TERRE HAUTE, Ind. — Taming a track that proved as treacherous as it was fast, Dave Darland captured the First Financial Bank Sumar 100 for the USAC K & N Silver Crown Series at the Terre Haute Action Track. 
The fastest qualifier, Darland led 68 laps and was followed by Jerry Coons, Jr., Shane Cottle, Brian Tyler, Mat Neely and Levi Jones.
Darland allowed that simply winning the Sumar 100 was important.
“I never have won this,” said Darland, who posted his 12th-career Silver Crown triumph. “We’ve been close a lot of times, had a good race car here, but I’ve just never had the luck to go along with it to survive the whole 100 laps. It’s good to come back to Terre Haute; it’s a famous old place. I just wish the guard rail was still up.” 
Darland’s Jarvis Enterprises-Plastic Express Beast, fielded by Galen Fox’s Foxco Motorsports, led the first 11 laps from the pole. Coons applied continuous pressure, getting under Darland on a lap-seven restart, only to have Darland charge back using the outside line. On the 12th circuit, Coons made the pass stick.
Levi Jones found the top line to his liking and while Darland experimented with different parts of the track, took over second.
“I led while I was on the bottom,” Coons explained. “I told my spotter that the bottom’s going to go away and the top’s going to come back — just let me know when the top comes back. I knew it wasn’t going to last down there.”
Darland followed Jones past Coons and for the next dozen laps worked him furiously, battling low and high, running through the turns side by side.
“I was just getting a better run off of turn two than he was and also getting out of turn four a little better, too. I was getting good runs and I was able to slide him. The first time I did, the yellow came out and I had to go back behind him,” Darland pointed out.
A lap after the restart, he dove to the bottom as they went into turn three, sliding up in front of Jones in four.
While Darland led easily, opening a three-second lead over Coons, the fast line around the top became thinner. On lap 93, Darland slipped over the top of turn four and bounced off the wall, turning completely sideways before catching the car and accelerating away.
In the closing laps, Darland settled into a dozen car-length advantage at the finish.
“I’m not perfect,” Darland admitted. “Once I got a good rhythm going, I tried to hit the same spots most laps.  I was able to pull it off most times, but when I got into lapped cars, it made it dusty on top and I couldn’t really see.”
The summary:
Qualifications: 1. Dave Darland, Foxco 56, 21.663; 2. Tracy Hines, Stewart 22, 21.715; 3. Jerry Coons, Jr., RW 27, 21.732; 4. Jon Stanbrough, Baldwin 5, 21.745; 5. Shane Hollingsworth, Nolen 20, 21.870; 6. Levi Jones, Stewart 10, 21.907; 7. Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., Edwards/RE 199, 21.997; 8. Tyler Walker, RFMS 32, 22.061; 9. Chris Windom, Dooling 03, 22.076; 10. Bud Kaeding, BK 29, 22.117; 11. Shane Cottle, Contos 4, 22.187; 12. Cole Whitt, Hartenstine 65, 22.251; 13. Brian Tyler, Team Six-R 21, 22.282; 14. Darren Hagen, DDK 92, 22.381; 15. Jesse Hockett, Pierson 28, 22.572; 16. Kevin Huntley, SC 97, 22.970; 17. Mat Neely, RW 17, 23.026; 18. Craig Dori, Shoestring 38, 23.215; 19. Russ Gamester, Gamester 51, 23.617; 20. Chris Urish, Urish 77, 23.700; 21. Tom Capie, Capie 153, 23.791; 22. Patrick Bruns, Foster 81, 24.522; 23. Rex Norris III, Norris 163, 29.829; 24. Dustin Morgan, M & M 93, no time.
Feature (100 laps): Darland, Coons, Cottle, Tyler, Neely, Jones, Hockett, Capie, Urish, Bruns, Gamester, Dori, Huntley, Hollingsworth, Norris, Kaeding, Hagen, Stanbrough, Walker, Whitt, Stenhouse, Hines, Windom.