Columbus Pruett Memorial preview

YOUNG SET TO DEFEND "PRUETT MEMORIAL" TITLE IN SATURDAY'S JEGS CROWN MIDGET SUPER NATIONALS AT CMS

Travis Young of Franklin, Ind. will defend his 2008 victory in the "Alex Pruett Memorial" when the 2009 renewal unfolds Saturday during the "JEGS Crown Midget Super Nationals" at the Columbus (Ohio) Motor Speedway.

Young won last year's "regional" race at the Anderson (Ind.) Speedway but was among the first to enter this year's event in his Three Wide Life Beast/Esslinger Ford. He will face the best USAC has to offer in the race which this year is part of the 2009 USAC Mopar National Midget Series.

Saturday's race honors the memory of former USAC Midget racer Alex Pruett who passed away in late 2007.

Brad Kuhn of Avon, Ind. takes a slim 36-point lead over California drivers Brad Sweet and Darren Hagen into Saturday's Columbus event. Sweet and Hagen are tied for second in the latest standings.

Hagen won the 40-lap JEGS Crown Midget feature at Columbus in April, leading all 40 laps and beating Caleb Armstrong and defending National Midget Champ Cole Whitt to the checkered flag. Kuhn finished seventh in the April race.

Saturday's CMS program includes the USAC National Ford Focus Championship (pavement) and USAC .25 Midget racing. Racing on the 1/3-mile oval will determine the winner of the 2009 pavement Ford Focus title, whose name will be engraved on the permanent Henry Ford Sweepstakes Trophy, while the .25 Midgets will compete on the smaller track located just behind the larger oval.

Pruett, of Carefree, Ariz., finished second in the 2007 USAC Regional Midget Series recording eight "podium" finishes, including a pair of feature wins. A veteran of Sprint and Midget competition, he also competed in the famed Chili Bowl Midget Nationals at Tulsa, Okla.

-credit: usac