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Let the Battle Begin |
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INDIANAPOLIS (June 11, 2008) – Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) Tracy Hines and Levi Jones return to the Midwest this week for the XIV USAC Border Wars series. The tripleheader featuring the USAC National Sprint Car Series will kick off at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway on Thursday. The series will move to the Shady Bowl Speedway in DeGraff, Ohio, on Friday. Saturday’s race at Tony Stewart’s Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, will wrap up the Border Wars battle. Hines will seek his fourth career Border Wars title this week. The driver of the No. 21 TSR/Chevy/Bass Pro Shops entry won the prestigious series in 1999, 2002 and 2003. In his last appearance at the half-mile Winchester Speedway, on April 27, 2008, Hines earned a solid third-place finish. This week’s event at the Shady Bowl will be his first career appearance at the 3/10-mile facility. On May 10, 2008, Hines posted his first USAC Sprint Series victory of the season on the half-mile high banks of Eldora. This week’s racing action will see Jones vying for his third USAC Sprint Series win of the year. In his last race at Winchester, Jones finished ninth. Friday’s race at the Shady Bowl will be his first career appearance at the track. After leading the opening laps at Eldora on May 10, Jones was relegated to a 15th-place finish due to a green-flag pit stop to repair broken hood pins on the No. 20 TSR/Chevy/Bass Pro Shops entry. He has posted victories at Brownstown (Ind.) Speedway and the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track already this season. Entering the week, Jones is ranked second in the USAC Sprint Series standings with 398 points. Hines is ranked sixth in the championship chase with 338 markers. If Hines can win his fourth Border Wars title this week, he’ll become the second driver in USAC Sprint Series history to do so. Brian Tyler currently leads the series in the number of Border Wars titles, having won the mini-series four times in his career. Racing at Winchester Speedway will get underway at 7:30 p.m. EDT Thursday. Tickets can be purchased by calling 800-514-3849 or by visiting the track’s official Web site at www.winchesterspeedway.com. Friday at the Shady Bowl Speedway, gates will open to the public at 1 p.m. EDT. Racing is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. For more information or tickets, call 937-585-9456. The track’s official Web site is www.shadybowl.com. Eldora Speedway will open gates to the public at 3 p.m. EDT Saturday. Hot laps are scheduled to begin at 6 p.m., with racing to follow at 7:30 p.m. For more information or tickets, contract the track at 937-338-3815 or visit www.eldoraspeedway.com. Quotes from Levi Jones, driver of the No. 20 TSR/Chevy/Maxim – USAC National Sprint Car Series (Dirt) No. 20 TSR/Chevy/Beast – USAC National Sprint Car Series (Pavement) You’ve never competed at the Shady Bowl Speedway. Have you heard anything about the facility heading into this week’s race? “Neither Tracy or I have ever raced at the Shady Bowl. It’s going to be our first look at the track on Friday night. Luckily, Tracy has set cars up for other drivers to compete with there and he’s got a pretty good set of base notes for us to work from. We’ll take a very basic pavement set-up to the track and build on it as we need to. We just need to make sure we’ve got enough tire choices with us to get the stagger right and to be able to adjust as needed.” Do you think you’re in contention to win your first USAC Border Wars title this week? “This is definitely a tough deal. You’ve got a lot of good guys competing in the USAC Sprint Series right now and everyone is going to be working to win as many races as they can. I have a lot of confidence in our TSR crew and I know that we’ve really stepped up our programs, especially our pavement programs, this year. I know that we have a chance to put Chevy and Bass Pro Shops in the winner’s circle every night we race. We’re also dealing with a lot of younger kids in this series right now, and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to win. Sometimes it seems that they would just as soon crash you as race you, so you really have to be on your toes. I think we’re well prepared for this weekend’s three-race run and I would love to make 2008 the year I win my first Border Wars trophy.” Are you looking forward to any one race on this week’s schedule more so than the others? “I am ready to go back to Eldora this week. I feel like we really gave away a win there in May. We were penalized on the start, and then to have to come in under the green flag to fix the hood really sealed our fate there that night. I love racing at Eldora and I’m really looking forward to heading there on Saturday night. Like any other driver, I really want to win and I’d love to be able to drive into victory lane at the end of that race – especially at Tony’s (Stewart, team owner) track.” Quotes from Tracy Hines, driver of the No. 21 TSR/Chevy/Maxim – USAC National Sprint Car Series (Dirt) No. 21 TSR/Chevy/Beast – USAC National Sprint Car Series (Pavement) You have an opportunity to win your fourth USAC Border Wars title this week. Do you think that it’s within reach? “The TSR No. 21 team has as good of a shot as anyone does to win this three-race series. We know going into Thursday’s race that Winchester will produce really good racing. It’s a fast track and the racing is exciting for both the drivers and the fans. Unfortunately, we anticipate a follow-the-leader situation at the Shady Bowl on Friday. The corners are really flat there and that’s not going to allow for much passing. We’ll have to wait and see, but we know that we’re going to have to qualify well and put ourselves in a position to start as close to the front as possible on Friday night. Saturday’s race should also be a good one for our team as Levi (Jones, teammate) and I both ran really well there in May. Two of the three tracks we’ll race at this week are very fast and I’m looking forward to getting on the track.” Having never seen Shady Bowl Speedway, what do you expect heading into Friday’s race? |
