wire-to-wire win in the 20-lap main event to collect the $1000 winner’s paycheck. Kyle Carpenter finished in second, with Jim Young in third, Bobby Zaiontz in fourth and Alpharetta, Georgia’s Bob Trapino in fifth.

Ashley Newman USCS Outlaw Modified Series feature. Bart Richardson, Preston Seratt, Shane Akin and Greg Welch rounded out the top five.

The USCS Sprint Car Series returns to action at The Dirt Track at Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC on October 20-22.

For more information, visit USCSRacing.com.

USCS Sprint Car Series
Clayhill Motorsports – Atwood, TN
King of the Hill – Oct. 15, 2016