BELLEVILLE, Kan. — Daron Clayton, winner of two USAC Lucas Oil National Sprint Car features this season, was a last-minute replacement for Josh Wise in the Cruz Pedregon Toyota entry.
Wise, the defending Belleville champion, made his NASCAR Busch Series debut in the event Saturday at O’ Reilly Raceway Park. He won both nights of the Kansas Klassic, the previous weekend at Dodge City Raceway Park, and then scored two top fives in the USAC events at Junction Motor Speedway on Tuesday-Wednesday.

• Drivers from 13 states, Australia and New Zealand competed at the event, including 19 drivers who never previously raced at the half-mile dirt track. The best rookie finish was turned in by former USAC-CRA Champion Damion Gardner, who finished seventh.

• In one of the closest fields in event history, the top 28 in qualifying on Friday were separated by less than a half-second. Coons topped the field with a lap of 17.659 seconds, just off Billy Boat’s 11-year-old track record.

• The teams ran eight different chassis, with Spike being the most popular with 25. Ford-Esslinger was the top choice of engines in 16 cars.

• The win for car owners Wilke-Pak was a long time in coming after many near-miss victories in the event. Among those piloting Wilke entries in previous Belleville Midget Nationals were: Kevin Olson, Chuck Gurney, P.J. Jones, Rickey Hood, Stevie Reeves, Page Jones, Cary Faas, Cory Kruseman, Dan Boorse, Kevin Doty, Scott Hatton, Tracy Hines and Davey Ray. 

• Terry Goodwin, a former Belleville resident who once sold programs at the track, now lives in Phoenix, Ariz., and competes in the Arizona Midget Racing Ass’n. He returned to his hometown to compete for the first time. Mechanical problems sidelined his efforts on Saturday night.

• Thursday afternoon the annual Belleville High Banks Hall of Fame held its induction ceremony. Among this years inductees were: Bill Holland, A.J. Foyt, Harry Conklin, Bob Pankratz, the Melton Family, Frank Dickerson, Carl Scarbrough, John DeCamp, David Ross and Jack Belk.