LITTLE ROCK — Paul McMahan eliminated the two feel-good stories Saturday night at the 25th Comp Cams Short Track Nationals.
But he sure did feel good doing it.
McMahan, a native of Elk Grove, Calif., who now lives in Hendersonville, Tenn., led the final 11 laps Saturday to win his second Short Track Nationals title at I-30 Speedway in Little Rock. In doing so, however, he ruined a youngster’s coming out party and a veteran’s swan song.
Before McMahan took the lead on the 29th of 40 laps, the race’s previous leaders had been Gary Wright, the all-time STN victories leader who is retiring after this season, and Christopher Bell, a baby-faced 17-year-old from Norman, Okla.
McMahan, after starting third, spent most of the middle portion of the race pursuing and eventually dueling with Bell, an STN rookie who has less than a full season of experience racing full-sized sprinters.
“The kid did a great job,” said McMahan, 41, who earned $15,000 with the victory. “He had a great race car, and he was right there at the end. I just found something there in the middle [groove] and just got to working there.”
Bell started sixth and passed Wright for the lead on the seventh lap. But once he reached lapped traffic, he became concerned.
“We were real good there at the beginning right through the middle,” said Bell, who had previously raced at I-30 “a couple times” in a mini-sprint. “I kind of knew I was in trouble when I caught the lapped traffic. I wasn’t flying by them like I thought I was originally. The yellow flags kept killing us, and I was just trying to keep my right rear [tire] from sealing over. We were just a sitting duck at that point.”
McMahan was on Bell’s rear bumper for a lap-27 restart and hounded him for a couple laps before sliding in front of him at the exit of turn 2 on lap 29.
“He was opening up the corner so much,” McMahan said of Bell. “And it left me enough room to dive underneath there and kind of take his line away.”
Bell finished second, good enough for $10,500 in the most impressive showing of his young career.
“I’m a little disappointed that we didn’t win after leading all those laps, but second place is just fine,” Bell said.
McMahan also won the event in 2002, both victories coming while driving for Cooper Racing of Jefferson City, Mo., which also won an STN title with driver Tim Montgomery in 2005.
“A lot has happened since then,” McMahan said of his 2002 victory. “I haven’t been here each year since then. But it sure is cool to come back 10 years later and win it again.”
Wright, making his 18th start in an STN main event, held on to finish third.
“I was really looking forward to maybe getting one more of these,” said Wright, of Hooks, Texas, who won the event in 1995, 1999, 2003 and 2004. “But we were just way too loose.”
Sammy Swindell of Bartlett, Tenn., the 1990 and 2011 winner, took fourth, and Tim Shaffer of Aliquippa, Pa., finished fifth.
Danny Lasoski (14th) of Dover, Mo., and Sammy’s son Kevin Swindell (16th) of Germantown, Tenn., each worked through the field from deep starting positions to finish sixth and seventh, respectively. Randy Hannagan of San Jose, Calif., who passed three cars on the final lap of his B-Main qualifier to earn a spot in the main event, finished eighth after starting 19th.
Shane Stewart of Bixby, Okla., and Benton’s Tim Crawley, the 1998 winner, rounded out the top 10.
Others Arkansans in the main event were Marshall Skinner of West Memphis in 11th, Marion’s Derek Hagar in 14th and Benton’s Cody Gardner in 19th.
Short Track Nationals
Saturday night’s feature race results from the 25th annual Comp Cams Short Track Nationals sprint car event at Little Rock’s I-30 Speedway with finishing position, driver, hometown, starting position in parentheses, laps completed and earnings: 1. Paul McMahan, Elk Grove, Calif. (3), 40, $15,000 2. Christopher Bell, Norman, Okla. (6), 40, $10,500 3. Gary Wright, Hooks, Texas (1), 40, $7,500 4. Sammy Swindell, Bartlett, Tenn. (9), 40, $5,000 5. Tim Shaffer, Aliquippa, Pa. (7), 40, $2,800 6. Danny Lasoski, Dover, Mo. (14), 40, $2,750 7. Kevin Swindell, Germantown, Tenn.
(16), 40, $2,725 8. Randy Hannagan, San Jose, Calif.
(19), 40, $2,700 9. Shane Stewart, Bixby, Okla. (11), 40, $2,675 10. Tim Crawley, Benton (13), 40, $2,650 11. Marshall Skinner, West Memphis (20), 40, $2,625 12. Justin Henderson, Sioux Falls, S.D.
(5), 40, $2,600 13. Jason Johnson, Eunice, La. (4), 39, $2,575 14. Derek Hagar, Marion (12), 39, $2,550 15. Seth Bergman, Snohomish, Wash.
(18), 28, $2,52516. Jack Dover, Springfield, Neb. (2), 27, $2,500 17. Greg Wilson, Benton Ridge, Ohio (8), 23, $2,500 18. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Olive Branch, Miss. (10), 23, $2,500 19. Cody Gardner, Benton (21), 22, $2,500 20. Travis Rilat, Forney, Texas (17), 22, $2,500 21. Jeff Swindell, Bartlett, Tenn. (15), 0, $2,500 Lap leaders - Wright 1-6, Bell 7-28, McMahan 29-40. Caution flags - 2.
Red flags - 1.
PACK DASH 1, Wright; 2, Dover; 3, McMahan; 4, Johnson; 5, Henderson;
6, Bell.
FIRST B-MAIN 1, Shaffer; 2, S.Swindell;
3, Stewart; 4, Crawley; 5, J.Swindell.
SECOND B-MAIN 1, Wilson; 2, Stenhouse;
3, Haar; 4, Lasoski; 5, K.Swindell.
FIRST C-MAIN 1, Gary Taylor; 2, Jimmy Hurley; 3, Zach Pringle; 4, Andy Shouse;
5, Brandon Hanks.
SECOND C-MAIN 1, Ryan Bickett; 2, Blake Hahn; 3, Dustin Morgan; 4, Brad Bowden; 5, Brandon Hanks.
FIRST D-MAIN 1, Chris Sweeney; 2, Scotty Thiel; 3, Joe Bob Lee; 4, A.G.
Rains; 5, Claud Estes Jr.
SECOND D-MAIN 1, Tony Bruce Jr.; 2, Jordon Mallett; 3, Aaron Reutzel; 4, Dale Howard; 5, Glenn Styres.
E-MAIN 1, Estes; 2, Mallett; 3, Andy McElhannon; 4, Johnny Gardner; 5, John James.
Sports, Pages 15 on 10/29/2012