From Dick Jordan,
USAC

Fort Wayne, IN -December 29, 2006- Tony Stewart of Rushville, Ind. was promoted as a Saturday participant in this year's "Rumble in Fort Wayne" but he admitted he had planned all along to run Friday and when the checkered flag fell on the 60-lap feature, he was a half-lap ahead of runner-up Dave Darland! Driving the Our Gang Poker Munchkin, Stewart was the fastest of 41 qualifiers, won his heat and came from eighth to first in just eight feature laps! He led the final 53 laps to beat Darland and Mike Fedorcak, the mastermind behind Stewart's Munchkin.

"The credit belongs to Mike," admitted Stewart in victory lane. "He designed and engineered the car. When we unloaded it, people were saying, Oh man, they brought that thing back! Mike is the brains behind this car. I hope tomorrow's race turns out better for the fans but it's hard to slow this thing down!"

Stewart trailed Rich Corson for the first seven laps but made an impressive pass on the outside in turn four to take the lead. He built the lead to a half-lap a coupled of times after yellows and was never seriously challenged.

His qualifying time was 8.115 seconds, nosing out Dave Darland's time of 8.185. It marked Stewart's third consecutive fast time effort at the Fort Wayne facility, having posted the fastest time for both of last year's "Rumble" events.

Drew Charlson and Ginny Quinones rounded out the "top-five" at the checkered flag.

USAC MIDGET CAR SPECIAL EVENT RACE RESULTS
Fort Wayne, Indiana – Memorial Coliseum Expo Center
9th Annual “Rumble in Fort Wayne”

QUALIFICATIONS: 1. Tony Stewart, 2, Stewart-8.115; 2. Dave Darland, 0, RAD-8.185; 3. Billy Wease, 99, Burrow-8.232; 4. Mel Kenyon, 61, Kenyon-8.301; 5. Mike Fedorcak, 97, Stewart-8.369; 6. Brandon Knupp, 15x, Knupp-8.380; 7. Ronnie Wuerdeman, 33w, Wuerdeman-8.404; 8. Matt Estep, 25, BRP-8.418; 9. Lou Cicconi, 56, Rencurrel-8.422; 10. Robby Parish, 42, Robertson-8.423; 11. Patrick Wilda, 33p, Wilda-8.464; 12. Kyle Hamilton, 33, Hamilton-8.464; 13. Arin McIntosh, 8, Reed-8.475; 14. Jimmy Light, 22, Givens-8.487; 15. Drew Charlson, 21, Fuhrman-8.501;
16. Tracy Hines, 10, Moore-8.509 ;17. Ginny Quinones, 00, Quinones-8.524; 18. Jason Hart, 19, Davis-8.536; 19. Tony Elliott, 7j, Williams-8.540; 20. David Budres, 50, Leeke-8.546; 21. Brian Olson, 41x, Griffith/Horn-8.549; 22. Kevin Studley, 41, Griffith-8.551; 23. Jacob Wilson, 07, Team WBR-8.602; 24. Bobby Smith, 8x, Epperson-8.632; 25. Doug Dietsch, 0, Dietsch-8.649; 26. Zach Leeke, 19x, Leeke-8.658;
27. Derek Bischak, 3x, Barnett-8.709; 28. Dakoda Armstrong, 17, Armstrong-8.712; 29. Ryan Miller, 87, Miller-8.718; 30. Jeff WImmenauer, 15J, Wimmenauer-8.721;
31. Rich Corson, 15, Corson/Savage-8.742; 32. Kyle Robbins, 17x, Robbins-8.795; 33. Cale Conley, 3, Conley-8.839; 34. Basil Hicks, 22x, Hicks-8.940; 35. Palmer Eicher, 54, Eicher-8.982; 36. Adam Schuyler, 56x, Schuyler-9.030; 37. Deano Lennon, 27, Lennon-9.128; 38. Billy Hulbert, 5, Hulbert-9.254; 39. Jason Therkelsen, 11, Therkelsen-9.254; 40. Dave Fuhrman, 32, Fuhrman-9.258; 41. Mike Krysiak, 7x, Krysiak-NT.

FIRST HEAT: (12 laps) 1. Stewart, 2. Fedorcak, 3. Cicconi, 4. McIntosh,
5. Quinones, 6. Dietsch, 7. Miller, 8. Conley, 9. Olson, 10. Lennon. No Time
SECOND HEAT: (12- laps) 1. Darland, 2. Parish, 3. Light, 4. Hart, 5. Knupp,
6. Leeke, 7. Studley, 8. Wimmenauer, 9. Hicks, 10. Hulbert. No Time
THIRD HEAT: (12 laps) 1. Charlson, 2. Corson, 3. Elliott, 4. Wilson, 5. Therkelsen, 6. Eicher, 7. Bischak, 8. Wilda, 9. Wuerdeman, 10. Wease. No Time
FOURTH HEAT: (12 laps) 1. Hines, 2. Estep, 3. Kenyon, 4. Armstrong, 5. Hamilton, 6. Robbins, 7. Smith, 8. Fuhrman, 9. Budres, 10. Schuyler. No Time

CONSI #1: (12 laps) 1. Hamilton, 2. Quinones, 3. Wilson, 4. Miller, 5. Schuyler,
6. Leeke, 7. Therkelsen, 8. Conley, 9. Budres. No Time
CONSI #2: (12 laps) 1. Kenyon, 2. Cicconi, 3. McIntosh, 4. Smith, 5. Olson,
6. Fuhrman, 7. Bischak, 8. Hicks, 9. Wimmenauer, 10. Lennon, 11. Hart. No Time
CONSI #3: (12 laps) 1. Knupp, 2. Elliott, 3. Light, 4. Studley, 5. Dietsch, 6. Hulbert,
7. Robbins, 8. Armstrong, 9. Wilda. No Time

FEATURE: (60 laps) 1. Tony Stewart, 2. Dave Darland, 3. Mike Fedorcak, 4. Drew Charlson, 5. Ginny Quinones, 6. Mel Kenyon, 7. Kyle Hamilton, 8. Tracy Hines,
9. Brandon Knupp, 10. Rich Corson, 11. Tony Elliott, 12. Robby Parish, 13. Matt Estep, 14. Lou Cicconi. No Time

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-7 Corson, Laps 8-60 Stewart.

NEXT USAC EVENT: December 30, 2006 – Fort Wayne, IN – Memorial Coliseum Expo Center – 9th Annual “Rumble in Fort Wayne”





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