Jones wins preliminary feature

One night after riding out a horrific flip, Norco’s Tony Jones returned with a new sprint car to win Friday’s 25-lap preliminary feature for the 11th Annual Budweiser Oval Nationals at Perris Auto Speedway.

“What a night,” Jones said after collecting his seventh USAC/CRA win of the season. “I wish we could have kept it on all fours last night, but I think we’ll have something for these guys tomorrow.”

Jones, who is the son of two-time CRA Champion Bubby Jones, started seventh in his Alexander Trucking No. 4 and took the lead on the next-to-last lap after 16-year-old Brady Bacon of Broken Arrow, Okla., hooked the turn-two cushion and lost momentum.

Bacon battled back during the final circuit but had to settle for second.

Jon Stanbrough of Jamestown, Ind., backed up his second-place finish Thursday with a third-place finish Friday. With over 20 main-event wins this year, Stanbrough enters tonight’s Oval National’s finale with the highest win total of any driver in the field.

Missouri driver Daron Clayton, who also rode out a wild flip on Thursday, finished fourth and ahead of pole-sitter Critter Malone of Speedway, Ind. Picking up where he left off after his Thursday night’s preliminary win, Temecula’s Mike Spencer was the fastest of 70 cars during time trials and eventually finished seventh behind defending USAC/CRA champion Damion Gardner of Concord, Calif.

Defending Oval Nationals winner Dave Darland of Kokomo, Ind., triggered the biggest accident after his car slid down to the bottom of turn four of the feature race directly in front of Danny Sheridan of Santa Maria. Sheridan’s car launched high into the air and finally tumbled to a rest of the front straight. San Clemente’s Seth Wilson inadvertently climbed a tire from another car and also flipped. Neither driver was injured.