Ben Simmons wins the Cup Series opener at Auto Club Speedway

Friday, August 6th - Auto Club Speedway

The drivers closed out a great series last week as John Boneske was crowned the 2010 N4Nites Grand National Champion at Road America, and this week start a new chapter to the 2010 season with the opening race of the 2010 N4Nites Cup Series.  All drivers were accounted for except the 2010 N4Nites Grand National Champion Boneske, and it was all fun in the sun for Jeff Prutzman capturing the pole with a blistering time speed of 190.744 mph.  Joining Prutzman on the front row was teammate Ben Simmons followed by Bob Moore in 3rd, Jo Morabito in 4th, and Dave Porter the 2009a Cup Champion in 5th.  Bobby Rafuse, Matt Farrell, and Alex Shoemaker rounded out the field.

When the green flag flew Simmons pulled out front on a the high line and pulled away from the field to about a 2 second gap, but Porter was on the prowl closing the gap.   Coming out of turn 4 Porter radioed into the team reporting a problem, just as his crew chief asked about the issue the 24 was engulfed in a cloud of smoke.  Porter pulled the car to the grass and got out before the flames could get to him ending his day that looked so promising.

It wasn’t long before the yellow flag came out again when the 84 of Farrell got loose in turn 4 and tagged the 60 of Moore sending him into the wall, but it wasn’t long before the yellow came out again as Shoemaker, leading the race spins in turn 4 missing Simmons and bringing out the 3rd caution.

After all was sorted out after Shoemaker's spin the field got back to racing and racing hard, but it seemed that Simmons had the advantage pulling his Kellogg’s Chevrolet Impala past Jo Morabito in second, and closing in on Bobby Rafuse the race leader.  Simmons patiently worked around the strong 47 car and slowly pulled away from the field as everyone was trying to conserve their tires and stretch their gas mileage.  Simmons Strong lead grew even more as green flag pit stops started gapping the now second place Morabito by 7 second with Prutzman, and Rafuse close in tow of the 21 car.  Morabito in the 21 car conversing with his crew chief decided to start conserving fuel in the hopes to outsmart the very fast 94 car for the win, but the move proved costly as the 21 cars fuel mileage did not work allowing Simmons to pull to the back bumper of the 21 before the last pit stops.

Morabito was not the only car to see the 94 get past him but the 52 of Jeff Prutzman now running second went a lap down the Kellogg’s 94 team as Simmons and the 94 team captured their first win at the California track.  “These two mile tracks have always been a problem for this Kellogg’s 94 team, but we found something with the help from a team in the charity race taking his notes and loosening up the car and tweaking it to my liking.  We had a great night for the first time here at California, and we hope to take this win and the good finishes of Cad Vis Racing to Phoenix next week," Simmons said in victory lane.

Simmons was not the only team to have a great night, as Jeff Prutzman followed Simmons across the line in second giving Cad Vis Racing a 1-2 finish, and teammate Alex Shoemaker joined them with a 5th place finish.  N4Nites newcomer, and rookie Jo Morabito had another strong finish in his first cup start showing the muscle he had in the Grand National Series.  Bobby Rafuse had a strong 4th place finish in first race with T.G.I. Fridays sponsor with a 4th place finish and a handful of laps led, and gets a good start to the 2010 cup series.  Bob Moore’s start to the cup series didn’t go so well getting caught beside a loose handling 84 car of Matt Farrell eventually ending both of their days early and laps down.

The Headache award went to Dave Porter, his engine expiring only after 6 laps, ending what hope to be a promising day battling Simmons, for the lead and win.  The Hard Charger award went to Alex Shoemaker, started 8th and finished in the top 5 even with some trouble and ending his day early with 12 laps to go.