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Tony Stewart from 24th to 2nd!!
(Sept 5, DuQuoin, IL) by Jay Hardin-Ken Schrader won his second one mile dirt track UMP Modified event when he led 18 of the 20 laps of the 18th Bill Oldani Memorial at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds on Labor Day. NASCAR star Tony Stewart flew to DuQuoin after the Sprint Cup race at Atlanta was postponed and started last in the 24 car field and finished second, with Steeleville, Illinois’ Matt Mevert coming home third.
Schrader started second in the 24 car field and took the lead immediately from pole sitter Steve Adams. A lap 5 caution for a minor accident involving former winners Brian Shaw and Curt Rhodes slowed the field. Mevert, who started 8th, began working the top of the one mile dirt oval and surprised many, including Schrader when he took the lead on lap 7. The pass seemed to invigorate the Fenton, Missouri driver as he quickly gained on Mevert and retook the lead on lap 9. Behind Schrader, Stewart had the crowd cheering as he made it into the top ten before the halfway mark and then steadily moved toward the front. A lap 13 caution for Adams’ blown engine slowed the field once again and on the restart Stewart and Mevert engaged in a crowd pleasing battle. Schrader won by 20 car lengths over Stewart as Stewart admitted after the race he needed another caution to catch the DuQuoin favorite.
Schrader added another notch to his long list of achievements, he now has two ARCA wins, one crate late model win and now a UMP Modified victory on the DuQuoin ‘Magic Mile”. He joins A.J. Foyt as the only driver in the 65 year history of the “Magic Mile’ to win feature events in three different types of race cars. Making the task more impressive was that Schrader did not participate in the Monday morning practice session.
Defending winner Shelby Miles was fourth, with Jared Kneemiller fifth.