Buckeye Nationals preview

Drake Out To Protect Sprint Point Lead in 3rd Buckeye Nationals" Ohio Swing

Jay Drake of Val Verde, Calif. leads the USAC Valvoline National Sprint Car Series to this week's "Buckeye Nationals" events in Ohio. He leads Levi Jones by 65 points going into the four consecutive races Wednesday through Saturday which offer 296 total possible points.

Attica Raceway Park hosts Wednesday night's opener, while Thursday night's events are at Fremont Speedway. Friday night's venue is Limaland Motorsports Park in Lima and Eldora Speedway in Rossburg hosts Saturday night's "doubleheader." Practice at Attica, Fremont and Lima begins at 6 pm. Qualifying at each track starts at 6:30, followed by racing at 7:30. The Eldora timetable on June 19 has practice at 6:30, qualifying at 7 and racing at 8.

J.J. Yeley was the top point scorer in last year's inaugural "Buckeye Nationals" Sprint races and won at Attica and Lima, but Tracy Hines won last year's Fremont feature and Jon Stanbrough won last year's Eldora finale.

This year's Eldora finale also concludes "Border Wars X" and continues the tradition of the "Don Branson/Jud Larson Classic," honoring two of USAC's legendary Sprint car drivers. Each "Buckeye Nationals" program includes both Sprint and Midget racing, with 30-lap features across the board for the Sprint cars.

VALVOLINE USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR SERIES STANDINGS
1.-Jay Drake-409
2.-Levi Jones-334
3.-Cory Kruseman-320
4.-Dave Darland-281
5.-Bud Kaeding-275
6.-Brian Tyler-236
7.-Boston Reid-229
8.-Tony Elliott-217
9.-Josh Wise-189
10.-Bobby East-169