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Indianapolis,IN – Tracy Hines wins the USAC Mopar National Midget Series held at Lucas Oil Raceway in Indianapolis Indiana. It was his 81st career win in USAC national competition. The win was also his 13th at the famed race track which is the most of any driver.
The Midget race was marred by a spectacular crash on lap 2 in turns one and two. Darren Hagen and Bobby Santos were battling for second place when their wheels touched in apex of the turn. Adam Kramer and David Byrne were collected in the crash and both of their cars did end over end flips. Fortunately all the drivers involved in the crash were ok but five cars were knocked out of the race. The race was delayed as fence was repaired and oils cleaned off the track.
The wreck was particular devastating for Hagen who was the season points leader heading into the race. But his pre-race of nearly 186 point lead allowed him to retain his overall lead.
Tracy Hines started in the 5th position at the restart and quickly charged to the lead. Within a few laps he moved to nearly a straight-a-way lead and it appeared that there was no way for any of the other competitors catch him but on lap 22 Dillon Welch lost power bringing out the yellow.
So once again the field was bunched together for the restart and once again Hines was able to quickly pull away in his historic win at Lucas Oil Raceway. Kyle Larson finished in second and Kody Swanson followed in third.
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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.
Story by Kevin Proot
Photos by Larry Vancil