By Dick Jordan
Darren Hagen of Riverside, Calif. will lead the Mopar USAC National Midget Series to Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis, Ind. July 26, carrying a comfortable 186-point lead over Tracy Hines after Sunday night’s race at Sun Prairie, Wisc. where he finished fourth and Hines was third.
Hagen won Friday’s “Plymouth Palooza” feature at Plymouth (Ind.) Speedway, beating Kyle Hamilton by inches in a hotly-contested 50-lapper. Hagen led all 50 laps in his Liberty Village/McGladrey & Pullen Beast/Esslinger Ford to beat Hamilton, Hines, Caleb Armstrong and Dalton Armstrong.
At Angell Park Speedway in Sun Prairie, Bryan Clauson emerged the victory of the30-lap feature after leading the final 18 laps in his Toyota TRD/Bullet/Speedway Toyota. He passed Caleb Armstrong on lap 13 and led the rest of the way to beat Brad Kuhn, Hines, Hagen and Zach Daum.
Saturday’s USAC portion of the “Plymouth Palooza” on the Plymouth dirt was cancelled due to extreme heat, including 105-degree temperatures which were expected to adversely affect engines and track conditions.
2012 MOPAR USAC NATIONAL MIDGET POINT STANDINGS
1-Darren Hagen-928; 2-Tracy Hines-742; 3-Bryan Clauson-677; 4-Caleb Armstrong-664; 5-Bobby East-545; 6-Mario Clouser-544; 7-Kyle Larson-542; 8-Brad Kuhn-500; 9-Chris Windom-487; 10-Rico Abreu-471.