Lonnie Wheatley, TULSA, Okla.
(March 14, 2005) – The O’Reilly American Sprint Car Series National Tour
presented by Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores fires into action for the
2005 season with the 32nd Annual Devil’s Bowl Speedway Winter
Nationals in Mesquite, TX, this Friday and Saturday night.
Defending series champion Gary
Wright of Hooks, TX, leads what is expected to be a large contingent of cars
from throughout the country into this weekend’s Spring Nationals atop the famed
high-banked, half-mile black clay Devil’s Bowl oval.
Wright, who has posted a series
best 90 career feature victories, claimed the ’04 National title by 166 markers
over Forney, TX, shoe Travis Rilat to become the fifth different ASCS National
champion in as many years. Rilat, who
edged Wright by a dozen points for the series championship in 2003, will be
back to vie for his second title as well.
Other drivers expected to contend
for the 2005 O’Reilly ASCS National Tour championship include Oklahoma drivers
Darren Stewart and Jimmy Taylor, Missouri shoes Toby Brown and Eric Jobe,
Memphis-area drivers A.G. Rains, Jan Howard and Lee Sowell, Kansan Tony Bruce,
Jr., Texan Sam Hafertepe, Jr., and South Dakota’s Natalie Sather.
Stewart enters the ’05 season
coming off two consecutive top-five ASCS National points rankings, while Brown
notched a career best fourth in points in 2004.
Taylor’s persistence resulted in Most Improved Driver honors and a
seventh-place ranking in ’04, while Rains earned a sixth place ranking en route
to Brodix Rookie of the Year honors.
Rains outlasted ’04 rookie rivals Hafertepe and Sather, who finished
tenth and eleventh in points, respectively.
Howard, a former Rookie of the Year, rejoins the Tour on a full-time
basis this season as ’05 Rookie contenders should include Bruce, Jobe and
Sowell.
Since the inception of the ASCS in
1992, thirty-four National Tour feature events have been contested at Devil’s
Bowl Speedway, the most held at one track.
Wright leads the way with eleven
Several streaks are on the line
this weekend, as Toby Brown and 2001 series champion Zach Chappell both look to
extend their string of consecutive events competed in. Brown, hailing from
Chappell also carries a streak of
99 consecutive ASCS National Tour feature starts into the weekend, also an
all-time series record. Chappell will
split his time between the ARCA stock car series and the ASCS National Tour
this year, with Hafertepe slated to make four ARCA starts as well.
Devil’s Bowl Speedway is located
six miles east of Dallas’ I-635 on US 80, then three miles south on Lawson
Road. Both nights of racing are set to
get under way at
This weekend’s 32nd
Annual Devil’s Bowl Spring Nationals kicks off approximately 40 nights of
racing in 2005 for the O’Reilly ASCS National Tour presented by Love’s Travel
Stops & Country Stores at more than 21 different tracks throughout ten
different states, including Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri,
Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas.
In total, the 14th year
of American Sprint Car Series racing action will include approximately 120
nights of racing at approximately 50 different race tracks throughout at least
15 different states in 2005. This total
includes the National Tour along with the Gulf South, Sooner, Rocky Mountain,
Midwest and Southern Regions.
Additional information regarding
the American Sprint Car Series is available at www.ascsracing.com.