Fountain Benefits Late For Iowa SS Victory

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On Tuesday night, the Sportsman Street Stock Series held the 7th race of their season as they visited the Iowa Speedway for a 60-lap feature event. 23 drivers would bring their Street Stocks out to the .875-mile track, and when qualifying finished up, it was Ty Majeski put his car on the pole for the race with a lap of 27.195 seconds.

Majeski led the field to the green flag to get the race started, and jumped out to a quick lead before the first caution of the race would fly on lap 2. After a 2nd quick yellow flag, the field would start a small green flag run after the lap 13 restart. Majeski pulled out to a lead once again, but Kevin Myers and Bill Martin would follow close behind in the top 3. Todd Sipe and Parker Traves ran in the top 5 early and were holding off a group of about 10 cars all running closely, battling for spots within the top 10. Iowa has been known to see plenty of two and three wide racing, and that would be true on the night with plenty of side-by-side battles. On lap 20, Mike Whited found himself in a couple of 3-wide battles just inside of the top 10, but he would back out from one of those contests but contact between himself and Casey Kelley would send both drivers around.

On the lap 24 restart, Majeski took off into the lead and Martin would look to his inside entering turn 1. But Majeski would get the run off the corner on the high side, and Myers would follow him out there into the 2nd spot. The top 3 would start to break away a little bit ahead of Traves in 4th, while behind him Sipe and Derek Robinson were battling for the 5th spot. As the battle for 5th continued, a number of cars were right there behind them, setting up a 7-car battle for the spots. Sipe would nose ahead, but Cody Kelley would get a run and set to the inside. On lap 31, the group would come off of turn two, side-by-side, three rows deep, and you could throw a blanket over them as they were running so close. Jared Fountain, Casey Kelley, Ryan Borges and Stan Bragg were all right there in the mix and as the group came onto the front stretch, the battle turned into a 3-wide duel as they continued to fight it out. As this was going on, Sam Clark had tracked them down and made it an 8-car battle, all looking to see if they could get up into the top 5. Cody Kelley would finally break free from the group into the 5th spot on the outside groove, and Fountain would follow him into 6th. But just as they began to settle in, contact between Bragg, Casey Kelley, and Sipe would send Kelley into the wall which also collected Robinson to bring out the caution on lap 34.

After another quick caution, Majeski would lead the field to the lap 45 restart. But at the front of the field, Myers would look to get a good restart and took off early. As Myers jumped ahead, the field would follow and would get stacked up behind Majeski coming to the green flag. This lead to some three, four, and even five-wide battles as the field entered turn 1, and somehow they would get through that, but coming out of turn 2 would be a different story. Majeski had been stuck out three-wide off of turn two, but would slide up into the wall and spun down into the infield. Somehow most of the field, except for 1 car, would miss Majeski as he spun but that was enough to bring out the yellow flag. With Majeski at the back of the field, officials also determined that Myers had jumped the start and would be forced to serve his penalty, dropping him out of the lead as well.

On next restart, Myers would pull off on the backstretch to come in and serve his penalty, which handed the lead over to Sipe. But he would get loose, allowing Fountain and Traves to get a run on the outisde, with Martin tucked in behind Sipe. They would enter turn 3, two-by-two, but as they came out of turn 4 on lap 52, Traves and Martin would make contact battling for the 3rd spot and they would both end up in the outside wall, collecting a couple others in the wreck as well.

Fountain grabbed the lead from the previous restart, and he would lead the field to the green on the lap 58 restart, over Sipe in 2nd. Fountain got the jump into the lead, and Sipe would use the outside groove to stay in the 2nd spot on the outside, with Robinson following the line into the 3rd spot. But as they came around with just two laps to go, an incident in the back of the pack would bring out the final caution of the race.

Fountain would bring the field around for the checkered and yellow flags, as he would take advantage of some late race incidents to grab the lead, and stay there to pick up his 2nd career SARA victory, leading just 9 total laps. Sipe would finish in the 2nd spot which is his career best finish in the league, followed by Robinson in 3rd. Cody Kelley would end up in the 4th position, followed by Martin who was able to move back into the 5th spot.

1. Jared Fountain
2. Todd Sipe
3. Derek Robinson
4. Cody Kelley
5. Bill Martin
6. Parker Traves
7. Ryan Borges
8. Stan Bragg
9. Ken Belanger
10. Jacob Beauchesne
11. Ryan Beagle
12. Jeff Hoggard
13. Russell Berry
14. Sam Clark
15. Jeffery Nichols
16. Dustin Burns
17. Kevin Myers
18. Ian Layne
19. Mike Whited
20. Ty Majeski
21. Dale Shaw
22. Casey Kelley
23. JayJay Day

Next week the series will head to Oxford for a rare 100-lap event.

Earlier in the week, the points lead would be handed over to Ken Belanger after a penalty to another driver. This would be the first time “KB” has held a points lead, and after his 9th place finish, he would hang onto that lead by just 1 point over second place. For full results and standings, click HERE.