Firecracker Night 2 Recap: Junghans Earns Breakthrough Victory in Dominating Fashion

Preliminary Night Two of the Firecracker 100 at Lernerville saw another racy, wide surface and a first time winner in victory lane. Chase Junghans led green to checkered in the nonstop 30 lap event. The Manhattan, Kansas driver went unchallenged as he raced away from the field in his Capital Race Car via the pole position.

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"It feels great, especially with all these great drivers behind me", Junghans said following the victory. "It really helped starting up front for sure. Hopefully we can build off of it and get a win tomorrow or at least come out with a solid finish. "

Behind Junghans, the racing throughout the field once again saw drivers using the multi-groove surface throughout all 30 laps.  Chub Frank drew the outside pole and settled into second in the early stages.  Scott Bloomquist overtook Frank for the runner up spot on lap 9 with a power move going into turns three and four.

Pat Miller Photo

Thursday's winner Shane Clanton wasted no time in moving to the front from his seventh starting spot.  Clanton made his way by Frank for 3rd on lap 11.  Tim McCreadie engaged in a battle for several laps with Chubzilla for fourth towards the halfway point. McCreadie found speed on the outside to momentarily take the position, but would again giveway to Frank by lap 20.

Up front, Junghans primarily remained on the bottom grove of the speedway as he effectively worked lap traffic.  Clanton kept pace with Bloomquist as the race hit 5 to go, but neither driver had anything for Junghans, who maintained over a half straightaway lead.

Bloomquist, who did not compete Thursday night, settled for the runner up spot while Clanton rounded out the podium. Frank and Davey Johnson also scored top five finishes.   McCreadie held off Jared Miley for 6th.  Gregg Satterlee, Austin Hubbard and Rick Eckert finished 8th through 10th.

The win for Junghans was his first ever on the Outlaws tour and it just happened to come on one of the biggest stages of the year.

"It will settle in eventually", Junghans said. "Hopefully we got the monkey off our back and we can keep running good and keep it up throughout the rest of the year."

Amain Top 10:

1 Chase Junghans
2 Scott Bloomquist
3 Shane Clanton
4 Chub Frank
5 Davey Johnson
6 Tim McCreadie
7 Jared Miley
8 Gregg Satterlee
9 Austin Hubbard
10 Rick Eckert

Four heats again set the stage for the evening. Heat #1 saw Davey Johnson drive under Josh Richards for a convincing victory. McCreadie and Russ King finished 2nd and 3rd, while Richards faded to 4th in the final transfer spot.

The action picked up in heat #2 at the front, as Frankie Heckenast made contact with Austin Hubbard going into the first turn. However, Hubbard made a very good save that allowed him to drive back by Heckenast following a restart. Hubbard went on to victory, but briefly lost the lead to Satterlee in the middle of the race. Frank went on to finish 2nd, while Satterlee faded to 3rd.

Heat #3 saw another dominating victory for Clanton. Junghans punched his ticket into the redraw by narrowly holding off Miley for 2nd.

Pat Miller Photo

Bloomquist raced past WoO rookie Brandon Overton to claim the 4th and final heat.

Pat Miller Photo

Quick Time Group A: Davey Johnson 15.917
Quick Time Group B: Chase Junghans 15.861
Heat 1: Davey Johnson Tim McCreadie Russ King Josh Richards
Heat 2: Austin Hubbard Chub Frank Gregg Satterlee Paul Wilmoth
Heat 3: Shane Clanton Chase Junghans Jared Miley Eric Wells
Heat 4: Scott Bloomquist Brandon Overton Mason Zeigler Rick Eckert

With the two preliminaries in the books, the attention shifts to Saturday night's Firecracker 100 finale. $30,000 will be on the line Saturday night, stay tuned to TDN for full coverage.