MOTOR SPORTS: IRWINDALE SURPRISE: STEWART TWO-TIME CHASE CHAMP COMPETES.Byline: TIM TIM Timothy TIM Technical Interchange Meeting TIM Transient Intermodulation Distortion TIM Time Is Money TIM The Invisible Man (movie) TIM Telecom Italia Mobile (Italian cellular provider) HADDOCK Staff Writer IRWINDALE -- Two-time NASCAR NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing), organization that sanctions American stock-car races, est. 1948. It held its first race in Daytona Beach, Fla. Nextel Cup The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series is NASCAR's top racing series. It was formerly known as the Strictly Stock Series (1949), Grand National Series (1950-1971), and the Winston Cup Series (1972-2003). Series champion Tony Stewart For other persons named Tony Stewart, see Tony Stewart (disambiguation). Anthony Wayne "Tony" Stewart (born May 20, 1971) is an auto racing driver who was born in Columbus, Indiana. He has won championships in sprint cars, Indy cars, and stock cars. made a surprise appearance in the 66th running of the Turkey Night Grand Prix The Turkey Night Grand Prix is an annual race of sprint cars and midget cars. It has been held on Thanksgiving night most years since 1934. It is currently held in Irwindale, California. Drivers The event is considered a major event in the sprint and midget cars series. at Irwindale Speedway Irwindale Speedway is a motorsports facility located in Irwindale, California. It features banked, paved 1/2 and 1/3 mile oval tracks. It is mainly used for USAC sprint car and regional NASCAR races. on Thursday night. Well, maybe it was a surprise to those who don't see him every weekend. Casey Mears, a driver on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series who was entered in the USAC USAC Universal Service Administrative Company USAC United States Auto Club USAC Universidad de San Carlos (University of San Carlos, Guatemala) USAC US Airways Center (Phoenix, Arizona) Midget and Sprint car races at Irwindale, said he knew Stewart was planning on racing in the Turkey Night GP after the Cup season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. It appears Mears was one of the select few who knew. ``I'm never surprised to see him at a Sprint car or Midget car race,'' said Mears, a driver from Bakersfield who will be racing the No. 25 Chevrolet Monte Carlo The Chevrolet Monte Carlo was an American mid-size car. Originally introduced by Chevrolet for the 1970 model year (as competition with the Ford Thunderbird), it has gone through six generations as of 2007. for Hendrick Motorsports next year. ``Are you?'' Those late getting to the track might have been. Stewart spent the afternoon putting down test laps, but made no indication he was racing until he took his car out for qualifying. It turns out Stewart, who drives for Joe Gibbs Racing Joe Gibbs Racing (also known as JGR) is a group of NASCAR racing teams owned by Joe Gibbs, who first started racing on the NASCAR circuit in 1991. Headquartered in Huntersville, North Carolina, more notably near Charlotte, the team amassed three NEXTEL Cup Championships on the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series, was trying to make his first USAC race of the year. Not that he has much time for USAC racing with his NASCAR schedule. But he owns a Midget team and apparently decided a week ago to race his own car in the traditional USAC event that is run on Thanksgiving. After beating a slew of NASCAR stars in qualifying, Kody Swanson of Kingsburg ended up battling his Western Speed Racing teammate Billy Wease in the Midget race. Wease led the final 20 laps to win after he and Swanson ran into lapped traffic late in the race. Wease was able to maneuver his way through the lapped cars better than Swanson and won by 0.189 seconds. ``I couldn't have asked for a better car than we had,'' said Wease, a driver from Noblesville, Ind. Swanson, who crashed and rolled his car during the USAC Sprint car race, started from the pole in the 100-lap Midget race that included a NASCAR-filled field with Stewart, Mears, Jason Leffler and Truck Series driver Bobby East. Mears was the highest finisher among the NASCAR drivers entered in the race, taking 16th. Stewart was 24th, Leffler was 30th and East finished last, in 34th place. Tony Hunt led all 30 laps of the USAC Sprint car race and capped his championship season with a win in the Turkey Night GP. Mike Murgoitio was second and Tracy Hines was third. Michael Faccinto, 16, of Hanford, took the lead with six laps to go and won the 50-lap USAC Ford Focus Midgets race. Ryan Smith was second and Levi Roberts, who led the first 44 laps of the race, was third. Faccinto won the Ford Focus national championship, finishing 22 points ahead of Nic Faas. timothy.haddock@dailynews.com (818) 713-3715 CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Bobby East leads during the USAC Midget qualifying race at Irwindale Speedway. Tom Thompson/Special to the Daily News |
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