CANEY, Kan. — The little burg of Caney, Kansas, had a Canadian flavor on Wednesday night as Ontario’s Dylan Westbrook took the $3,000 winner’s share in the fourth leg of the Lucas Oil ASCS National Tour’s Sizzlin’ Summer Speedweek at Caney Valley Speedway.
Westbrook denied Tim Crawley a third win in four rounds of competition.
Westbrook chased Crawley down and battled into the lead on the 15th round before fending off a late bid from “Crawdaddy” to secure the win in the 25-lapper aboard the Hills Racing Townline Variety/Sovereign Fusion No. 47x sprint car.
It marked Westbrook’s sixth victory of the campaign and second in ASCS National Tour action.
“Early on I was just taking my time and figuring out where I wanted to be and found the top in one and two before everyone else,” Westbrook explained.
After starting third, Westbrook spent the early potion of the race chasing the battling lead duo of Crawley and Blake Hahn as well as Wayne Johnson.
Johnson and Westbrook had front row seats to an intense battle for the point, as Crawley emerged from a wheel-to-wheel duel on the opening round to snare the lead before Hahn battled into the lead on the fifth round only to have the move negated by the race’s only caution for a turn two spin.
Hahn battled back in front on the seventh round, only to bobble slightly in turn two and execute a quick 360-degree spin after contact from Crawley, falling back to fifth before continuing on.
“I don’t race dirty, he kinda chopped me and I really whoa’d up, I did everything I could, I was on the brakes as hard as I could and still touched him,” Crawley explained. “I guess it’s my fault, I told him (Hahn) I didn’t mean to do that.”
Up to third, Westbrook went to work by sliding past Johnson for second on the 12th round and then rallied past Crawley on the top side of turns three and four to take command on the 15th circuit.
While Westbrook was out front, Crawley wasn’t quite done yet as a gaggle of lapped cars came into play in the final handful of laps. Crawley closed in and poked a nose under Westbrook coming to the white flag but fell a car-length short when the checkered flag flew one-quarter of a mile later.
“I could hear him back there,” Westbrook said. “I was just trying to pick the right lines through traffic.”
Crawley settled for runner-up honors in the Ronnie Pitts Motorsports No. 1x, summing up that, “I wanted one more lap in that lapped traffic.”
Johnson rounded out the podium, commenting that, “I was just too tight early, we’re still learning how to do these 360s, it’s been a couple of years since we’ve done the 360 deal.”
Matt Covington crossed the stripe fourth with Hahn rounding out the top five.
Wayne Johnson established the night’s fastest time and a track record of 11.808 seconds in qualifying.
The finish:
Feature (25 Laps): 1. 47X-Dylan Westbrook[3]; 2. 1X-Tim Crawley[2]; 3. 2C-Wayne Johnson[4]; 4. 95-Matt Covington[6]; 5. 52-Blake Hahn[1]; 6. 47-Dale Howard[9]; 7. 55B-Brandon Anderson[11]; 8. 45X-Kyler Johnson[7]; 9. 187-Landon Crawley[8]; 10. 10-Landon Britt[21]; 11. 36-Jason Martin[15]; 12. 88-Terry Easum[16]; 13. 22M-Rees Moran[13]; 14. 10P-Dylan Postier[10]; 15. 31-Casey Wills[17]; 16. 42-Grady Mercer[19]; 17. 97-Kevin Cummings[20]; 18. 39-Joshua Tyre[14]; 19. 14-Jordon Mallett[5]; 20. 17B-Ryan Bickett[22]; 21. 50Z-Zach Chappell[12]; 22. 38-Jimmy Forrester[18]; 23. 2-Dylan Opdahl[23]; 24. (DNS) 15D-Andrew Deal