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Kenseth Wins Fourth Slinger Nationals

Perennial NASCAR favorite Matt Kenseth won his fourth Miller Lite Slinger Nationals Tuesday night in front of a capacity crowd at the Slinger Super Speedway which is located about 30 minutes northwest of Milwaukee. Finishing second for the second year in a row at the 29th Annual Nationals was Jeremy Lepak of Wausau , WI . Dennis Prunty came home third and the hottest driver in America , Kyle “Rowdy” Busch finished a distant fourth on a hot humid summer night in Wisconsin .

In qualifying it was Cambridge , Wisconsin ‘s Kenseth who set a fast time of 11.359 seconds on the high-banked quarter mile asphalt track. Busch was second fastest and Brad “JJ” Mueller third quick.

Dale Prunty won the 25-lap qualifying race over Josh Bauer, Eric Fransen and NASCAR Truck Series driver, Erik Darnell driving a car prepared by his father, Danny locked themselves into the feature.

Wisconsin driver, Dan Jung easily won the clean 35-lap semi-feature over Gary LaMonte.

This year’s Nationals once again were held in two 100-lap features and track officials got the main event under way just after 8 p.m. NASCAR Silly Season candidate David Stremme lined up on the front row with Dennis Prunty outside. Former Nationals champion, Richie Bickle lined up inside row two with Nick Schumacher outside. Prunty got the jump on Stremme at the drop of the green flag. After a few laps, Prunty continued to lead with Bickle fourth, defending Nationals champion, Lowell Bennett eighth, Kenseth-10th, Busch-12th, Kelly Bires-18th, Darnell-20th and Scott Wimmer 23rd out of a 24-car starting field.

With Dennis Prunty continuing to lead, the yellow came out as the fascia came loose on a billboard on the backstretch. After quick work by the track crew, the green came out. Yellow flag laps did not count.

By lap 50, Dennis Prunty had a comfortable lead over Schumacher, Lepak, Bickle and David Prunty. A caution period on lap 51 slowed the field as Scott Wimmer lost his front bumper and fascia due to contact with Slinger stand out Conrad Morgan who spun off of turn two. Also collected in the three-car melee was 15-year old phenom, Brett Moffitt of Iowa . Meanwhile, Kenseth had worked his way up to sixth, Busch was 10th, Darnell 14th, Bires 16th and Wimmer going off the track.

Double file restarts kept the field tight and the racing fierce as side by side battles were seen throughout the field. By lap 70, Kenseth steadily worked his way up to fourth, Busch was 7th, as Bires and Darnell struggled in 14th and 18th respectively. In fact Darnell had been sent to the back of the field by track officials due to the avoidable contact he made Dennis Prunty coming down the backstretch into turn three earlier on lap 59.

A bit later, Darnell’s struggles continued as he and Moffitt tangled coming off of turn four, forcing Darnell off the track with front end damage. Moffitt continued restarting as the last car on the lead lap.

Meanwhile upfront, Lepak had taken the lead with Dennis Prunty and David Prunty running second and third. Mueller and Kenseth were having an epic struggle battling for fourth with Mueller taking the spot.

At the end of the first segment it was Lepak, Dennis Prunty, David Prunty, Mueller and Kenseth in the top-5. Following were Busch, Bennett, Chris Wimmer, Bickle and Schumacher running 6th through 10th.

Lepak led the field at the start of the second segment, however on lap 104, David Prunty took the lead, Mueller and Kenseth continued their battle, however Mueller left the track on lap 104 due to a flat left-front tire most likely caused when Mueller and Kenseth made contact a bit earlier.

Kenseth starting to make his move passing Lepak for second on lap 116. After a short yellow for a Josh Bauer spin on lap 121, David Prunty had his mirrors full of Kenseth as the pair along with Lepak started to separate themselves from the rest of the field.

Lepak made a charge for the lead on lap 123, pushing Kenseth for the lead as the two battled side by side exchanging the top spot by only a bumper or so lap after lap. Kenseth made a nice cross over move to take the lead on lap 136, two laps later a quick spin by Chris Wimmer slowed the field briefly.

Another caution on lap 150 caused Rich Loch ‘s spin off of turn four jammed the middle of the field taking out Bickle who had nowhere to go. Kenseth was out front with Lepak, Dennis Prunty, Busch and Schumacher in the top-5.

Young Brett Moffitt’s nice run ended on lap 161 when he exited the track off of turn two and returned to his hauler. David Prunty’s night ended when he lost the motor on his car on lap 178. Meanwhile it was all Kenseth the rest of the way as Lepak and Dennis Prunty continued to pace the field and began to work their way through lapped traffic. Kenseth came across the stripe to win his fourth Nationals 4.768 seconds ahead of Lepak with Dennis Prunty third, Busch was fourth and Schumacher a well deserved fifth. Busch wasn’t happy with his fourth place finish, “We were junk before halfway, and we were junk after halfway.” Even after the Richie Wauters led crew changed a right rear spring at the break to help loosen the NOS Energy Drink entry, Busch struggled. “It was just so loose off the corner, you couldn’t get any drive and get down the straightaway. So we got beat down the straightaway all night,” Busch commented outside his hauler after the race.

Kelly Bires’ hard work paid off and came home 6th, Dale Prunty recovered from his spin and came home 7th as did Chris Wimmer in 8th. Tommy Pecaro was 9th and Lowell Bennett 10th. Eleven cars were running at the finish.

It’s not Daytona but Slinger is still important. “It’s different, but it’s the same,” Kenseth said after the race, “It means a lot. It’s never easy; it’s always hard. But it’s almost harder when you come back like this. It takes a little while to get in the groove and figure out the car and the adjustments.” Kenseth also won the 1994 Nationals as a Slinger ‘regular’ and again in 2002 and 2006.

A scary fiery incident occurred earlier in the evening in the early laps of the last chance race. Track regular, Collin Bamke and Fred Winn tangled in chain reaction crash and ending against the wall between turns three and four.

Bamke’s car rode the fourth-turn wall and was pinned on its left side between the wall and Winn’s car. Leaking fuel flashed into a scary fire as both cars had flames growing around them. Bamke had to climb through the roll cage tubing out the right-side window and over the fence with his mother assisting him over the fence.

Bamke was examined at Hartford Memorial Hospital after complaining of shoulder, knee and ankle injuries from his escape, the track said. He returned during the feature and was seen looking at photographer’s digital images of the crash after the race.

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