namars: Driver of the Year update 2002-01-21

Driver of the Year recieves starting spot for Knoxville race
Stewart point leader after Tulsa

SUN PRAIRIE, WI, January 21----Officials of the Knoxville Raceway, and the National Midget Driver of the Year announced the top driver from the 2001 final National Midget Driver of the Year points will recieve a provisional starting position in the 1st annual Pepsi/Mountain Dew Midget Championship at the Knoxville Raceway on June 1.

The event will be sanctioned by the Badger, MARA, and NAMARS Midget Series,marking the first midget race at the famed 1/2-mile since 1979. The final starting postion(30th) will go to the highest finishing driver in the 2001 points who is at the event and failed to transfer to the 30-lap feature, from the preliminary race events.

"This event is already one of the most talked about open wheel races for the upcoming season and will grow into a major midget auto racing event in the years to come, I thank the event organizers(Ralph Capitani, and Tom Schmeh), for adding one of the top Driver of the Year finishers to the event" commented Bryan Gapinski, the awards founder, and director. Tracy Hines who won the award in 2001 will be the first elgible driver to use the provisional should it be needed.

Tony Stewart, by virtue of his recent win in the O'Reilly Chili Bowl, is the early season point leader in the 2002 points, by sixteen points over Kevin Doty. In the battle for the Manufacturer of the Year defending champion Stealth has jumped out to a large lead. Mopar leads the engine category.

Although a title sponsor has yet to be signed for this year, Arizona Sport Shirts, National Speed Sport News, and Design 500 return as associate sponsors.

CURRENT NATIONAL MIDGET DRIVER OF THE YEAR POINTS 1.) Tony Stewart, 186 2.) Kevin Doty, 170 3.) Cory Kruseman, 150 4.) Critter Malone, 126 5.) Dave Darland, 103 6.) Kasey Kahne, 101 7.) Greg Lueckert, 86 8.) Danny Loaski, 80 9.) Chad Farmer, 73 10.) Tony Elliott, 70 11.) Tracy Hines, 60 12.) Jason Leffler, 56 13.) Dan Boorse, 55 14.) Davey Ray, 53 15.) Jermey Sherman, 48 16.)(tie) J.J. Yeley & Richard Griffin, 47 each 18.) Steve Knepper, 42 19.) Andy Pierce, 38 20.)(tie) A.J. Fike & Matt Westfall, 37

-doy/bg-