Lonnie Wheatley, TULSA, Okla. (September 4, 2007) – Fresh off capturing his fifth series win of the year on Sunday night, Michael Dupuy leads the American Sprint Car Series Coastal Region into Hattiesburg, Mississippi's Southern Speedway on Friday night.

The event marks the first of two nights of action for the ASCS Coastal Region this weekend, with the series taking on the ASCS Rebel Region at Deep South Speedway in Loxley, AL, on Saturday night.

Friday's stop at Hattiesburg is the third attempt to get a second Southern Speedway event in the books, with previous tries on July 6 and July 20 both rained out.

With his fifth win of the season and first in over two months, Dupuy of Amite, LA, holds an 84 point lead over Michael Herrington of Gonzales, LA, in the inaugural ASCS Coastal Region championship points chase.

Dupuy's five triumphs this season have come at four different tracks, including a pair of wins at South Mississippi Speedway in Long Beach, along with single wins at Southern Raceway in Milton, FL, Motorama Speedway in Beaumont, TX, and Magnolia Motor Speedway in Columbus, MS.  Dupuy was a fifth-place finisher in the ASCS Coastal Region's April 20 event at Hattiesburg's Southern Speedway.

 Hailing from Petal, MS, Robert Casada enters Friday's event at Southern Speedway third in ASCS Coastal Region points, with Todd Fayard of Saucier, MS, and Shane Morgan of Biloxi, MS, rounding out the current top five.

Timmy Thrash of Gulfport, MS, is sixth, with the balance of the current top ten including Lane Whittington (Denham Springs, LA), 15-year-old Hunter Phillips (Gulfport, MS), Chris Sweeney (Channelview, TX) and Terry Gray (Bartlett, TN).

Jason Johnson, coming off of two ASCS Regional wins this past weekend, topped the April 20 ASCS Coastal Region event at Southern Speedway and is expected to be in action this weekend.

Friday night's action is set to fire off at 7:00 p.m.

The high-banked, ¼-mile Southern Speedway dirt oval is located south of Hattiesburg, MS, off I-59 Exit 59, then 2.5 miles east on US 98, then 0.7 mile south on US 49.  For more information, contact the track at 601-270-6408.

The ASCS Coastal Region 2007 slate consists of 17 events at ten different tracks throughout Mississippi and the surrounding area including portions of Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

The 2007 season marks the 16th year of sanctioning Sprint Car racing for the American Sprint Car Series.  With a dozen different Regions in addition to the O'Reilly American Sprint Cars on Tour National series, ASCS will sanction approximately 240 nights of racing at more than 100 different race tracks throughout at least 30 different states and Canada.

Additional information regarding the American Sprint Car Series is available at www.ascsracing.com.