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The Pit Board: Notes From The Junior Knepper 55

**Saturday night’s “Junior Knepper 55” was only the 7th indoor dirt midget race in USAC’s history and the first since 1990. Previous winners on the dirt include Gary Bettenhausen (3/8/69) & (3/11/72), Lee Kunzman (3/9/69) and A.J. Foyt (3/14/70) who each won at the Houston (TX) Astrodome. Sleepy Tripp won a pair of features at the Reno (Nev.) Livestock Events Center on 3/12/88 and 2/10/90.

**After Saturday night’s race in DuQuoin, the winners of the last two USAC Midget indoor races are Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. (Southern Illinois Center) and Tony Stewart (Fort Wayne Memorial Coliseum Expo Center). Ironically, Stenhouse’s last USAC win prior to Saturday night was in a Tony Stewart-owned midget in the “4-Crown Nationals” at Eldora Speedway in 2007.

**Bryan Clauson swept the podium of the "Junior Knepper 55" by being associated with the top-three finishers in Saturday night's feature. He is the owner of the first and third place cars driven by Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. and Spencer Bayston, respectively. Clauson, himself, drove to a 2nd place finish in his RKR/Dooling Racing entry.

**Stenhouse’s victory marked the first time the Bryan Clauson Racing team won a USAC feature without Bryan Clauson behind the wheel. It’s also the first win for the Clauson team since November 16, 2013 in a USAC Midget feature at Canyon Speedway Park in Peoria, Arizona.

**Stenhouse's win also marked the first indoor USAC Midget victory by a driver in the state of Illinois since Michael Lang won at the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago on January 5, 1991.

**Joey Saldana made his first USAC feature start since a USAC Sprint Car appearance at Winchester (Ind.) Speedway on July 27, 1991.

**The 62 cars entered in the “Junior Knepper 55” provided the largest car count for a USAC Midget race since 64 cars appeared in the 2008 “Turkey Night Grand Prix” at Irwindale Speedway.

**Saturday night’s race was the first USAC Midget event held in DuQuoin, Illinois since Sleepy Tripp won a 50-lap race on the dirt mile at the DuQuoin State Fairgrounds in 1979.

**This was the third USAC-sanctioned event to take place at the Southern Illinois Center. The two previous USAC events were Ford Focus Midget Series races held in 2005 won by Robbie Ray and Brad Loyet.

**Saturday’s field marked the largest car count of the season for a USAC Midget event, surpassing the 53 cars that appeared at the October 23 race at Wayne County Speedway in Wayne City, Illinois.

**Bryan Clauson led the first 51 laps of the race before Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. passed him for the lead with just 4 laps to go. The 51 laps led to begin a feature by a driver who did not go on to win the race were the most by a driver in a USAC Midget race since Tracy Hines led the first 62 laps before being passed by eventual winner Zach Daum in the 2011 “Hut 100” at Tri-State Speedway in Haubstadt, Ind.

**The “Junior Knepper 55” was the first-ever 55-lap feature in the history of any of USAC’s three national championship series (Silver Crown, National Sprint & National Midget).

**The 13 flips at DuQuoin were the most ever in a USAC event, breaking the record of 12 flips in the “Oval Nationals” USAC National Sprint Car event at Perris (Calif.) Auto Speedway on November 2, 2006.

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