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Gold Crown Midget Nationals Await Tracy Hines at Tri-City Speedway in Illinois

The 2015 Honda USAC National Midget Series season is in the homestretch, as just a handful of races remain, making each one that much more important. For Tracy Hines, that means five more opportunities to pick up a win and gain points, as he chases his first Honda USAC National Midget Series title. Next on the docket is the DuPont Gold Crown Midget Nationals, which has become of the marque events on the midget racing calendar each season.

The Seventh Annual DuPont Gold Crown Midget Nationals open on Friday, September 4 at Tri-City Speedway in Pontoon Beach, Illinois. The two-night event concludes on Saturday, September 5, with $10,000 awaiting the winner.

“They moved the Gold Crown up a month this year, which should help weather-wise,” said Hines. “When you get to October it’s usually pretty iffy in the Midwest, kind of like it is in the spring, so I think it’s a great move to shift it to Labor Day Weekend. With the long weekend, fans can come from a bit further away and not have to worry quite as much about hurrying back home, since they’ll have an extra day.”

The veteran driver was victorious during the opener of the 2012 edition of the Gold Crown Midget Nationals. In his career, Hines has two Honda USAC National Midget Series wins at Tri-City Speedway, with his first win coming in 2003, when the track was still a half-mile. Last year, the DuPont Gold Crown Midget Nationals fell to inclement weather.

“It’s been a couple of years since we’ve gotten to race at Granite City (Tri-City Speedway), so we’ll have to look back at our notes at the beginning of the weekend,” shared Hines. “There is usually a good car count there, so as always time trials will be very important. We’ve timed in pretty well at most all the races this year and that has put us in a good spot when the feature rolls around.”

Hines enters competition this weekend, just 10 points out of the lead in the battle for the 2015 Honda USAC National Midget Series title. In his most recent two starts with the series in Pennsylvania last month, Hines finished third and sixth. A third race that was scheduled for the East Coast Swing was rained out and not rescheduled.

This season, Hines has 10 top-10 finishes in 12 starts with the Honda USAC National Midget Series, with seven of those being top-five performances. He finished a season-best second on opening night at Kokomo Speedway in his home state of Indiana and also has finished on the podium at Lincoln Park Speedway and Plymouth Speedway, both in Indiana, Solomon Valley Raceway in Kansas and Lincoln Speedway in Pennsylvania.

“We’ve been so close to winning a couple of times this year in the midget and we really want to get a couple of wins before the season ends,” said Hines. “With how tight the points are right now, you don’t want to take too many chances, but at the same time you have to go for it, because wins help a lot in the standings.”

Last week, Hines raced four times at Kokomo Speedway in his home state of Indiana with the Amsoil USAC National Sprint Car Series. In the completion of the Indiana Sprint Week event that was postponed by rain in July, Hines finished ninth. In the opener of the three-night Sprint Car Smackdown IV, he had mechanical issues as the main event pushed off and was unable to take the green flag, finishing 24th. The second night of the Sprint Car Smackdown saw Hines finish fourth and he was 10th in the finale.

Tracy Hines Racing would like to thank: Parker Machinery, Powered by Toyota, Turbines, Inc., Afco Racing Shocks, Schoenfeld, Stanton Racing Engines, Daum Motorsport, Indiana Underground, Hoosier, Bell and Drivin Racing Oil.

For more information on Tracy Hines Racing, visit http://www.tracyhinesracing.com. Follow Tracy on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/TracyHinesRacin and “Like him” on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/Tracyhinesracing.

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