FARIA TOPS FIELD AT HANFORD, GRABS SERIES POINT LEAD

USAC’s brand-new West Coast 360 Sprint Car Series makes its first appearance at the third-mile dirt Bakersfield (Calif.) Speedway March 27 and Danny Faria Jr. will try to protect his newly-acquired point lead.


 


Faria passed Davey Pombo on lap 20 and led the final 11 laps in his Dick Vanderham & Sons Dairy/DeBoer & Sons Trucking Stinger to beat T.J. Smith, Pombo, Jace VanderWeerd and Rusty Carlile. Pombo led the first nine laps, then yielded to Wes Gutierrez for the next seven. Pombo regained the lead on lap 17 but lost it to Faria three laps later. Faria owns a nine-point lead in the standings heading to Bakersfield.


 


It’s been five years since USAC’s last Sprint race at Bakersfield but Pombo is one of seven drivers who have posted USAC Sprint wins at the track. Pombo won a “regional rebel” feature there in 1998.