ASAMT Touring Stars Share the Top-Five With Kenseth and Stewart

By: Kevin Ramsell
OREGON, WI (Tuesday, June 30, 2009) - Last month, Chris Wimmer picked up a huge win at Iowa Speedway when he captured his first American Speed Association Midwest Tour win. 45 days later, he passed the 2009 Daytona 500 champion to win The Swiss Colony All-Star Challenge at Madison International Speedway, an ASA Member Track.

“This is just amazing, just to get the chance to race with Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart and to pass Kenseth for the win is just a neat deal,” a smiling Wimmer stated in victory lane after passing Kenseth with 11 laps to go in the 100-lap feature event. “My car was good and I thought I was a little bit better than Matt and I was just waiting, biding my time to get by him and finally got that opportunity and it happened.”

Kenseth, who qualified 13th, started on the pole after fast qualifer Nathan Haseleu, who set a fast time of 17.734 seconds (101.500 mph), rolled a three to create a 13-car invert for the main event. Jonathan Eilen, who started on the outside of the front row, would get the early lead over Kenseth. But, it only took five laps for Kenseth to get by the Hampton, MN driver and take over the top spot. Wimmer, who started third, followed Kenseth and took over the second spot.

The first 50-laps were caution free. After a five-minute break at halfway, Kenseth and Wimmer renewed their battle. The caution would fly on lap 75 when Dave Feiler spun in turns one and two. Wimmer would continue to hound Kenseth for the top spot until a competition yellow with 15 laps to go. On the re-start, Wimmer knew that it was time to go and with 11 laps to go he would get on the inside Kenseth coming out of the turn four. The two battled side-by-side for two laps, this got the fans on their feet. Finally Wimmer was able to breakaway and cruise to his first ever feature win at MIS.

Wimmer was asked if the competition yellow helped, “I don’t know, I think it did,” Wimmer stated. “When we got running we would even out, once we had that caution, I knew right away I had to get him because about 15-20 laps after that we would even out.”

Kenseth finished in the runner-up spot for the third time in the four All-Star Challenge events at MIS, “We just got beat,” Kenseth stated after the race, “We were too loose the first half and we were too tight in the second half, we have been tight in the middle tonight and could never get it quite right. We were just holding him up for a long time and he was just patient and did a good job. He picked his spot and got me there.”

Although he finished second, Kenseth still enjoys coming back to the track where he won the track championship 15 years ago, “It’s always fun to come back here, it’s not as much fun when you got beat but its always fun to come back here and race these guys. It’s a great track, they had a great crowd here tonight, it was a lot of fun.”

Andrew Morrissey made a late race charge to finish third for the second year in a row with Haseleu charging from 13th starting position to finish fourth.

Tony Stewart, current NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader and was competing in his fourth All-Star Challenge, came home with a fifth place finish. His best finish so far. “I was a little disappointed in the beginning there in the beginning, we dropped back to 12th or 14th there and worked our way back to fifth in the last 50 laps, pretty happy with that,” Stewart stated after the race. He was a late arrival to the track and had limited practice time, but he was able to prove a theory, “That just proves my theory that the longer I am here during the day and the more practice I get, the more I screw this car up,” Stewart said with a smile on his face, “Joe Wood and Jason Schuler and their crew at Pathfinder Chassis, every year they give me a great race car and I didn’t just screw it up this year. So I got here and ran 12 laps and got in the show.” Stewart qualified ninth out of 37 cars.”

Stewart was also impressed with how well Kenseth runs when he comes to MIS, “I noticed when Matt got passed there, but man he is so good here. God its so much fun if you can stay so close to Matt to watch him here cause he is good here and there are a bunch of guys that are really, really good and fast and know their way around here.”

And when Wimmer was asked where does he go from here? He had a simple answer, “We got to go to Cedar Rapids on Friday for an American Speed Association Midwest Tour race,” Wimmer stated. “I need to get back to the shop and turn the car around and hopefully have a good run down there.”

As the checkered flag fell, so did the rain preventing the Rockweiler Insulation 38 Big 8 Series feature event to be postponed until Friday, August 14th at MIS. Ross Kenseth was the fastest qualifier with a time of 18.756 seconds.

Swiss Colony All Star Challenge

Feature:1. Chris Wimmer (Wausau, WI), 2. Matt Kenseth (Cambridge, WI), 3. Andrew Morrissey (DeForest, WI), 4. Nathan Haseleu (Pardeeville, WI), 5. Tony Stewart (Columbus, IN), 6. Steve Rubeck (Monroe Center, IL), 7. Tim Schendel (Sparta, WI), 8. Chad Wood (Madison, WI), 9. Blake Brown (Franksville, WI), 10. Kris Kelly (Norway, MI), 11. Jeremy Lepak (Wausau, WI), 12. Travis Sauter (Necedah, WI), 13. Bob Wilberg (, WI), 14. Todd Kluever (Sun Prairie, WI), 15. Chris Eggleston (West Bend, WI), 16. Andy Monday (Appleton, WI), 17. Bryan Reffner (Stevens Point, WI), 18. Jesse Saunders (Janesville, WI), 19. Mark Eswein (Wisconsin Rapids, WI), 20. Ryan Goldade (Stoughton, WI), 21. Dan Lensing (Roscoe, IL), 22. Dave Feiler (Sun Prairie, WI), 23. Jonathan Eilen (Hampton, MN), 24. Troy Hintzsche (Malta, IL), 25. Michael Bachaus (Milton, WI), 26. Frank Kreyer (Wisconsin Dells, WI), 27. Johnny Sauter (Necedah, WI),

Qualifying Race:1. Michael Bachaus (Milton, WI), 2. Troy Hintzsche (Malta, IL), 3. Kris Kelly (Norway, MI), 4. Frank Kreyer (Wisconsin Dells, WI), 5. John Knaus (Rockford, IL), 6. Frank Nitzke (Berlin, WI), 7. Mike Gunderson (Union Grove, WI), 8. Shane Morrissey (Cuba City, WI), 9. Kyle Kinder (McFarland, WI), 10. Michael Bilderback (South Beloit, IL), 11. Travis Sauter (Necedah, WI), 12. Matt Gawronski (Reedsburg, WI), 13. Jim Carlson (LaCrosse, WI),

Qualifying:1. Nathan Haseleu (Pardeeville, WI), 2. Andrew Morrissey (DeForest, WI), 3. Chad Wood (Madison, WI), 4. Ryan Goldade (Stoughton, WI), 5. Tim Schendel (Sparta, WI), 6. Bryan Reffner (Stevens Point, WI), 7. Mark Eswein (Wisconsin Rapids, WI), 8. Bob Wilberg (, WI), 9. Tony Stewart (Columbus, IN), 10. Todd Kluever (Sun Prairie, WI), 11. Chris Wimmer (Wausau, WI), 12. Jonathan Eilen (Hampton, MN), 13. Matt Kenseth (Cambridge, WI), 14. Chris Eggleston (West Bend, WI), 15. Andy Monday (Appleton, WI), 16. Dan Lensing (Roscoe, IL), 17. Dave Feiler (Sun Prairie, WI), 18. Steve Rubeck (Monroe Center, IL), 19. Jesse Saunders (Janesville, WI), 20. Jeremy Lepak (Wausau, WI), 21. Johnny Sauter (Necedah, WI), 22. Blake Brown (Franksville, WI), 23. Michael Bilderback (South Beloit, IL), 24. Michael Bachaus (Milton, WI), 25. Travis Sauter (Necedah, WI), 26. Troy Hintzsche (Malta, IL), 27. Kyle Kinder (McFarland, WI), 28. Frank Kreyer (Wisconsin Dells, WI), 29. Frank Nitzke (Berlin, WI), 30. Kris Kelly (Norway, MI), 31. Mike Gunderson (Union Grove, WI), 32. John Knaus (Rockford, IL), 33. Shane Morrissey (Cuba City, WI), 34. Matt Gawronski (Reedsburg, WI), 35. Jim Carlson (LaCrosse, WI), 36. Becca Kasten (Mequon, WI), 37. Brandon Hill (Genoa City, WI), 38. Gary LaMonte (West Allis, WI),