FONTANA, Calif. — Jason Bowles scored his second-straight road-course victory in the NASCAR Grand National Division West Series with a victory in the California 125 at California Speedway on Saturday.
The win by the 24-year-old series rookie, who earned several karting titles and appeared headed for the open-wheel ranks early in his career, gave car-owner Bob Bruncati a sweep of the three series road-course races this season. David Gilliland drove a team entry to victory at Sonoma in June and Bowles triumphed at Miller Motorsports Parks in Tooele, Utah, prior to winning the inaugural NASCAR road course event at California Speedway.
After notching his first career series Bud Pole with a qualifying lap of 119.420 miles per hour around the 2.4-mile road course, Bowles led the first seven laps. He relinquished the lead, however, when he opted to take on fresh right-side tires during an early caution.
Dropping as far back as 13th after the stop, Bowles wanted to get back to the front as soon as possible because of concern about the race distance being shortened due to darkness.
“We knew we weren’t going to be able to get all 45 laps in before dark,” said the driver from nearby Ontario. “That was kind of our strategy from the beginning and it all played out for us.”
Bowles managed to retake the lead on lap 33 and went on to victory lane from there.
Brian Ickler finished second, followed by David Mayhew, who was making just his second start in Jim Offenbach’s Chevrolet.
Road race veteran Jim Inglebright was fourth. Fifth went to Mike Duncan.
The finish:
Showing driver, car, laps completed and money won: 1. Jason Bowles, Ford, 42, $11,326; 2. Brian Ickler, Chevrolet, 42, $6,526; 3. David Mayhew, Chevrolet, 42, $4,026; 4. Jim Inglebright, Chrevrolet, 42, $4,662; 5. Mike Duncan, Chevrolet, 42, $4,526; 6. Erick Richardson, Chevrolet, 42, $4,426; 7. Johnny Borneman, Ford, 42, $4,276; 8. Andrew Myers, Chevrolet, 42, $3,026; 9. Justin Lofton, Ford, 41, $2,776; 10. Brett Thompson, Chevrolet, 41, $3,526; 11. Mike David, Ford, 41, $3,326; 12. Thomas Martin, Chevrolet, 41, $1,700; 13. Garland Self, Ford, 41, $1,675; 14. Lloyd Mack, Ford, 40, $2,176; 15. Moses Smith, Chevrolet, 39, $2,126; 16. Mike Gallegos, Ford, 39, $2,101; 17. Daryl Harr, Chevrolet, 39, $2,076; 18. Todd Souza, Chevrolet, 24, $2,051; 19. Dennis Dyer, Ford, 14, $1,500; 20. Alex Haase, Chevrolet, 5, $3,001; 21. Kevin O’Connell, Chevrolet 1, $1,450; 22. Erick Hardin, Chevrolet, 1, $2,926; 23. Jeff Barrister, Ford, $1,300; 24. Travis McCullough, Chevrolet, 0, $1,275.