2012 ASCC New York 200

The 2012 New York 200 was the third race of the 2012 American Stock Car Championship season. It was held at the New York Autoring in upstate New York.

Summary
Aaron McLaw led the field to the green with Bill Calhoun to his outside, Nikki Curtis, A.J. Murphy, and Roman Musico rounding out the top five. The race was a lot of the usual superspeedway shuffle.

The first noteworthy thing happened on Lap 6. Tony Durbin led the previous lap, and going into Turn 1, Travis Marshall got under Durbin, and Craig Jonser got under Marshall. They went three-wide but sorted it out, with Jonser coming away with the lead. However, this put Durbin on the far outside lane of the track, and when he merged back into the top lane going down the backstretch he forced himself, Casey Lester, and Steven Gill three-wide. The drivers sorted things out again coming out of Turn 4, and the pack returned to two-by-two racing.

By around Lap 15, the field was racing as sort of two large packs very close to each other, the lead pack racing two lanes side-by-side, and the back half of the field racing three-wide.

The first yellow flew on Lap 22, with Joe Olenick leading. Jason Richardson got into the back of Marshall exiting the tri-oval, and as they came down the track, Richardson’s rear end clipped the nose of Darren Moore. The two saved it and merged back onto the track, but Moore had slowed enough that Jack Bohart got alongside him. The two came together and wrecked into Turn 1, collecting Gill and Calvin Hobbes in the process. Gill ended up rolling over after spinning in Turns one and two. Gill was the only one to retire from the race as a result of the wreck.

On Lap 27, Aaron Collins pits with a flat tire from 35th place. While merging back onto the track, the field comes up to lap Collins. Collins pulls up, about 30 mph off the pace, and holds up most of the bottom line. This allows the front seven, lead by Bill Calhoun to pull away from the rest of the field for now. By about Lap 32, the lead group was back together for the most part. However, the next lap, Lorne Roth, who is about 20 mph slower than everyone else, is caught by the pack, holding up everyone except Mike Whitmore. Whitmore was not caught until the very beginning of Lap 35 when Durbin tried to take the lead in the center of the tri-oval.

Despite this the lead pack was much smaller than it had been before due to lapped traffic. On Lap 42, the field once again caught Roth. This time, Lester would benefit and he build up a massive lead. Lester wasn’t caught until the entrance to Turn 1 on Lap 44, this time by Ethan Everett.

On Lap 47, the lead group of only 12 cars caught Paul Harding in the No. 1 car. Due to the sheer lack of cars to hold up, Garth McCallister's lead was only increased by about a car length and a half – which was quickly erased when they caught a pack of three more backmarkers: Tim Averill, Ike Durbin, and Joe Burns.

The field again caught a backmarker on Lap 51, TJ Stewart in the No. 0 car. But by this point there was so little of a pack to destroy that he did little damage, but he was still a moving chicane.

The field caught Roth for a third time in 19 laps on Lap 52. Roth held up the entire inside line, giving the lead to Richardson and Miller Jr. Both of which drafted together to gain a massive lead.

A caution flew on Lap 55, the second one of the race, for debris. Richardson lead them to the restart on Lap 59. However, if you thought this yellow would solve the Lorne Roth problem, you have another thing coming.

On Lap 67, he held up the field another time. This time a group of about 7 or 8 pulled away from the rest of the pack, held up by Roth.

On lap 71, the group of cars caught Philip Kaslow, who proved to be slightly less irritating then Roth as he was slightly more on pace then Roth was. Despite this Kaslow actually regrouped the lead cars with the pack by holding them up.

The field then caught Bobby Miller Jr, who held them up, but only slightly. While this was going on, midpack, Richardson blew up, ending his day just 17 laps away from the finish.

The field caught Paul Harding and Ike Durbin again. Both of which held up the leaders. However, the pack didn’t really feel its ill effects, because Roth was caught, once again segmenting the field into two groups.

Wineburg was caught on lap 78, but had very little effect on the lead group, as almost all of them slipped by without an issue.

A yellow flew on lap 82, 9 laps from the finish. Mike Whitmore, running toward the back of the lead group, blows his engine and slows on the track. He tries to pull onto the apron, but the car suddenly pushes up the track, into Tony Durbin. They spin in turn one, collecting Wineburg. Whitmore slides down the track before getting drilled in the door by the 11 of Curtis. Tommy Nash in the 7 checks up, before the 28 of Aaron Collins runs him over and he spins down the track, everyone checks up to avoid him, moving up the track, this causes Curtis Darcy and Roman Musico to spin. Anthony Evans was then collected as Tony Durbin merged back onto the track.

Tim Woodard lead the field to the green with 4 laps to go. Dan Richards took the lead early in the lap, and held it until 2 laps to go, when Aaron McLaw took the lead. Entering turn 3, with 2 laps to go, Joe Olenick took the lead. On the last lap going into turn 1, Jim Kidd took the lead away from Olenick. No one would be able to catch him and Jim Kidd would drive away to his first win of the season.