SUPERCLEAN DIAMOND NATIONALS

After rain postponed the event on Saturday, Shannon Babb added a Diamond Nationals victory and a diamond ring to his already impressive resume on Sunday afternoon.  Babb, the Mowequa, IL hot shoe led every lap en route to picking up the $40,000 paycheck and the coveted ring.

A stellar field of 80 entries was trimmed to 26 for the 100-lap 2nd Annual Super Clean Diamond Nationals with Scott Bloomquist and Shannon Babb leading the field down to the green. Babb immediately showed his strength by powering ahead of the second place battle between Bloomquist, Moyer, and Pearson.

While a rash of early cautions kept Babb at bay, Bloomquist, Moyer, and Pearson swapped the second position back and forth, 20th-starting Steve Francis and 25th-starting Bart Hartman were slowly working their way through the field.  Francis ran as high as sixth before falling into the pits and Hartman cracked the top ten before being involved in a lap 39 caution which included Jimmy Mars, Will Vaught, Michael England, and Terry Casey among others.
 
The restart saw Babb on the point with Pearson, Bloomquist, Scott James, and Moyer in tow. As Babb weaved in and out of lapped traffic, Pearson shadowed his every move until lap 69 when a broken j-bar forced the defending Series champion to slow on the track.
 
When racing resumed, Babb led Bloomquist, Moyer, Darrell Lanigan, and Jimmy Owens down to the green as Bloomquist slipped high in turn four allowing several cars to pass. Moyer then gave chase to the race-long leader over the closing laps, but was never able to chase down the driver of the Clint Bowyer Motorsports #18.
 
Babb was the first to cross the stripe in his Clements powered Rocket with Moyer crossing in second, Lanigan third, Owens fourth, and Steve Casebolt fifth.
 
“I’d just like to thank Clint Bowyer and this whole team for giving me a great race car,” Babb said in victory lane. “It’s awesome to get this win and I’d like to thank Forrest (Lucas) for all he does to make this event possible.”
 
For complete scoring and event stats go to www.lucasoildirt.com and for more information on up coming events at the Diamond of Dirt Tracks log on to  www.LucasOilSpeedway.com
 
2nd Annual SuperClean Diamond Nationals Finish:
Shannon Babb, Billy Moyer, Darrell Lanigan, Jimmy Owens, Steve Casebolt, Scott James, Josh Richards, Scott Bloomquist, Dan Schlieper, Rick Eckert, Justin Rattliff, Steve Francis, John Blankenship, Earl Pearson Jr., Jimmy Mars, Bart Hartman, Will Vaught, Terry Casey, Michael England, Wendell Wallace, Chub Frank, Jeremy Payne, Terry Phillips, Eric Turner, Al Purkey, David Turner