NASHVILLE — With fresh tires, Michigan driver John Van Doorn used a bump on leader Jason Hogan with eight laps remaining to record the biggest victory of his career in the Adam Petty Memorial All American 400 on Sunday.
Van Doorn, the Champion Racing Ass’n rookie of the year, posted the fastest qualifying time and led twice during the 300-lap at the Music City Motorplex. It was a decision to pit with 74 laps remaining that gave him the advantage over Hogan.
Following his final pit stop, Van Doorn rejoined the field in ninth place, behind Hogan, who took the lead on lap 208 when Nathan Haseleu pitted while leading the race.
By lap 245 Van Doorn moved into fourth and was closing on the front running trio of Hogan, Jeff Fultz and Robbie Pyle. Just five laps later, Van Doorn had moved underneath both Fultz and Pyle and set his sights on Hogan.
Van Doorn closed on the rear bumper of Hogan several times but was forced to give ground when the leaders encountered lapped traffic.
With Pyle running third chased by Eddie Mercer and Fultz.
The seventh and final caution flag waved when Heath Hindman made contact with the turn-two wall, setting up a 16-lap shoot-out for the victory.
With eight laps remaining, Van Doorn closed on the rear bumper of Hogan entering turn four and bumped the leader enough to chase him outside of the groove and take the lead.
From there Van Doorn drove away to the victory followed by Hogan, Pyle, Mercer and Andy Hanson, who came from a lap down to record a top five finish. The final cars on the lead lap were Scott Hantz, Fultz, Haseleu and Johnny Brazier.
“I always wanted one of these guitars,” Van Doorn said. “We had a strategy coming into the race and the crew kept telling me to wait for the final set of tires.
“I used to watch the old ASA (national tour) on television every Sunday instead of NASCAR when I was a kid,” he continued. “I never thought I would be racing at the Music City Motorplex and never dreamed I would win the All American 400.”
Hogan, looking for his second win in the All American, said he was beat by fresher tires.
“They had a little bit better strategy than we did,” he said. “It was good hard racing,” Hogan said of the final pass.
There were eight lead changes among six different drivers with Van Doorn, Chris Gabehart, John Vandais, Johnny Brazier, Haseleu and Hogan taking turns on the point.
The race was slowed by caution flags seven times for a total of 62 laps.
With his victory, Van Doorn won the third leg of the CRA Triple Crown to pick up a $5,000 bonus and, based on his finishes in the Circle City Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park and a second in the Winchester 400, collected an additional $5,000 for winning the three-race points chase.
The finish:
John Van Doorn, Jason Hogan, Robbie Pyle, Eddie Mercer, Andy Hanson, Scott Hantz, Jeff Fultz, Nathan Haseleu, Johnny Brazier, Josh Vadnais, Sean Murphy, Chris Gabehart, Donald Long, Hunter Robbins, Rick Turner, J.R. Rohrig, Tony Strupp, Gary Helton, Robert Maynor, Andy Ponstein, Jay Middleton, Boris Jurkovic, Heath Hindman, Jason Dietsch, Jonathan Ellen, Ryan Lawler, Casey Smith, Keith Gardner, Justin Dawdy, Will Kimmel, Dennis Schoenfield, Russell Fleeman, Larry Schuler, Eddie Hoffman, Mark Day, Jeff Lane.