Ash dusts 12-car field for Bullring victory

Dustin Ash was successful at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Bullring when he raced his family's Super Late Model stock car a few years ago.

He came back this year to compete full-time in the division as the third driver for the Ewing Bros. Racing team and is flourishing under the team concept in the NASCAR All-American Series.

The 22-year-old sophomore at College of Southern Nevada won Saturday night's 40-lap feature by leading the last 33 laps to post his fourth win of the season.

But it wasn't all good news for Ash despite dominating the race.

His teammate Robert Ewing started the night with two wins and was second to Scott Gafforini in the championship points race. But Ewing was collected in a five-car crash on the first lap that ended his evening and likely his pursuit of a first Bullring championship. He was uninjured along with the other drivers involved.

"It's always a concern when you see a wreck like that especially when one of your teammates is involved," Ash said. "That's because of how close our team is.

"I respect them as much as they respect me. It really sucks when you see that happen to a teammate. At least one of us got the win."

Ash built leads of up to 2 seconds before several caution periods bunched the field. He was never seriously challenged after taking the lead on the seventh lap when he passed Casey Kingsland, who fell to eighth with mechanical problems.

"I don't think it would have been like that without the big wreck at the beginning," said Ash, who won the division's track championship in 2007 when driving for his family's team. "But you take them anyway you can."

Nick Halen, the third member of the team owned by Jay Ewing, placed second in the race in which only six of 12 starters finished. Ash and Ewing won preliminary heat races.

Gafforini placed third and will hold onto the points lead, but Ash will move into second with five points races remaining.

"I love having teammates," Ash said. "You learn a lot more and can bounce ideas of each other. That's one reason why we've been so dominant.

"We work on our own race cars and help our teammates whenever we can."

Ash is certain he'll be helping rebuild Robert Ewing's car before the next race in two weeks at the Bullring.

But that's what teammates do.

Other feature race winners were: Phil Goodwin for the sixth time in Chargers; Justin Irwin in Legend Cars; Brecken Snow in Thunder Cars; and Pete Meyer in Bombers.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.