Hines, Lewis Each Win a Race

In an ironic twist, Tracy Hines came up five positions shy of winning $50,000 as he and Turkey Night champion Michael Lewis split the USAC Mopar Twin 25’s Saturday night at Irwindale Speedway in front of 5,500.

In the first 25-lap race, Hines held off several charges from Kasey Kahne until a yellow flag slowed the race on Lap 17, when Wally Pankratz’s engine began to smoke. On the restart, Kahne could not hold on to second place and faded to third behind Lewis, in a near-repeat of the finish of last year’s Turkey Night championship.

With the start of the second race, Hines went to the back of the pack, with the 10th-place finisher in the first race, Josh Wise, starting on the pole. But at the start, Hines immediately passed three cars on the first lap and was moving up on the leading 10 when he spun out in Turn 2 during Lap 5.

On the restart, Hines began his climb again, this time passing J.J, Yeley, who also spun out in a separate incident. In only five laps, Hines reached 13th place, and was in 11th at the midpoint. He reached 10th place on Lap 15 and needed a yellow flag to reset the field but did not get it, and finished in sixth.

Meanwhile, at the front of the pack, A.J. Fike took the lead from Wise on the restart of Lap 5 and held onto the lead until Lap 23, when Lewis took over the lead coming out of Turn 3 and held on for the win, holding off Fike and Dave Steele, the 2001 Turkey Night champion.

The 25-car field was led by pole sitter Kahne, taking the top position in 16.765 seconds, 0.047 seconds shy of the track record set by Jay Drake during the Turkey Night race in November.

Kahne had spent the afternoon in Fontana racing in the NASCAR Busch Series Califoniaspeedway.com 300. After finishing fourth, he drove to Irwindale in time to qualify on the pole.

Kahne and Craftsman Truck Series driver Jason Leffler, who qualified sixth and started on the inside of Row 1 with the six-car inversion, were among the drivers in the 25-car lineup. However, it was the veteran Midget drivers Hines and Lewis who ended up making the biggest noise.

Winston Cup driver Kurt Busch, who is competing at Fontana today, qualified ninth for the 25-lap Ford Focus Midget feature.

“It’s a nice balanced machine, I had a blast driving it,” said Busch, who finished ninth. “It was a matter of finding the right hole. I was surprised how much grip the outside lane had.”

Placentia’s Darren Hagen went wire to wire, holding off series leader Todd Hunsacker and Ryan Kaplan for his second career victory in the series.

Top qualifier Garrett Hansen finished fourth and Bradley Galeridge was fifth.

-- Tony Solorzano