ENGEL GETS FIRST PROMOD CHALLENGE WIN

Driving his Diamond Heavy Haul '63 Corvette, Steve Engel (far lane) beat two-time champ Mike Ashley by nearly two-tenths of a second in the final at Bristol, taking the stripe with a 6.051 at 238.17 mph to Ashley's 6.244 at 231.99 mph. It was Engel’s first JEGS ProMod Challenge victory.

Engel becomes the fourth different winner of the first five races. His Thunder Valley victory lifts him into the JEGS top 10 for the first time this year. After beating Joe Baker Saturday night, Engel took out points leader Tony Pontieri and Kirk Kuhns before downing Ashley in the final.

Ashley got past Harold Laird, low qualifier Jay Payne, and Taylor Lastor to get his chance at Engel. He even got a nice jump on Engel in the final, leaving with a .027-second reaction time to Engel's .062-second start, but his Pro Mod faltered, which allowed Engel by for the win.

Ashley ran low elapsed time of the meet when his Lend America/ProCare Rx Camaro tripped the timers in 6.001 seconds in the first round.

Former series champ Jay Payne posted a huge upset win over No. 1 qualifier Josh Hernandez in Saturday's first round. After barely making the field in the final qualifying session, Payne zoomed to a 6.029 at 237.21 mph in his Valvoline Camaro to stop Hernandez's 6.064 at 239.78 mph.

Pontieri padded his JEGS lead to 45 points over Joe Baker with his quarterfinal result. Eddie Ware is third, 46 back of the lead.  (Chris Haverly photo) [05/19/08]

GIBBS IS STILL TALKING

We’ve got part 2 of the Steve Gibbs InnerView up for your reading pleasure. [05/19/08]