Full Throttle

LAKELAND, Fla. — Veteran Butch Miller captured his 50th career win at the SK Hand Tool 200 after fending off a furious challenge from Travis Kittleson who was searching for his first series victory. By taking the checkered flag, Miller becomes the first ASA driver with more than one win on the 0.75-mile USA International Speedway.

Miller becomes the first person in ASA history to obtain both 50 race wins as well as 50 poles. “I couldn’t ask for a better car,” Miller said from the winner’s circle. “The car was prepped perfect. We just want to continue on and our goal is to win the championship. We want to win that really bad.”

Miller started his Timber Wolf Chevrolet from the 14th position and took the lead on lap 176, but had to overcome a late caution which bunched up the field on lap 195. On the final five circuits, Kittleson was all over Miller’s back bumper but raced him clean and wasn’t able to get inside for the pass. At the line, it was Miller by 0.16 seconds over Kittleson, the closest margin of victory in the six races held at this facility.

“Butch is one of the cleanest drivers out there,” Kittleson commented. “We’ve had our run-ins and I wanted to prove to him that I could run clean. Our car was best on short runs and his was best on long runs. It was one heck of a race and I had a great time out there.”

Source: RaceFan.com

Results Saturday from the “SK Hand Tool 200″ ASA National Tour race at USA International Speedway, showing finishing position, starting position in parentheses, car number, driver, laps completed and reason out (if any):

1. (14) 52 Butch Miller, 200.
2. (5) 30 Travis Kittleson, 200.
3. (2) 4 Stephen Leicht, 200.
4. (21) 29 Reed Sorenson, 200.
5. (17) 19 Casey Smith, 200.
6. (20) 33 Greg Stewart, 200.
7. (10) 1 Kevin Cywinski, 200.
8. (13) 35 Doug Stevens, 200.
9. (9) 2 Chad Wood, 200.
10. (27) 5 Rick Beebe, 200.
11. (26) 24 Rich Loch, 200.
12. (16) 36 Tim Russell, 200.
13. (34) 10 Greg Williams, 200.
14. (40) 66 Ryan Unzicker, 200.
15. (8) 25 Mike Cope, 199.
16. (3) 71 Brett Sontag, 199.
17. (25) 21 Jimmy Henderson, 199.
18. (30) 57 Gary Sherman, 199.
19. (31) 8 Kris Stump, 198.
20. (6) 15 Joey Miller, 195.
21. (4) 96 Wade Day, 194.
22. (37) 91 Trevor Stewart, 194.
23. (19) 63 Robbie Pyle, 173.
24. (38) 14 Jim Ross, 172.
25. (24) 11 Toby Porter, 145.
26. (15) 9 Tim Sauter, 142.
27. (1) 42 Zach Niessner, 138, accident.
28. (36) 06 John Dalziel, 126.
29. (29) 74 Jay Middleton, 124, accident.
30. (32) 72 Travis Dassow, 124, accident.
31. (33) 86 Jeff Streeter, 119.
32. (22) 80 Bryan Reffner, 109.
33. (35) 01 Jason Rudd, 105, accident.
34. (18) 60 Ed Brown, 79, accident.
35. (23) 55 Todd Kluever, 75.
36. (7) 17 Mike Garvey, 73.
37. (11) 75 Travis Foster, 69, accident.
38. (28) 6 Kyle Jones, 69, accident.
39. (39) 44 Peter Cozzolino, 48, accident.
40. (12) 20 Scott Lagasse Jr., 35, accident.

TIME OF RACE: 2 hours, 2 minutes.
AVERAGE SPEED: 73.767 mph.
MARGIN OF VICTORY: 0.16 second.
CAUTIONS: 13 for 95 laps.
LEAD CHANGES: 10 among 7 drivers.
LAP LEADERS: Niessner 1-19, Cope 20-42, Cywinski 43-57, B. Miller 58-71, Day 72-77, Cope 78-81, Day 82-90, Kittleson 91-101, J. Miller 102-126, Kittleson 127-175, B. Miller 176-200.
POINTS STANDINGS (top 10): Kittleson 196, B. Miller 195, Leicht 184, Sorenson 175, Smith 170, G. Stewart 165, Cywinski 165, Stevens 155, Wood 150, Beebe 145.