All Sides at Sedalia: Jason Sides Wins Kasey’s King of Sedalia Presented By Budweiser at Missouri State Fair Speedway

Sedalia, MO— June 29, 2010—Each season Jason Sides sets a goal to win more races than the year before. After winning two events last season with the World of Outlaws, he wanted to take the checkered flag first at least three times in 2010. He picked up two wins earlier this year and reached the three-win mark on Tuesday night in Kasey’s King of Sedalia Presented By Budweiser at Missouri State Fair Speedway to surpass his win total from 2009.

 

Sides earned $10,000 for the victory, which was his second at Missouri State Fair Speedway and his first with the World of Outlaws at the historic half-mile, before a very large crowd. The native of Bartlett, Tennessee now has seven career A-Feature wins with the series dating back to 2004.

 

“It’s great to be here and win,” said Sides. “I hate it for Sam Hafertepe. He kind of left the bottom open for us. It was a great run. First and foremost our hearts go out to Shirley Gray, Sammy’s (Swindell) Mother-in-law, we lost her this week. I know he wanted to win it for her, but I wanted to win it just as bad.”

 

Sides started third in the Wetherington Tractor Service Maxim and took the second spot from Sammy Swindell at the drop of the green. He gained ground on leader Sam Hafertepe Jr. just past the halfway point as the leaders approached some light lapped traffic. Sides went low in turn four on the 15th lap and powered by Hafertepe on the front straightaway to take the top spot. He would not look back the rest of the way, withstanding a yellow and then a red flag on the very next lap, using strong restarts each time to pull away.

 

“You really did have to be patient,” noted the winner. “We got our rhythm going around the bottom. Shane (Finch) and Doug (Rankin) have been working their butts off all year and it’s starting to pay off a little now hopefully.”

 

For Sides the win was his third of the season which marks a new career high with the World of Outlaws, for the 2003 Kevin Gobrecht Rookie of the Year. He won twice last season and picked up single wins in 2004 and 2007.

 

“It feels great to get the third one,” Sides said. “There are a lot of big races coming up in the next month, so hopefully this carries us into those.”

 

Hafertepe led the first 14 laps on Tuesday night after starting on the pole, eventually finish second in the G.H. Plumbing Maxim for the third time in his career with the series as he continues to chase his first win. The native of Sunnyvale, Texas was out front on a lap-6 double file restart and chose the bottom to shoot out to a quick lead as Sides and Swindell battled for second.

 

“Tonight to run as strong as we did all night long definitely feels good,” shared Hafertepe. “We’re going to go into Huset’s (Speedway) with a really good attitude. We always run strong there and hopefully this momentum from here just keeps on going. We have a pretty tough schedule and a lot of races coming up, so it’s good to get fast right now and hopefully we take advantage of it and it plays into our hand.”

 

Swindell finished third aboard the Big Game Treestands Maxim in his first start at Missouri State Fair Speedway in five years. The three-time series champion has finished third in three of the last five World of Outlaws races as he looks to add to his win earlier in the month.

 

“It’s good when you can say you hate to run third again, but we’ve had a bunch of them,” said Swindell. “We’re going to get there sometime. That restart on the outside, that wasn’t the place to be. We got a little run on Sam (Hafertepe) and Jason (Sides) was there. Late in the race you had to be on the bottom and I just did what I could.”

 

Donny Schatz, who was victorious in 2008 with the World of Outlaw at Sedalia, came home fourth in the Armor All/STP J&J, to earn his 13th Top-Five finish of the season. The four-time and defending series champion got around Swindell on a lap-16 restart and closed right up on Hafertepe for second before Swindell got back around him.

 

“It was an all right night,” said Schatz. “We had a new car we were trying and it does a lot of things that we like it to do and some things we don’t like it to do. We qualified good for when we came out and I thought we raced pretty well. Everything we did, we made some headway and it feels like my cars from four or five years ago, so that’s kind of what we were trying to do. It was good, just not good enough to win the race.”

 

Wayne Johnson finished a very solid fifth in his first start with the World of Outlaws aboard his own Townline Variety Maxim.

 

Jason Meyers was sixth in the GLR Investments KPC, after starting the night by setting fast time. He took over the lead in the standings for the Showdown for the Bud Crown heading into the finale next week at LaSalle Speedway in Illinois. The California native has a 36-point lead over Paul McMahan, with Steve Kinser one spot behind. The Top-Three finishers will split a $15,000 point fund for the four-race mini-series.

 

McMahan finished seventh on Tuesday night in the Great Clips Maxim, with Craig Dollansky eighth piloting the Big Game Treestands Maxim. Steve Kinser worked his way from 18th to finish ninth in the Bass Pro Shops Maxim. Joey Saldana, the current World of Outlaws point leader, came all the way from 22nd to finish 10th aboard the Budweiser Maxim, to earn the KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Award and also retain his spot at the top of the standings as he chases his first title.

 

Kasey Kahne, who helped promote the event finished 14th after starting 20th in his Budweiser Maxim as a teammate to Saldana and McMahan. READ MORE