Tulare, CA — March 20, 2009 — Family has always been a vital part of Randy Hannagan's racing career. His biggest fan was his mother Margie, who passed away late last year, and he wanted nothing more than to win a race for her in 2009. With his father Jim in attendance, Hannagan was able to do that on Friday night, scoring a thrilling victory in the first of two nights for the World of Outlaws at Thunderbowl Raceway in his home state of California.

The win was the second for Hannagan in his career with the World of Outlaws and his first with the series since 2001. It was his third career win at Thunderbowl Raceway and ironically the second consecutive event that he has edged three-time World of Outlaws champion Sammy Swindell for a victory at the high-banked bullring, also accomplishing that in last year's Trophy Cup.

“It certainly has been a while, but you have to start somewhere and what better place than in California,” Hannagan said. “I'm really happy to get this win for my mom, who passed away in December. She was riding with me tonight.”

Hannagan started fourth in the 35-lap contest and got around Swindell on the opening lap, before working on Jason Solwold for a number of laps. He was able to power his way around Solwold on the 10th lap and set his sights on early race leader Peter Murphy who led from the outset.

Hannagan was able to work his way around Murphy on the high side of turn on the 11th lap, following a restart one lap earlier. He quickly began to pull away before the caution flag flew two laps later. The 1995 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year used another strong restart to jump out to a sizeable lead on Murphy and Solwold, who would battle Swindell for a number of laps after they both got around Murphy to move into second and third.

“The car was really good,” noted the winner. “I was able to go around him on a restart and I just had to go where they weren't. It just paid off really good.”

Hannagan found himself in heavy lapped traffic as the laps wore on. Swindell tried a slide job off turn four and nearly took the lead on the 22nd lap prior to a red flag coming out for a Kyle Hirst flip.

On the ensuing restart, Swindell looked low in turns one and two on Hannagan and again in three and four. The next lap was a mirror image as he again looked for a way around the leader. The final caution of the night came out on lap 25, setting up a 10-lap shootout between Hannagan and Swindell.

Hannagan used a strong restart again to retain the lead, with Swindell methodically chipping away at his lead. With seven laps to go the pair was in lapped traffic and Hannagan split two slower machines to put a little gap between himself and Swindell.

With two laps remaining, Swindell was right on Hannagan and drew even with him in turns three and four. On the white flag lap, they were ran side by side in turns one and two, with Hannagan charging down the back straightaway to keep the lead. Swindell went high off turns three and four, with the pair drag racing down the front straightaway, with Hannagan taking the checkered flag by just 0.134 second in the Central Valley Meat Company Maxim.

“I knew he was there,” Hannagan said of Swindell in the closing laps. “He stuck his nose down on me in (turns) one and two on a restart. It just made me get my arms up a little higher and run a little harder.”

Swindell wound up second for the second time this season as he closes in on his first World of Outlaws win of the year aboard the Tom Rolfe Trucking Maxim. The runner-up finish was Swindell's third Top-Five finish of the season and vaulted him into fourth in the series championship standings.

“We've been close since we were in Vegas,” said Swindell. “We have been right up in there almost every single night. We have been qualifying good as well. We have been able to fine tune a few things and catch up on some things also. We are still learning these cars and the motors, but we are getting it awful close. It will just be a matter of time before we start pulling off some wins here.”

Jason Solwold finished third in his first start aboard the No. 83JR for Dennis Roth as a teammate to Tim Kaeding. The Washington native started second and ran in the Top-three for the majority of the race, though he fell back to fourth for a few laps, before working his way back to third, to score his best finish of the season in just his third start.

“We were pretty good in traffic,” said Solwold. “Peter (Murphy) was in front of us for a bit and then (Randy) Hannagan got by and kind of set the pace. I followed Pete for too long and then Sammy (Swindell) got by. All in all we had a pretty good car. I just need a few more laps to get used to this. We have a really good fast race car. We had a new motor in there tonight and it was working really well. We just ran out of laps tonight.”

Tyler Walker also picked up his best finish of the season coming home fourth in the NMI Industrial Contractors JEI. Jac Haudenschild was fifth in the Owens-Corning Fiberglass Maxim, with Jason Meyers sixth in the GLR Investments KPC. Terry McCarl was seventh in the Big Game Treestands Maxim after beginning the night by setting a new track record in time trials, with Tim Kaeding eighth in the DTR Transport KPC. Peter Murphy wound up ninth in the Pro Signs Maxim after leading the first 10 laps of the event, with Joey Saldana in 10th aboard the Budweiser Maxim.

Donny Schatz, the three-time and defending series champion and current point leader, did a 360-spin on the fifth lap and kept the car going, though he fell from the sixth to 10th when that happened and wound up 12th. He retains a 21-point advantage in the championship standings over Jason Meyers, who moved into the second spot.

The World of Outlaws wrap up their swing through California on Saturday night with another $10,000-to win event at Thunderbowl Raceway in Tulare.

THUNDERBOWL RACEWAY NIGHT #1 NOTES
• FAST QUALIFIER: Terry McCarl paced the 32 cars that took time with a record setting AMB i.t. timed lap around the high-banked 1/3-mile oval at 12.713 seconds at 94.297 mph. For his qualifying effort, McCarl earned five bonus points. The next four fastest qualifiers also earned bonus points, including: Randy Hannagan (4), Jason Meyers (3), Sammy Swindell (2), and Jac Haudenschild (1).


• QUALIFYING WINNERS: Peter Murphy, Tyler Walker, Jason Meyers and Donny Schatz won heat races...Peter Murphy won the Crane Cams Dash...Roger Crockett won the B-Main.

• FEATURE WINNERS: There has been seven World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series A-Feature event held in 2009. The winners include: Donny Schatz (Volusia Speedway Park-twice and The Dirt Track at Las Vegas Motor Speedway), Joey Saldana (Volusia Speedway Park and Silver Dollar Speedway), Randy Hannagan (Thunderbowl Raceway) and Jason Meyers (Silver Dollar Speedway).


• 1/3-MILE WINNERS: Thunderbowl Raceway is a high-banked 1/3-mile oval. The World of Outlaws have raced once this season on a track that size. The winner was Randy Hannagan (Thunderbowl Raceway).


World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series Statistical Report; Thunderbowl Raceway; Tulare, CA; March 20, 2009


Qualifying

1) 24-Terry McCarl 12.713

2) 1X-Randy Hannagan 12.774

3) 14-Jason Meyers 12.822

4) 10-Sammy Swindell 12.894

5) R19-Jac Haudenschild 12.906

6) 21-Tommy Tarlton 12.933

7) 9-Joey Saldana 12.948

8) 83-Tim Kaeding 12.981

9) 13-Peter Murphy 12.982

10) 24T-Tyler Walker 12.983

11) 5W-Lucas Wolfe 12.993

12) 15-Donny Schatz 12.996

13) 83JR-Jason Solwold 13.046

14) 11C-Roger Crockett 13.059

15) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 13.060

16) 7S-Jason Sides 13.062

17) O-Jonathan Allard 13.063

18) 35A-Wayne Johnson 13.085

19) 19-Craig Dollansky 13.092

20) 22B-Ben Gregg 13.099

21) 33E-Evan Suggs 13.132

22) 6-Danny Lasoski 13.140

23) 83T-Brad Sweet 13.159

24) 6X-Kyle Hirst 13.172

25) 55-Kerry Madsen 13.196

26) 11-Steve Kinser 13.200

27) 8K-Chad Kemenah 13.243

28) 22-Brian Ellenberger 13.288

29) 4X-Toni Lutar 13.386

30) 23-Jerry Wise Jr. 13.442

31) 20-Kraig Kinser 13.514

32) 83M-Mike Stallings 13.943


Heat 1 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) 13-Peter Murphy

2) 83JR-Jason Solwold

3) 24-Terry McCarl

4) 33E-Evan Suggs

5) R19-Jac Haudenschild

6) O-Jonathan Allard

7) 55-Kerry Madsen

8) 4X-Toni Lutar


Heat 2 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) 24T-Tyler Walker

2) 1X-Randy Hannagan

3) 6-Danny Lasoski

4) 35A-Wayne Johnson

5) 21-Tommy Tarlton

6) 11-Steve Kinser

7) 23-Jerry Wise Jr.

8) 11C-Roger Crockett


Heat 3 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) 14-Jason Meyers

2) 5W-Lucas Wolfe

3) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.

4) 9-Joey Saldana

5) 19-Craig Dollansky

6) 20-Kraig Kinser

7) 8K-Chad Kemenah


Heat 4 (10 Laps, top 5 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) 15-Donny Schatz

2) 10-Sammy Swindell

3) 7S-Jason Sides

4) 6X-Kyle Hirst

5) 22B-Ben Gregg

6) 22-Brian Ellenberger

7) 83M-Mike Stallings

8) 83-Tim Kaeding


Crane Cams Dash (8 laps, finishing order determined first 10 starting positions of A-feature)

1) 13-Peter Murphy

2) 83JR-Jason Solwold

3) 10-Sammy Swindell

4) 1X-Randy Hannagan

5) 24T-Tyler Walker

6) 15-Donny Schatz

7) 14-Jason Meyers

8) R19-Jac Haudenschild

9) 24-Terry McCarl

10) 5W-Lucas Wolfe


B-main (12 laps, top 4 finishers transferred to A-feature)

1) 11C-Roger Crockett

2) 83-Tim Kaeding

3) 55-Kerry Madsen

4) O-Jonathan Allard

5) 11-Steve Kinser [$200]

6) 8K-Chad Kemenah [$180]

7) 4X-Toni Lutar [$175]

8) 22-Brian Ellenberger [$160]

9) 20-Kraig Kinser [$150]

10) 83M-Mike Stallings [$150]

11) 23-Jerry Wise Jr. [$150]

12) 83T-Brad Sweet [$150]


A-main (35 laps) - Starting Position [#]

1) 1X-Randy Hannagan[4] [$10,000]

2) 10-Sammy Swindell[3] [$5,000]

3) 83JR-Jason Solwold[2] [$3,000]

4) 24T-Tyler Walker[5] [$2,700]

5) R19-Jac Haudenschild[8] [$2,500]

6) 14-Jason Meyers[7] [$2,200]

7) 24-Terry McCarl[9] [$2,000]

8) 83-Tim Kaeding[13] [$1,800]

9) 13-Peter Murphy[1] [$1,600]

10) 9-Joey Saldana[12] [$1,450]

11) O-Jonathan Allard[17] [$1,300]

12) 15-Donny Schatz[6] [$1,200]

13) 19-Craig Dollansky[19] [$1,100]

14) 55-Kerry Madsen[24] [$1,000]

15) 15H-Sam Hafertepe Jr.[15] [$950]

16) 11-Steve Kinser[25] [$200]

17) 11C-Roger Crockett[14] [$850]

18) 7S-Jason Sides[16] [$750]

19) 6-Danny Lasoski[22] [$725]

20) 20-Kraig Kinser[26] [$0]

21) 5W-Lucas Wolfe[10] [$700]

22) 33E-Evan Suggs[21] [$700]

23) 35A-Wayne Johnson[18] [$700]

24) 6X-Kyle Hirst[23] [$700]

25) 21-Tommy Tarlton[11] [$700]

26) 22B-Ben Gregg[20] [$700]


Note: Steve Kinser and Kraig Kinser both used World of Outlaws provisionals to start the A-Feature.


Lap Leaders: Peter Murphy 1-10, Randy Hannagan 11-35

Penske Power Position Award: Jason Solwold

SuperClean Start of the Night Award: Randy Hannagan

KSE Hard Charger Award: Kerry Madsen

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