Tribune-Star staff report
No driver has won back-to-back “Tony Hulman Classics” at the Terre Haute Action Track since the race debuted 38 years ago.
Levi Jones will try to become the first to do just that tonight when the U.S. Auto Club sprint car series returns to the half-mile dirt oval for this year’s First Financial Bank Tony Hulman Classic presented by Clabber Girl and Budweiser.
Actually, there is an asterisk to the first statement. Steve Butler won back-to-back Tony Hulman Classics in 1987 and 1988, but Terre Haute was closed in 1988. The race was moved to O’Reilly Raceway Park in Indianapolis for a four-year run.
Jones is no stranger to victory lane at Terre Haute, having won three sprint races there in 2005. A victory tonight would tie him on the Terre Haute USAC winner’s list with such notables as Jim Hurtubise, Pancho Carter and Don Branson.
Jones will have his work cut out for him in his Tony Stewart racing entry, facing the likes of teammate Tracy Hines, who won the 2001 running, along with Dave Darland, the 1993 champ and last year’s Silver Crown winner at Terre Haute, and defending USAC midget champ Cole Whitt, who won last year’s Hut Hundred Midget race at Terre Haute.
Jones also eyes a repeat of another Action Track tradition. Last year the race organizers re-instituted the presentation of the coveted Winchester Rifle by awarding the winning driver an 1887 Yellow Boy Winchester Rifle.
