American Racing News Vol 1, Issue 2 Issue 2 | Page 6

Hot Laps
way Saturday night.
Bacon, of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma
earned ProSource Fast Qualifying
honors in the early going, putting
him outside of row three for the
feature event. But, it was Darland,
from his pole starting position,
who quickly established the point
at the start with Shane Cottle and
Cummins in tow. By lap five, the
freight train of Darland, Cummins
and Cottle ran nose-to-tail as they
each took to the high side to pull
away from the pack. Meanwhile,
Bacon went to the bottom, hugging
the infield tires as he rapidly reeled
in third-running Cottle.
By the tenth lap, Bacon had disposed of Cottle for third, then ran
down Cummins for the second spot
one lap later before nearly getting
by Darland, trailing by about a foot
in a dead heat at the start/finish
line before claiming the lead just
moment later going into turn one
on lap 12. As Bacon blew by the
top-three for the lead on the bottom, the trio of Darland, Cummins
and Cottle followed suit by heading
to the inside line on lap 13 when
Cummins got by Darland for second. Cummins moved his car from
the bottom to the top and back to
the bottom in search of the fast
way around as the race crossed the
midway point.

mins. On the restart, Bacon and
Cummins both went to the inside
with Cummins hounding Bacon,
shadowing his every move, readying himself to pounce on any single
slip-up that Bacon might encounter
in the closing laps.

With seven laps to go, Cummins
was able to get his right front
wheel inside of Bacon's left rear in
turn two, nearly making contact,
but was unable to make it stick,
falling back roughly four car
lengths as the two headed into
turn three, but a Bret Mellenberndt turn two spin brought out a
yellow, providing Cummins with
another shot.
After a restart with six to go, Cummins was looking to gain an inch, a
yard, anything that would give him
an opportunity to gain valuable
ground on Bacon at the end, but he
was never close enough to mount
a serious challenge. In the final
laps as Bacon never blinked, distancing himself from the fading
Cummins and taking the win in his
Dynamics, Inc./Mean Green Lykins Oil/Triple X/WilliamsMopar.

An A.J. Hopkins backwards spin on
the front-straightaway with 10 to
go closed the gap between Bacon
in first and second-running Cum-

6 | American Racing News | Hot Laps

Daryn Pittman
Scores Perris Win
World of Outlaws and DIRTcar PR

PERRIS, CA - Daryn Pittman dominated Saturday night's SoCal Showdown at Perris Auto Speedway to
claim his second World of Outlaws
Craftsman® Sprint Car Series victory of the season. The win came
one night after a crash ended his
night while he led at Bakersfield
Speedway.
"Last night was dumb," Pittman
said of his Bakersfield Speedway
run. "I ran over Joey [Saldana] and
took ourselves out of contention
for a win there and tore up a lot of
equipment."
Pittman, who
claimed his first ever series win at
Perris, said perseverance is the
motto of his No. 9 Great Clips
team. "This car has been so fast
and we're right there in the hunt
every night," Pittman said. "We've
just got to put it together and that
starts with me.
"This track has been really good to
me and I got my very first Outlaw
win here beating Steve Kinser to
the line by I don't know how close
- it was really close. It's one I'll
never forget so I always enjoy coming here." Pittman, who led the
feature flag-to-flag, had to contend
much of the night with traffic and
perhaps more pressing, his Kasey
Kahne Racing with Mike Curb