Morning Sentinel
Clark captures 250
BY BILL STEWART
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel 08/18/2008

WISCASSET -- The Johnny Clark show returned to Wiscasset Raceway this weekend, and what a show it was.

The two-time PASS North series champion from Hallowell won the first Toyota Tundra 250 on Sunday night at Wiscasset Raceway, storming from the 13th starting position to find victory lane on the track he calls home.

Clark, who has won four of the last six Pro All Stars Series sanctioned Wiscasset races, earned a $30,000 winner's paycheck.

Clark held off PASS South Series points leader Corey Williams in the final two laps to win the checkered flag. Clark took the lead on lap 112 and held it until lap 198, when he headed to pit road on the 10th caution for a new set of tires.

He came off the restart in sixth place but regained the lead from D.J. Shaw on lap 217. Clark never looked back from there and stretched his lead during the final 30 laps. Williams finished second and Steve Knowlton of Itswich, Mass., took third.

• • •

Stan Meserve is pretty sure Dale Earnhardt Jr. doesn't know who he is or what he does, but Meserve is also pretty sure that he is partly responsible for any and all success Earnhardt enjoys on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Meserve, a 1959 Winslow High School graduate and former NASCAR driver, spends his days in Mooresville, N.C. working for Earnhardt Jr. and JR Motorsports. Meserve has one job and one job only for the man racing fans affectionately call Little E.

"I do all the setups on the car," said Meserve, who competed in 31 NASCAR races in his career. "When the car leaves the track it has to be right. That is what I'm responsible for."

At 66 years young, Meserve's racing days are in the rear view mirror. Well, mostly.

"I get vacation every year so I take a week to go racing," he said.

Like most years, Meserve ventured to Wiscasset Raceway to compete in the one race he'll run each summer. This year, it is the first Toyota Tundra 250, where he revisits his connection with Hallowell driver and two-time Pro All Stars Series North champion Johnny Clark.

Clark started 13th and Meserve 20th in the 38-car field Sunday.

Clark, who entered Sunday with three victories in his last five PASS sanctioned Wiscasset races, earned his first major victory of his career in 1997 at the Coastal 250. Clark was 17 at the time and the driver he edged was none other than Meserve, who in 1968 earned his first and only top-10 finish in NASCAR.

"Johnny is always good to race with," said Meserve, who qualified for the Tundra 250 by finishing fourth in the fifth and final qualifying heat Sunday afternoon. "He is one of the biggest reasons I came here."

Clark, who finished second in the fourth qualifying heat, said he enjoys seeing Meserve behind the wheel.

"I used to race against him in the 1990s," Clark said. "It is always cool to race against him. When I was on my tear in the late 1990s he never treated me like a kid. I always respected that."

Meserve's racing career reached its apex in 1968 when he finished 26th in the NASCAR points standings on May 5 of that year. Meserve recorded his highest finish on the circuit -- 10th -- in the Fireball 300 at Asheville-Weaverville Speedway in Weaverville, N.C.

"I look back at it and I feel as though I should have been a lot smarter," Meserve said. "I was young, in just my third year of racing.

• • •

Travis Benjamin came to Wiscasset with a fast car and momentum on his side, which made him one of the handful of favorites to win the 250. Benjamin last weekend became the ninth different driver to win on the PASS North series, when he took the checkered flag at the Atlantic CAT 250 in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Sunday morning, Benjamin ran the second-fastest practice lap behind Clark.

"The car is decent," Benjamin said. "We've been running top five but this series is tough. We have had a lot of different winners, and a lot more who are capable."

Benjamin's victory last weekend snapped a three-year winless drought in the series.

"We've been close, but we've never sealed the deal," said Benjamin, who trailed Ben Rowe by just two points in the PASS North standings.

• • •

Cassius Clark had a difficult weekend with his No. 8 car. The 26-year-old Farmington native blew an engine Saturday and his crew was forced to install a new one before the race on Saturday.

"Our engine went south," said Cassius Clark, who has six top-five finishes in nine PASS North races. "We took it home and put a new engine in. We put in a totally different package. We put it on the scale (Saturday) and changed some things around. We'll see how it goes."

Cassius Clark failed to qualified in a qualifying heat or consolation race. However, he won the last-chance race to enter the 250 field. He started 30th out of 38 cars.

• • •

PASS North points leader Ben Rowe of Turner came to Wiscasset as one of the frontrunners, along with Johnny Clark, Cassius Clark and Benjamin. However, after the fifth qualifying heat Rowe's crew was busy repairing the driver side of his yellow No. 4 car, which was involved in a collision and spun off the track along turn 3 in the fifth qualifying heat.

Rowe was not hurt but his car was towed from the track, leaving the his night in doubt. Rowe, however, earned a spot in the 250 by receiving one of two PASS North provisionals.

"Hopefully we got enough pieces to put it back together," said Rowe, who has two wins and eight top five finishes on the PASS North tour.

Bill Stewart -- 623-3811, ext. 515

bstewart@centralmaine.com

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