Spring Creek Preview: Surging challengers chase down the leaders - MotorSportsTalk

As the temperatures heat up across the South, the Lucas Oil Promo Motocross heads to Millville, Minn. at Spring Creek MX Park for Round 8 of the championship.

Both the 450 and 250 class have surging second-place riders who still believe they can win this year’s championship.

Marvin Musquin is determined to make the championship interesting after standing on the podium in three consecutive races. He won back to back at WW Ranch and Southwick. Last week, a terrible start to Moto 1 left him pinned under his bike on Lap 1, but rebounded to win Moto 2 and finish third overall.

While Musquin still mathematically controls his fate, Eli Tomac refuses to make it easy. Despite the occasional bad moto, Tomac has stood on the overall podium in every single race this year with wins at Pala, High Point and last week at RedBud.

The key to success will be in finding the perfect compromise between the ever shifting sand whoops and the hard-packed up and downhill sessions. Since the sand whoops often refuse to reveal their personality until Moto 1 is in the books, the overall will be in question until late in the day regardless of who dominates Race 1.

Likewise in the 250 class, second-place Dylan Ferrandis is making a charge on Adam Cianciarulo.

With three consecutive podium finishes, he was second overall at WW Ranch and Southwick. Last week he swept RedBud’s two motos while Cianciarulo stumbled to a fifth-place finish in Moto 1. The deficit currently sits at 25 points, but with 10 motos of action lying ahead of the riders, that can change quickly.

Chase Sexton will return to action this week after missing the last three motos and struggling with health issues for the last three rounds. With the championship out of reach, the 2019 250 East Supercross champion has nothing but winning on his mind.

MORE: Marvin Musquin interview

Schedule:

Qualifiers: 11:15 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Gold
Race: Live, 2 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Gold, Moto 2 at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Gold, (Moto 2, re-air at 1 a.m. on NBC).

July 6 – 2019; Redbud

450: Eli Tomac (1-2) won over Jason Anderson (2-4) and Marvin Musquin (7-1)
250: Dylan Ferrandis (1-1) won over Adam Cianciarulo (5-2) and Justin Cooper (3-6)

July 21 – 2018; Spring Creek

450: Eli Tomac (1-1) won over Ken Roczen (2-3) and Marvin Musquin (4-2)
250: Aaron Plessinger (1-1) won over Justin Cooper (4-3) and Alex Martin (7-2)

Overall Wins

450:
[3] Eli Tomac (Pala, High Point, RedBud)
[2] Ken Roczen (Hangtown, Thunder Valley)
[2] Marvin Musquin (WW Ranch, Southwick)

250:
[5] Adam Cianciarulo (Hangtown, Pala, Thunder Valley, High Point, Southwick)
[1] Justin Cooper (WW Ranch)
[1] Dylan Ferrandis (RedBud)

Moto Wins

450:
[6] Eli Tomac (Hangtown II, Pala I & II, Thunder Valley II, WW Ranch I, RedBud I)
[3] Ken Roczen (Hangtown I, Thunder Valley I, High Point II)
[3] Marvin Musquin (WW Ranch I, Southwick I, RedBud II)
[1] Blake Baggett (High Point I)
[1] Zach Osborne (Southwick II)

250:
[5] Adam Cianciarulo (Hangtown II, Pala II, Thunder Valley II, High Point II, Southwick I)
[4] Dylan Ferrandis (WW Ranch II, Southwick II, RedBud I & II)
[3] Justin Cooper (Hangtown I, Pala I, Thunder Valley I)
[1] Hunter Lawrence (High Point I)
[1] Chase Sexton (WW Ranch I)

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Ryan Hunter-Reay was named to replace Conor Daly in Ed Carpenter Racing’s No. 20 Dallara-Chevrolet, starting in the NTT IndyCar Series event next week at Road America.

Hunter-Reay is the 2012 series champion and 2014 Indianapolis 500 winner. He finished 11th for Dreyer & Reinbold last month in the 107th Indy 500, his first start since the 2021 season finale. He drove full time for Andretti Autosport from 2010-21.

“We need to improve our competitiveness and I wanted to add a fresh perspective from a driver like Ryan who has a massive amount of experience and success as well as a reputation as a team leader. I am excited to welcome Ryan to the team,” team owner Ed Carpenter said in a team release. “We have worked together in the past as teammates and he tested for ECR at Barber Motorsports Park in October 2021, where he made an immediate impact as we were able to qualify one of our cars on the pole following that test. I am confident that his experience and technical abilities will be an asset to ECR as we move forward toward our goals as a team.”

Hunter-Reay has 18 IndyCar victories, most recently in 2018. He also is a winner in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, having been a part of winning entries in the 2020 Twelve Hours of Sebring and 2018 Petit Le Mans. Last year, he was an endurance driver for Cadillac Racing while being on standby for Chip Ganassi Racing.

He replaces Daly, whose departure was announced a day earlier in what the driver and team said was a mutual decision.

“I was surprised when I got the call from Ed,” Hunter-Reay said in a team release. “He described how frustrated he was that his team has not been able to realize its potential despite their efforts, investments, as well as technical and personnel changes over the past few years and asked for my help. Ed and I are very close friends and have been for a long time. I’ve worked with the team in the past and they are a very talented group with high expectations and a committed partner in BITNILE.COM.

“This will certainly be a challenge for me as well. It’s a tough situation jumping in a car in the middle of the season without any testing in what I believe to be the most competitive series in the world. Certainly, part of my motivation in saying ‘yes’ to Ed is the great challenge ahead. The last time I turned right driving an NTT IndyCar Series car was in October of 2021 with this team at Barber. However, I remain very confident in both my driving and technical abilities and believe by working with the talented people at ECR and Team Chevy, while representing BITNILE.COM, we will make progress. I am going to do everything I can do to help the team achieve its long-term objectives.”

Said Milton “Todd” Ault, the chairman of sponsor BitNile.com: “It is great for BitNile.com to be aligned with an Indy 500 Winner and an NTT IndyCar Series champion. I have followed Ryan’s career for years and I am confident he will challenge the entire ECR team to perform at higher levels. I wish everyone luck at Road America.”