Rick Veenstra’s drought is over

Monday, Feb. 10, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

Rick Veenstra of Emmett, Idaho, Jason Leffler of Long Beach, Calif., and Rick Williams of San Leandro, Calif., all captured victories Sunday to wrap up the annual Silver State Shootout over the 3/8-mile paved oval of Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Veenstra held off a strong charge by Rebel Jackson of Burien, Wash., and Las Vegas' Davey Hamilton to win the 40-lap Super Modified feature, while Leffler cruised to the 30-lap Midget main ahead of hard-charging Rick Moss of Seattle and Tracey Hines of Newcastle, Ind.

The victory broke a long drought for Veenstra, who was able to avoid slower traffic and keep Jackson from overtaking him. Jackson won the Copper World Classic last weekend for his second straight Phoenix International Raceway victory.

Leffler, recently hired as a driver for Pete Willoughby Trucking in Indiana, recorded his first victory of the year and his third career triumph in the Midget feature, which included 19 starters.

Leffler, who is running for the national championship in the USAC National Midget Division, started in the second row of his showdown. The 20-year-old is a protege of the Parnelli Jones family and has been racing for three years in the Midgets after running two years in the USAC Three-Quarter Midget Division.

Williams, the runner-up last year in the USAC Western States Sprint Car championships, garnered his second straight victory after winning the final race of the 1996 season at Altamont Raceway Park in Tracy, Calif. There were 19 starters in the Sprint car feature.

Sammy Swindell of Cordova, Tenn., and his brother Jeff Swindell of Memphis won the features of the Pennzoil World of Outlaw Series/Silver State Shootout Friday and Saturday nights on the one-half mile clay oval of Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

The three-day spectacular drew a total of about 19,000 fans to the $200-million facility situated just northeast of Nellis Air Force Base. The two Outlaw events attracted more than 15,000 fans on two chilly nights, while the Sunday finale also drew a record crowd.

Next up at LVMS is the Busch Grand National and NASCAR Featherlite Southwest Tour March 15-16.

* JEFF GORDON WINS BUSCH: At Daytona Beach, Fla., Jeff Gordon, mostly silent through the first few days of Daytona's Speed Weeks, came to life Sunday by winning the Busch Clash. In a race marked by surprisingly little action, Gordon started last in the 14-car field. The 20-lap, 50-mile race was for the previous season's Winston Cup pole winners. Gordon, 22nd on Saturday in pole qualifying for the Daytona 500, averaged 185.376 mph for the 20 green-flag laps of the the Clash. He beat Rusty Wallace's Ford Thunderbird to the finish line by 0.130-seconds - about two car-lengths. He won $54,000, including $50,000 for taking the second segment. Gordon's Chevrolet Monte Carlo got off to a terrible start and stayed near the rear throughout the first 10-lap segment on the 2 1/2 -mile oval. But the Clash, which Gordon also won in 1994, has a unique format. The field inverted for the last 10 laps. So when the second segment began, Gordon found himself third, just behind Bobby Labonte and Dale Earnhardt, the only drivers who finished behind him in the first 10 laps. "The whole key for the second segment was the restart," Gordon said. "Labonte's car didn't take off real well and I was able to get by him. "Once all the cars get in line like that, it's hard to pass. The lead is definitely the best place to be the way these cars drive now."

* HILLENBURG TAKES ARCA RACE: As the top teacher at his racing school, Andy Hillenburg is supposed to know how to protect a lead in the final lap. He did just that -- in textbook fashion -- grading out to an A-plus that gave him a victory Sunday in the Daytona 200, the season-opening event on the ARCA circuit. "If he was going to pass me it was going to be on the high side," he said of Ron Barfield, whose every moved Hillenburg blocked to end of the last trip around the 2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway. Hillenburg, who operates the Fastrack Driving School in Charlotte, N.C., forced hard-charging Barfield to go high in the first turn, then blocked the bottom of the track nearing the end of the long backstretch. He coasted the final mile to win by three car-lengths, taking the race for the second time in three years. As the polesitter, the 33-year-old Hillenburg was supposed to win. Still, he had trouble believing it. "I never went into any race as a favorite in my whole life," said Hillenburg, who collected $18,860 from a purse totaling $189,545. "I'm so happy, I don't know what to say."