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USAC: Kahne captures 'Belleville Midget Nationals' and Lincoln

8 August 2000

Posted By Terry Callahan
Motorsports Editor, The Auto Channel

DRAKE, KAHNE TAKE BELLEVILLE PRELIMS MIDGET CARS SHARE "JAMES/O'CONNOR" BILLING SATURDAY AT SALEM

Kasey Kahne of Enumclaw, Wash. added an exclamation point to his bid for the MCI WorldCom USAC National Midget Car Championship with his three feature victories last week. He hopes to add yet another triumph this Saturday night when the Midget Cars share the billing with the Stoops Freightliner Sprint Cars in the tradition-rich "Joe James/Pat O'Connor Classic" at the Salem, Ind. Speedway.

Saturday's Salem events get under way with practice at 4 pm. Qualifying is slated for 5:30 and the first race gets the green flag at 7. The Salem Midget Car feature will be a 30-lapper on the 1/2-mile paved oval.

Kahne and the Steve Lewis Wynn's/Ford/Performance Racing Industry Special won Tuesday night's 40-lap race at Eagle Raceway in Lincoln, Neb., then captured Friday and Saturday night's 25-lap and 40-lap features at the $70,000-plus Kansas Touchstone Energy/Alltel/Miller Racing "Belleville Midget Nationals" in Belleville, Kansas. The victories boosted his National point lead to 151 points over Jay Drake going into the Salem program.

Kahne led all 40 laps to beat Ryan Scott, Jerry Coons, Jr., Dave Strickland, Jr. and Danny Ebberts at Lincoln, then led all 25 laps to win Friday's "prelim" at Belleville over Bobby Boone, J.J. Yeley, Tracy Hines and Coons. In the Belleville finale, he picked up the winner's paycheck of $10,000 after passing Ed Carpenter on the 22nd lap and leading the final 19 laps to beat Carpenter, Hines, Steve Paden and A.J. Fike.

Jay Drake of Val Verde, Calif. won Thursday night's 25-lap Belleville prelim in the KECO-Hoosier Tire Special, passing Kevin Doty on the 23rd lap. Doty finished second, ahead of Dave Darland, Carpenter and Keith Rauch. Drake was involved in the only flip at Belleville, clearing the third-turn guardrail during the 40-lap finale. He suffered a mild concussion in the incident.

USAC MCI WORLDCOM NATIONAL MIDGET CAR SERIES STANDINGS

1. Kasey Kahne 706
2. Jay Drake 555
3. Dave Darland 483
4. Michael Lewis 462
5. Tracy Hines 419
6. A.J. Fike 419
7. Ed Carpenter 374
8. Ryan Scott 350
9. Aaron Fike 349
10. Clay Klepper 308

USAC MCI WORLDCOM WESTERN MIDGET CAR SERIES STANDINGS

1. Danny Ebberts 712
2. Bobby Boone 679
3. Wally Pankratz 628
4. Thomas Meseraull 605
5. Steve Paden 548
6. Kasey Kahne 540
7. Rick Hendrix 517
8. Shane Scully 513
9. Josh Wise 475
10. Bryan Stanfill 400

Text provided by Dick Jordan

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