The Last Stand
Tony Stewart Racing’s Jones, Stenhouse, Jr.,
Prepare for USAC Sprint Series Showdown at Manzanita
Speedway
INDIANAPOLIS
(Nov. 7, 2007) – Tony Stewart Racing’s (TSR) USAC driving duo of Levi
Jones and Ricky
Stenhouse, Jr., are set to make their final push in USAC National Sprint
Car Series competition this weekend at Manzanita
Speedway in Phoenix. The two-day Western World Championships event at the half-mile
facility will also serve as Jones’ last run at the series title as he looks
to wrap up his second national championship.
Kicking
off the week will be Thursday’s Copper World Classic event featuring the
USAC Midget Series at Phoenix International Raceway (PIR.) Jones finished 11th
at the one-mile facility on Jan. 22, 2006, behind event winner Dave Steele.
Thursday’s race will mark Stenhouse’s first
appearance at the facility.
On
Friday and Saturday, TSR will return to the half-mile dirt oval of Manzanita Speedway. In his last appearance at the
facility on Feb. 10, 2007, Stenhouse won USAC/CRA Sprint Series sanctioned
Copper World on Dirt event. Jones was credited with a 16th place
finish after a blown right rear tire sent him to the work area in the late
stages of the race.
Jones
leads the USAC National Sprint Car Series standings with 1,331 points and
is ranked seventh in the USAC Midget Series championship with 849 points.
He carries an 89 point lead over Darren Hagen, who sits in second-place in
the USAC Sprint Series standings.
Stenhouse
will look to gain ground in the Midget series championship with his first
appearance at PIR on Thursday. Should he capture this year’s championship,
it would be his first national series title. He is ranked third in Midget
series standings with 1,043 points – only 156 points behind leader Jerry
Coons, Jr. Stenhouse has won five Midget races this year – two USAC/POWRi co-sanctioned events and three USAC Midget Series
events. Stenhouse also stands seventh in the USAC Sprint Series
championship standings with 1,242 points.
Injured
TSR driver Tracy Hines has also been entered in the USAC Midget Series
event at PIR on Thursday. He’ll make a final decision as to his racing
status that morning prior to the first practice session. Hines continues
daily therapy at St. Vincent’s Sports Performance center in Indianapolis .
Thursday’s
USAC Midget event at PIR will feature a 25-lap race. Gates will open at 10
a.m. MDT with practice schedule for 9:45 a.m. and 11:45 a.m. Qualifications
will be held at 2:45 p.m. with the feature race starting at 7:45 p.m. The
official Web site of PIR is www.phoenixinternationalraceway.com.
For
Friday and Saturday’s events at Manzanita
Speedway, pit gates will open at 11 a.m. MDT daily. Grandstand gates will
open at 5 p.m. on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday. Racing is scheduled to
begin each night at 7:30 p.m. For ticket information, please call 602-276-7575. The official Web site of Manzanita Speedway is www.manzanitaspeedway.us.
Quotes from Levi Jones, driver of the No. 20
TSR/Chevrolet/Spike – USAC National Midget Series and the No. 20
TSR/Chevrolet/Maxim – USAC National Sprint Series:
Heading
into the final two races in the USAC Sprint Series championship chase and
looking at your first pavement event in several months, how do you plan to
prepare for this week?
“You
take it one day at a time. Obviously, with the midget event at PIR on
Thursday, we’ve been really focused on making sure the pavement car is
ready to go. It’s really exciting to possibly have Tracy (Hines, teammate)
back with us for this event. He’s been instrumental in helping us move our
pavement program forward and it will be great to have him back in the seat.
For Friday and Saturday’s races, again, you just have to take them one at a
time. While you want to win every time you get on the track, that’s what
we’re there to do, you also have to make sure you take care of the points.
I’ve always been a believer that if you win and finish well throughout the
season the points will take care of themselves. But heading into this
weekend I’ll have to rely on my experience to know how to help myself out
as the nights come to play. With the boss (Tony Stewart, team owner) and a group of Chevrolet representatives in town for the
NASCAR event at PIR this weekend, it would be great to not only put TSR in
victory lane but to be able to present them with the 2007 USAC Sprint
Series title.”
Quote from Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.,
driver of the No. 21 TSR/Chevrolet/Spike – USAC National Midget Series and
the No. 21 TSR/Chevrolet/Maxim – USAC National Sprint Series:
This
weekend will be your first look at the one-mile PIR facility. On the
flip side, you’re obviously quite comfortable on the dirt at Manzanita Speedway .
Are you looking forward to both events in Phoenix later this week?
“I’m
looking forward to racing at PIR, I really enjoy
the bigger race tracks and think it’s going to be a great challenge to take
on the mile in the midget. I’ve competed at Iowa Speedway, which is a 7/8-mile,
and at Richmond ( Va. ) International
Raceway, a ¾-mile track, this year with the sprint and midget
series. We’ve gotten better each time we’ve raced on the pavement and I
think we’re going to have great cars for the event at PIR on Thursday as
well. I’m really looking forward to racing at Manzanita
Speedway again this weekend. I just competed in the 360 Western World
Championships at the track in October so I was able to reacquaint myself
with the layout. Winning the USAC/CRA event at Manzy
in February really helped set the tone for the season and it would be great
to get back to victory lane there again. Also, with this being the last two
USAC Sprint Series races of the year it would be a lot of fun to get a win
for the Chevrolet group while they’re with us on Friday and Saturday.”
For
complete results from this weekend’s USAC National Midget & Sprint
Series events, log on to www.usacracing.com.
For information regarding Stewart, TSR or Chevrolet, log on to www.tonystewartracing.com or www.chevrolet.com.
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