Atlanta, GA – November 29, 2019 – Two-time USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters National Champion, Morgan Turpen from Cordova, Tennessee claimed her 2nd USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour regional series and 8th United Sprint Car Series title during the series’ 23rd and 2019 racing season. The veteran sprint car driver, who was the series ”Rookie of the Year” during the 2010 season, collected the title as the Champion of the tough USCS Mid-South region while also finishing in fifth place in the USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour National point standings, although competing on a somewhat limited basis not allowing her to compete for the National title. In a year that saw a record 21 drivers win United Sprint Car Series main events,

Turpen made three visits to the www.rockauto.com USCS victory lane as the series FireAde 2000 feature winner. She added 17 top-5 and a total of 27 top-ten finishes to her scorecard for the 2019 season. All three of her wins came in events that awarded USCS Mid-South regional series points as she attended each of the 24 USCS Mid-South regional several events.

Turpen clinched the USCS Mid-South Thunder title on the final 2019 season weekend during the two-day USCS Fall Brawl on November 9th and 10th at Talladega Short Track in Eastaboga, Alabama. She additionally finished in the top ten of both the USCS Southern Thunder (7th place) and the USCS Deep South (8th place) regional series although not competing in all events.

Morgan Turpen’s team-mate, car-owner and 12-time USCS National sprint car Champion, Terry Gray from Bartlett, Tennessee finished 69 points behind Turpen in the 2019 USCS Mid-South point standings to secure the runner-up position. Gray clinched the National title during the final weekend at Talladega as well.

Johnny Bridges from Cherryville, North Carolina finished in the third position in the USCS Mid-South Thunder regional point standings behind the two veteran road warriors (Turpen and Gray) in the final USCS National standings. In addition to a runner-up standing in the USCS National point standings, Johnny Bridges garnered a second-place finish in both the USCS Southern Thunder and USCS Deep South regional series standings. It was Bridges first conquest of the entire USCS National Championship schedule since his 1998 Rookie season when he garnered the USCS Rookie of the Year honors. Bridges, who had one of only a handful of Ford powered sprint cars to ever race in the series, like Terry Gray, had perfect attendance during the series 46 National events and had two victories on the season.

The 2012 USCS Rookie of the Year, Jeff Willingham from Ripley, Mississippi finished in fourth position in the Mid-South region final standings. Willingham also garnered a fourth-place finish in the final USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters National, USCS Deep South Thunder regional series and USCS Southern Thunder regional series standings.

Florida sprint car racer Tony Agin from Fort Myers, Florida finished in the fifth position in the final USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour regional series point standings. Agin also finished in third place in the two other USCS regional sprint car series, the USCS Southern Thunder Tour and USCS Deep South Thunder regional series. He also garnered a third-place finish in the USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour National standings.

The 2017 USCS Mid-South Thunder regional series “Rookie of the Year” and third-generation sprint car racer, sixteen-year-old Chase Howard from Nesbit, Mississippi improved his standings during the 2019 season to finish in the sixth position in the 2019 USCS Mid-South regional series final standings. Howard also garnered a 10th place finish in the 2019 USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters National point standings.

Chase Howard’s team-mate, car-owner, Father and second-generation sprint car racer, Ronny Howard, also from Nesbit, Mississippi improved his standings during the 2019 season to finish in the seventh position in the 2019 USCS Mid-South regional series final standings. Ronny Howard finished just shy of the USCS National top-ten in 11th place out of 176 drivers that competed during the 2019 USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters National schedule

Byhalia, Mississippi’s, Dale Howard earned the eighth position in the final USCS Mid-South regional series standings. Howard, who had several mechanical failures while lined up on the front row of main events, could have finished higher in the standings had his luck been a little better. Dale Howard also finished in ninth place in the USCS National standings, but primarily competed in the USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour regional series. The talented multi-time Mid-South area track Champion had a third-place finish in the season finale and looks forward to adding to his career-win total in the series in 2020.

National Sprint Car Hall of Fame 2015 inductee Danny Smith from Chillicothe, Ohio finished in the ninth position in the USCS Mid-South regional series point standings. Smith who did not compete in every event still entered enough events to garner the top ten regional series finish. He fared much better in the National standings where he finished in sixth place and made two trips to the www.rockauto.com USCS Victory lane. Smith had 12 top-five and 24 top-ten finishes along the way in all USCS competition.

Shelby Brown from Marks, Mississippi finished tenth in the competitive USCS Mid-South regional series standings. She also finished in the eighth position in the final USCS National point standings. Those two efforts were good enough for her to garner the 2019 USCS National Rookie of the Year Award as the highest finishing Rookie driver in the USCS National point standings. It was only Brown’s second year to compete in any kind of racing vehicle. Her only other experience was to compete in the 305-winged sprint car division at Riverside International Speedway in West Memphis, Arkansas during the 2018 season, where she was that divisions Rookie of the Year as well

Derek Hagar from Marion, Arkansas and Tony Stewart from Columbus, Indiana both had four USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour regional series trips to the www.RockAuto.com USCS Victory Lane as the FireAde 2000 feature winners to lead all others in that regions wins column. Morgan Turpen won three times in Mid-South region competition as did Mark Smith from Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Young-gun Carson Short from Marion, Illinois won twice in 2019 to follow as the only multi-time winners. Matt Covington from Glenpool, Oklahoma, Greg Wilson from Benton Ridge, Ohio, Johnny Bridges, Brad Bowden from Hernando, Mississippi, Jeff Swindell from Bartlett, Tennessee, Howard Moore from Memphis, Tennessee, Jared Horstman from Ohio and Randy Hannagan from Ohio each won once during 2019. One hundred and twenty-nine different drivers competed in the 24 USCS Mid-South Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters regional series events during the series 23rd and 2019 racing season.

USCS Founder and President, Pete Walton said ‘We are very proud to announce that Morgan Turpen is once again our United Sprint Car Series presented by K&N Filters Mid-South Thunder Tour Champion. She continues to be one of the top 360 winged sprint car drivers in North America. Her work ethic and competitive spirit make her a huge success and fan favorite. Congratulations on her accomplishments this season.” concluded Walton.

The complete season schedule and all winners for the 2019 USCS Outlaw Thunder Tour presented by K&N Filters with winners can be found at www.uscsracing.com For rules and other info please visit www.uscsracing.com or call the series office 770-865-6097. We invite you to please follow Uscs Racing on Facebook and Twitter as well.

Photo/Caption car #10m: 2-time USCS National Champion, Morgan Turpen claimed her 2nd USCS Mid-South regional series and 8th USCS title during 2019. (USCS file photo)

USCS Mid-South Thunder Regional series 2019 Final Point Standing after 24 events:

Pos. Car# Driver  Point

1 10m Morgan Turpen 3534

2 10 Terry Gray 3465

3 07 Johnny Bridges 3179

4 28 Jeff Willingham 2921

5 38 Tony Agin 2809

6 13 Chase Howard 2614

7 44 Ronny Howard 2567

8 47 Dale Howard 2501

9 4 Danny Smith 2418

10 17b Shelby Brown 2253

11 39 Brad Bowden 1941

12 m1 Mark Smith 1810

13 9jr Derek Hagar 1555

14 26 Marshall Skinner 1508

15 10k Dewayne White 1368

16 14 Tony Stewart 1220

17 17 Alex Lyles 1124

18 07 T Brandon Taylor 1104

19 1s Joey Schmidt 902

20 29 Kyle Amerson 874

21 10 Landon Britt 849

22 33 Joe Larkin 806

Tie 11b Tyler Horn 806

24 40 Howard Moore 798

25 3 Sammy Swindell 703

26 21 Carson Short 688

27 49 Mallie Shuster 681

28 4m Michael Miller 680

29 18j RJ Jacobs 658

30 93 Jake Knight 657

31 17cb Corey Bailey 633

32 7E Eric Gunderson 627

33 11 Jim Shuster 616

34 67 Hayden Martin 597

35 0 Dustin Adams 592

36 1x Tim Crawley 580

37 94 Jeff Swindell 573

38 5 Justin Barger 571

39 3b Chris Banja 530

Tie 72k Rick Kahler 530

41 36 Tim Perry 483

42 43 Terry Witherspoon 476

43 8z Zach Pringle 468

44 27 Curt Terrell 466

45 99 Tanner Witherspoon 462

46 77 Michael Santangelo 454

47 10k2 Jamie Manley 444

48 3g Paxton Gregory 440

49 01 Shane Morgan 438

50 6 Dustin Gates 433

51 21 Spencer Meredith 432

52 29 Jeff Oliver 415

53 91A Ernie Ainsworth 413

54 95 Matt Covington 412

55 21b Brandon Hinkle 372

56 d6 Cody Gardner 368

57 22 Connor Leoffler 362

58 1A Lee Moore 354

59 9 Edward Guidry 344

Tie 15jr Geoff Styner 344

61 83 Blake Carrier 342

62 14 Bo Barber 338

63 5m Shawn Mott 324

64 w20 Greg Wilson 308

65 28f Davie Franek 306

66 4 Tommy Snellgrove 300

67 17H Jared Horstman 298

68 22H Randy Hannagan 294

69 17 Channin Tankersley 290

70 28H Hud Horton 282

71 66 Chase Dunham 278

72 34 Luke Hall 276

73 3 Chad Jones 274

Tie 1st Steve Surniak 274

75 51 Bobby Tersillo 273

76 16 Cody Adams 272

77 23 Devon Dobie 266

78 197 Ryan Harrison 264

79 24D Danny Sams III 262

80 8a Alan Myers 260

Tie 11 Tim Allison 260

82 83 Bob Auld 258

83 23 Lance Moss 256

84 52 Cody Karl 244

Tie 47 Eric Riggins Jr 244

86 21m Adam Cruea 238

87 2x Mike Grigsby 230

Tie 49 Shawn Dancer 230

89 88 Brandon Blenden 228

90 15j Jeremy Middleton 224

91 21 Jason Shavers 222

92 7 J Gregg Jones 220

93 99 Blake Jenkins 216

Tie 2H Tommy Hall 216

95 46 Jan Howard 214

Tie 21k Kevin Hinkle 214

97 B 52 Bill Mason 208

98 71 Aryton Olsen 149

99 2c Wayne Johnson 148

100 1x Eddie Gallagher 146

101 55 McKenna Haase 132

102 21 Butch David 130

Tie 51b Joe B Miller 130

Tie 18t Tyler Vaughn 130

105 7D Don Goodwin 128

106 24 Kobe Allison 126

107 16 Cody Tankersley 124

108 67 Jake McLain 122

109 57 Cody Howard 120

Tie 24 Jeffrey West 120

Tie 5 Richard Reynolds 120

112 5d Zach Daum 116

113 88 Trent Moss 114

114 5 Mark Lott 112

Tie 25 Ray Bugg 112

116 7D Dillon DeJournett 108

Tie 27t Todd Bradford 108

118 92 Cody Hays 106

119 83 Curt Schumacher 100

Tie 29d Danny Oliver 100

Tie 23p Hunter Poe 100

Tie 5k Jake Karklin 100

Tie 69 Jamey Mooney 100

Tie 17 Jeff Leach 100

Tie 12t Joe Young 100

Tie 0 Mike Vaculik 100

Tie 32x Robert Richardson 100

Tie 23 Seth Bergman 100

Tie 121 Todd Bliss 100

USCS Media contact: Pete Walron