One of the most impressive of his midget wins that year, and one he still recalls fondly, came in the Hut Hundred at the Terre Haute (Ind.) Action Track. He started 18th but fought his way forward to win the race.
“An accomplishment like this is the culmination of everything you do,” Stewart remarked at the time of his groundbreaking triple championship season.
Fans waited six years after Stewart’s historic season to witness another driver join the unique club. In 2001, “The People’s Champ,” Dave Darland claimed the USAC midget championship to go with Silver Crown and sprint car titles he’d won previously.
The Lincoln, Ind., native’s trifecta initiation came as little surprise to those who’ve followed his remarkable career, stretching now into its fifth decade. The 55-year-old racing grandfather got his start in quarter midgets when he was 4, and at 16 he began racing sprint cars in a car he and his dad built. By 19, he’d won his first feature.
From that point, winning became as natural as breathing. He’s tallied in excess of 350 feature victories, passed Tom Bigelow’s USAC sprint car feature win record in 2014 and flew by the USAC feature win total in 2015.
On the road to his Triple Crown, Darland won the USAC Silver Crown title in 1997 and the sprint car championship in 1999. The midget championship came in 2001, driving for car owner Steve Lewis. He repeated in 2002.
“They called me the oddball champion,” chuckled Darland, “because I only won in odd-numbered years. But I don’t care. That I’m included with these other great names is an honor.”
To win his Triple Crown in 2003, J.J. Yeley equaled Stewart’s three-in-one-season accomplishment. Ironically, he achieved that with Stewart’s help. Stewart owned Yeley’s Silver Crown car and sprint car. It was an incredible season. He produced a single-season record of 24 feature victories and earned more than $420,000 in prize money.
“I would easily say he had a better year than I did in 1995,” emphasized Stewart, comparing his Triple Crown season with Yeley’s. “For instance, I only won seven sprint car races that year, he won 15. I was good. He was dominant.”
It was that sprint car crown that provided Yeley the most satisfaction.
“I’m especially proud of the sprint car title,” said Yeley, “because I did all the work on the cars myself. I took care of everything from motor work to cleaning the car.”
As it had with Stewart, Yeley’s attention-gathering Triple Crown season led to greater opportunity. He signed to run NASCAR with Joe Gibbs Racing, who Stewart was racing for at the time.
Jerry Coons Jr. didn’t win his three championships in a single season, but he did claim the Silver Crown and sprint car titles in the same year in 2008.
Coons cinched the Silver Crown title on Thursday afternoon at Phoenix Int’l Raceway and tied up the sprint car championship on the treacherous half-mile dirt oval at Manzanita Speedway the following night.
Those two championships came in conjunction with the midget titles he won in 2006 and ’07.
It’s no surprise that Coons was so strong in USAC midgets. He began racing midgets when he was 14 at intimidating tracks such as Manzanita Speedway. When he moved into the ultra-competitive USAC midgets, he continued winning. In 2010, USAC named him midget driver of the decade because he won 20 percent of the 280 races he entered during the previous 10 years.
It requires diversity, however, to win the Triple Crown, and once in USAC, Coons branched out to the sprint cars and Silver Crown cars, with enviable success. In sprint cars, he won the Terre Haute National Open and the Eldora Four Crown. With the Silver Crown cars, he’s not only won the prestigious Hoosier Hundred twice, but the Hulman Classic twice as well.
Tracy Hines was on the verge of becoming a Triple Crown fraternity member the same year Coons joined the exclusive club. He needed to win the 2008 midget championship to accompany his 2000 Silver Crown title and 2002 sprint car championship. He missed that year, but in 2015 he finally added it to his substantial 20-plus-year racing record.
As an indicator of just how stiff USAC competition is and how extraordinarily difficult it is to claim titles in all three USAC divisions, the final result wasn’t played out until the final race of the season.
Hines had finished second in the midget division on three occasions and wasn’t about to let it happen again. He went into the Turkey Night Grand Prix at California’s Perris Auto Speedway with a slim 17-point lead and held on to win the title.
“To join such a great group of racers who have won the Triple Crown is pretty cool,” remarked Hines. “It’s an honor. I know them all and raced against all but one. We’ve battled hard all along the way. It sure is trying at times, but we all persevered and met this incredible goal.”