SPRINTS HEAD TO 2 ARKANSAS RACES THIS WEEK;

DARLAND IN IOWA; COONS WINS “HULMAN/HURTUBISE” CLASSIC

Arkansas hosts a pair of AMSOIL USAC National Sprint races this weekend as Dave Darland, Bryan Clauson and Brady Bacon continue to battle for the 2013 championship.

Friday’s race is at I-30 Speedway in Little Rock, where rains interrupted last year’s event. Saturday’s race is at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, where Bacon triumphed last season.

Darland won last Friday night’s 30-lapper at 34 Raceway in West Burlington, Iowa and leads Clauson by 30 points in the latest standings, with Bacon 87 back. A total of 148 points are up for grabs this weekend.

Darland, of Lincoln, Ind., took the lead at West Burlington on lap 14 after Bacon’s engine expired, then led the last 17 laps in the Phillips Motorsports Racers Advantage DRC/Foxco. Chris Windom took second ahead of Clauson, Justin Grant and Robert Ballou.

Jerry Coons Jr. of Tucson, Ariz. led all 30 laps of Saturday’s “Tony Hulman/Jim Hurtubise Classic” at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track. The win was Coons’ second in the Hulman race as he beat Bacon, Tracy Hines, Clauson and Darland to the checkered flag. Coons piloted the Crume-Evans Insurance/RG Enterprises Spike/Chevy.