Earl's Fast Qualifier 2004-08-30

Steele, Lewis Make Big Earl's Moves

Dave Steele of Tampa, Fla. and Michael Lewis of Noblesville, Ind. made great strides in 2004 Earl's Plumbing Fast Qualifier points this past weekend.

Steele now leads both the Weld Racing Silver Crown and Valvoline National Sprint Car Earl's standings and is second in the National Midget Earl's points. Dave posted fast time for the Silver Crown cars at Nazareth, Pa. and added a second in Midget and Sprint qualifying. Tracy Hines and Bobby East were also Nazareth fast qualifiers (Sprints and Midgets respectively). East continues to lead the Earl's National Midget standings.

Lewis was the fastest qualifier for both Western Sprint races at Boise, Idaho Friday and Saturday and now trails Tony Hunt by just five points in that Earl's FQ listing.

Points toward Earl's titles are available this weekend at DuQuoin, Ill. (Silver Crown), Terre Haute, Ind. (National Sprint), Stockton, Calif. (Western Sprint) and at five different Ford Focus venues.

Points are traditionally awarded at each USAC event based on an international system awarding the top-six qualifiers with points in the following scale: 1st-9, 2nd-6, 3rd-4, 4th-3, 5th-2, 6th-1.

Each USAC National, Western and Ford Focus Midget Car Earl's Plumbing FQ Champion will be honored at USAC's Champions Night ceremony in Indianapolis in December. The National and Western FQ champs will receive $5,000 each, while the Ford Focus FQ champs will each receive $1,500.

2004 Standings:

Weld Racing Silver Crown:
1-Dave Steele-40
2-Dane Carter-27
3-Jerry Coons, Jr.-22
4-Jay Drake-21
5-Bobby East & Tyler Walker-17.

Valvoline National Sprint Car:
1-Dave Steele-45
2-Levi Jones-44
3-Josh Wise-36
4-Bud Kaeding & Jay Drake-31.

National Midget Car:
1-Bobby East-65
2-Dave Steele-53
3-Josh Wise-52
4-Dave Darland-29
5-J.J. Yeley-28.

Valvoline Western Sprint Car:
1-Tony Hunt-73
2-Michael Lewis-68
3-Brian McClish & Brad Bumgarner-24
5-Greg Taylor-18.

Western Midget Car:
1-Jerome Rodela-77
2-Garrett Hansen-61
3-Steve Paden-42
4-Johnny Rodriguez-39
5-Josh Wise & Michael Lewis-17.

California Ford Focus:
1-Chris Rahe-103
2-Josh Lakatos-73
3-Bradley Galedrige-61
4-Bobby Michnowicz-34
5-Nick Morago-33.

Carolina/Virginia Ford Focus:
1-Chase Scott-61
2-Danny Bopp-26
3-Sam Beam-25
4-Aron Oakley-20
5-Mike Ward-19.

Midwest Ford Focus:
1- Rex Norris III-53
2-Jordan Noblitt-49
3-Tate Martz-47
4-Ryan Litt-31
5-Ronnie Wuerdemann-27.

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