James Hylton Races to 24th in Allan Crowe Classic

Memphis TN (August 22, 2006) - Ageless stock car legend James Hylton raced his way to a 24^th place finish Sunday at the Alan Crowe 100.  Hylton completed 73 of the 100 laps of the ARCA RE/MAX Series event held at Springfield Fairground's one-mile dirt oval.  The 2006 performance bested Hylton’s 1999 Springfield ARCA RE/MAX finish of 34^th.

 “This was one of my better races of the 2006 season” said Hylton “the car ran good all day and I wish I could have pushed it a little harder but since we are a one car operation, bringing the car home in one piece is my primary goal.  We have to take what we can get at each track and save the car for the remainder of the season”

Former Hylton Motorsports driver Damon Lusk set on the pole at Springfield and set a new track record in the process.  Hylton states, “I am very proud of Damon and his performance.  It was quite an accomplishment to set the track record at a demanding track like Springfield”.  Lusk set on the pole in his only other Springfield appearance in 2000, while driving for Hylton Motorsports.

The Hylton Motorsports crew did an incredible job reconfiguring the car from its Superspeedway configuration used at Michigan to its Springfield dirt-track set-up.  Hylton utilized lessons learned from his 40 plus year racing career in completing the task of switching the set-ups required for two diametrically opposite tracks.  During the early years of NASCAR, teams would sometimes compete in two or three races a week on vastly different track surfaces, so reconfiguring a car came natural to Hylton.

During his NEXTEL Cup career, Hylton competed in 33 dirt track races and achieved an amazing 23 top-five finishes and 31 top-ten finishes.  Hylton’s last top-five finish on dirt took place in 1972’s NASCAR Grand National East race held in Jacksonville, Florida.  In that race, Hylton placed fifth driving a 1970 Chevrolet Chevelle owned by NASCAR veteran Bub Strickler.

(click to enlarge)

James Harvey Hylton	48 in the dirt	James began filming new reality show
David Ray Boggs	Bogg's car in paddock	Hedlesky pit stop
A J Fike leads a restart	Mark Gibson	Justin Allgaier
Hylton at speed	Andy ponders the Mayfield lawsuit	Damon's Grills
Jeff Flesher	Fike leading Kimmel and Strait	James and James Jr
Andy Belmont	Blake Bjorklund	James Hylton
32 car pit crew meeting	Kevin Wampler and his creation	Kimmel pre-race
Belmont Racing's Jim Finfrock	James Hylton	Andy Belmont
Andy Belmont	Brett Rowe	Belmont Racing Crew
Dugan Bashman	Venturini Racing	Ryan Parks - Jackman
Royal Proclimation	James	Bobby Gerhart
Springfield USA	Greg Seevers	Damon Luck team checks tires
A J Fike	"start your engines"	empty pits
dangerous way to find seating	Jim Finfrock adjust weight jack	Sky Box