Busti, NY (July 23, 2022) by Marc Hoegerl: Early rain showers, and threatening weather around the region, could not put a damper on Stateline Speedway getting night #8 in the record books. Hats off to Stateline’s track prep crew. They have proven why they are the best in the region.

Lernerville Speedway standout, Saxonburg, PA’s, Tyler Dietz captured Stateline’s Pro Stock special. Dave Hess Jr. got back to his winning ways by picking up win #3 of 2022, going flag-to-flag in the Super Lates. Jason Genco dominated the RUSH Crate Late Models for a very emotional victory. Andrew Proper put a stop to Chris Horton’s winning ways, by capturing the win in the Challengers. And Dennis Lunger wow’d the crowd with identical last lap wins in both the RUSH Pro Mods and UMP Modifieds.

First to hit the speed plant’s beautifully groomed surface was the RUSH Crate Late Models. Jason Genco, and veteran Jeff Hoffman would bring the 23-car field to green. Genco would immediately jump out to the lead, with Hoffman, and former E-Mod standout Randy Hall in tow. With the 29J opening up a comfortable lead, the race was on for 2nd, as Hoffman, and 5th place starter Scott Gurdak would battle for position for the next 10 laps, until Gurdak would maintain the spot for good on lap 11. Genco would have clear sailing the entire distance, to grab win #2 of 2022. Gurdak, Hoffman, David Parker, and Matt Sipes would round out the top 5.

The 2nd event to grace the 1/3 oval was the RUSH Pro Mods. The words that have been heard all season long, can anyone put a stop to Dennis Lunger’s dominance. With Lunger having to start 12th in the event the odds looked good, especially with veteran wheelman Al Brewer starting on the pole. Brewer jumped out to the lead, as the very impressionable, but all business on the flag stand Spanky Hall waved his green flag. Brewer would build up a comfortable margin at the outset, with Chad Ramsey and Adam Ashcroft putting on their own battle for 2nd. By lap 4 Lunger would crack the top 5, lap 6 with the top 3 positions staying the same, Lunger would muscle his way into 4th. Lap 8 with Brewer still leading, Ashcroft with finally get around Ramsey for 2nd, as Lunger was still holding down the 4th spot, a short distance behind the front runners. Lunger would once again get going as he would take 3rd away from Ramsey on lap 11, then pick off Ashcroft for 2nd on lap 12. Lunger would start gaining ground on Brewer, but Brewer would change his line, giving Lunger fits, as he could no longer find the needed room to move around the leader. Caution would fly on lap 18 for Chad Schauers, tightening up the field. This was the break Lunger needed. Lap 19 would see Brewer, and Lunger side-by-side the entire lap. Lunger would make his winning move on the final lap, diving to the bottom going into turn 4, and out dragging race long leader Brewer to the checkereds, notching his 7th RUSH Pro Mod win of the season. Tying his old record of 7 consecutive wins. Brewer settled for 2nd, Ashcroft came home a consistent 3rd, Chad Carlson was 4th, and Brian Mohawk came from 13th to secure 5th.

Next up would be the 20 lap Pro Stock Special with a stout field of 23 competitors. At the drop of the green Kyle Couchenour would roar into the lead. The opening laps would see a 5-car battle develop between the leader Couchenour, Chris Withers, Tyler Dietz, Tanner Ramsey, and Matt Sampson. This battle would continue until lap 9, when Withers would take over the top spot with an inside move on Couchenour. Lap 11 would see Couchenour return the favor with an outside move to move around Wither’s. Couchenour’s lead would be brief, as Dietz would grab the lead on lap 12, and go the remaining 8 laps untouched, to pick up his first ever Stateline victory, as well as a cool $1,200 payday. Couchenour settled for 2nd, Sampson road home 3rd, Jason Covey, and Joe Stajnrajh rounded out your top 5. This event lived up to its hype, with 4 lead changes between 3 different drivers throughout the event.

The Super Late Models would take stage in the next event, with 2021 Champion Dave Hess Jr., and Dutch Davies bringing the field to green. Hess would get the jump on Davies heading into turn 1. Hess would break away from Davies to lead lap 1. Lap 2 would see two-time winner in 2022, Greg Oakes outduel Davies for 2nd. With Hess running away from the field, Mike Knight in his 1st Stateline appearance of 2022, would move around Davies for the 3rd spot on lap 5. With no changes in the front runners, Knight would go top side and take away 2nd from Oakes on lap 14, as he would set his sights on the leader Hess. By lap 19, Knight continued to chip away at Hess’s lead as the two were running the extreme high line of the speedway. Lap 22 would Hess, and Knight almost pull even in heavy lapped traffic coming out of turn 2. Hess would make some critical moves through traffic during the final 3 laps to go on to pick up his 3rd win of 2022, and his 35th career Stateline Super Late Model win, moving him into 5th on the all-time win list. Knight settled for 2nd, Oakes, Davies, and Ryan Scott rounded out the top 5.

Next to christen the speedway would be the UMP Modifieds for their 20-lap main event. Greg Johnson would get the jump on Tim Rockwell to lead lap 1. With Johnson maintaining his lead early on, a great battle for positions was taking place between, Eric Reinwald, and Rockwell for 2nd.  With Johnson still leading, previous champion Al Crocker would move around Reinwald for 3rd on lap 7. Lap 8 would see Dennis Lunger cracking the top 5, from his 22nd place starting position, picking off cars left and right using the outside cushion. Johnson would hold a slim margin on lap 11, as Lunger moved around Crocker for 2nd. Laps 12, and 13, would see the Johnson, Lunger, and Crocker go 3-wide for the lead, with Crocker finally muscling his way into the top spot. Lunger would swarm all over Crocker for the next 6 laps, until the final turn of the final lap, with the feeling of déjà vu, Lunger would dive to the bottom of turn 4 out dragging Crocker to the finish line to pick up his 1st UMP Modified win of the year. This race could possibly be dubbed Stateline’s race of the year. Lunger, talked about being down on horsepower made the car all the better to consistently run the line he did most of the race, helping to pick up the win. The dejected Crocker settled for 2nd, Greg Johnson, Reinwald, and Rockwell rounded out the top 5.

Last, but not least, would be the Challenger division. Andrew Proper would get the jump on Nicholas Robie at the drop of the green. It was all Proper, John Mease, and Robie for the first 4 laps, until three-time winner Chris Horton would take away 3rd from Robie on lap 5. A great battled for 2nd would take place for the next 5 laps between, Mease, and Horton, until lap 11, when Horton used an outside move around Mease to secure 2nd. Proper maintained a big enough margin to go on to pick up win #1 of 2022. Horton settled for 2nd, as Mease, Robie, and Holden Heineman rounded out the top 5.

In the newly formed RUSH Stock Cars, it was all Mikael Beaver over Cody Rickard in the 12-lap event.

RUSH CRATE LATE MODELS (23 Entries)

Heat 1: 1) Randy Hall 2) David Parker 3) Damian Bidwell 4) Jarrod Lyon 5) Kole Wanzer 6) Gary Youngs 7) Darrin Waldron 8-John Haggerty
Heat 2: 1) Jason Genco 2) Matt Sipes 3) Kyle Murray 4) Brian Larson 5) Will Pinckney 6) Rory Houser 7) Chad Clement 8-Rodney Houser
Heat 3: 1) Scott Gurdak 2) Jeff Hoffman 3) Ward Schell 4) Hunter Proctor 5) Steve Houser 6) Lonnie Waldron 7) Kassandra Norman
Feature: 1) Genco 2) Gurdak 3) Hoffman 4) Parker 5) Sipes 6) Hall 7) Murray 8-Bidwell 9) Schell 10) Pinckney 11) Youngs 12) Wanzer 13) S. Houser 14) Larson 15) D. Waldron 16) Haggerty 17) Lyon 18-L. Waldron 19) Norman 20) Clement 21) Proctor 22) Rory Houser 23) Rodney Houser

Lap Leaders: Genco (1-20)

RUSH PRO MODS (21 Entries)

Heat 1: 1) Dennis Lunger 2) Chad Ramsey 3) John Cline 4) Nick Arnold 5) Brian Mohawk 6) Zain Harvey 7) Brodie Hill
Heat 2: 1) Tyler Oakes 2) Adam Ashcroft 3) Tyler Sutton 4) Vaughn Nystrom 5) Garrett Miller 6) Chad Schauers 7) Thomas Root
Heat 3: 1) Chad Carlson 2) Al Brewer 3) Stu Rickard 4) Derek Peterson 5) Donald May Jr. 6) Ryan Sanders 7) Kirk Mohawk
Feature: 1) Lunger 2) Brewer 3) Ashcroft 4) Carlson 5) B. Mohawk 6) Oakes 7) Ramsey 8-Rickard 9) Arnold 10) Peterson 11) Sutton 12) Nystrom 13) Hill 14) Miller 15) May Jr. 16) Root 17) Schauers 18-K. Mohawk 19) Cline 20) Harvey 21) Sanders

Lap Leaders: Brewer (1-19), Lunger (20)

PRO STOCKS (23 Entries)

Heat 1: 1) Tyler Dietz 2) Tanner Ramsey 3) Joe Stajnrajh 4) Tyler Dynys 5) David Baker Jr. 6) Grant Richard 7) Dale Sheets 8-Carl Marcy
Heat 2: 1) Shane Applebee 2) Matt Sampson 3) Dave Tower 4) Steven Yokom 5) Donald Blood 6) Justin Pratt 7) Walter Johnson 8-Gary Fisher LII
Heat 3: 1) Chris Withers 2) Kyle Couchenour 3) Bill Applebee 4) Jason Covey 5) John Boardman 6) Dave Shagla 7) Gary Fisher Jr.
Feature: 1) Dietz 2) Couchenour 3) Sampson 4) Covey 5) Stajnrajh 6) Boardman 7) Withers 8-Fisher Jr. 9) Ramsey 10) B. Applebee 11) Tower 12) S. Applebee 13) Baker Jr. 14) Marcy 15) Pratt 16) Dynys 17) Fisher LII 18-Shagla 19) Johnson 20) Richard 21) Sheets 22) Blood 23) Yokom

Lap Leaders: Couchenour (1-8-, Withers (9,10), Couchenour (11), Dietz (12-20)

SUPER LATE MODELS (18 Entries)

Heat 1: 1) Darrell Bossard 2) Ryan Scott 3) Bump Headman 4) Paul Schreckengost 5) Michael Smith 6) Anthony Marotto
Heat 2: 1) Greg Oakes 2) Dutch Davies 3) Jason Genco 4) Wyatt Scott 5) Bob Dorman 6) Khole Wanzer
Heat 3: 1) Dave Hess Jr. 2) Mike Knight 3) Jake Finnerty 4) Wendell Pinckney 5) Scott Dellahoy Jr. 6) Allen Haskins
Feature: 1) Hess Jr. 2) Knight 3) Oakes 4) Davies 5) R. Scott 6) Bossard 7) Genco 8-Dorman 9) W. Scott 10) Finnerty 11) Headman 12) Smith 13) Wanzer 14) Pinckney 15) Dellahoy Jr. 16) Schreckengost 17) Marotto 18-Haskins

Lap Leaders: Hess Jr. (1-25)

UMP MODIFIEDS (25 Entries)

Heat 1: 1) Michael McGee 2) Tim Rockwell 3) Jason Brightman 4) Mason Lobb 5) Matt Kosinski 6) Kyle Adkins 7) Joel Lanphere 8-Dennis Lunger
Heat 2: 1) Butch Southwell 2) Greg Johnson 3) Tim Peterson 4) Dan Sasso 5) Paul Nelson 6) James Wilburn 7) Chris DePonceau 8-Bud Watson 9) Alex Siekkinen
Heat 3: 1) Zach Johnson 2) Troy Johnson 3) Cale Crocker 4) Eric Reinwald 5) Dave Lanphere 6) Matt Haskins 7) Andrew Beatman 8-Byron Johnson
Feature: 1) Lunger 2) Crocker 3) G. Johnson 4) Reinwald 5) Rockwell 6) McGee 7) T. Johnson 8-Z. Johnson 9) D. Lanphere 10) B. Watson 11) Brightman 12) Beatman 13) Adkins 14) Kosinski 15) Haskins 16) Wilburn 17) J. Lanphere 18-B. Johnson 19) DePonceau 20) Peterson 21) Lobb 22) Southwell 23) Sasso 24) Siekkenen 25) Nelson

Lap Leaders: G. Johnson (1-12), Crocker (13-19), Lunger (20)

CHALLENGERS (27 Entries)

Heat 1: 1) John Mease 2) Andrew Proper 3) Phillip Powell 4) Tommy LaBarbera 5) Jordan Melice 6) Joey Lindberg
Heat 2: 1) Holden Heineman 2) Chris Horton 3) Bryson Hill 4) Nicholas Reed 5) Jess Harvey 6) Ricky Houser 7) Tyler Peterson
Heat 3: 1) Pete Volpe 2) Brandon Huffman 3) Charles Houser 4) Dave Moller 5) Cassandra Goodwill 6) Jasmine Markham 7) Kayla York
Heat 4: 1) Nicholas Robie 2) Daniel Bittinger 3) Rick Feely 4) Rachel Moller 5) Jon Seekings 6) Craig Karns 7) Joe Foti
Feature: 1) Proper 2) Horton 3) Mease 4) Robie 5) Heineman 6) Feely 7) Volpe 8-Huffman 9) Bittinger 10) R. Moller 11) Reed 12) LaBarbera 13) Powell 14) Seekings 15) Harvey 16) C. Houser 17) R. Houser 18-Pearson 19) Goodwill 20) Foti 21) York 22) D. Moller 23) Markham 24) Karns 25) Melice 26) Lindberg 27) Hill

Lap Leaders: Proper (1-12)

RUSH STOCK CARS (2 Entries)

Feature: 1) Mikael Beaver 2) Cody Rickard

Lap Leaders: Beaver (1-12)