2017 iHeartRadio 225

Murphy and Jefferson tangle early at New York Autoring, Hammarling involved

Calamity took a while to come, but as the first cycle of green flag pit stops was ongoing, it finally came in the form of AJ Murphy hitting the apron, and shooting into Nevaeh Laughlin, who sent him down the track, and Murphy would come back up a second time, this time hitting his teammate John Jefferson, and Karl Hammarling in the Holliday Inc. #07.

Braxton Laughlin catches major heat for Big One at New York Autoring

Several drivers were not happy after Braxton Laughlin, the rookie from Los Angeles, CA, set off a huge accident midway through the iHeartRadio 225 that took out several drivers, including Ricardo Guerrero, AJ Stratton, Hanamaru Tsushima, and Nozomi Toujou.

"I get the guy's a rookie, but you gotta have some spacial awareness when you're racing this close. We're going fast enough you can really hurt someone here, and you gotta wise up a bit." Guerrero said, he was hooked by Laughlin to set off the Big One.

"Pretty typical of some rich kid who's daddy's paying his way through to wreck cars faster than his." AJ Stratton was far less subtle in his interview than Guerrero.

"Who started that wreck? Ellichi seemed pretty vocal about how stupid that was." Nozomi Toujou was very aloof post-race about the accident, keeping her calm.

"He needs to be more careful, Zura, he could've seriously hurt someone!" Hanamaru Tsushima had to say, the rookie not happy with her fellow ROTY contender.

Chiyo Minami and John Jefferson tangle, Beaufort also involved

John Jefferson and the Mid-South Racing Team could not catch a break, as Jefferson found himself in an accident with Chiyo Minami that would ultimately collect Jon Beaufort as well.

McBrien and Kunikida uninjured after a terrifying crash

Ruby McBrien's superspeedway debut did not go according to plan, to say the very least, as she was involved in a terrifying incident on Lap 72 where her Ganbaruby! Toyota careened into the inside wall, slammed it, and shot back up into Yoshiko Kunikida, the polesitter, who's truck was also destroyed.

"I... I'm alright! Just another bad day for Ruby, a big crash and... well... I'll try my best for everyone in the International race!" McBrien said, the rookie will still be racing in the Empire State 450, as she was cleared by STARS medical officials to race, passing all concussion protocol tests.

"A minor setback for STARS' resident fallen angel. But we shall come back, and my little demons will not be disappointed again! Now if you'll excuse me, my arm really hurts..." Kunikida said, the Numazu, Japan driver having a fantastic qualifying run and a very clean race up to this point.

Antoine Young taken to hospital following savage crash with 2 to go

Chicago, IL's Antoine Young was hoping to impress in his second race at New York, but things took a terrifying turn on Lap 99 when on the backstretch, he made contact with the 98 of Bob Boyd, and took a frightening hit into the inside wall before flying back up the track, and being hit by the 2 of Jon Beaufort, who had nowhere to go.

"I don't know what happened out there, but I seriously hope he's OK. I've been here a long time, and that scared me worse than nearly any wreck I can remember." Boyd said, his Lumber Liquidators Toyota making it to the finish.

"Don't get why these jokers feel the need to do wreck it up on the last lap. No wonder we have drivers getting hurt. Not like it matters, they're all f**king braindead anyway." Jon Beaufort said, never being too shy to say his true thoughts, despite how controversial they may be.

Young was taken to a local area hospital where he will be kept for overnight evaluation, STARS sends their best wishes to Antoine Young for a speedy recovery.

Team 405 breaks through for first win!

29 year old Owen Hill from Oklahoma City, OK, in his 3rd year of STARS Trucks competition, has broken through to get career win #1, joining an elite list of winners that includes two former International Series Champions in Grant Macintosh and Ben Atkins with his photo-finish win over Nevaeh Laughlin.

"Oh my god, I can't believe it. This is what dedication and hard work will do for you. We finally got one for our boys in OKC! Gotta thank everyone who works on these trucks week in and week out, we wouldn't be here without 'em." An emotional Owen Hill said in victory lane, of course it wasn't all celebration for him, however.

"I do wanna send my best wishes to Antoine (Young), I just saw the replay and that was disgusting, hopefully he'll be back out racing with us soon, we're a family here in STARS, and we never like to see one of our own down." Hill said, on the subject of the violent final accident.

F S # DRIVER INTERVAL LAPS LED POINTS STATUS
1 6 79 O Hill 156.214 100 20* 185 Running
2 21 52 N Laughlin -0.32 100 7 175 Running
3 18 25 B Laughlin -0.65 100 1 170 Running
4 33 55 D Hammond -0.98 100 2 165 Running
5 24 33 T Everett -1.30 100 2 160 Running
6 27 97 B Chapman -1.63 100 2 155 Running
7 32 36 D Houston -1.96 100 3 151 Running
8 26 19 S Andrews -2.28 100 2 147 Running
9 30 78 H Kashima -2.61 100 4 143 Running
10 15 26 G Hadaway -2.94 100 4 139 Running
11 20 9 T Ashcroft -3.27 100 1 135 Running
12 22 5 B Bliss -3.60 100 12 132 Running
13 13 6 C Fitzgerald -3.93 100 8 129 Running
14 25 49 S Strickland -4.26 100 4 126 Running
15 8 81 C Bennett -5.25 100 8 123 Running
16 9 62 L Starling -5.92 100 2 120 Running
17 28 02 M Jackson -6.25 100 0 112 Running
18 29 22 C Minami -6.58 100 2 114 Running
19 5 01 H Tsushima -6.92 100 3 111 Running
20 19 39 C Rhodes -8.35 100 0 103 Running
21 2 98 B Boyd -1L 99 2 105 Retired
22 11 07 K Hammarling -1L 99 1 102 Running
23 4 2 C Conway -1L 99 2 99 Running
24 12 87 A Young -2L 98 2 96 Running
25 10 50 A Stratton -2L 98 0 88 Running
26 16 05 R Guerrero -2L 98 1 90 Running
27 3 65 C Wheeler -2L 98 0 82 Running
28 1 00 Y Kunikida -27L 73 1 84 Accident
29 7 29 R McBrien -28L 72 0 76 Accident
30 34 11 W Timothy -29L 71 0 73 Retired
31 31 88 J Jefferson -36L 64 2 75 Retired
32 17 54 N Toujou -42L 58 2 72 Camshaft
33 14 28 A Murphy -74L 26 0 64 Retired
34 23 99 J Ashcroft -74L 26 0 61 Retired


Caution Flags: 5 (17 laps)
Lead Changes: 60 (26 drivers)

Green indicates a driver locked into the chase on wins
Yellow indicates a driver currently in on points
Red indicates a driver mathematically eliminated from the chase (not relevant yet)

Top 15 in STARS Kobalt Tools Truck Series Points
1st: #79- Owen Hill (1 Win)
2nd: #52- Nevaeh Laughlin
3rd: #25- Braxton Laughlin
4th: #55- Dallas Hammond
5th: #33- Tyler Everett
6th: #97- Brittany Chapman
7th: #36- Dustin Houston
8th: #19- Scott Andrews
9th: #26- Gregory Hadaway
10th: #9- Tom Ashcroft
-----------------------------------------
11th: #5- Bailey Bliss
12th: #6- Carter Fitzgerald
13th: #49- Scott Strickland
14th: #81- Cam Bennett
15th: #62- Lacey Starling

9th place in points (#78- Honoka Kashima), is not eligible for the chase as she is not running a full schedule.

1st: Owen Hill- 111 Points
2nd: Nevaeh Laughlin- 91 Points
3rd: Braxton Laughlin- 86 Points
4th: Dallas Hammond- 81 Points
5th: Tyler Everett- 76 Points
6th: Brittany Chapman- 71 Points
7th: Dustin Houston- 66 Points
8th: Scott Andrews- 61 Points
9th: Honoka Kashima- 56 Points
10th: Gregory Hadaway- 51 Points
11th: Tom Ashcroft- 48 Points
12th: Bailey Bliss- 45 Points
13th: Carter Fitzgerald- 42 Points
14th: Scott Strickland- 39 Points
15th: Cam Bennett- 36 Points
16th: Lacey Starling- 33 Points
17th: Martin Jackson- 30 Points
18th: Chiyo Minami- 29 Points
19th: Hanamaru Tsushima- 27 Points
20th: Corbin Rhodes- 24 Points
21st: Bob Boyd- 23 Points
22nd: Karl Hammarling- 22 Points
23rd: Jon Beaufort- 21 Points
24th: Yoshiko Kunikida- 21 Points
25th: Antoine Young- 20 Points
26th: AJ Stratton- 18 Points
27th: Ricardo Guerrero- 18 Points
28th: Colin Wheeler- 16 Points
29th: Ruby McBrien- 14 Points
30th: Wilson Timothy- 13 Points
31st: John Jefferson- 13 Points
32nd: Nozomi Toujou- 12 Points
33rd: AJ Murphy- 10 Points
34th: Jack Ashcroft- 9 Points