Bloomington, Indiana.……The Levi Jones team, led by Shane Hmiel as 5IVE-6IX, Inc., had seen two nights of “Indiana Midget Week” result in two engine failures. But the team behind the Olney, Illinois driver regrouped and marched to victory lane on Friday night in a wire-to-wire performance for the 3 Wide Networks – Fatheadz Eyewear #56 Beast/Esslinger.
Jones led throughout but fought back pressure from “Midget Week” and National point leader Darren Hagen through the middle stages of the race. After taking a shot from the back in the middle of the corner from Hagen, Jones stretched his lead and won comfortably.
“A month ago, Scott (Benic) traded an engine for the one in the car, and thankfully he hadn’t sold it yet. He’ll probably have a lot of phone calls of people wanting to buy that thing now. We qualified well, put ourselves in position to be up front, stuck with our plan on our car. When you have a plan and people who stick together on that plan, good things happen,” Jones said from a crowded victory lane that included Hmiel and his parents.
With Jones pulling away from the field, Shane Cottle and Jerry Coons, Jr. carved in a higher line and eventually got by Hagen as he got tight on the moist bottom of the track. Coons eventually moved by Cottle, as well, making it his second podium finish in three starts aboard the Dooling Machine Products #63 Spike/Esslinger, this time after starting 11th.
“The bottom got really tricky with some cars throwing grease up a little, so guys were losing the front end a lot. I was able to work the top a little bit, more in three and four. I found it about the same time as Cottle, but we got going pretty good, and I could carry my momentum. We could roll through there really nice, and Rusty (Kunz) just clicks for me and we’ve been really fast,” Coons said.
Cottle rounded out the podium in the Keith Kunz Motorsports – Toyota TRD #71 Bullet/Speedway Toyota.
“I love running the midget, and running with good people like Keith Kunz and his group makes it easy. We were just a little tight tonight, coming off the corner I was having to back-pedal just a little. I just had to wait to get back in the gas, so that cost us a little,” Cottle said.
Hagen wound up fourth in the RFMS Racing – Liberty Village #3 DRC/Esslinger, and fast qualifier Chris Windom rounded out the top-five in the Wilke-Pak Racers – Speedway Motors #11 Spike/Stanton Toyota.
MOPAR USAC NATIONAL MIDGET RACE RESULTS: June 15, 2012 – Bloomington, IN – Bloomington Speedway – “Indiana Midget Week”
QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Chris Windom, 11, Wilke-12.008; 2. Levi Roberts, 39, Tucker/BCI/Curb-Agajanian-12.129; 3. Trevor Kobylarz, 49, Kobylarz-12.173; 4. Tracy Hines, 24, Parker-12.174; 5. Bobby East, 4, Klatt-12.303; 6. Darren Hagen, 3, RFMS-12.311; 7. Shane Cottle, 71, Kunz-12.343; 8. Levi Jones, 56, Hmiel-12.371; 9. Steve Buckwalter, 25, Buckwalter-12.374; 10. Brad Kuhn, 17, RW-12.374; 11. Nick Wean, 78, Wean-12.380; 12. Jerry Coons, Jr., 63, Dooling-12.399; 13. Rico Abreu, 67K, Kunz-12.445; 14. Davey Ray, 33, RayPro-12.510; 15. Chase Barber, 191, Barber-12.515; 16. Colten Cottle, 5c, Cottle-12.544; 17. Nathan Smee, 7AU, Cooper-12.581; 18. Zach Daum, 5D, Daum-12.598; 19. Thomas Meseraull, 16, Sandy-12.645; 20. Dalton Armstrong, 7A, C&A-12.662; 21. Michael Pickens, 1NZ, Buckley-12.664; 22. C.J. Leary, 24L, Hines-12.665; 23. Dillon Welch, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.682; 24. Chris Bell, 21x, Lowe-12.700; 25. Michael Koontz, 17K, Koontz-12.713; 26. Austin Burke, 54, Burke-12.724; 27. Jimmy Simpson, 21, Simpson-12.742; 28. Scott Hatton, 15, Huston-12.751; 29. Mario Clouser, 27, RW-12.778; 30. Justin Grosz, 99, Grosz-12.784; 31. Taylor Ferns, 55, Ferns-12.788; 32. Ryan Criswell, 11R, Criswell-12.830; 33. Caleb Armstrong, 7c, C&A-12.834; 34. Andy Malpocker, 22, Malpocker-12.928; 35. Layne Himebaugh, 7, Malone-13.372; 36. Bryan Severs, 12s, Severs-13.382; 37. Kent Schmidt, 5K, Schmidt-13.411; 38. Alex Bright, 77, Bright-NT; 39. Dave Darland, 10, Moore-NT.
FIRST HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Abreu, 2. Pickens, 3. Smee, 4. Windom, 5. Buckwalter, 6. C. Armstrong, 7. East, 8. Clouser, 9. Koontz, 10. Schmidt. NT
SECOND HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Hagen, 2. Daum, 3. Kuhn, 4. Leary, 5. Ray, 6. Malpocker, 7. Grosz, 8. Burke, 9. Roberts, 10. Bright. 2:06.63
THIRD HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Barber, 2. Wean, 3. Kobylarz, 4. S. Cottle, 5. Welch, 6. Ferns, 7. Meseraull, 8. Himebaugh, 9. Simpson. 2:06.22
FOURTH HEAT : (10 laps) 1. Bell, 2. Jones, 3. Coons, 4. Hines, 5. D. Armstrong, 6. Criswell, 7. Hatton, 8. Severs, 9. C. Cottle. 2:05.76
SEMI: (12 laps) 1. East, 2. Buckwalter, 3. Ray, 4. Bright, 5. Hatton, 6. Welch, 7. D. Armstrong, 8. C. Armstrong, 9. Criswell, 10. Burke, 11. Simpson, 12. Malpocker, 13. Severs, 14. C. Cottle, 15. Meseraull, 16. Ferns, 17. Clouser, 18. Grosz, 19. Himebaugh, 20. Schmidt, 21. Koontz. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps) 1. Levi Jones, 2. Jerry Coons, Jr., 3. Shane Cottle, 4. Darren Hagen, 5. Chris Windom, 6. Brad Kuhn, 7. Bobby East, 8. Tracy Hines, 9. Rico Abreu, 10. Steve Buckwalter, 11. Mario Clouser, 12. Alex Bright, 13. Davey Ray, 14. Chris Bell, 15. Trevor Kobylarz, 16. Nick Wean, 17. Nathan Smee, 18. Scott Hatton, 19. Caleb Armstrong, 20. Dillon Welch, 21. Zach Daum, 22. Michael Pickens, 23. Chase Barber, 24. C.J. Leary. NT
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FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Jones.
**Ferns flipped in the Semi.
NEW MOPAR NATIONAL MIDGET POINTS: 1-Hagen-525; 2-East-397; 3-Hines-377; 4-C.Armstrong-349; 5-Windom/Clauson-326; 7-Larson-324; 8-Jones-309; 9-Clouser-304; 10-Kuhn-279.
NEW INDIANA MIDGET WEEK POINTS: 1-Hagen-198; 2-Windom-161; 3-Hines-152; 4-Coons-150; 5-Buckwalter-123; 6-East-120; 7-Cottle-118; 8-Clauson-109; 9-Bright-97; 10-Smee-95.
NEXT MOPAR NATIONAL MIDGET RACE: June 16 – Lawrenceburg, IN – Lawrenceburg Speedway