HINES WINS ANOTHER NATIONAL PAVEMENT MIDGET “RICH VOGLER CLASSIC”
Clermont, Indiana.…..Tracy Hines of New Castle, Indiana made it back-to-back wins in the Honda National Pavement Midget Series as he swept the program in a dominant performance to take the “Rich Vogler Classic” for the second year in a row.
Hines earned the pole as a result of winning his Scramble race from sixth earlier in the evening after posting the fastest qualifying lap for the night. After leading the opening five laps, Hines was passed by Darren Hagen on an early restart, but the veteran gradually moved back in to take the lead on lap ten.
From there, Hines opened up a huge advantage as Kyle Larson moved to second, bringing his teammate Tanner Swanson along with him.
With just eight laps to go, a second and final caution appeared, and Larson took advantage of the opportunity to go for the lead. After getting his momentum through turns one and two, Larson dove underneath Hines for the lead into turn-three. The New Castle, Indiana driver calmly turned back underneath Larson, however, repelling the attack and moving back away from the field.
The win for Hines in the Parker Machinery – Turbines, Inc. #24 Spike/Stanton Toyota was the 34th National Midget win of his storied career.
Larson held on for second in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #67K Beast/Speedway Toyota, and his teammate Swanson rounded out the podium in the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports – Toyota TRD #67 Beast/Speedway Toyota.
Defending National champion Darren Hagen finished fourth in the RFMS Racing – Liberty Village #3 Beast/Esslinger, and Kyle O’Gara rounded out the top-five in the Rotondo Weirich – Curb Records #27 Beast/Fontana.
USAC HONDA NATIONAL PAVEMENT MIDGET RACE RESULTS: July 27, 2013 – Clermont, IN – Lucas Oil Raceway at Indianapolis – “Rich Vogler Classic”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-20.911; 2. Darren Hagen, 3, RFMS-21.090; 3. Chris Bell, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-21.152; 4. Tanner Swanson, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-21.154; 5. Bobby Santos, 17, RW/Curb-Agajanian-21.165; 6. Kyle Larson, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-21.172; 7. Kyle Hamilton, 33, Hamilton-21.262; 8. Bobby East, 4, Klatt-21.379; 9. Kyle O’Gara, 27, RW/Curb-Agajanian-21.482; 10. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-21.799; 11. Dalton Armstrong, 7A, C&A-21.843; 12. Caleb Armstrong, 7c, C&A-22.053; 13. Grant Galloway, 16, Galloway-22.253; 14. Mike Larrison, 501, Hamilton-22.336; 15. Bret Sanderson, 66, Sanderson-22.778; 16. David Byrne, 20, Byrne-NT.
FIRST SCRAMBLE: (12 laps) 1. Hines, 2. O’Gara, 3. Hamilton, 4. Bell, 5. Santos, 6. Larrison, 7. C. Armstrong (#7A). NT
SECOND SCRAMBLE: (12 laps) 1. Larson, 2. Swanson, 3. Hagen, 4. Ferns, 5. East, 6. Galloway, 7. Sanderson. 4:16.02
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Tracy Hines, 2. Kyle Larson, 3. Tanner Swanson, 4. Darren Hagen, 5. Kyle O’Gara, 6. Kyle Hamilton, 7. Taylor Ferns, 8. Christopher Bell, 9. Mike Larrison, 10. Grant Galloway, 11. Bobby Santos, 12. Bret Sanderson, 13. Bobby East, 14. Caleb Armstrong (#7A). NT
--------------------------------
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-5 Hines, Laps 6-9 Hagen, Laps 10-30 Hines.
NEW HONDA NATIONAL PAVEMENT MIDGET POINTS: 1-Hines-307, 2-Hagen-301, 3-Santos-274, 4-C.Armstrong-264, 5-O’Gara-260, 6-T.Swanson-220, 7-Hamilton-188, 8-Ferns-184, 9-D.Armstrong-183, 10-Bell-178.
NEXT HONDA NATIONAL PAVEMENT MIDGET RACE: August 9 – Schererville, Indiana – Illiana Motor Speedway