Cooper Chun Crowned 10th Anniversary Moser Spring Fling Million Champion

Courtesy Peter Biondo Images Chris Simmons

Las Vegas, NV — The 10th Anniversary Moser Engineering Spring Fling Million presented by OPTIMA Batteries at the Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was one for the history books with a record-high car count in Friday’s main event at 384 entries, moving the progressive payout up to $450,000.

Two Washington state racers met in the Laris Motorsports Insurance Pro final with Steve Kelly in his ‘67 Camaro and Brian McGinnis in his ‘56 Chevy. By way of Kelly’s redlight, McGinnis collected the $3,000 bonus and trophy before joining the Super Pro field at nine cars.

The “split” occurred with 18 drivers remaining including Kelly, McGinnis, Nathan Jones, Chad Sandlin, Josh Pickett, Nacho Rivera, Joey Moore, Ryan Barnes, Chris Sons, KJ Desa, Mikey Bloomfield Jr., Mikel McQueen, Chris Reynolds, Shane Molinari, Jacob Stolworthy, Cooper Chun, Scott Hess, and Cory Gulitti.

At nine cars Moore was just two thousandths red to the .005 of Jones, while Pickett was .011 and took .015 for the win over McGinnis. Bloomfield and Chun were separated by .005 with Chun getting to the finish line first by .008 for the win. Reynolds had the reaction time advantage over Gulitti and turned on the winlight, while Barnes put together .018 total on his bye run.

In the quarterfinals, Jones and Pickett were both wheels up in their S-10’s with one thousandth on the tree between them, and Pickett moved on after Jones broke out by .009. The following pair, Barnes was .006 taking .011 to run dead-on five to move past the .011 and .011 above the dial of Reynolds. In his single, Chun was .003 red and three thousandths under.

Chun and Barnes were only one thousandth apart at the hit in the semifinals, and after taking .007 at the stripe Chun ran dead-on seven to earn a place in the final round. On his solo shot at the track, Pickett was .005 on the red side and coasted.

Pickett would be a first time finalist while Chun had a runner-up finish on the last $30K day at the Vegas one year prior. Three-thousandths separated the two on the tree with Chun taking .005 at the stripe to secure the highest payout in Fling Million history.

Chun had an impressive box score going into the final round with a .006 average reaction time and having been no worse than .014. Celebrating his 21st birthday just one week ago, he is also the youngest Fling Million winner.

FTI Performance Saturday will start with the Spring Fling Reaction Time Challenge at 9:00 a.m. where 25 drivers have been randomly selected to take a hit at the tree and earn $100 cash for double ‘O’ reaction times or $1,000 cash for a perfect light and the opportunity to repeat it for $10,000. Following the Reaction Time Challenge, eliminations of the Laris/FTI $60,000 combined race will continue from Thursday starting with second round.

Race fans will be able to catch all of the action live exclusively on the @RaceTheFlings YouTube courtesy of Hoosier Racing Tires and JEGS Performance.