Earl's Fast Qualifier update 2003-08-19

USAC's National "tripleheader" racing program at the Nazareth (Pa.) Speedway this weekend will have an impact on three segments of the 2003 Earl's Plumbing Fast Qualifier Championship, with the USAC Weld Racing Silver Crown, National Sprint Cars and Midgets all competing at the 1-mile paved oval.

J.J. Yeley of Phoenix, Ariz. continues to lead the Silver Crown and Western Midget Earl's points and was the fastest qualifier for Sunday's night's National Midget Car race at Mansfield, Ohio. He trails Tracy Hines by only seven points in that segment.

Jay Drake was Sunday's fastest Mansfield Sprint Car qualifier and leads Yeley by nine points in that segment, while Yeley leads the Silver Crown segment by 12 over Dave Steele after his third-fastest qualifying effort at Springfield, Ill. Saturday. Dave Darland, Saturday's fastest Springfield qualifier, also won the "Tony Bettenhausen 100" at the 1-mile dirt Illinois oval.

This year, each USAC National and Western Series qualifying champion will receive a $5,000 bonus from Earl's in recognition of their accomplishment. Points are earned 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.

The current Earl's Plumbing Fast Qualifier standings for each series are as follows:

Weld Racing Silver Crown:
1-J.J. Yeley-48
2-Dave Steele-36
3-Tracy Hines-22
4-Dave Darland-18
5-Jay Drake-13.

National Sprint Car:
1-Jay Drake-119
2-J.J. Yeley-110
3-Tracy Hines-103
4-Boston Reid-50
5-Jon Stanbrough-26.

National Midget Car:
1-Tracy Hines-76
2-J.J. Yeley-69
3-Bobby East-58
4-Jay Drake-22
5-Dave Steele-18.

Western Sprint Car:
1-Tony Hunt-38
2-Michael Lewis-36
3-Rick Hendrix-34
4-Jeff Gardner-20
5-Jim Waters-11.

Western Midget Car:
1-J.J. Yeley-37
2-Josh Wise-27
3-Bobby East-22
4-Dave Steele-18
5-Rick Hendrix-16.

--USAC--