Hines and the No. 21 TSR/Chevy/Spike team enter this weekend’s tripleheader tied for first place in the USAC Midget Series standings. He has earned three top-five finishes in USAC Midget Series competition this year. Jones and the No. 20 TSR/Chevy/Spike team have earned one top-10 finish thus far this season.

Adding to this month’s festivities for TSR, the team also took part in the historic announcement of the new Chevy Midget engine on May 7 at IMS. The brand unveiled its new four-cylinder Midget powerplant with the help of Hines, Jones and team owner Tony Stewart. TSR will debut the new engine in the near future and already has been testing it with Chevy Racing engineers.

Competitors taking part in this month’s four-event Midget Maynia Tour have a unique incentive in the way of a $5,000 point fund to be distributed after the fourth and final race of the mini-series May 30 at Dodge County Fairgrounds Speedway in Beaver Dam, Wis. The event will be the only race of the mini-series to be held on a dirt track. The Midget car owner earning the most points in the four events will receive a $1,000 bonus. The remainder of the point fund will be distributed among those teams that compete in all four Midget Maynia Tour events.

Friday at LaCrosse Fairgrounds Speedway, racing will begin at 7:30 p.m. CDT. For more information regarding the track, call 608-786-1525 or visit www.lacrossespeedway.com. Saturday at Slinger Super Speedway, racing is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. CDT. More information can be found at www.slingersuperspeedway.com or by calling the track at 262-644-5921.


Levi Jones, driver of the No. 20 TSR/Chevy/Spike – USAC National Midget Car Series

Was it exciting to be a part of the Chevy Midget Engine announcement last week at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway?

“Being part of the whole Chevy engine program, from the development and testing to the actual announcement last week has been really exciting. Everyone at TSR is really looking forward to competing with this new piece. Chevy has put a lot of time and development into making it really good right out of the box. Even our competitors are excited about the engine. It’s really cool to see Chevy become an option in terms of engines in the Midget Series ranks. Everyone is talking about the new product and we’ve had a lot of questions about when they may be able to purchase the engines for their race teams to use, as well”

You’re going to compete at three new race tracks this week in USAC Midget Series competition. What do you expect heading into these events?

“I’m really looking forward to running with the USAC Midget Series for three nights in a row. Any time you run the same type of car on the same surface, it helps you get into some kind of a flow. I’ve not seen any of these three tracks before, but I think that we’ve really stepped up our pavement racing program and that we’ll be good on both the quarter-mile and the 5/8-mile track. Working with Tracy (Hines, teammate) has been very helpful and I think TSR has a good chance of putting Chevy and Bass Pro Shops in the winner’s circle one, if not more than one, time this weekend.”

Tracy Hines, driver of the No. 21/TSR/Chevy/Spike – USAC National Midget Car Series

Are you looking forward to bringing USAC Midget Series racing action to three relatively new facilities for the series this weekend?

“I have competed at Rockford Speedway. It’s been a long time ago, but I have raced there, so I do remember a little about the track. The other two tracks, LaCrosse and Slinger, I talked to some friends who have competed there and I was able to get some information from them about those facilities. I’m pretty excited about running three pavement races in a row this weekend. We’ve learned a lot in our first three Midget races this season and I know we’ll be ready for these tracks this weekend. Hopefully, things will go well and it will be another good weekend for TSR, Chevy and Bass Pro Shops.


Having worked with the Chevy engineering team on the development of the new engine, are you looking forward to competing with the new powerplant in the near future?

“I’ve been excited about the whole development process, in general. In working with the engineering team from a junior engineer standpoint, without any formal education, it’s been really good to learn about the different components and development that have gone into these engines. This group has a lot of really intelligent guys working on the program and it’s been great to have every question I’ve ever had about a motor be answered and explained during this process. This team doesn’t just work on the racing engines. It also works on the Corvette program and on the production side, as well. They’ve taken what they’ve learned in those areas and applied it to their racing engines and really made some great powerplants. It’s very cool to have been part of this process. I love driving my Chevy truck, and now I have had an opportunity to meet the great brains behind making it and the other great Chevy products on the road today.”


For complete results from this weekend’s USAC Racing Series events, log on to www.usacracing.com. For information regarding TSR, Chevy or Bass Pro Shops, please visit www.tonystewartracing.com, www.chevy.com or www.basspro.com.