CHICO, CA (9-10-09) - For the second straight year, local favorite Jason Meyers of Clovis, California, took home the victory on preliminary night number one at the 56th Annual Gold Cup Race of Champions. With the win, Meyers is poised for a top starting position in Saturday's championship race worth $50,000 to the winner.After qualifying ninth, winning his heat and finishing third in the dash, Meyers started third in the feature event and took the top position from early Tennessee's Sammy Swindell on the ninth lap in lapped traffic. Once in front, Meyers led the field for the remaining 22 laps to drive to his second win of the season at the quarter-mile track managed by Handy Racing Promotions. In the spring, Meyers won the Mini-Gold Cup at Silver Dollar Speedway.

"This feels great," said Meyers. "Out of any track in the country, we have probably won more races here than any other track. This place has been good to me. It's neat for me to win here in front of so many sponsors and family and friends. I've been racing here for so many years and there are such great fans here that have cheered us on over the years. To come home and win in front of them is awesome."

The race began with Swindell leading the field into turns one and two. Meyers took the second spot from Peter Murphy on the low side of turn one on the opening lap. Swindell began to pull away on the third lap as the leaders closed in on lapped traffic. Meyers closed in on Swindell on the fifth lap as the latter was having trouble getting off turn four. On the sixth lap, Meyers was right on Swindell and stayed right with him for the next two laps and went low in turns one and two on the ninth lap as Swindell was caught up behind a couple of lapped cars.

Meyers began to pull away near the halfway point of the race as he worked through traffic. The red flag flew on the 17th circuit for a Steve Kinser flip. On the restart, Danny Lasoski took the second spot from Swindell and began to track down Meyers.

Lasoski continued to keep pace with Meyers as the pair closed in on lapped traffic, though the caution flew on the 21st lap. With six laps to go, Lasoski closed right back in on Meyers as they again approached traffic. Lasoski went low in turns one and two and shot to the lead on the 26th lap, only to have a red flag fly, negating the pass since the lap was not completed.

"We got a gift tonight," noted the winner. "It looked like Danny (Lasoski) was really good around the bottom. I was kind of waiting on the top and waiting for someone to come around me on the top. I saw that some guys had made some moves up through the field and I thought that was where they were doing it. We set our car up loose to be good in traffic and we were good in traffic, but we only had traffic for the first half of the race. We had a good race car and hopefully that pays off on Saturday night."

On the final restart with four laps to go, Lasoski looked high in turns one and two, nearly getting even with Meyers. He tried the same move the next lap to no avail and wound up having Swindell battle him for second over the last few laps. Meyers ended up pulling away and wound up taking the checked flag by nearly two seconds in the GLR Investments KPC.

Meyers began the night by turning in the ninth-fastest lap in time trials and followed that up with a win in the first heat. Couple with his win, he was one of the high point earners as total points earned in each of the two qualifying nights will determine the starting field for the 40-lap main event on Saturday night.

"We'll just watch and see what the track does," explained Meyers when asked what it will take to win the finale. "We'll wait and see what they for us on Saturday and make our decisions as the night goes on."

Swindell led the first eight laps on Thursday night and put himself in a good position to win his second career Gold Cup as he ran second in the Tom Rolfe Trucking Maxim. The three-time World of Outlaws champion fell back to third down the stretch, but was able to charge back around Danny Lasoski with four laps to go for the runner-up spot.

"It's bad when you start on the pole and don't win," said Swindell. "We just struggled a little bit with the lapped cars. Our car was as good in the open I think. Once I got to the traffic, I ran the track wrong. We had the restart after the red (flag) and I was able to run behind those guys and see what I was doing wrong and was able to make a couple of little adjustments with the car and my line. We'll look and see where we are at and make some adjustments and hopefully come out on Saturday and have the best car."

Tim Kaeding started seventh and steadily worked his way to the front and wound up third in the DTR Transport KPC to earn his second consecutive podium finish with the World of Outlaws. He battled Chico native Jonathan Allard for a number of laps for third.

"We just wanted to come out and get as many points as we could tonight," said Kaeding. "We're trying to get ready for Saturday and hopefully we can make the car a little bit better for Saturday. Jason (Meyers) and Sammy (Swindell) ran a hell of a race and Danny (Lasoski) was up there running good. It was just one of those things that we just needed to be a little bit better to catch those guys."

Lasoski ended up fourth in the Casey's General Store JEI, with Craig Dollansky fifth in the DirecTV Maxim. Jonathan Allard began the night by setting fast time and came home sixth in the Village Gray Resort J&J. Peter Murphy was seventh in the Kiwi Transport Maxim. Bobby McMahan was eighth aboard the Racing for the Troops Maxim, with Kyle Hirst ninth in the GP Development Maxim. Kyle Larson rounded out the Top-10 in the Starr Property Management Eagle.

Tonight the second night of preliminary competition is on tap at Silver Dollar Speedway. Among the entries will be Jac Haudenschild, the 2008 winner of the Gold Cup Race of Champions. For further information on tonight's event and current event point standings visit http://goldcup.silverdollarspeedway.com/. The track office can be contacted at (916) 969-7484.