From USAC
Clermont, Indiana.…..On Thursday night, Tracy Hines of New Castle, Indiana took the win in the J.D. Byrider presents the “Rich Vogler Classic” at Lucas Oil Raceway. The win was Hines’ third Mopar National Midget win of the season, and his 13th USAC National (all three divisions) win at the track, which puts him into the lead on the all-time list.
Mario Clouser jumped to the lead at the start, but things came to a screeching halt on lap two when a battle for second turned into a seven-car crash in turn-one, including a wild flip into the catch fence by Adam Kramer. After a lengthy delay to clean the track, things got back under way and into a long green-flag run.
On the restart, Kyle Larson made a big move to take second, and dove under Clouser in turn-three to take the lead. Hines wasted no time tracking him down, though. He cut under him on lap-three looking for the lead but didn’t get it completed until lap four. From there, Hines took off, stretching a lead out over five seconds.
With eight laps to go, Dillon Welch came to a stop and erased Hines’ large lead. On the restart, he again marched away from the field, winning by over two seconds in the Parker Machinery – Turbines, Inc. #24 Spike/Stanton Toyota.
“It’s been a long day and night. I want to thank everyone on this team, and Toyota power. We knew from the get-go that this car with these tires was really fast. I couldn’t really get going on the first start, but after that it just took off like a rocket. Normally, I kinda pace myself, but it was so good I just decided to go after it and see what happens,” Hines said.
Larson held off some strong challenges over the mid-section of the race, but he was safely in second over the final run in the Keith Kunz Motorsports – Toyota TRD #71 Beast/Speedway Toyota.
“I wish we coulda raced with him, but he just put a whoopin’ on us. It’s crazy how fast he could go that long, but he’s been good here for a long time. Got second to him at the “Night Before the 500,” just came up about a half-straightaway short, and tonight it felt like he beat us by a lap. We broke the rear axle in the heat and got lucky that nothing bad happened, so my guys had to bust their tails just to get it ready, but I have a lot of trust in these guys, and we definitely had the second-best car,” Larson said.
Kody Swanson applied some pressure to Larson but had to settle for third in the Wilke-Pak Racers – Speedway Motors #11 Spike/Stanton Toyota.
“The goal is always to put it in victory lane, but I’ve got to thank the guys at Wilke-Pak Motorsports for a great car and it’s good to end up on the frontstretch. Tracy was the fastest, and he made that very apparent slicing through the field like that,” Swanson said.
Kyle Hamilton was the big mover late in the race, as he drove up to fourth in the Curtis Motor Sales – Hamilton Painting #33 Spike/Esslinger. Clouser rounded out the top-five in the Rotondo Weirich – Fontana Automotive #27 Beast/Fontana.
MOPAR USAC NATIONAL MIDGET RACE RESULTS: July 26, 2012 – Clermont, IN – Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis – “Rich Vogler Classic”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-20.904; 2. Bobby Santos, 17, RW-20.971; 3. Kody Swanson, 11, Wilke-21.138; 4. Darren Hagen, 3, RFMS-21.169; 5. Bobby East, 4, Klatt-21.175; 6. Mario Clouser, 27, RW-21.198; 7. Kyle Larson, 71, Kunz-21.201; 8. Bryan Clauson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-21.268; 9. Kyle Hamilton, 33, Hamilton-21.270; 10. Rico Abreu, 67K, Kunz-21.278; 11. Dalton Armstrong, 7A, C&A-21.293; 12. Dillon Welch, 39, Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-21.294; 13. Dakoda Armstrong, 7D, C&A-21.335; 14. Caleb Armstrong, 7c, C&A-21.349; 15. Adam Kramer, 2, Kramer-21.367; 16. Jimmy Simpson, 21, Simpson-21.391; 17. Nick Drake, 5, East-21.464; 18. Austin Prock, 41, Prock-21.576; 19. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-21.616; 20. David Byrne, 20, Byrne-21.771; 21. Mike Larrison, 501, Hamilton-21.811; 22. Bryan Nuckles, 59, Nuckles-21.902.
FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Larson, 2. Hagen, 3. Hines, 4. Dakoda Armstrong, 5. Abreu, 6. Nuckles, 7. Ferns, 8. Simpson. 2:50.33
SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Caleb Armstrong, 2. Clauson, 3. Santos, 4. Dalton Armstrong, 5. East, 6. Drake, 7. Byrne. 2:50.73
THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Hamilton, 2. Kramer, 3. Clouser, 4. Welch, 5. Swanson, 6. Prock, 7. Larrison. 2:52.14
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Tracy Hines, 2. Kyle Larson, 3. Kody Swanson, 4. Kyle Hamilton, 5. Mario Clouser, 6. Bryan Clauson, 7. Bobby East, 8. Caleb Armstrong, 9. Dalton Armstrong, 10. Nick Drake, 11. Rico Abreu, 12. Jimmy Simpson, 13. Dakoda Armstrong, 14. Taylor Ferns, 15. Mike Larrison, 16. Dillon Welch, 17. Darren Hagen, 18. Bobby Santos, 19. Adam Kramer, 20. David Byrne, 21. Bryan Nuckles. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Clouser, Laps 2-3 Larson, Laps 4-30 Hines.
**Kramer & Byrne flipped on Lap 2 of the Feature.
NEW MOPAR NATIONAL MIDGET POINTS: 1-Hagen-957; 2-Hines-814; 3-Clauson-729; 4-C.Armstrong-711; 5-Larson-607; 6-Clouser-599; 7-East-593; 8-Abreu-506; 9-Brad Kuhn-500; 10-Chris Windom-487.
NEXT MOPAR NATIONAL MIDGET RACE: August 19 – Sun Prairie, WI – Angell Park Speedway – “CornFest 50”