4 OF A KIND: KTJ JETS TO FOURTH HAUBSTADT HUSTLER WIN 
Rich Forman By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Haubstadt, Indiana (September 18, 2021)………It wasn’t all that long ago that Kevin Thomas Jr. considered himself lapped traffic at Tri-State Speedway.
Three years removed from his last moment of exuberance at the Haubstadt, Indiana quarter mile, the all-time leader in Haubstadt Hustler victories was back on top with his fourth career win in the 14 th edition of the 40-lap event on Saturday night.
The 2013, 2017, 2018 and 2021 Haubstadt Hustler winner rose to the lead on lap 18 where he took advantage of a fortuitous opportunity in traffic when the two frontrunners collided. Thomas then led the final 23 circuits to become $12,000 richer in the event co-sanctioned by the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship and the Midwest Sprint Car Series.
In the ensuing years after his most recent Tri-State Speedway win, the Cullman, Alabama driver’s USAC results at the track were unfathomable considering he now stands ahead of Daron Clayton and is now tied with Kyle Cummins as the winningest USAC Sprint Car driver at TSS with six scores in his career.
In five USAC starts between 2019-2020, Thomas finished better than 14 th just once. In 2021, however, his program has taken a turn for the better with a 7 th in April; 2 nd in July; and capped it off with a victory on Saturday in his KT Motorsports/Dr. Pepper Presents the Ronald McDonald House Charities/DRC/Speedway Chevy.
“I was lapped traffic here for two years,” Thomas reflected. “I veered away from the normal things we did, so we just went back to the drawing board, figured some things out and went back to our normal package. We just gave it everything we’ve got, and it worked out. It’s been a work in progress for the last couple years to get back to our normal form here. I think after a few times being here and running on the podium and having good races, 40 laps is what we needed.”
Thomas’ 34 th career USAC National Sprint Car feature victory places him just one behind Jon Stanbrough and Rich Vogler for 11 th on the all-time series win list, four of which have now come in the lucrative Haubstadt Hustler.
“It’s pretty cool,” Thomas said of his Tri-State success. “There’s a lot of people that are really good here who’ve been doing it a long time. Cummins being one of them, Clayton being the other. They’re showmen around this place, so it’s good to be in the same category as them.”
Thomas’ seventh series win of the year has already equaled his most successful USAC National Sprint Car season in terms of feature victories after also winning seven in 2013 and 2018. And it all came after having to make some alterations to his ride to get it prepared to go the distance.
“It’s been a bit of an up and down night,” Thomas said. “I had to change a rear end earlier today. I haven’t won at Haubstadt in what seems like forever, so it’s fun to come back and win the Haubstadt Hustler again. It was a good showing for us and I’m super happy for our guys.”
Thomas started fourth and remained in the position for the first 12 laps while pole sitter and 2015 Haubstadt Hustler winner Brady Short led the opening lap, which were his first laps led in a USAC National Sprint Car feature since winning the Indiana Sprint Week round at Lincoln Park Speedway more than five years earlier in July of 2016.
Short’s initial run at the front was short lived, however, as he slid straight up the track on his entry in turn one on the second lap, allowing the defending Haubstadt Hustler winner, Chase Stockon, a wide-open shot underneath to claim the top spot.
Short kept in close touch with Stockon, not allowing the 2021 MSCS titlist to construct a profound chasm between himself and his challengers. Short was the teeter to Stockon’s totter, and on lap seven, it was Short’s turn to repossess control of the race lead when he used the bottom side to charge past Stockon at the exit of turn four.
Subsequently constructing a 1.4 second lead, Short held control as July Tri-State USAC Sprint winner Justin Grant slotted into second. On lap 16, Grant chiseled a full second off Short’s advantage as Short skidded up the surface in turn four while trying to wade his way through the backend of the field.
Push came to shove on the 18 th lap in turn four when the 21 st running car of Max Adams became sideways at the exit of turn four. The nose of Adams’ car contacted the passing car of Short, which ricocheted him into Grant, knocking both airborne and askew, clearing a path for both Thomas and Cummins to race by on the outside and take over the top two spots.
“Early in the race, it gets a little tight whenever we get around lapped cars just because the track is still a little narrow,” Thomas explained. “It’s 40 laps, so they have to do that in order for us to have a good race there at the end. It’s just unfortunate for (Short and Grant) because they were really fast. I don’t really think I would’ve had a whole lot for them.”
In pursuit of Thomas for the next 16 successive laps, Cummins’ bid for a third career Haubstadt Hustler crown ended on lap 34. Cindy Chambers, running 22 nd, and another car made contact between turns three and four, knocking out the front end of Chambers machine as it veered straight into the path of Cummins who ramped over her left rear tire, performed a 180-degree spin, and came to a stop after bouncing his left rear tire against the outside turn four wall.
Cummins managed to restart and finish in the 11 th position. Meanwhile, Chambers, who used an MSCS provisional, became the fifth woman driver to start a USAC National Sprint Car feature event, joining Katlynn Leer, Jordan Weaver, Shauna Hogg and Sheila Rankin. Chambers finished 22 nd.
From there on out, for the final seven lap stretch, Thomas was unrattled as he whisked away from the field virtually unchallenged to grab the checkered flag by a 2.216 second margin over Justin Grant, Brady Bacon, Tanner Thorson and Chase Stockon.
Justin Grant’s prowess in USAC National Sprint Car competition at Tri-State has been solid this year with the Ione, California driver earning a 4 th in the spring, followed by a win in July and a runner-up finish on Saturday in his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – MPV Express – TOPP Industries/Maxim/Kistler Chevy. His previous best finish in the Haubstadt Hustler came in a sixth-place performance in 2020.
“I think we’re finally getting it figured out,” Grant said of his recent performances at Tri-State. “I didn’t want to think that last time in case it was just a fluke. The guys gave me a great car again. We were pretty good tonight, but we were maybe a little bit too good, too early and it got loose at the end. So, we’ll note it and try to come back stronger for the next 40-lapper.”
Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, Okla.) swapped cars for Saturday night’s Haubstadt Hustler following a fourth-place result on Friday night at Circle City Raceway. One night later, it was a typical, gold standard Bacon result with a third-place finish in his Dynamics, Inc./Fatheadz Eyewear – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts – TelStar/Triple X/Rider Chevy, which marked his fifth consecutive top-five finish with the series.
“We’re usually good here in the feature,” Bacon said. “We just struggled at getting a decent starting spot. I could at least see the front tonight and we were able to get to third. The track had a little more grip to start with than we’re used to here, so it kind of threw us off a little bit. Every time we think we’re getting something figured out, it throws us a little curveball. But, usually in the feature, everything gets back to normal and we’re pretty good.”
Of note, all five KO Motorsports cars of Chase Stockon (5th), Daison Pursley (8th), Jason McDougal (9th), Kent Schmidt (14th) and Carson Garrett (21st) started Saturday night’s feature, marking the first time in USAC National Sprint Car history that five cars from the same team made the same feature event.
McDougal’s performance during Fatheadz Eyewear Qualifying was the first career fast time for the driver in USAC National Sprint Car competition.
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 18, 2021 – Tri-State Speedway – Haubstadt, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Haubstadt Hustler (Co-Sanctioned by the Midwest Sprint Car Series)
FLIGHT ONE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-13.562; 2. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-13.721; 3. Stephen Schnapf, 11s, Martin-13.862; 4. C.J. Leary, 77m, Michael-13.933; 5. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-13.949; 6. Critter Malone, 7, Seven-14.131; 7. Stan Beadles, 84, Beadles-14.167; 8. James Lyerla, 11, JL-14.349; 9. Eddie Vancil, 7v, Vancil-14.984; 10. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-17.268.
FLIGHT TWO FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Kendall Ruble, 17, Ruble-13.525; 2. Brady Short, 61m, Edwards-13.704; 3. Chris Windom, 19, Hayward-13.911; 4. Cindy Chambers, 18c, Chambers-14.010; 5. Collin Ambrose, 36, Ambrose-14.081; 6. Dylan Moan, 17D, Moan-14.120; 7. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-14.126; 8. Braydon Cromwell, 77s, Sturgeon-14.312; 9. Carson Garrett, 15KO, KO-14.323.
FLIGHT THREE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Jason McDougal, 5m, KO-13.399; 2. Tanner Thorson, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.483; 3. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.569; 4. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.675; 5. Koby Barksdale, 16K, Knight-13.724; 6. Emerson Axsom, 39BC, Clauson/Marshall-13.867; 7. Sam Scott, 7s, Scott-13.924; 8. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-14.070; 9. Tres Mehler, 5A, Hawkins-NT.
FLIGHT FOUR FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9K, KT-13.404; 2. Daison Pursley, 5KO, KO-13.494; 3. Kent Schmidt, 5K, KO-13.762; 4. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.819; 5. Max Adams, 5x, Adams-14.029; 6. Matt Humphrey, 79, Humphrey-14.391; 7. Kyle Stearns, 87, Stearns-14.797; 8. Ted Kirkpatrick, 63LK, Sturgeon-15.082; 9. Chris Robling, 23, Kolehouse/Scott-15.663.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Stephen Schnapf, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Critter Malone, 6. C.J. Leary, 7. Stan Beadles, 8. James Lyerla, 9. Aric Gentry, 10. Eddie Vancil. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Short, 2. Kendall Ruble, 3. Chris Windom, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Carson Garrett, 6. Cindy Chambers, 7. Collin Ambrose, 8. Dylan Moan, 9. Braydon Cromwell. NT
INDY METAL FINISHING THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Tanner Thorson, 3. Jason McDougal, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. Emerson Axsom, 6. Koby Barksdale, 7. Sam Scott, 8. Brandon Mattox, 9. Tres Mehler. NT
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Kent Schmidt, 5. Max Adams, 6. Matt Humphrey, 7. Kyle Stearns, 8. Ted Kirkpatrick, 9. Chris Robling. NT
C-MAIN: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the semi) 1. Aric Gentry, 2. James Lyerla, 3. Braydon Cromwell, 4. Ted Kirkpatrick, 5. Chris Robling, 6. Eddie Vancil, 7. Dylan Moan, 8. Brandon Mattox. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Emerson Axsom, 2. Carson Garrett, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Koby Barksdale, 5. Max Adams, 6. Aric Gentry, 7. Sam Scott, 8. James Lyerla, 9. Collin Ambrose, 10. Cindy Chambers, 11. Kyle Stearns, 12. Braydon Cromwell, 13. Ted Kirkpatrick, 14. Stan Beadles, 15. Matt Humphrey, 16. Critter Malone. NT
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 2. Justin Grant (3), 3. Brady Bacon (8), 4. Tanner Thorson (7), 5. Chase Stockon (2), 6. Robert Ballou (15), 7. Brady Short (1), 8. Daison Pursley (12), 9. Jason McDougal (11), 10. Jake Swanson (14), 11. Kyle Cummins (5), 12. Koby Barksdale (20), 13. Jadon Rogers (13), 14. Kent Schmidt (16), 15. C.J. Leary (19), 16. Chris Windom (10), 17. Emerson Axsom (17), 18. Stephen Schnapf (9), 19. Collin Ambrose (23-P), 20. Kendall Ruble (6), 21. Carson Garrett (18), 22. Cindy Chambers (24-P), 23. Max Adams (21), 24. Aric Gentry (22). NT
(P represents an MSCS provisional starter)
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Brady Short, Laps 2-6 Chase Stockon, Laps 7-17 Brady Short, Laps 18-40 Kevin Thomas Jr.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-2392, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2324, 3-Justin Grant-2275, 4-Tanner Thorson-2145, 5-C.J. Leary-2140, 6-Chris Windom-2034, 7-Jake Swanson-1964, 8-Robert Ballou-1842, 9-Chase Stockon-1559, 10-Logan Seavey-1213.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-154, 2-Tanner Thorson-152, 3-Brady Bacon-150, 4-Justin Grant-134, 5-Robert Ballou-131, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-120, 7-Thomas Meseraull-119, 8-Logan Seavey-115, 9-Buddy Kofoid-88, 10-Kyle Cummins-84.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 23, 2021 – Gas City I-69 Speedway – Gas City, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Kyle Cummins
Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Jason McDougal
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Chase Stockon
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Brady Short
Indy Metal Finishing / Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner: Justin Grant
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.
KSE Racing Products Hard Charger: Robert Ballou (15 th to 6 th)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Jadon Rogers
Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Sam Scott THORSON THREADS THE NEEDLE TO CIRCLE CITY USAC SPRINT WIN 
Ryan Sellers |
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Indianapolis, Indiana (September 17, 2021)………No driver has won more often during the 2021 USAC National season than Tanner Thorson. Likewise, no driver has been victorious more often under the Friday night lights this season than he.
The Minden, Nevada driver added another one to his most prolific USAC campaign yet on this particular Friday evening, leading all 30 laps and threading the needle to avoid catastrophe along the way en route to the win in the series’ debut at Circle City Raceway, the first USAC National Sprint Car event held at a dirt track in Indianapolis, Indiana since 1984.
Thorson collected his series-leading 12th USAC National victory of the year, five of which have come on a Friday night. His fifth USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature victory of the season came amid a close call early in the going after leading the first 10 laps of the event in relatively comfortable fashion.
On lap 11, as Thorson was just beginning to work his way into traffic, turn two became calamity corner. With Thorson following just feet behind, the 20 th and 21 st place cars of Travis Berryhill and Jadon Rogers made bumper-to-bumper contact at the top of the second turn, sending Berryhill into a spin.
The quick acting Thorson mashed the gas, shot the narrow gap, and split the difference between Rogers and Berryhill to escape without harm and without foul in his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – CSI – Mesilla Valley Transportation/Spike/Stanton Chevy.
“I know I had to show my nose,” Thorson explained. “I kind of poked my nose in there and was kind of hoping they’d jump out of the throttle. As soon as I got next to them, the guy outside of me jumped in the throttle and got into the back of him. I just jumped out of the throttle and rolled right between them.”
As Thorson escaped the escapade, the same couldn’t be said for a few others. Berryhill’s landing spot for his spin just happened to be right into the path of second-running Brady Bacon who locked up his brakes and broadsided the sitting car of Berryhill at the bottom of turn two before coming to a stop.
Moments later, 17 th running Ricky Lewis clipped the turn three infield tire and flipped wildly several times, eventually coming to a rest upside down in turn four. The Ventura, Calif. native, who was up until 9am that morning constructing his brand-new racecar, walked away without injury.
When action resumed, it was second-running Kevin Thomas Jr. taking repeated runs at Thorson at the top of the pedestal. Thomas worked the bottom with Thorson never straying from the top. Thomas came within a half-car length of Thorson at the stripe on both laps 13 and 14, then gradually slipped back to a full length on lap 15, two lengths on lap 16 and more beyond the 17 th circuit.
During Thomas Jr.’s surge, similar circumstances were occurring for Emerson Axsom, who ran ninth during the lap 11 restart and had worked his way up to third by the time eighth running Thomas Meseraull spun to a stop onto the edge of the infield grass in turn two on lap 21.
On the ensuing lap 22 restart, Axsom pulled no punches and wasted little time in continuing his spurt to the front of the field. In turn three, Axsom shot to the bottom to slide past Thomas Jr. However, midway through the turn, as Axsom skated up to the cushion, his car became just a tad too sideways.
The trailing Thomas Jr. tried but couldn’t avoid the contact, his front bumper nudging the left side nerf bar of Axsom, which straightened Axsom out. Both kept going, after nearly halting. As they gathered their horses up, Chris Windom and Jake Swanson raced under the pair while C.J. Leary went around the outside of both, completely knocking both out of the top-five in the running order.
The trouble that transpired behind was a-okay with Thorson, free without a major challenge the rest of the way to win the $5,000 top prize with Windom, Swanson, Bacon (who restarted 20 th on lap 11) and Leary rounding out the top-five.
Chris Windom (Canton, Ill.) finished as the runner-up, 3.092 seconds behind Thorson in his Hayward Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – Byrd – B & H Contractors – AMSOIL/DRC/Claxton Mopar.
“I was just holding him off there at the end,” Windom recalled of keeping J. Swanson at bay. “We probably weren’t the winning car there, but we got a little better on the last restart. I adjusted on my shocks a little bit but didn’t quite get tight enough to be good off the bottom all while Tanner was hitting his marks on the top. It was kind of hard to reel him in at that point.
Jake Swanson (Anaheim, Calif.) had a tumultuous ride on the way to a 3 rd place result in what was his fourth podium finish of the season in his Team AZ Racing/USW Cat Construction – RSS Industries – CSI/DRC/1-Way Chevy. An incident during the heat race forced his crew to swap out front ends, and ultimately, the team was forced to transfer their way through the night’s semi-feature.
Swanson’s first appearance at the 1/4-mile dirt oval led him from a 10 th place starting spot and into the top-three at a venue he likened to a Midwest version of California’s Ventura Raceway.
“The fact that we can dig ourselves out of these holes, that’s big. That means a lot,” Swanson said. “You have to be able to do that; that’s what wins races and wins championships. I don’t think we wanted to practice changing front ends, but we did. We can fine tune. It was good to drive by guys and roll up through there, but we just need to start up front to feel like we’ll be in position. We can’t have bad luck like that in those heat races and have problems like that because it just buries you too deep.”
Brady Bacon’s (Broken Arrow, Okla.) 43 rd career Fatheadz Eyewear Qualifying time on Friday night allowed him to become the current Circle City Speedway one-lap track record for both USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars and USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midgets after scoring quick time back in June at CCR during Indiana Midget Week.
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 17, 2021 – Circle City Raceway – Indianapolis, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.163 (New Track Record); 2. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-12.301; 3. Shane Cottle, 74x, Hodges-12.330; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9K, KT-12.346; 5. C.J. Leary, 77m, Michael-12.363; 6. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.370; 7. Tanner Thorson, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.438; 8. Chris Windom, 19, Hayward-12.449; 9. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-12.541; 10. Jason McDougal, 5m, KO-12.558; 11. Max Adams, 2E, Epperson-12.605; 12. Koby Barksdale, 16K, Knight-12.627; 13. Thomas Meseraull, 23s, Simon-12.644; 14. J.J. Hughes, 76, Hughes-12.663; 15. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-12.676; 16. Brent Beauchamp, 29, LB-12.705; 17. Ricky Lewis, 11, Lewis-12.749; 18. Emerson Axsom, 39BC, Clauson/Marshall-12.785; 19. Travis Berryhill, 77s, Sturgeon-12.796; 20. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.872; 21. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-12.991; 22. Max Guilford, 79BT, Goodnight-13.028; 23. Braydon Cromwell, 77, Sturgeon-13.059; 24. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-13.169; 25. Andrew Prather, P8, Prather-13.210; 26. Scott Hampton, 51, Slinkard-13.251.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Thomas Meseraull, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Tanner Thorson, 4. Brent Beauchamp, 5. Brady Bacon, 6. Jason McDougal, 7. Max Guilford, 8. Andrew Prather, 9. Travis Berryhill. 2:07.99 (New Track Record)
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Max Adams, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. J.J. Hughes, 4. Chris Windom, 5. Robert Ballou, 6. Ricky Lewis, 7. Scott Hampton, 8. Braydon Cromwell, 9. Jake Swanson. NT
INDY METAL FINISHING / INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Emerson Axsom, 2. Shane Cottle, 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Matt Westfall, 5. Koby Barksdale, 6. Brandon Mattox, 7. Justin Grant, 8. Jadon Rogers. 2:13.31
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Jason McDougal, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Ricky Lewis, 6. Travis Berryhill, 7. Brandon Mattox, 8. Scott Hampton, 9. Braydon Cromwell, 10. Max Guilford, 11. Andrew Prather. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tanner Thorson (2), 2. Chris Windom (1), 3. Jake Swanson (10), 4. Brady Bacon (6), 5. C.J. Leary (3), 6. Shane Cottle (5), 7. Emerson Axsom (9), 8. Kevin Thomas Jr. (4), 9. Justin Grant (11), 10. Chase Stockon (12), 11. Jason McDougal (13), 12. Robert Ballou (20), 13. Koby Barksdale (14), 14. Matt Westfall (16), 15. Jadon Rogers (22), 16. Max Adams (7), 17. Brent Beauchamp (17), 18. Thomas Meseraull (8), 19. Brandon Mattox (21), 20. J.J. Hughes (15), 21. Ricky Lewis (18), 22. Travis Berryhill (19). NT
**Andrew Prather flipped during the semi. Ricky Lewis flipped on lap 11 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Tanner Thorson.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-2342, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2274, 3-Justin Grant-2225, 4-Tanner Thorson-2095, 5-C.J. Leary-2090, 6-Chris Windom-1984, 7-Jake Swanson-1914, 8-Robert Ballou-1792, 9-Chase Stockon-1509, 10-Logan Seavey-1183.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-154, 2-Tanner Thorson-149, 3-Brady Bacon-145, 4-Justin Grant-133, 5-Robert Ballou-122, 6-Thomas Meseraull-119, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-117, 8-Logan Seavey-115, 9-Buddy Kofoid-88, 10-Kyle Cummins-84.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 18, 2021 – Tri-State Speedway – Haubstadt, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Haubstadt Hustler (Co-Sanctioned by the Midwest Sprint Car Series)
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Jadon Rogers
Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Brady Bacon
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Thomas Meseraull
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Max Adams
Indy Metal Finishing / Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner: Emerson Axsom
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Jake Swanson
KSE Racing Products Hard Charger: Robert Ballou (20 th to 12 th)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Koby Barksdale
Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Scott Hampton |
WINDOM BANKS 20-GRAND AS 100-LAP HUSET'S USAC NATIONALS MIDGET WINNER 
DB3 |
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Brandon, South Dakota (September 12, 2021)………In a race where multiple leaders fell by the wayside, Chris Windom found himself in a seemingly envious position with 15 laps to go in Sunday night’s $20,000-to-win, 100-lap USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature at the inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals in Brandon, South Dakota.
However, Windom had already been entrenched in this scenario multiple times throughout the weekend with varying degrees of success.
With just less than five laps left in the preceding, accompanying USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature, for just a brief, fleeting moment, Windom thought he had the $20,000 prize just within his grasp.
When the yellow flag fell, it negated Windom’s pass for the lead, with the end result putting him third in the final order, necessitating the Canton, Ill. native to hit the reset button for the ensuing long-distance midget feature up next.
Taking the lead with just 15 laps remaining in the midget feature after leader Chase Randall’s flat right rear tire drama, subsequent turn one wall contact and flip, Windom experienced no interruptions and no technical difficulties en route to finally grabbing the $20,000 victory Sunday night in his CB Industries/NOS Energy Drink – PristineAuction.com – K & C Drywall/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
“This definitely makes up for not winning the sprint car race,” Windom said with a grin. “That was a fun race. This thing was so good. I didn’t feel really good the first 50 laps, but I felt like we were maintaining. The next 50, when the track kind of moved to the top, I could run that diamond line down there. It was just so good.”
Windom had experienced a rollercoaster of emotions in USAC Midget competition throughout the weekend at Huset’s. On Friday, he was leading late, but was passed as he changed lines during the green-white-checkered finish, knocking him back to second in the final results. On Saturday, Windom reversed his fortunes by leading the final nine laps to reign victorious.
The reigning series champ started seventh in Sunday night’s finale, which was dominated early by top series Rookie and pole sitter Randall for the first 13 laps and Kevin Thomas Jr. between laps 14 through 19.
Eighth starting Cannon McIntosh’s first name was aptly fitting as he stormed around the outside of Thomas Jr. to the lead between turns three and four on lap 20 when Thomas Jr. became stifled in traffic behind the car of Casey Hicks, which aided McIntosh in his rush to the front.
McIntosh’s raid of the field was just as breathtaking as the lightning quick pace of the race in the first half as the first 42 laps clicked off in the blink of an eye without a stoppage. But that’s where the heartache and heartbreaks began.
With everything seemingly going to perfection and possessing a four second lead, McIntosh began to slow dramatically on the back straightaway with a completely flat right rear tire. That initiated the first yellow flag period, which ultimately led into the previously scheduled eight-minute red flag break for the field to add fuel and make adjustments.
Jason McDougal assumed his role as the new race leader when action resumed on lap 50, which proved to be short-lived. Fourth running Thomas Meseraull spun on his own between turns one and two, setting off a chain reaction of events behind him which resulted in ninth-place Mitchel Moles flipping upside down in an incident from which he walked away.
Also caught up in the melee were Daison Pursley who continued onward after slight contact with the rear bumper of the already-in-the-process-of-spinning Meseraull. Shane Golobic, meanwhile, contacted the spinning Meseraull square in the side of his nerf bar. After repairs, Golobic returned to the fray to finish seventh.
The first race leader of the night became the first race leader of the second half of the 100-lapper with Randall blitzing his way around the outside of McDougal on the lap 50 restart (part two). Thomas Jr. occupied the bottom as he waged war for second with McDougal up top while Windom slotted into fourth.
Another turn one incident halted activity on lap 56 as a tangle in turn one saw Chance Crum, Justin Grant, Austin Barnhill and a backwards facing Meseraull all parked on the banking. Barnhill became the only driver to restart with the remaining three cars suffering terminal damage or mechanical issues.
A steadily surging Windom took the third position from Thomas Jr. on lap 68, then four laps later, snagged second from McDougal with a turn three slider on lap 72.
Windom then chased down Randall for the lead, taking multiple shots, sliding even and sliding past the young Texan, but Randall had an answer each and every time. Randall was prepared once again in turns three and four when Windom dove low into turn three, blazing past Randall, who succinctly turned his car downhill and raced back underneath and ahead of Windom off turn four.
Mere moments later, disaster struck Randall whose right rear tire went flat prior to his entry on the cushion in turn one, forcing him into the outside wall and sending him flipping down the banking. The stunning result ended Randall’s bid to become the first driver to win his first career USAC National Midget feature in a 100-lap race since Zach Daum at Haubstadt, Indiana’s Tri-State Speedway in the 2011 Hut 100.
With clear sailing ahead, new race leader Windom was not going to be denied over the final 15-lap stretch, instantaneously posting a half-straight lead as a furious battle between Buddy Kofoid, Thomas Jr. and Pursley swarmed in the distance despite a lap 91 tangle between Austin Barnhill and Lance Bennett in turn two, which created one more final restart opportunity with five to go.
Windom put all challengers to rest once more, opening a six car length advantage and closing with a final margin of victory of 0.751 at the checkered flag with Buddy Kofoid, Daison Pursley, KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Tanner Thorson (from 18th) and Kevin Thomas Jr. rounding out the top-five.
Windom has been a master tradesman at the 30-lappers with all 10 of his previous USAC National Midget victories prior to Sunday night coming at that distance. The USAC Triple Crown champ admitted he needed all the allotted time, and then some, as he didn’t begin to make much headway until the 50-lap mark on his way to his fifth series win of the season and 11 th of his career.
“I didn’t really get there until the second half of the race,” Windom explained. “Chase was running a really good race. He shouldn’t hang his head and there’s nothing he could’ve done. I just kept putting pressure on him and, unfortunately, he couldn’t do anything about his tire blowing. I felt, hopefully, we would’ve been able to get by him.
I felt like we had the best car,” Windom continued. “I felt like the line I was running through one and two was good; and I felt like I was making really good speed through three and four over the last 30-40 laps. I felt like, if I didn’t screw up, it was going to be tough to get around us. That’s how it was, and we get to take that $20,000 home.”
Like Rossburg, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway, which Windom has won at on four occasions in his USAC career, Windom feels now like Huset’s Speedway is a home-away-from-home in South Dakota.
“You could run the bottom for the first 50 laps, but it seems like the line gravitated up to the top every night for every race,” Windom noted. “This place is so fun running the top. It’s like a mini-Eldora and I love Eldora. This is pretty sweet and I’m proud of all my guys.”
With a cast on his hand, Buddy Kofoid (Penngrove, Calif.) got progressively better each night throughout his weekend at Huset’s finishing 4 th on Friday, 3 rd on Saturday and 2 nd on Sunday in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – TRD – Toyota/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota.
“I don’t feel like I’ve gone away,” Kofoid stated. “Part of it has been figuring out how to run with the cast and I’ve got less of a cast now, so I can grip the wheel a little bit better. We fell off a little bit, then we got the car back to going really good. We had three good runs this weekend but none of them were wins, unfortunately. Before that last red, I felt like I was the best car and was catching those guys. That red didn’t really help me.”
Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) finished the Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals as the driver who accumulated the most total points in USAC National Midget competition throughout the three nights of racing, finishing 3 rd on Sunday night in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/IWX – TRD – Toyota/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota.
“One-hundred laps is a long time, and when you knock off those first 50 in one stretch, it’s pretty tiring, to say the least,” Pursley admitted. “A lot of guys did fall out, but I got by Chris (Windom) pretty quickly, and then we had that fuel stop and you could change a little bit of stuff. He got really, really good. But we’ll take a third and keep on digging.”
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USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 12, 2021 – Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, South Dakota – 1/3-Mile Dirt Oval – Inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Emerson Axsom (#15 Petry), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (#5 Petry), 3. Hayden Reinbold (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood), 4. Ryan Timms (#85T CBI), 5. Logan Seavey (#25 Malloy), 6. Shane Golobic (#17w Wood), 7. Mitchel Moles (#07w Wood), 8. Aaron Werner (#11w Peterson). 2:12.56 (New Track Record)
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Daison Pursley (#71K Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 2. Cannon McIntosh (#08 Dave Mac), 3. Brenham Crouch (#97 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 4. Buddy Kofoid (#67 Kunz/Curb-Agajanian), 5. Chance Crum (#26 Rudeen), 6. Tanner Thorson (#19T Reinbold/Underwood), 7. Austin Barnhill (#17B Dave Mac), 8. Lance Bennett (#10 Mason). 2:15.12
INDY METAL FINISHING / INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Justin Grant (#2J RMS), 2. Jason McDougal (#19 Hayward), 3. Thomas Meseraull (#7x RMS), 4. Chase Randall (#19A Reinbold-Underwood), 5. Chad Frewaldt (#9F Frewaldt), 6. Casey Hicks (#5H Hicks), 7. Chris Windom (#89 CBI). NT
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chris Windom (7), 2. Buddy Kofoid (11), 3. Daison Pursley (12), 4. Tanner Thorson (18), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 6. Logan Seavey (6), 7. Shane Golobic (10), 8. Jason McDougal (4), 9. Brenham Crouch (15), 10. Emerson Axsom (2), 11. Ryan Timms (16), 12. Chad Frewaldt (20), 13. Brant O'Banion (24), 14. Austin Barnhill (19), 15. Aaron Werner (21), 16. Casey Hicks (22), 17. Chase Randall (1), 18. Lance Bennett (23), 19. Chance Crum (13), 20. Justin Grant (14), 21. Thomas Meseraull (9), 22. Mitchel Moles (5), 23. Cannon McIntosh (8), 24. Hayden Reinbold (17). NT
**Mitchel Moles flipped on lap 50 of the feature. Chase Randall flipped on lap 86 of the feature. FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-13 Chase Randall, Laps 14-19 Kevin Thomas Jr., Laps 20-42 Cannon McIntosh, Laps 43-49 Jason McDougal, Laps 50-85 Chase Randall, Laps 86-100 Chris Windom.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Buddy Kofoid-1799, 2-Chris Windom-1789, 3-Emerson Axsom-1705, 4-Daison Pursley-1655, 5-Tanner Thorson-1651, 6-Justin Grant-1633, 7-Logan Seavey-1520, 8-Thomas Meseraull-1471, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1450, 10-Cannon McIntosh-1288.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-154, 2-Tanner Thorson-148, 3-Brady Bacon-143, 4-Justin Grant-131, 5-Thomas Meseraull-119, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-117, 7-Logan Seavey-115, 8-Robert Ballou-114, 9-Buddy Kofoid-88, 10-Kyle Cummins-84.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 23, 2021 – Gas City I-69 Speedway – Gas City, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Oval – James Dean Classic
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Chase Randall
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Emerson Axsom
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Daison Pursley
Indy Metal Finishing / Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner: Justin Grant
KSE Racing Products Hard Charger: Tanner Thorson (18 th to 4 th)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Brant O’Banion |
c.J. SEES $20,000 USAC SPRINT CAR PAYDAY AT HUSET’S USAC NATIONALS 
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Brandon, South Dakota (September 12, 2021)………When C.J. Leary gets on a roll, he’s routinely displayed his ability to ride that hot streak as long as he possibly can.
In fact, since 2016, no driver has won two-in-a-row more often in USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature events than the Greenfield, Ind. native with five.
Sunday night, during the inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals, Leary became the first driver in the series’ 2021 season to win consecutive races on multiple occasions, also doing the same in July at Plymouth, Ind. and Putnamville, Ind.
Leary turned the Brandon, South Dakota 1/3-mile dirt oval into his personal ATM as he followed Saturday’s preliminary win with the biggest payday of his racing career during Sunday’s finale, collecting a payday of $20,000 by capturing the 40-lap victory.
Leary (Greenfield, Ind.) became the third different race leader on lap 19 after Logan Seavey and Chris Windom exchanged the lead five different times in the first half of the event. Leary tracked down the leaders just one lap prior to midway, and ultimately propelled past Windom for the top spot, then fended off challenges from both Chris Windom and Brady Bacon down the stretch to score a biggie in his Michael Motorsports/Kodiak Products – Gray Auto – Valvoline/DRC/Cressman.
“I hit the setup really good two nights in a row,” Leary revealed. “That’s kind of unheard of in sprint car racing. It’s usually just ‘get it close, and let the driver drive it.’ I gave all I had tonight, and during the last yellow, I looked at the jumbo screen and saw that there were only five laps to go, and I was like, ‘man, I’ve got to get up on the wheel If I really want to win this $20-grand because I knew Brady and Chris were hungry to win too.’”
Pole sitter Seavey hopped into driver’s seat of the 24-car field on the initial start, leading the opening circuit-and-a-quarter when Robert Ballou and Windom, running second and third, made contact, sending Ballou’s left front wheel ramping over Windom’s right rear in turn one. Ballou glanced off the outside wall, then stopped with a flat left front tire on his machine. Ballou would return to finish 11 th.
Seavey struck the first blow by leading each of the first three laps before Windom stormed by around the outside to lead lap four. Seavey ducked back under Windom to etch his name and number on laps five and six until Windom came roaring back topside to the point on the seventh go-around. Seavey flexed his muscles one more time as he scooted back by on the bottom of turns one and two to reassume the number one position.
Bacon turned up the thermostat on Windom by edging ahead in turn two on lap nine, which caught Windom’s attention as he gritted his teeth to shoot by both Bacon and Seavey in quick succession to snare the lead around the bottom berm with nine laps now completed and it’s where he’d remain until the 19 th lap.
Meanwhile, Leary’s run was beginning to take shape as he rocketed past Bacon for third on the lowline in turn two on lap 11, then maneuvered his way by Seavey for second in the same spot five laps later, this time in the thick of the forest of traffic.
Once clear, Leary scooped chunks out of Windom’s once commanding lead, from five car lengths behind to two car lengths in arrears and then nosing in front of Windom as the pair of past USAC National Sprint Car champion split above and below 18 th running Isaac Chapple in an electrically hair-raising endeavor entering the third turn with Leary shooting out the other side of the tunnel as the race leader.
With five laps remaining, Leary and Windom approached the 13 th running car of Mario Clouser to put him a lap down. Leary followed Clouser through the middle while Windom went two steps higher up to the cushion in turns three and four. Windom whirled past the pair and became the new race leader for a split-second when the yellow was displayed for early race leader Logan Seavey who slowed and endured an agonizing crawl down the back straightaway with mechanical issues sending him to the sidelines.
With the yellow, Windom was repositioned back into the position he possessed during the last scored lap – second. Now with lapped traffic absent from the equation, it was time for Leary to prepare for another war, this time with three-time series champ Bacon.
Bacon clawed his way past Windom for second, and then applied the heavy pressure to Leary, looking high and low to no avail as Leary withstood all of the above to win by a 0.582 margin over Bacon, Windom, Tanner Thorson and Kevin Thomas Jr., who finished as the driver who recorded the most points throughout the entirety of the three-night USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car racing event Huset’s.
Leary endured traffic, and he endured pressure from two of the best in the business in Bacon and Windom on the homestretch. In the end , he endured trials and tribulations, some of which he attributed to placing him directly in victory lane at the conclusion of the evening.
“That lapped traffic was tough,” Leary said. “Actually, it might’ve won me the race. I caught Clouser there, and he was ripping the top in three and four and I’d been kind of diamonding it. He was slowly driving away from me off of four. So, I was like, ‘man, maybe the top finally came in down there.’ On the restart, I moved up there and I felt like it was treacherous. I had to go elbows up and give her all she had. It won me the race over there, for sure. That was a helluva race and I had a lot of fun. I’ve never won $20 grand before.”
Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, Okla.), who’d twice won $20,000-to-win USAC National Sprint Car races at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway in 2019-20, came up just short in his bid for another hefty padding of his wallet, finishing in the second position in his Dynamics, Inc./Fatheadz Eyewear – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts – TelStar/Triple X/Rider Chevy.
“I wasn’t aggressive enough at the beginning, but with the way the track was, I didn’t really know what it was going to do,” Bacon explained. “It was actually slicker at the beginning than it was at the end. We had a really good car, and we were able to sneak by Windom on a restart. My only shot was to get under C.J. entering turns one and two before he cut down, but I just couldn’t quite get there with two to go. I just had to take what we could get there.”
Chris Windom (Canton, Ill.) thought he had the deal sealed with five laps remaining. However, an untimely caution relegated him from first to second, then ultimately third at the finish line in his Hayward Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – Byrd – B & H Contractors – AMSOIL/DRC/Claxton Mopar. A similar caution while leading Friday’s midget race saw him shuffled the USAC career Triple Crown champion back to second in the end, a feat Windom wasn’t all that excited to repeat in Sunday night’s sprint car race.
“That’s $20,000 down to whatever we got for third,” Windom lamented. “I felt like we had it there. We got by (Leary) and I think that would’ve been the race. It’s another caution here this week that put me in a bad spot. That’s racing though. You never know when they’re going to come out. This weekend, they just haven’t been on my side.”
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 12, 2021 – Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, South Dakota – 1/3-Mile Dirt Track – Inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Ryan Bernal (#17w Wood), 2. Jason McDougal (#5m KO), 3. Robert Ballou (#12 Ballou), 4. Tanner Thorson (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood), 5. Jake Swanson (#21AZ Team AZ), 6. Brady Bacon (#69 Dynamics), 7. Chad Frewaldt (#4F Frewaldt), 8. Jeff Pellersels (#X Pellersels), 9. Robert Bell (#71 Bell), 10. Donovan Peterson (#11xs Peterson). 2:09.61 (New Track Record)
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Chase Stockon (#5s KO), 2. Terry Richards (#18 Richards), 3. Isaac Chapple (#52 Chapple), 4. Mario Clouser (#6 EZR), 5. C.J. Leary (#77m Michael), 6. Chris Windom (#19 Hayward), 7. Thomas Meseraull (2 Yeley), 8. Cam Schafer (#97 Roach), 9. Clinton Bruns (#7 Bruns). 2:11.51
INDY METAL FINISHING / INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps) 1. Charles Davis Jr. (#47 Davis), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (#9K KT), 3. Matt Westfall (#33m Marshall), 4. Justin Grant (#4 TOPP), 5. Alex Banales (#5x Baldwin-Fox), 6. Brandon Mattox (#28 Mattox), 7. Jeremy Kerzman (#3K Kerzman), 8. Glen Saville (#19L Layton), 9. Logan Seavey (#5 Baldwin-Fox). NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Alex Banales, 2. Cam Schafer, 3. Glen Saville, 4. Jeremy Kerzman, 5. Jeff Pellersels, 6. Clinton Bruns, 7. Donovan Peterson, 8. Robert Bell. NT
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. C.J. Leary (9), 2. Brady Bacon (8), 3. Chris Windom (4), 4. Tanner Thorson (10), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (11), 6. Justin Grant (3), 7. Chase Stockon (6), 8. Jason McDougal (12), 9. Thomas Meseraull (7), 10. Ryan Bernal (14), 11. Robert Ballou (2), 12. Jake Swanson (13), 13. Mario Clouser (15), 14. Matt Westfall (18), 15. Brandon Mattox (17), 16. Charles Davis Jr. (5), 17. Logan Seavey (1), 18. Isaac Chapple (16), 19. Terry Richards (19), 20. Cam Schafer (22), 21. Chad Frewaldt (20), 22. Glen Saville (23), 23. Jeremy Kerzman (24), 24. Alex Banales (21). NT
**Glen Saville flipped during the third heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-3 Logan Seavey, Lap 4 Chris Windom, Laps 5-6 Logan Seavey, Lap 7 Chris Windom, Lap 8 Logan Seavey, Laps 9-18 Chris Windom, Laps 19-40 C.J. Leary.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-2271, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2215, 3-Justin Grant-2176, 4-C.J. Leary-2023, 5-Tanner Thorson-2019, 6-Chris Windom-1912, 7-Jake Swanson-1841, 8-Robert Ballou-1749, 9-Chase Stockon-1460, 10-Kyle Cummins-1183.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-148, 2-Brady Bacon-143, 3-Tanner Thorson-134, 4-Justin Grant-131, 5-Thomas Meseraull-119, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-117, 7-Logan Seavey-115, 8-Robert Ballou-114, 9-Kyle Cummins-84, 10-Buddy Kofoid-79.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 17, 2021 – Circle City Raceway – Indianapolis, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Jeremy Kerzman
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Ryan Bernal
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Chase Stockon
Indy Metal Finishing / Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner: Charles Davis Jr.
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Alex Banales
KSE Racing Products Hard Charger: C.J. Leary (9 th to 1 st)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Mario Clouser
Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Jeff Pellersels LEARY SPRINTS TO HUSET’S USAC NATIONALS NIGHT TWO TRIUMPH 
DB3 By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Brandon, South Dakota (September 11, 2021)………”Man, I love winning races.”
C.J. Leary has a knack for doing just that, and when everything comes together on both sides of the coin, that’s when reaching victory lane becomes a reality just as it did on Saturday during the second night of the Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals in Brandon, South Dakota.
The Greenfield, Ind. native charged from sixth to first with a quick progression through the field that saw him come within inches of taking the lead on the opening lap. Finally, on lap three, Leary stuck the position, then withstood a plethora of late-race restarts to score his fourth USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature win of the season in his Michael Motorsports/Kodiak Products – Gray Auto – Valvoline/DRC/Cressman.
Leary’s 15 th career triumph moved him into 38 th all-time on the USAC National Sprint Car win list, equaling Bobby East, Cory Kruseman and Brian Tyler.
“When you get a really good racecar, it gives you a ton of confidence,” Leary explained after collecting $5,000 for his winning efforts. “Last night, I didn’t know how good our racecar was. We all started back there, and we were all kind of running the same speed. We started sixth tonight, made quick work, and got to the front. That was the key to winning the race.”
The initial start to the 30-lap feature was halted by a melee involving several cars. Initiated by fourth-starting Mario Clouser’s spin in turn two, collected into the carnage was Kevin Thomas Jr. who nosed into the left side nerf bar of the spinning Clouser. Justin Grant ramped his right rear over the front bumper of Thomas. Logan Seavey spun to the inside in a valiant effort to avoid the altercation. Glen Saville clipped Thomas and flipped over. Matt Westfall nearly did the same as Saville, but was hit in his car’s undercarriage by Alex Banales, which rotated Westfall back on all four wheels.
All drivers were unharmed in the incident, and all were able to restart, with Thomas carving all the way from near the tail of the 24-car field to finish fifth with Seavey eighth, Clouser 11 th, Grant 14 th, Banales 20 th, Westfall 23 rd and Saville 24 th.
When action resumed, Leary, the 2019 USAC National Sprint Car driving champion, burst by Tanner Thorson, Jason McDougal, Ryan Bernal and Brady Bacon in quick succession, and soon found himself side-by-side with pole sitter Charles Davis Jr. at the conclusion of the opening lap, with Leary missing out on the lead by a half-car length at the stripe.
At the end of lap two, the difference between the two was about an inch with Davis just a sliver of a hair ahead of Leary. Moments later, Leary powered by Davis with a slider entering turn one to occupy his position at the head of the field while Bacon slotted into second one lap later as the first pair of positions embarked on a two-car breakaway in the early going.
Twelve laps in, the frontrunners were now hustling their way through the backend of the field with Leary splitting between the two lapped cars of Westfall and Chad Frewaldt in turn three. Bacon attempted to go underneath both lappers on the following lap in turns one and two, but lost the momentum, which Jake Swanson now possessed and utilized to rip around Bacon for the runner-up spot nearing midway.
It became a match of point/counterpoint between Leary and Swanson with each of Leary’s escape artist maneuvers being repeatedly answered without an ounce of hesitation by Swanson. Leary completed a double-slider with seven laps remaining between turns three and four with Leary and Chapple bouncing wheels off each other at the exit of turn four. Swanson retaliated by swiftly overtaking both and positioned himself to within a single car length with five laps remaining.
Following in close-quarters with Leary’s rear bumper was a hungry Swanson, a three-time runner-up finisher this season who’s yet to breakthrough with a first career USAC National Sprint Car feature win. Swanson’s hopes for that breakthrough found a roadblock when he bounced off the turn one cushion on lap 26, dropping him back and forcing him to watch as Leary began to stretch his lead out.
With the white flag unfurled, that’s when things got a tad hairy. In their joust for the fourth position, Thorson jumped to the inside of turn one in an attempt to surpass Ryan Bernal. Thorson’s front wheels climbed over the infield berm on entry and contact was made between Thorson’s right rear and Bernal’s left front, sending Bernal backwards hard into the outside wall.
Sixth-running Robert Ballou was caught up as a victim in the fracas as he plowed into Bernal, which spun him around backwards against the wall. Meseraull, in ninth, also slid to a stop to avoid contact with Bernal and Ballou, both of whom were unable to restart while Meseraull returned to finish just where he had been, in ninth.
On the restart, Leary’s prowess of the 1/3-mile rolled on without interruption toward a five-car-length advantage while the fight for second was on. Second-running Swanson, however, banged the right rear tire off the turn four cushion coming to the white flag, allowing both Thorson and Davis to glide by on the low slide while Swanson fell back to fifth momentarily, but was able to drive back past Bacon to grab the fourth spot on the final lap.
Leary finished off his duties with a 0.640 second victory over Thorson, Davis and Swanson, which made it an all-Arizona team top-four with the Grand Canyon State’s Michael Motorsports (Chino Valley), Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports (Gilbert), Davis Race Team (Buckeye) and Team AZ Racing (Phoenix) earning the top-four finishing spots.
A succession of late yellows made for an arduous journey to the checkered flag for Leary, but it resulted in reaching the promised land once again, and for the first time in South Dakota.
“Those late yellows are always tough,” Leary lamented. “You never really know where to go and whether you should protect or just keep doing what you’re doing. The racetrack took rubber at the end, and I was trying to figure out if it was faster to rail the top or come down a lane and get in the rubber. Lapped traffic was hectic too, but we hit this setup pretty good on the 77m.”
Friday night Huset’s winner Tanner Thorson (Minden, Nev.) finished second to record his third consecutive top-two feature result with the series in his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – CSI – MVT/Spike/Stanton Chevy, which was marred by a late-race incident with Bernal and Ballou.
“First off, I want to apologize to Ryan and Ballou,” Thorson said. “I don’t think (Ryan) expected me to be down there. I caught the berm with my left front and got into him. I take full responsibility for that one. I did what I had to do there after that to get to second and (car owner) Andy (Reinbold) gave me a great car to do that.”
Charles Davis Jr. (Buckeye, Ariz.) celebrated unlike any other for a driver who just earned a third-place finish. The 53-year-old veteran performed a cage stand while simultaneously chugging a can of beer on the front straightaway following his best career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car finish, a third in his Davis Race Team/MP Environmental – Black Magic Bead Breaker – RSS Industries/DRC/Ott Chevy.
“It was awesome,” Davis exclaimed. “We really got the car figured out there yesterday. I screwed up in qualifying so badly; the car was just so tight. I knew I had to win that heat race and that’s all there was to it. That was the only way we were going to be in the show without having to run the B-main. I had no idea it was going to start me on the front row, so everybody was happy about that.”
In Fatheadz Eyewear qualifying, Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) recorded his third consecutive fast time aboard his Baldwin-Fox Racing/Fox Paving – Claxton Engines/DRC/Claxton Chevy before going on to finish eighth in the feature event.
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 11, 2021 – Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, South Dakota – 1/3-Mile Dirt Track – Inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals
FLIGHT ONE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-12.591; 2. Chris Windom, 19, Hayward-12.617; 3. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-12.727; 4. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-12.780; 5. Mario Clouser, 6, EZR-12.875; 6. Cam Schafer, 97, Roach-12.958; 7. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-12.966; 8. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.011; 9. Alex Banales, 5x, Baldwin/Fox-13.206.
FLIGHT TWO FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 5, Baldwin/Fox-12.589; 2. Thomas Meseraull, 2, Yeley-12.695; 3. C.J. Leary, 77m, Michael-12.719; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9K, KT-12.860; 5. Chad Frewaldt, 4F, Frewaldt-13.139; 6. Glen Saville, 19L, Layton-13.285; 7. Jeremy Kerzman, 3K, Kerzman-13.553; 8. Jeff Pellersels, X, Pellersels-13.728; 9. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-13.911.
FLIGHT THREE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Tanner Thorson, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.688; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.712; 3. Ryan Bernal, 17w, Wood-12.825; 4. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.844; 5. Jason McDougal, 5m, KO-12.848; 6. Isaac Chapple, 52, Chapple-12.998; 7. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-13.075; 8. Terry Richards, 18, Richards-13.396; 9. Clinton Bruns, 7, Bruns-13.931.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-5 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Mario Clouser, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Chris Windom, 5. Brandon Mattox, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Cam Schafer, 8. Alex Banales, 9. Chase Stockon. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-5 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Thomas Meseraull, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Logan Seavey, 4. C.J. Leary, 5. Chad Frewaldt, 6. Glen Saville, 7. Robert Bell, 8. Jeff Pellersels, 9. Jeremy Kerzman. NT
INDY METAL FINISHING / INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-5 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Charles Davis Jr., 2. Jason McDougal, 3. Isaac Chapple, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Ryan Bernal, 6. Tanner Thorson, 7. Justin Grant, 8. Terry Richards, 9. Clinton Bruns. 2:23.90
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (8 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Brandon Mattox, 2. Isaac Chapple, 3. Alex Banales, 4. Terry Richards, 5. Cam Schafer, 6. Robert Bell, 7. Clinton Bruns, 8. Jeff Pellersels. 2:00.15 (New Track Record)
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. C.J. Leary (6), 2. Tanner Thorson (7), 3. Charles Davis Jr. (1), 4. Jake Swanson (9), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (8), 6. Brady Bacon (2), 7. Chris Windom (10), 8. Logan Seavey (11), 9. Thomas Meseraull (12), 10. Brandon Mattox (18), 11. Mario Clouser (4), 12. Chase Stockon (24), 13. Terry Richards (21), 14. Justin Grant (13), 15. Isaac Chapple (19), 16. Ryan Bernal (3), 17. Robert Ballou (14), 18. Chad Frewaldt (16), 19. Cam Schafer (22), 20. Alex Banales (20), 21. Robert Bell (23), 22. Jason McDougal (5), 23. Matt Westfall (15), 24. Glen Saville (17). NT
**Glen Saville flipped on lap 1 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 Charles Davis Jr., Laps 3-30 C.J. Leary.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-2204, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2157, 3-Justin Grant-2121, 4-Tanner Thorson-1958, 5-C.J. Leary-1953, 6-Chris Windom-1848, 7-Jake Swanson-1802, 8-Robert Ballou-1708, 9-Chase Stockon-1408, 10-Kyle Cummins-1163.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-147, 2-Brady Bacon-137, 3-Justin Grant-131, 4-Tanner Thorson-128, 5-Thomas Meseraull-119, 6-Logan Seavey-115, 7-Robert Ballou-114, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-111, 9-Kyle Cummins-84, 10-Buddy Kofoid-79.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 12, 2021 – Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, South Dakota – 1/3-Mile Dirt Track – Inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Charles Davis Jr.
Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Logan Seavey
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Thomas Meseraull
Indy Metal Finishing / Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner: Charles Davis Jr.
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Brandon Mattox
KSE Racing Products Hard Charger: Chase Stockon (24 th to 12 th)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Terry Richards
Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Clinton Bruns WINDOM FINDS HIS MIDGET GROOVE TO WIN HUSET'S SPEEDWAY USAC NATIONALS NIGHT #2
DB3 By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Brandon, South Dakota (September 11, 2021)………For the second consecutive evening, Chris Windom found himself taking over the lead just nine laps from the finish of the 30-lap USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature event at Brandon, South Dakota’s Huset’s Speedway.
On Friday, however, Windom’s mercurial move to the bottom while leading left the top open and resulted in an unhappy Windom finishing second and champing at the bit to right the wrongs the next time he hit the track.
The Canton, Ill. driver was beside himself at the moment, and made a pledge to himself that given the same scenario, he’d certainly not change course on his own accord in round number two of the Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals.
Come Saturday night, Windom found himself in a similar spot. Starting sixth, he climbed to second by lap four, stalked leader Daison Pursley throughout the first two-thirds of the race, then slid his way into the lead on lap 22 of the 30-lap distance, staying loyal to the topside throughout the duration.
Windom ultimately score his redemptional fourth USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship victory of the year in his CB Industries/NOS Energy Drink – PristineAuction.com – K & C Drywall/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
Saturday night’s $5,000 triumph was the 10 th of Windom’s USAC National Midget career, tying him for 69 th all-time with Allen Heath, Doug Kalitta, Brad Kuhn, Steve Lotshaw, Jerry McClung and Chuck Weyant.
Following a large range of emotions over the past two nights, Windom made it abundantly clear his preference for the result that came in his “green-to-checker” run over his “green-white-checkered” finish that came just 24 hours earlier.
“(Car owner) Chad (Boat) had this car so good the last two nights,” Windom said. “I was really frustrated after losing last night. I was definitely not coming off the top tonight and I felt like I was not going to lose this race.”
Windom took his first shot at Pursley for the lead in turn one just past the halfway mark on lap 16, diving to the bottom briefly to slide his way by Pursley. Unable to make the move stick, Windom tucked into line behind Pursley as Logan Seavey posed a brief challenge to Windom for the second position.
Moments later, in turn one on the 17 th lap, series point leader Buddy Kofoid saw a glimpse of daylight to slot in between Windom and Seavey for the third position as he dove his way into turn one. While sliding up the racetrack in front of Seavey, Seavey banged his right rear tire off the cushion, and subsequently got on the bike by lifting both left side tires. When his car came back to all fours, Seavey’s left front tire landed atop Kofoid’s right rear. As Seavey gathered up his car and his senses, Kofoid had sped away with the third position for his own taking.
As Pursley drew closer to lapped traffic, he found himself coerced into leaving the comfort of the topside to cut below 19 th running Hayden Reinbold. As soon as Pursley traveled to the low groove in turns three and four, Windom quickly ate up all the ground Pursley left unguarded up top.
When Pursley drifted back uphill to the top on the front straight behind Reinbold, Windom had a full head of steam and zeroed in on the opportunity, driving downhill from the top of turn four to the bottom of turn one, completing the pass as he broad slid into the lane located a few feet from the outside wall just ahead of the chrome on Pursley’s front bumper.
All the right moves in all the right places, that’s how Windom’s race was going to go down on this night.
“When you’re running second, you can kind of tell where you’re gaining a little time on the guy who’s leading,” Windom explained. “I’d get him coming off each corner a little bit, but the midgets are so close in speed here, it’s really hard to close up on a guy, so when you get there, you’ve got to make the right move. I made one early and I wasn’t close enough. I had to rebound and run him back down.”
Once Windom cleared Reinbold while utilizing a turn one slider just eight laps from the close, it was lights out for the rest of the field as Windom separated himself from Pursley to collect the win by a 0.977 second margin. Pursley finished in the second position with Kofoid third, Seavey fourth and Shane Golobic fifth.
Daison Pursley (Locust Grove, Okla.) led a race-high 22 laps before finishing as the runner-up in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/IWX – TRD – Toyota/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota, which marked his second consecutive top-five finish at Huset’s after finishing fifth on Friday, along with his eighth top-10 in his last nine starts.
Buddy Kofoid (Penngrove, Okla.) upped his Huset’s performance from fourth on Friday to third on Saturday in his Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – TRD – Toyota/Bullet By Spike/Speedway Toyota, which helped him maintain a slight 13-point advantage over Windom in the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship standings.
Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, Calif.) recorded his first career fast time with the series during Fatheadz Eyewear Qualifying with a new Huset’s Speedway USAC National Midget one-lap track record of 12.776 in his Matt Wood Racing/Southern Pacific Farms – Elk Grove Ford/Spike/Stanton SR-11x. Moles finished 12 th in the night’s feature.
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USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 11, 2021 – Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, South Dakota – 1/3-Mile Dirt Oval – Inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals
FLIGHT ONE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 07w, Wood-12.776 (New Track Record); 2. Emerson Axsom, 15, Petry-12.847; 3. Logan Seavey, 25, Malloy-12.856; 4. Chris Windom, 89, CBI-12.877; 5. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.910; 6. Brenham Crouch, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.989; 7. Austin Barnhill, 17B, Dave Mac-13.179; 8. Aaron Werner, 11w, Peterson-13.731; 9. Casey Hicks, 5H, Hicks-13.794.
FLIGHT TWO FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5, Petry-12.908; 2. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac-12.961; 3. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-12.967; 4. Chase Randall, 19A, Reinbold/Underwood-12.987; 5. Justin Grant, 2J, RMS-13.032; 6. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.043; 7. Ryan Timms, 85T, CBI-13.079; 8. Chad Frewaldt, 4c, Frewaldt-13.795; 9. Blaze Bennett, 10B, Bennett-13.953.
FLIGHT THREE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Shane Golobic, 17w, Wood-12.850; 2. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-12.989; 3. Maria Cofer, 57, Abacus-13.011; 4. Daison Pursley, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.026; 5. Tanner Thorson, 19T, Reinbold/Underwood-13.097; 6. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-13.106; 7. Jason McDougal, 19, Hayward-13.127; 8. Lance Bennett, 10, Mason-13.636.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-5 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Austin Barnhill, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Brenham Crouch, 4. Chris Windom, 5. Emerson Axsom, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Hayden Reinbold, 8. Aaron Werner, 9. Casey Hicks. 2:20.08
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-5 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Buddy Kofoid, 2. Ryan Timms, 3. Cannon McIntosh, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. Chase Randall, 7. Chad Frewaldt, 8. Blaze Bennett, 9. Ethan Mitchell. 2:17.91
INDY METAL FINISHING / INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-5 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Shane Golobic, 2. Jason McDougal, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Tanner Thorson, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Chance Crum, 7. Maria Cofer, 8. Lance Bennett. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chris Windom (6), 2. Daison Pursley (1), 3. Buddy Kofoid (7), 4. Logan Seavey (3), 5. Shane Golobic (12), 6. Justin Grant (13), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (9), 8. Thomas Meseraull (16), 9. Cannon McIntosh (10), 10. Chance Crum (5), 11. Emerson Axsom (8), 12. Mitchel Moles (11), 13. Tanner Thorson (15), 14. Chase Randall (18), 15. Ryan Timms (14), 16. Jason McDougal (17), 17. Maria Cofer (19), 18. Brenham Crouch (2), 19. Hayden Reinbold (20), 20. Chad Frewaldt (21), 21. Austin Barnhill (4), 22. Aaron Werner (23), 23. Casey Hicks (25), 24. Lance Bennett (22), 25. Blaze Bennett (24). 7:31.12 (New Track Record)
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-21 Daison Pursley, Laps 22-30 Chris Windom.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Buddy Kofoid-1732, 2-Chris Windom-1719, 3-Emerson Axsom-1662, 4-Justin Grant-1610, 5-Daison Pursley-1591, 6-Tanner Thorson-1590, 7-Logan Seavey-1465, 8-Thomas Meseraull-1448, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1392, 10-Cannon McIntosh-1265.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-144, 2-Brady Bacon-137, 3-Justin Grant-131, 4-Tanner Thorson-123, 5-Thomas Meseraull-116, 6-Robert Ballou-114, 7-Logan Seavey-112, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-108, 9-Kyle Cummins-84, 10-Buddy Kofoid-79.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 12, 2021 – Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, South Dakota – 1/3-Mile Dirt Oval – Inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Shane Golobic
Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Mitchel Moles
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Austin Barnhill
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Buddy Kofoid
Indy Metal Finishing / Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner: Shane Golobic
KSE Racing Products Hard Charger: Thomas Meseraull (16 th to 8 th)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Tanner Thorson T-Mez's Huset's Heroics Net South Dakota USAC Midget Score 
DB3By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Brandon, South Dakota (September 10, 2021)………With the checkered flag in his sight, Thomas Meseraull resigned himself to a third-place finish in Friday night’s Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals feature for the NOS Energy Drink National Midgets in Brandon, South Dakota.
Running inside the top-five throughout the first 29 laps, Meseraull saw his hopes of victory dashed on the final lap as leader Chris Windom and a surging Mitchel Moles raced into the distance on the back straightaway while Meseraull seemed destined for a third-place fate.
However, divine intervention swept over the speedway in the form of a yellow flag for Meseraull due to Cannon McIntosh’s stop in turn two which brought about not only a halt to the race, but also sent Meseraull back to second and provided him another shot with a green-white-checkered bout waiting ahead for the first series race at the track since 1996.
Meseraull assaulted the cushion as Windom altered his route by taking the low line into turn one on the lap 30 restart. Without hesitation, Meseraull stuck to his guns and charged around Windom, ultimately completing the pass at the exit of turn four coming to the white flag.
Not to be denied, Meseraull locked it up on the final lap by turning his best lap of the contest on the 31 st and final lap to win the $5,000 prize by a 0.672 second margin in his RMS Racing/EnviroFab – Response Management Services – Engler Machine/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
The San Jose, Californian led 16 laps of the BC39 at The Dirt Track at IMS before an incident knocked him out of the event while racing for the lead with less than five laps to go. In his most recent start last Sunday at Wisconsin’s Angell Park Speedway, Meseraull led the first 22 before giving way to Thorson to whom he finished second.
After leading 38 of the 69 laps in his last two USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget starts, all Meseraull was asking for was a little luck, a bit of a break, to help guide him to a long-awaited checkered flag. Just like he drew it up. Well, maybe not exactly.
“We had a little bit of luck go our way,” Meseraull proudly stated. “We’ve been so good lately; we were second last week, and we’ve just been plugging away. The last five nights, I feel like we had the fastest car and, tonight, I felt like we were going to run third. We opted for a harder tire, and it looks like it played out to our advantage. Hats off to my guys for making the right calls tonight.”
While the ending belonged to Meseraull, the first two-thirds of the race was all Kevin Thomas Jr.’s, who boasted a solid lead early on from his outside front row starting position. His Petry Motorsports teammate, Emerson Axsom, however, fell to trouble early while running 10th as his car went up smoke before one lap was even completed, dropping him from nine points down in the series championship race to 47 behind point leader Buddy Kofoid.
As Thomas was controlling the head of the pack, Meseraull was charging up through the field from his sixth starting position, sliding Kofoid for fourth on lap nine in turn one, then subsequently drifting by Daison Pursley for the third position exiting turn four on lap 11.
At the midway point, Windom swarmed Thomas Jr. and the two exchanged the lead multiple times for a two-lap span on both ends of the racetrack with Windom sliding Thomas and Thomas countering each and every uppercut by racing back by to resume his position in the lead.
Finally gaining a semblance of breathing room from Windom over the ensuing laps, Thomas maintained a four to five car length advantage over Windom as he entered on the turn three cushion, just as he had done to perfection the previous 21 trips this evening around the 1/3-mile dirt oval.
This time, however, was something quite different. Thomas’ right rear tire went down on the entry, sending him into the outside wall. Now driving on just the rim, Thomas coasted to a stop, putting him out of the race with a 19 th place finish.
Lurking behind Windom just prior to the yellow was Meseraull who was now elevated to second for the restart, but not for long, as it turned out, when Fatheadz Fast Qualifier and new one-lap track record holder Shane Golobic charged under to move into second.
Meseraull tapped Golobic’s rear bumper on the back straight with five to go, just to let him know he had no intentions of going away. A lap later, Meseraull delivered by ripping around the outside of Golobic at thee exit of turn four on lap 27.
On the final lap, Meseraull took one last shot at Windom in turn one with a slider, coming up just a tad short in his bid before falling back into line. Meanwhile, the two Matt Wood Racing cars driven by Golobic and Moles were firmly planted on the bottom and digging.
Moles, quite appropriately, was the one who hit paydirt by getting a drive past both Golobic and Meseraull in turn two, then quickly ran down the high-riding Windom in turn three just as the initial call from race control came over the radio to throw the yellow for the stopped car of ninth running Cannon McIntosh in turn two.
With the field re-racked for a final two-lap dash to the checkered, Windom was the leader with Meseraull second, Golobic third and Moles back to fourth due to the running order being reverted back to the last completed lap.
When action resumed, Windom altered course and shot right to the bottom of turn one while Meseraull carried onward on the top, gliding by around the outside to occupy the lead once and for all to get the victory over Windom, Golobic, Kofoid and Daison Pursley, while Moles slipped back to sixth.
“I was kind of surprised to see him go to the bottom other than the Wood guys who were working on getting us, but that’s what those guys do. They’re good on the bottom everywhere, every year. But momentum is key, and I just ripped the lip.”
It was a tough pill to swallow for Chris Windom (Canton, Ill.) who seemed to be in position to win his fourth of the year aboard the CB Industries/NOS Energy Drink – PristineAuction.com – K & C Drywall/Spike/Speedway Toyota. Yet, he chose to alter his path on the final restart, heading to the bottom after being right on top practically all throughout.
“I just completely gave that one away,” Windom admitted. “I tried to save my tire on the top, then the Matt Wood Racing cars started making the bottom work. I thought that, on a restart, it might work for one lap down there as we were coming to green-white-checkered. I just screwed myself and I should’ve stayed on the top where I was good. I’m pretty disappointed leading all that, saving my tires and losing it. But it is what it is.”
Shane Golobic (Fremont, Calif.) finished third in his Matt Wood Racing/NOS Energy Drink – Elk Grove Ford – Royal Truck Body/Spike/Stanton SR-11x, his best series finish since finishing third at Bakersfield (Calif.) Speedway in November of 2018. Earlier in the evening, Golobic broke Tracy Hines’ long-standing 25-year-old one-lap USAC National Midget track record of 13.923. Golobic’s time of 12.923 was exactly one second faster than the former record set a quarter of a century ago.
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USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 10, 2021 – Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, South Dakota – 1/3-Mile Dirt Oval – Inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals
FLIGHT ONE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Shane Golobic, 17w, Wood-12.923 (New Track Record); 2. Chris Windom, 89, CBI-13.052; 3. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-13.088; 4. Chase Randall, 19A, Reinbold/Underwood-13.096; 5. Brenham Crouch, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.114; 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5, Petry-13.115; 7. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-13.134; 8. Tanner Thorson, 19T, Reinbold/Underwood-13.195; 9. Austin Barnhill, 17B, Dave Mac-13.230; 10. Jody Rosenboom, 14x, Rosenboom-13.426.
FLIGHT TWO FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac-13.021; 2. Emerson Axsom, 15, Petry-13.044; 3. Maria Cofer, 57, Abacus-13.062; 4. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.091; 5. Daison Pursley, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.164; 6. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-13.234; 7. Ryan Timms, 85T, CBI-13.244; 8. Chad Frewaldt, 4c, Frewaldt-13.438; 9. Blaze Bennett, 10B, Bennett-NT.
FLIGHT THREE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 07w, Wood-13.001; 2. Jason McDougal, 19, Hayward-13.122; 3. Brady Bacon, 21H, TKH-13.157; 4. Justin Grant, 2J, RMS-13.196; 5. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-13.234; 6. Logan Seavey, 25, Malloy-13.302; 7. Aaron Werner, 11w, Peterson-13.913; 8. Lance Bennett, 91, Mason-13.933; 9. Brant O'Banion, 9, McDonald-13.936; 10. Casey Hicks, 5H, Hicks-14.047.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-5 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Tanner Thorson, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Chance Crum, 4. Chase Randall, 5. Brenham Crouch, 6. Chris Windom, 7. Shane Golobic, 8. Ethan Mitchell, 9. Jody Rosenboom, 10. Austin Barnhill. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-5 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Thomas Meseraull, 2. Ryan Timms, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Cannon McIntosh, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Maria Cofer, 8. Chad Frewaldt, 9. Blaze Bennett. NT
INDY METAL FINISHING / INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-5 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Buddy Kofoid, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Jason McDougal, 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Brant O’Banion, 7. Lance Bennett, 8. Casey Hicks, 9. Aaron Werner, 10. Justin Grant. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Chance Crum, 2. Ethan Mitchell, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. Austin Barnhill, 5. Brant O’Banion, 6. Chad Frewaldt, 7. Casey Hicks, 8. Aaron Werner, 9. Blaze Bennett, 10. Jody Rosenboom, 11. Lance Bennett. NT
FEATURE: (31 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Thomas Meseraull (6), 2. Chris Windom (4), 3. Shane Golobic (5), 4. Buddy Kofoid (7), 5. Daison Pursley (1), 6. Mitchel Moles (12), 7. Logan Seavey (13), 8. Jason McDougal (9), 9. Chase Randall (3), 10. Chance Crum (17), 11. Brenham Crouch (16), 12. Maria Cofer (20), 13. Ethan Mitchell (18), 14. Hayden Reinbold (19), 15. Austin Barnhill (22), 16. Cannon McIntosh (11), 17. Brady Bacon (8), 18. Ryan Timms (15), 19. Kevin Thomas Jr. (2), 20. Chad Frewaldt (24), 21. Tanner Thorson (14), 22. Justin Grant (21), 23. Brant O'Banion (23), 24. Emerson Axsom (10). NT
**Justin Grant flipped during the third heat. Lance Bennett flipped during the semi.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-21 Kevin Thomas Jr., Laps 22-29 Chris Windom, Laps 30-31 Thomas Meseraull.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Buddy Kofoid-1668, 2-Chris Windom-1649, 3-Emerson Axsom-1621, 4-Justin Grant-1555, 5-Tanner Thorson-1553, 6-Daison Pursley-1524, 7-Logan Seavey-1404, 8-Thomas Meseraull-1399, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1340, 10-Cannon McIntosh-1219.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-139, 2-Brady Bacon-130, 3-Justin Grant-123, 4-Tanner Thorson-121, 5-Robert Ballou-114, 6-Logan Seavey-109, 7-Thomas Meseraull-108, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-102, 9-Kyle Cummins-84, 10-Buddy Kofoid-78.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: September 11-12, 2021 – Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, South Dakota – 1/3-Mile Dirt Oval – Inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Thomas Meseraull
Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Shane Golobic
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Tanner Thorson
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Thomas Meseraull
Indy Metal Finishing / Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner: Buddy Kofoid
KSE Racing Products Hard Charger: Maria Cofer (20 th to 12 th)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Ethan Mitchell
Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Casey Hicks THORSON THRIVES AFTER CLOSE CALL TO WIN HUSET’S USAC SPRINTS 
DB3 By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Brandon, South Dakota (September 10, 2021)………Following a bitterly disappointing end to his run in the midget feature less than 30 minutes before strapping in to go again in the sprint car, Tanner Thorson lived up to the adage, “the best revenge is living well” during Friday’s USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car feature on the opening night of the inaugural USAC Nationals.
In the immediacy of jumping out of his damaged midget that sat facing the outside turn two wall, Thorson turned his focus to the sprint car and his upcoming leading role on the pole for the evening’s 25-lap nightcap.
A smooth sail for 23 of the 25-lap distance hit choppy waters as Thorson neared scoring what appeared to be a relatively stress-free feature win.
However, that wasn’t the case as race leader Thorson became sideways in turn four, resulting in he and and 16 th running Charles Davis Jr. locking horns. With both cars sideways and nearly going on their own respective wild rides, the yellow flag was displayed while Thorson somehow managed to escape the calamity without stopping or spinning.
By the skin of his teeth, Thorson (Minden, Nev.) resumed, then promptly engaged in his own personal green-white-checkered contest with Thomas Meseraull, who prevailed in a much similar situation in the preceding midget feature.
Thorson stayed tried and true on the topside for the remaining two circuits to capture his fourth series victory of the season in his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – CSI – MVT/Spike/Stanton Chevy.
The four feature wins by Thorson have surpassed the most by a USAC National Sprint Car Rookie since Michael Lewis won three in 2003. It was also Thorson’s series-leading 11 th overall USAC National feature victory this season, with seven in the midget added to four more in the sprint car.
“It was my bad. I got in there pretty hard trying to clear both (Ryan) Bernal and Charles. That was all my bad,” Thorson revealed. “It paid off in the end for us because we had a fast racecar. Starting there on the bottom, then working on the bottom, I feel like helped us for the first few laps.”
Eventually moving to the top shortly thereafter, that’s where Thorson performed most of his work, building a cushion of 1.5 seconds over his front row counterpart, Meseraull, who started second and followed Thorson in sync around the perimeter of the racetrack.
Meseraull managed to whittle a full second off Thorson’s lead in traffic, but once Thorson hit clear air once again, the interval grew back to 1.5 seconds until the flashing yellow lights for the Thorson/Davis slight tangle restacked the deck with two laps remaining.
Without traffic, Thorson stepped away to put a stamp on a winning performance while multiple battles raged back behind he and second-running Meseraull.
Tenth-starting Brady Bacon dipped underneath Robert Ballou for the third spot in turn three coming to the white flag while, simultaneously, Ballou and Jake Swanson touched wheels, getting Ballou’s car into a peculiar sideways position momentarily before he gathered it up and motored back past Kevin Thomas Jr. who had briefly nosed ahead off turn four for fourth.
Up front, it was all Thorson who put the race on ice with a 0.715 second margin of victory over Meseraull, Bacon and Ballou with Thomas Jr. rounding out the top-five.
For Meseraull, it was a sterling night with a midget win followed by a second-place result in his Yeley Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – Apache Scapes – CK Electric/Twister/Claxton Mopar sprint car. The runner-up finish marks the San Jose, California driver’s best with the series since winning the Sprint Car Smackdown opener at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway in 2019. Furthermore, the second-place finish is the best by a Jack Yeley-owned car with the series since Kevin Swindell finished second at Southern Iowa Speedway in Oskaloosa, during the 2008 season.
“I’m pretty excited about putting the ol’ 2 up here on the podium,” Meseraull said. “How about that? Hats off to Jack Yeley. We just really haven’t been all that great in this thing. He put the super tune to it because here we are on the podium.”
In regard to the big payouts throughout the week with $5,000-to-win on the Friday and Saturday night programs, plus a $20,000 winner’s share for Sunday night’s finales, Meseraull was cautious about his mindset toward it.
“For me, it’s so important to not pay attention to the money because I will drive this thing right into the fence if it paid enough money,” Meseraull said point blankly. “That’s what happens when you put the money on the line. I really don’t care about the money. I’m going to try to go forward, rip the lip, bang sliders, you know, do what I love to do best.”
Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, Okla.) put his Dynamics, Inc./Fatheadz Eyewear – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts – TelStar/Triple X/Rider Chevy back into the top-five for the 17 th time in his last 20 starts to extend his series point lead to an even 50 as he pursues a fourth career USAC National Sprint Car driving title. His advancement from the 10 th starting spot to finish third also earned him KSE Racing Products Hard Charger honors for the evening.
“We were running fourth, and we got a really good run off the bottom and kind of poked him out of the way there,” Bacon explained of his late-race pass of Ballou to round out the podium. “We were going to get freight-trained if we were going to be following. Twenty-five laps just isn’t enough to come from 10 th when you have to pass good cars, but I think we had a car capable of winning for sure.”
In qualifying, Logan Seavey set a new one-lap track record for USAC National Sprint Cars at Huset’s Speedway with a time of 12.576 seconds, taking over the best all-time speed at the track from Kevin Thomas Jr. who held the former mark of 12.711, set in 2016.
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 10, 2021 – Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, South Dakota – 1/3-Mile Dirt Track – Inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals
FLIGHT ONE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 5, Baldwin/Fox-12.576 (New Track Record); 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9K, KT-12.674; 3. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-12.900; 4. Chris Windom, 19, Hayward-12.916; 5. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-12.953; 6. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.183; 7. Alex Banales, 5x, Baldwin/Fox-13.379; 8. Cam Schafer, 97, Roach-13.570; 9. Jeremy Kerzman, 3K, Kerzman-13.850; 10. Clinton Bruns, 7, Bruns-14.293.
FLIGHT TWO FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-12.787; 2. Mario Clouser, 6, EZR-12.888; 3. C.J. Leary, 77m, Michael-12.900; 4. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-12.988; 5. Thomas Meseraull, 2, Yeley-13.277; 6. Chad Frewaldt, 4F, Frewaldt-13.505; 7. Jeff Pellersels, X, Pellersels-13.583; 8. Donovan Peterson, 11xs, Peterson-13.818; 9. Robert Bell, 71, Bell-14.260.
FLIGHT THREE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.595; 2. Tanner Thorson, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.654; 3. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.773; 4. Ryan Bernal, 17w, Wood-12.912; 5. Jason McDougal, 5m, KO-13.022; 6. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-13.222; 7. Isaac Chapple, 52, Chapple-13.513; 8. Terry Richards, 18, Richards-13.663; 9. Glen Saville, 19L, Layton-13.688.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-5 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Chris Windom, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Brandon Mattox, 6. Cam Schafer, 7. Clinton Bruns, 8. Matt Westfall, 9. Alex Banales, 10. Jeremy Kerzman. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-5 in points transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Thomas Meseraull, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Robert Bell, 6. Jeff Pellersels, 7. Donovan Peterson, 8. Mario Clouser, 9. Chad Frewaldt. NT
INDY METAL FINISHING / INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, winner plus top-5 in points transfer to the feature) 1. Jason McDougal, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Isaac Chapple, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Charles Davis Jr., 6. Tanner Thorson, 7. Ryan Bernal, 8. Terry Richards, 9. Glen Saville. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Charles Davis Jr., 2. Cam Schafer, 3. Chad Frewaldt, 4. Alex Banales, 5. Robert Bell, 6. Glen Saville, 7. Donovan Peterson, 8. Jeremy Kerzman, 9. Clinton Bruns, 10. Terry Richards. NT
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tanner Thorson (1), 2. Thomas Meseraull (2), 3. Brady Bacon (10), 4. Robert Ballou (3), 5. Kevin Thomas Jr. (9), 6. Jake Swanson (4), 7. Justin Grant (8), 8. Logan Seavey (11), 9. Jason McDougal (5), 10. Chris Windom (6), 11. C.J. Leary (12), 12. Brandon Mattox (14), 13. Chase Stockon (7), 14. Ryan Bernal (17), 15. Mario Clouser (13), 16. Charles Davis Jr. (19), 17. Matt Westfall (16), 18. Isaac Chapple (15), 19. Glen Saville (24), 20. Jeff Pellersels (18), 21. Alex Banales (22), 22. Robert Bell (23), 23. Cam Schafer (20), 24. Chad Frewaldt (21). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-25 Tanner Thorson.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-2149, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2099, 3-Justin Grant-2086, 4-Tanner Thorson-1891, 5-C.J. Leary-1883, 6-Chris Windom-1796, 7-Jake Swanson-1741, 8-Robert Ballou-1679, 9-Chase Stockon-1369, 10-Kyle Cummins-1163.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-139, 2-Brady Bacon-137, 3-Justin Grant-124, 4-Tanner Thorson-121, 5-Robert Ballou-114, 6-Logan Seavey-112, 7-Thomas Meseraull-108, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-106, 9-Kyle Cummins-84, 10-Emerson Axsom-78.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: September 11-12, 2021 – Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, South Dakota – 1/3-Mile Dirt Track – Inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Kevin Thomas Jr.
Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Logan Seavey
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: C.J. Leary
Indy Metal Finishing / Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner: Jason McDougal
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Charles Davis Jr.
KSE Racing Products Hard Charger: Brady Bacon (10 th to 3 rd)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Chase Stockon
Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Donovan Peterson TYLER TOPS TED HORN 100 IN Du QUOIN FOR FIRST USAC WIN IN A DECADE 
Speed Demon By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Du Quoin, Illinois (September 6, 2021)………In his storied USAC Silver Crown career, which has spanned three decades and 199 starts, perhaps none were more improbable than his performance Monday afternoon at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in southern Illinois.
For instance, it was his first run in the BCR Group/Flint Trucking – QS Quality Components – Duncan Oil/Maxim/Kercher Chevy, taking the reins of the ride exactly two weeks earlier following the parting of ways between the team and longtime driver Shane Cottle.
Secondly, it had been two years since the Parma, Michigan driver last sat in the seat of a USAC Silver Crown car, keeping the fires burning in the meantime by winning in a Gold Crown car at several of the most famed road racing circuits in the United States.
Tyler returned to the series in grand fashion to “steal their lunch money” so to speak, by charging from 11 th to 1 st to win his second career Ted Horn 100, and first since 2008, at the Magic Mile.
On the other hand, it wasn’t all that improbable considering the fact that we’ve witnessed Brian Tyler do this before. Many times. In fact, his 18 th career USAC Silver Crown victory ranks him third on the all-time list.
With a mid-race snooker of Kody Swanson for the lead, then thwarting repeated challenges from Logan Seavey down the stretch, Tyler’s performance put him in the win column with the series for the first time in more than a decade, since a victory on the Springfield Mile in 2011.
Furthermore, Tyler’s stretch of 10 years and 17 days between USAC Silver Crown wins is the second longest gap in series history. Cottle set the record in 2020 at 12 years, 11 months and 7 days, and achieved the feat in the same BCR Group No. 81 that Tyler won with at Du Quoin on Monday afternoon.
In doing so, at 53 years, 10 months and 10 days old, Tyler became USAC Silver Crown’s oldest race winner, surpassing the record of Chet Fillip, who was 51 years, 2 months and 25 days when he won at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway in 2008.
“They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but I think we still got it,” Tyler smirked. “I got to thank the guys on the 81 car. They gave me a really good car. I’ve taken a couple years off, but not by choice. It’s just under circumstances of what’s been going on. It feels really good to be back and I love the miles anyhow.”
After winning his 35 th career USAC Silver Crown Fatheadz pole award, series point leader Kody Swanson jetted off with the lead and controlled the early stages, only being slightly pestered by fellow two-time Ted Horn 100 winner Shane Cockrum.
Meanwhile, a tad further back, Tyler was already knifing his way under and around the frontrunners, peeking into the top-five by lap 16 as he followed the path of Jake Swanson to move past Matt Westfall. Two laps later, Tyler cashed in a two-for-one deal as he blasted by J. Swanson on the bottom entering turn three for fourth, then found the path to overtake Seavey for third mere seconds later exiting the fourth turn.
On the lap 22 restart, Tyler blasted by Cockrum underneath to slot into second off turn two. J. Swanson and Seavey both shot by Cockrum for third and fourth, respectively, as Cockrum dropped all the way back to fifth with a deflating right rear tire.
A caution for the stopped car of Korey Weyant in turn four on lap 24 provided Cockrum a bit of a break as his crew changed the tire under the yellow flag period and returned him to action where he drove all the way back from the tail to finish fifth in the final tally.
On Cockrum’s path back to the front, the afternoon’s lone red flag was displayed on the 32 nd lap when contact between Travis Welpott and Cockrum for the 21 st spot resulted in Welpott smashing into the outside turn one wall, which sent him flipping over twice. Welpott walked away from the incident.
With the two breaking away at the midway point and working traffic, Tyler took advantage of Swanson’s check up in turn two as he approached 21 st running Jason McDougal. As Swanson whoa’d up, that presented Tyler the red carpet on the bottom to roar underneath and assume the position at the top of the leaderboard.
“I’ve raced with Kody a long time along with some of these other guys,” Tyler said. “I knew if I could keep the pressure on Kody, sooner or later, he was going to make a mistake. Once I got the lead, the biggest thing I did was concentrate on hitting my marks and trying not to make that same mistake. I knew the boys were champing at the rear bumper. I just had to be smooth and straight try not to make any mistakes.”
As Tyler opened up a 4.396 second lead, second running Kody Swanson’s afternoon went to shambles as his ignition box faltered, forcing him to slow and stop on the back straightaway on lap 59. K. Swanson returned to the fray, albeit four laps down and finishing a season-worst 17 th.
As Tyler upped his lead throughout the second half back up to three seconds, Seavey prevailed in his tussle with J. Swanson as he slipped into second on the low line in turn two on lap 74. Cutting right to the quick, Seavey sliced Tyler's lead majorly from three seconds to two to 1.4 when the yellow fell for 12 th running Aaron Pierce who slammed the outside wall in turn four. Also under the yellow, Dave Berkheimer’s day ended when his car caught fire just before the entrance to the pits in turn four.
Tyler nailed the lap 81 restart to build a solid five car length gap over Seavey. However, Seavey steadily began to claw his way back into Tyler’s consciousness by shaving off two of those lengths over the next lap as it became a battle between the most experienced Ted Horn 100 driver in the field in Tyler (19 starts) and a Ted Horn 100 Rookie, Seavey, who also does happen to own an ARCA Stock Car victory in 2018.
Seavey stalked his potential prey and took a look to the outside of Tyler off turn four on lap 93 to no avail as Tyler maintained and even slightly extended his lead to eight tenths. Gnashing his teeth to get one more shot on lap 98, Seavey drifted high at the entry to turn one and lost substantial ground, allowing Tyler to gain another half second.
Tyler put a stake in the ground and powered away to a 0.915 second victory over runner-up Seavey, Jake Swanson in third and KSE Racing Products Hard Charger Jerry Coons Jr. in fourth after starting 19 th. Local racing hero Shane Cockrum rounded out the top-five with a fifth-place finish.
With it being the first daytime USAC Silver Crown race held at Du Quoin since 2002, Tyler felt he might have had an upper hand in that department over all challengers.
“I’ve raced at Du Quoin when it was a day show probably before most of these kids were born,” said Tyler, who made his first Ted Horn 100 start under the sun in 1996. “So, I think I might’ve had the upper hand on them.”
It was second again on a dirt mile for Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) as he finished in the runner-up spot for the second consecutive time with the series in his Rice Motorsports/Fatheadz Eyewear – STIDA.com – Lucas Oil/DRC/Pink Foxco Chevy. However, his solid finish coupled with K. Swanson’s woes put Seavey within 16 points in the championship race with just two events remaining.
“He’s an experienced racer and he’s really good at Silver Crown racing,” Seavey said of Tyler. “I’m still learning how to manage these races. I’m just going too slow in the beginning and giving up too much track position. But I felt like our tires were going to be killed, then I got out, looked at our tire and it looks awesome.”
Jake Swanson (Anaheim, Calif.) scored his best run on a dirt mile, and equaled his best career series finish, with a third on Monday at Du Quoin, making it two series Rookies on the podium with he and Seavey. Swanson piloted the DMW Motorsports/Advanced Materials Technologies – US Auto Cure – Phoenix Pavers/DRC/Wilcox Chevy in his Du Quoin debut.
“It’s cool to be up here on the podium,” J. Swanson exclaimed. “I feel like we had a good enough racecar to maybe have something for the end. That’s what I was really wanting to do. Kody and Tyler seemed like they were really going hard, and I didn’t know if I could push it any harder. I wanted to save because I was banking on that late race yellow. I don’t know if it would’ve helped or not. We were running pretty fat, and it started to sputter there at the end on us, but they filled this thing full of fuel. We could’ve probably leaned it down and it would’ve made it the whole race and maybe been a little quicker at the end and gave us a shot. But it’s hard to say.”
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USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 6, 2021 – Du Quoin State Fairgrounds – Du Quoin, Illinois – 1-Mile Dirt Oval – Ted Horn 100
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Kody Swanson, 9, Dyson-31.587; 2. Shane Cockrum, 71, BLS-31.606; 3. Dallas Hewitt, 57, Hewitt-31.787; 4. Logan Seavey, 22, Rice-32.016; 5. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-32.017; 6. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-32.185; 7. Shane Cottle, 110, DMW-32.229; 8. Austin Nemire, 16, Nemire/Lesko-32.253; 9. Jake Swanson, 10, DMW-32.267; 10. David Byrne, 40, Byrne-32.324; 11. Brian Tyler, 81, Williams-32.383; 12. Aaron Pierce, 26, Pierce-32.383; 13. Terry Babb, 188, Babb-32.407; 14. Ken Schrader, 21, Swanson-32.411; 15. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-32.607; 16. Chris Fetter, 88, Fetter-32.607; 17. Casey Buckman, 74, C-Buck-32.655; 18. Jason McDougal, 6, Klatt-32.671; 19. Kyle Steffens, 08, Steffens-32.788; 20. Jerry Coons Jr., 55, Bateman-32.813; 21. Kyle Cummins, 69, Pink 69-33.141; 22. Patrick Lawson, 2, Lawson-33.180; 23. Carmen Perigo, 52, Stehman-33.379; 24. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-33.388; 25. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott-33.422; 26. Korey Weyant, 99, Weyant-33.926; 27. Nick Bilbee, 3, Simmons-34.178; 28. Danny Long, 44, Long-34.290; 29. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-34.363; 30. Chris Urish, 77, Urish-NT.
FEATURE: (100 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brian Tyler (11), 2. Logan Seavey (4), 3. Jake Swanson (9), 4. Jerry Coons Jr. (19), 5. Shane Cockrum (2), 6. Shane Cottle (7), 7. David Byrne (10), 8. Kyle Robbins (5), 9. Matt Goodnight (15), 10. Terry Babb (13), 11. Carmen Perigo (22), 12. Patrick Lawson (21), 13. Kyle Steffens (18), 14. Casey Buckman (16), 15. Kyle Cummins (20), 16. Nick Bilbee (25), 17. Kody Swanson (1), 18. Aaron Pierce (12), 19. Dave Berkheimer (27), 20. Matt Westfall (6), 21. Ken Schrader (14), 22. Dallas Hewitt (3), 23. Jason McDougal (17), 24. Travis Welpott (23), 25. Korey Weyant (24), 26. Austin Nemire (8), 27. Danny Long (26), 28. Chris Fetter (28), 29. Justin Grant (29). NT
**Travis Welpott flipped on lap 32 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-47 Kody Swanson, Laps 48-100 Brian Tyler.
USAC SILVER CROWN POINTS: 1-Kody Swanson-440, 2-Logan Seavey-424, 3-Justin Grant-322, 4-Shane Cottle-322, 5-Kyle Robbins-315, 6-David Byrne-306, 7-Shane Cockrum-295, 8-Austin Nemire-283, 9-Travis Welpott-270, 10-Mike Haggenbottom-243.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-115, 2-Brady Bacon-114, 3-Justin Grant-116, 4-Tanner Thorson-118, 5-Robert Ballou-97, 6-Logan Seavey-91, 7-Thomas Meseraull-103, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-94, 9-Kyle Cummins-68, 10-Buddy Kofoid-75.
NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 24-25, 2021 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 4-Crown Nationals
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Quality Driving Performance of the Night: Shane Cockrum
Fatheadz Eyewear / Southern Illinois Sports Productions / Richard Blakely Fast Qualifier: Kody Swanson
KSE Racing Products / Tucker’s Automotive Repair & Tire Hard Charger: Jerry Coons Jr. (19 th to 4 th)
Wilwood Brakes 13 th Place Finisher: Kyle Steffens SIX YEARS LATER… THORSON GETS REDEMPTION AT ANGELL PARK 
Dave Olson By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Sun Prairie, Wisconsin (September 5, 2021)………Six years. That’s how long Tanner Thorson had to wait for his moment of redemption on Sunday night during the 37 th running of the Firemen’s Nationals at Sun Prairie, Wisconsin’s Angell Park Speedway.
During the 2015 Firemen’s Nationals, Thorson led 29 and 3/4 of the 30 laps around the 1/3-mile dirt oval before Rico Abreu slid past on the final corner to steal the win from him by mere inches.
Mind you, Thorson (Minden, Nev.) has been a frequent frontrunner at Angell Park over the years, notching a Badger win on Memorial Day Weekend in 2014. At the Firemen’s Nationals, he’s been 3rd and 2nd on consecutive nights in 2014 and was 3rd at the 2017 Firemen’s Nationals.
However, a USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship feature win at Angell Park had alluded him, largely due to the series’ six-year absence from the venue.
Thorson’s sabbatical lasted until the lap 22 restart on Sunday night when he went third to first in rapid-fire succession, first past Justin Grant for second, then by Thomas Meseraull for the lead with eight laps remaining to score his series-leading seventh victory of the year and coupled with his three USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car scores, became the first driver to reach the double-digit win mark with USAC this season.
The victory, worth $5,000, was the 27 th of Thorson’s USAC National Midget career, tying him with none-other-than Tony Stewart and Gary Bettenhausen for 14 th all-time.
All of it came following a little bit of a mechanical issue early on, which was rectified, then resolved after the changes in the track surface throughout the 30-lap duration played right into the hands of Thorson and his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – MVT – Smith Titanium/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.
“We had some motor problems in that heat race,” Thorson revealed. “We helped it a little there and fixed a couple things and it wasn’t quite enough, but it seemed to help us tonight with how slick it got. I don’t really set up my car for the beginning of the race. I knew how good Thomas and Justin were at the start, but I felt like my car was going to come in there at the end.”
Thorson started third while an all RMS Racing front row of Meseraull and Grant jockeyed for position during the initial two laps before Meseraull spurted by on the outside to secure the race lead.
Meseraull remained in total control throughout the first two-thirds of the 30-lapper, upping his lead to nearly a full second just five laps in, then to 1.5 sec. at the halfway mark, as he began to put the tail end of the field a lap down in the running order.
Comfortably on top, Meseraull was forced to the bottom on lap 17 as the lapped car of Jack Routson, making his series debut, occupied the same line. Meseraull drifted back to the top after sliding by Routson and reaffirmed his preferred path without losing a single bit of his advantage as the train of Grant, Thorson and Kevin Thomas Jr. followed in suit on the cushion.
Just then, as Meseraull began to assert his foot on the collective throat of the field with nine laps remaining, 12 th running Cannon McIntosh’s car went up a major plume of smoke down the front straightaway, forcing him to a stop and necessitating a yellow.
Without traffic being a contributing factor for the restart, the advantage went straight back to Thorson, third in the line, who had just begun to find his footing in a major way on the bottom line and was in the process of getting into second past Grant when the yellow flag fell.
“I felt like Thomas, Justin and I were all kind of the same speed,” Thorson explained. “I got right on Justin’s bumper for most of the race and just couldn’t really get to him or get to a spot where I could get by him. A couple of those lapped cars we were passing, they were keeping up with us a little bit more on the bottom. But I knew on that restart, I had to go for it.”
And he did, as he resumed his flirtation with the low line and nosed underneath Grant for second in turn two on the lap 22 restart, briefly making it three-wide with he, Grant alongside in the middle, and Meseraull up top, tossing dirt at the National Midget Hall of Fame building as he blitzed past.
Thorson completed his pass of Grant with a slide into turn three, which put him right in lockstep with Meseraull. By the time the two got to turn one and two, it was game over as Thorson forged ahead, clearing Meseraull at the exit of turn two, then proceeded to run away ala Del Shannon, closing out with a 2.555 second margin of victory over Meseraull, Grant, Chris Windom and Logan Seavey.
Thomas Meseraull (San Jose, Calif.) led a race-high 22 laps and earned his best result with the series since a similar runner-up finish exactly one month earlier at New Jersey’s Bridgeport Motorsports Park on Aug. 5. On Sunday, Meseraull, a Badger Midget winner at Angell Park on July 4 of this year, followed up his second-place USAC run with another Badger win immediately after.
“This thing is always so good,” Meseraull said of his RMS Racing/EnviroFab – Response Management Services – Engler Machine/Spike/Speedway Toyota. “We kind of killed our tires there and, maybe if I had moved to the bottom, I could’ve held him off, but this thing was so good up top, just letting her eat. I love this place. This is hands down my favorite midget track in the country. I don’t know why. We don’t race here a lot, but when we do get to race here, I love it.”
Justin Grant’s only previous Angell Park experience prior to Sunday night came in a sixth place performance during a 2015 USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National feature event. Grant (Ione, Calif.) put the second RMS Racing car on the podium on this night in what was first ever midget appearance at the famed track aboard his RMS Racing/NOS Energy Drink – EnviroFab – Response Management Services/Spike/Speedway Toyota.
“I had a good car, but we just weren’t quite as good as Tanner and Thomas,” Grant admitted. “Those guys were really good. They were dialed in. We were close, but just not quite good enough. I struggled to get hooked around the bottom. We were pretty good, but we just felt like we were a third-place car and that’s where we ended up.”
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USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 5, 2021 – Angell Park Speedway – Sun Prairie, Wisconsin – 1/3-Mile Dirt Oval – 37 th Firemen’s Nationals
FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Daison Pursley, 71K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.463; 2. Emerson Axsom, 15, Petry-15.503; 3. Tanner Thorson, 19T, Reinbold/Underwood-15.571; 4. Chris Windom, 89, CBI-15.588; 5. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-15.602; 6. Justin Grant, 2J, RMS-15.622; 7. Zach Daum, 9m, Bundy Built-15.695; 8. Logan Seavey, 25, Malloy-15.802; 9. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5, Petry-15.817; 10. Chase McDermand, 40, McDermand-15.853; 11. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac-15.858; 12. Buddy Kofoid, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-15.893; 13. Chase Randall, 19A, Reinbold/Underwood-15.973; 14. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-16.127; 15. Trey Gropp, 00, Mounce/Stout-16.360; 16. Daniel Robinson, 57D, McCreery-16.387; 17. Jack Routson, 57A, RAB-16.453; 18. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-16.454; 19. Glenn Waterland, 11c, Waterland-16.846; 20. Jeff Zelinski, 18, Engstrom-16.874; 21. Matt Rechek, 38, Shoestring-16.913; 22. Brandon Waelti, 3w, Martin-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Randall, 2. Zach Daum, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Chris Windom, 5. Chase McDermand, 6. Daniel Robinson, 7. Brandon Waelti, 8. Glenn Waterland. 2:47.36
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Cannon McIntosh, 2. Emerson Axsom, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Ethan Mitchell, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Jeff Zelinski, 7. Jack Routson. 2:47.54
INDY METAL FINISHING / INDY RACE PARTS THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Buddy Kofoid, 3. Tanner Thorson, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Trey Gropp, 6. Hayden Reinbold, 7. Matt Rechek. 2:45.90
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Tanner Thorson (4), 2. Thomas Meseraull (2), 3. Justin Grant (1), 4. Chris Windom (3), 5. Logan Seavey (11), 6. Kevin Thomas Jr. (7), 7. Emerson Axsom (5), 8. Daison Pursley (6), 9. Buddy Kofoid (13), 10. Chase Randall (9), 11. Brandon Waelti (22), 12. Hayden Reinbold (18), 13. Jack Routson (17), 14. Chase McDermand (12), 15. Jeff Zelinski (20), 16. Matt Rechek (21), 17. Glenn Waterland (19), 18. Ethan Mitchell (14), 19. Cannon McIntosh (8), 20. Zach Daum (10), 21. Trey Gropp (15), 22. Daniel Robinson (16). NT
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-22 Thomas Meseraull, Laps 23-30 Tanner Thorson.
USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Buddy Kofoid-1607, 2-Emerson Axsom-1598, 3-Chris Windom-1582, 4-Justin Grant-1532, 5-Tanner Thorson-1530, 6-Daison Pursley-1466, 7-Logan Seavey-1352, 8-Thomas Meseraull-1329, 9-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1315, 10-Cannon McIntosh-1188.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-137, 2-Brady Bacon-130, 3-Justin Grant-123, 4-Tanner Thorson-121, 5-Robert Ballou-109, 6-Logan Seavey-106, 7-Thomas Meseraull-103, 8-Kevin Thomas Jr.-102, 9-Kyle Cummins-79, 10-Buddy Kofoid-75.
NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: September 10-11-12, 2021 – Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, South Dakota – 1/3-Mile Dirt Oval – Inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Brandon Waelti
Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Daison Pursley
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Chase Randall
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Cannon McIntosh
Indy Metal Finishing / Indy Race Parts Third Heat Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.
KSE Racing Products Hard Charger: Brandon Waelti (22 nd to 11 th)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Jack Routson Du QUOIN's TED HORN 100 POSTPONED TO MONDAY AFTERNOON, SEPT. 6 |
Du Quoin, Illinois (September 4, 2021)………Saturday’s Ted Horn 100 USAC Silver Crown event has been postponed to early Monday during the daytime on September 6 at the Du Quoin State Fairgrounds in southern Illinois.
Rain, which began in the morning and more forecasted throughout the day and night on Saturday has forced the postponement of the 100-mile event to Monday, which will make it the first daytime Silver Crown race at Du Quoin since 2002 and the first held on Labor Day Monday since 2000.
Thirty-five USAC Silver Crown drivers are entered for the Ted Horn 100 and features six previous event winners, including Kansas, Illinois’ Shane Cottle (2007), Parma, Michigan’s Brian Tyler (2008), Kingsburg, California’s Kody Swanson (2010 & 2017), Elkhart, Illinois’ Chris Urish (2013), Benton, Illinois’ Shane Cockrum (2014 & 2015) and Canton, Illinois’ Chris Windom (2016 & 2018).
Swanson (2014-15-17-18-19) and Windom (2016) are among the five past USAC Silver Crown driving champions in the field, joined by Fenton, Missouri’s Ken Schrader (1982), Tucson, Arizona’s Jerry Coons Jr. (2008) and reigning champ Justin Grant (2020) out of Ione, Calif.
The event will feature the USAC Silver Crown National Championship along with the 27th Annual Bill Oldani Memorial Prelims for UMP Modifieds.
Monday pits and registration open at 7am Central. The ticket office and grandstands open at 9am. The drivers meeting will be held at 9:15am. USAC Silver Crown practice takes place from 10-11:10am, with Silver Crown Fatheadz Qualifying at 11:30am, followed by UMP Modified hot laps and feature before concluding with the USAC Silver Crown Ted Horn 100.
Sunday’s event schedule for ARCA is unchanged with pits opening at 11:00am, grandstands at 2:00pm, with practice at 4:15pm, qualifying at 6:00pm, Modified heats at 6:30pm, and the Southern Illinois 100 presented by Lucas Oil at 8:05pm.
Tickets will be available on race day or by calling the Du Quoin Fair office at 618-542-1535. Info and tickets can also be obtained by calling the Track Enterprises office at 217-764-3200.
Advance tickets (presale) for each day are $25 for adults and $10 for children 11 and under. Tickets at the gate on race day are $30 for adults and $10 for children 11 and under. Pit passes are $35 for members and $40 for non-member adults. Pit passes are $20 for children 11 and under.
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SMACKDOWN GRANTED: JUSTIN GRANT WINS $15,000 AT KOKOMO David Nearpass |
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media\
Kokomo, Indiana (August 28, 2021)………In essence, Saturday night’s 40-lap Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Smackdown X feature at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway came down to a two-lap conquest for Justin Grant.
A frequent storyboard for the event throughout its first decade has demonstrated that a final restart and, consequently, how one responds to it, can ultimately decide a driver’s fate regardless of the success that led up to that point.
Case in point came earlier in the day for Kevin Thomas Jr. and Logan Seavey, and the same was true for Grant himself who faced, and conquered, a similar scenario just 24 hours earlier versus Kyle Cummins at the quarter-mile dirt oval.
This time, $15,000 was on the line, and the green-white-checkered conclusion gave us a Grant/Thorson gem that provoked both to bring out all the stops in order to put this one in their personal win column.
Race leader Grant answered Thorson’s slide job in turn one by returning the favor in turn three, then fending Thorson off on the final circuit to claim his second career Smackdown victory (2018), making him the third multi-time winner in the event’s history (Dave Darland and Tyler Courtney) in his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – MPV Express – TOPP Industries/Maxim/Kistler Chevy.
“Smackdown comes down to late-race restarts like this a lot,” Grant explained. “You never know that you have it. Even when it’s green and going well, these guys are so good, and everyone that we race with is so tough and so savvy at what they do. It’s easy to get snookered on a restart; you got to do your job as good as you can.”
TOPP Motorsports became the second three-time Smackdown winning team following previous scores with Tyler Courtney in 2017 and Grant in 2018. Phillips Motorsports also won three-straight with Dave Darland in 2013-14-15.
Additionally, Grant’s 28 th career USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car win tied him with series champions Don Branson, A.J. Foyt, Levi Jones and J.J. Yeley for 18 th on the all-time list, and it took nearly everything the Ione, Calif. driver could generate out of himself and out of the car.
“I was smashing this thing off the fence all the way around,” Grant recalled. “I about crashed coming to the checkered. It’s hot. I’m out of breath. That was 40 laps of everything this car had.”
The race belonged to Thorson for the first 15 revolutions, holding a lead upwards of a full second until he became trapped in a box between the cars of Matt Westfall and Stevie Sussex at the tail end of the lead lap on the bottom of turn one. That halted Thorson’s progress momentarily and gave Grant the go-ahead to levy a full-on attack.
Grant ducked under Westfall midway down the back straight, then tossed his car all the way from the bottom of turn three to the top of turn four, which screamed right past the front bumper of Thorson, who turned down and answered the bell to edge Grant at the stripe by a whisker.
Reloaded and ready to fire again, Grant made a beeline to the bottom of turn one and stuck the slider in turn two to secure the lead with 24 laps still remaining. With Grant upping his lead to more than two seconds, much seemed to be relatively well in hand. However, the car of Scotty Weir nearly spun in front of him in turns one and two, hampering Grant’s progress, undotting his i’s and uncrossing his t’s as his advantage melted to just a single second in the blink of an eye.
With two to go, any and all daylight for Grant was overcasted as eighth-running Shane Cottle slowed dramatically with a ball of flame and smoke emanating from his ride, putting an end to his evening and setting up one final restart.
Grant was an up-close and personal witness to Thorson snagging the lead away from him on the lap 29 restart in turn one. Grant took it right back in turn three, rising right up to the outside wall in the fourth turn and giving it a kiss with the right rear. Taking the white flag, Grant slid himself from the middle to the top in turns one and two in an attempt to stifle Thorson’s momentum.
“He was able to slide me there and I was afraid that was going to happen just with the moisture being low on the front stretch, but I didn’t want to give up the speed down the back stretch,” Grant explained. “It worked out, and I was able to get him crossed back over and then just go on defense and block his sliders when he was throwing them to try to make momentum when he wasn’t.”
Thorson climbed the ladder as he charged from the bottom of turn three to the top in turn four, coming up short and falling into line behind Grant, who subsequently ricocheted his right rear tire and right front tire off the outside wall, yet maintained control, and led Thorson across the line underneath the double checkers by a margin of 0.773 sec.
As the leaders crossed the finish line, a melee took place in the aftermath of the battle for the seventh spot which resulted in both C.J. Leary and Jake Swanson flipping through turns three and four. Kyle Cummins also became entangled and nosed into the turn four wall. All drivers walked away with Leary, Swanson and Cummins finishing 11 th, 12 th and 13 th, respectively.
Grant and crew had two schools of thought and two approaches to take set-up wise entering Smackdown. The path ultimately chosen became the winning combination on this night, and twice throughout the weekend.
“I felt pretty confident around the middle section of the race; I felt like we had a pretty good car,” Grant said. “But there at the end, it got all shaken up. We went back and forth on this car whether to make it drive forward really, really hard or have momentum around the fence with a lot of stability. We went back and forth all week but ultimately decided, if we were going to win this thing, it was going to be momentum around the fence. The first couple of laps after a restart, we’re a sitting duck because we don’t launch, but we do go out and rail around the fence better that way. It’s a gamble but tonight it paid off.”
Tanner Thorson (Minden, Nev.) had the best Smackdown “Rookie” performance in the history of the event, running through all three rounds of the brackets to claim the B & W Auto Mart King of the Hill title, then finished as the runner-up in the feature in his Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports/AME Electrical – CSI – MVT/Spike/Stanton Chevy, which garnered him The Frolic Bar & Grill Smackdown X Rookie of the Year award.
Kevin Thomas Jr. (Cullman, Ala.) was the only driver to finish inside the top-three during both events held at Kokomo on Saturday, under the sun and under the moon, finishing third to close out the night cap in his KT Motorsports/Dr. Pepper Presents the Ronald McDonald House Charities/DRC/Speedway Chevy.
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 28, 2021 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Smackdown X – (Nighttime Event)
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST QUALIFIER: (10 laps, top-2 transfer to the feature) 1. Shane Cottle (#74x Hodges), 2. Brent Beauchamp (#29 LB), 3. Scotty Weir (#4p Pedersen), 4. Chase Johnson (#22 Goodnight), 5. Max Guilford (#79BT Goodnight), 6. Steven Drevicki (#19s DeGre), 7. Zack Pretorius (#9z Pretorius), 8. Ryan Barr (#21B Barr). 2:17.150
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND QUALIFIER: (10 laps, top-2 transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson (#21AZ Team AZ), 2. Max Adams (#57 Hazen), 3. Stevie Sussex (#77 Wingo), 4. Koby Barksdale (#16K Knight), 5. Anthony D’Alessio (#01 D’Alessio), 6. Tye Mihocko (#2E Epperson), 7. David Hair (#44 Hair), 8. Cole Bodine (#57x DCT). NT
INDY METAL FINISHING THIRD QUALIFIER: (10 laps, top-2 transfer to the feature) 1. Jadon Rogers (#14 Rogers), 2. Emerson Axsom (#39BC Clauson Marshall Newman), 3. Mario Clouser (#6 EZR), 4. Jason McDougal (#5m KO), 5. Sterling Cling (#34 Cling), 6. Brayden Clark (#42 Jackson-Clark), 7. Matt Goodnight (#39 Goodnight), 8. Jack James (#99 James). 2:13.683
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH QUALIFIER: (10 laps, top-2 transfer to the feature) 1. Thomas Meseraull (#2 Yeley), 2. Chase Stockon (#5s KO), 3. Matt Westfall (#33m Marshall), 4. Alex Bright (#20 Hummer), 5. Ryan Thomas (#77FR Wingo), 6. Brandon Mattox (#28 Mattox), 7. Brandon Long (#12 Ballou), 8. Ted Kirkpatrick (#63LK Sturgeon). NT
B & W AUTO MART KING OF THE HILL FIRST QUARTERFINAL: (3 laps) #1 Justin Grant (#4 TOPP) defeats #8 Kyle Cummins (#3R Rock Steady).
B & W AUTO MART KING OF THE HILL SECOND QUARTERFINAL: (3 laps) #4 Tanner Thorson (#19AZ Reinbold-Underwood) defeats #5 Brady Bacon (#69 Dynamics).
B & W AUTO MART KING OF THE HILL THIRD QUARTERFINAL: (3 laps) #2 Logan Seavey (#5 Baldwin-Fox) defeats #7 Chris Windom (#19 Hayward).
B & W AUTO MART KING OF THE HILL FOURTH QUARTERFINAL: (3 laps) #6 Kevin Thomas Jr. (#9K KT) defeats #3 C.J. Leary (#77m Michael).
B & W AUTO MART KING OF THE HILL FIRST SEMIFINAL: (3 laps) #4 Tanner Thorson defeats #1 Justin Grant.
B & W AUTO MART KING OF THE HILL SECOND SEMIFINAL: (3 laps) #6 Kevin Thomas Jr. defeats #3 C.J. Leary.
B & W AUTO MART KING OF THE HILL FINAL: (3 laps) #4 Tanner Thorson defeats #6 Kevin Thomas Jr.
THE FROLIC BAR & GRILL C-MAIN: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the semi) 1. Brandon Mattox, 2. Brayden Clark, 3. Steven Drevicki, 4. Brandon Long, 5. Ryan Barr, 6. David Hair, 7. Zack Pretorius, 8. Ted Kirkpatrick, 9. Jack James. 2:25.587
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (15 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Scotty Weir, 2. Mario Clouser, 3. Stevie Sussex, 4. Chase Johnson, 5. Jason McDougal, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Max Guilford, 8. Alex Bright, 9. Koby Barksdale, 10. Sterling Cling, 11. Steven Drevicki, 12. Brandon Long, 13. Brayden Clark, 14. Ryan Thomas, 15. Brandon Mattox, 16. Anthony D’Alessio. NT
FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (3), 2. Tanner Thorson (1), 3. Kevin Thomas Jr. (2), 4. Brady Bacon (6), 5. Logan Seavey (4), 6. Chris Windom (7), 7. Emerson Axsom (15), 8. Chase Stockon (16), 9. Jadon Rogers (11), 10. Mario Clouser (18), 11. C.J. Leary (5), 12. Jake Swanson (10), 13. Kyle Cummins (8), 14. Jason McDougal (21), 15. Brent Beauchamp (13), 16. Stevie Sussex (19), 17. Shane Cottle (9), 18. Thomas Meseraull (12), 19. Chase Johnson (20), 20. Scotty Weir (17), 21. Matt Westfall (22), 22. Max Adams (14). NT
**Cole Bodine flipped during the second heat. C.J. Leary & Jake Swanson flipped on lap 30 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-16 Tanner Thorson, Laps 17-40 Justin Grant.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-2085, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2041, 3-Justin Grant-2034, 4-C.J. Leary-1842, 5-Tanner Thorson-1821, 6-Chris Windom-1753, 7-Jake Swanson-1686, 8-Robert Ballou-1618, 9-Chase Stockon-1332, 10-Kyle Cummins-1163.
FINAL SMACKDOWN X PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Cole Bodine-23, 2-Chase Stockon-20, 3-Steven Drevicki-20, 4-Max Adams-16, 5-Brady Bacon-14, 6-Mario Clouser-14, 7-Logan Seavey-12, 8-Shane Cottle-12, 9-Jason McDougal-12, 10-Justin Grant-11.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-137, 2-Brady Bacon-130, 3-Justin Grant-123, 4-Tanner Thorson-118, 5-Robert Ballou-109, 6-Thomas Meseraull-103, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-101, 8-Logan Seavey-100, 9-Kyle Cummins-79, 10-Emerson Axsom-75.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: September 10-11-12, 2021 – Huset’s Speedway – Brandon, South Dakota – 3/8-Mile Dirt Track – Inaugural Huset’s Speedway USAC Nationals
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
Smackdown X ProSource Passing Master: Cole Bodine
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Brent Beauchamp
B & W Auto Mart King of the Hill: Tanner Thorson
The Frolic Bar & Grill Smackdown X Rookie of the Year: Tanner Thorson
Simpson Race Products First Qualifier Winner: Shane Cottle
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Qualifier Winner: Jake Swanson
Indy Metal Finishing Third Qualifier Winner: Jadon Rogers
Indy Race Parts Fourth Qualifier Winner: Thomas Meseraull
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Scotty Weir
KSE Racing Products / Irvin King Hard Charger: Emerson Axsom (15 th to 7 th)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Kyle Cummins
Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Max Guilford
ProSource Hard Work Winner: Chase Johnson
Quick Car Fastest in Hot Laps: Mario Clouser |
KTJ BRINGS THE HEAT TO WIN MIDDAY SMACKDOWN PRELIM AT KOKOMO 
Travis Branch |
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media\
Kokomo, Indiana (August 28, 2021)………In a sun-splashed matinee performance by the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, a sliver of daylight was all Kevin Thomas Jr. needed.
On a restart with five laps remaining, the Cullman, Ala. native slipped by leader Logan Seavey, who glanced off the wall between turns one and two, cracking open a window of opportunity for Thomas to drive through to victory Saturday afternoon during the final prelim of the weekend for Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Smackdown X at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway.
The afternoon affair couldn’t have come soon enough for Thomas, of Cullman, Ala., admitting his confidence was a little low following Friday night’s 11 th place finish, which snapped his streak of 16 consecutive top-10 finishes with the series.
The 2016 Smackdown and Kokomo champ got back on track at just the right time in the heat of the day, scoring his sixth USAC National Sprint Car feature win of the year while piloting his KT Motorsports/Dr. Pepper Presents the Ronald McDonald House Charities/DRC/Speedway Chevy.
Thomas began his race from the third position, but the initial individual on the move off the starting blocks was Friday night winner Justin Grant who launched from his fourth starting spot to split between front row starters Matt Westfall and Jadon Rogers exiting turn four on the opening lap, putting Grant at the top of the pecking order in quick fashion.
Following Chase Johnson’s ramp up the turn four wall 11 laps into the event that necessitated a yellow, on the ensuing restart, it appeared as if Thomas may soon be the one to overtake Grant for the top spot as he checked high, then raked the bottom while Grant occupied the bottom/middle. However, Seavey took both by surprise and burst from third to first around the outside exiting turn four to assume the lead.
Thomas, never shy to express his candor, spoke of the up-and-down nature of this portion of the race, which saw him bounce back-and-forth between challenging for the lead before quickly being relegated back to third in the rundown.
“I felt we were good,” Thomas relayed. “I didn’t know the top was going to come in that early. When I was restarting behind Justin there, I took a peek at it, and I didn’t think it was that good; it looked pretty dirty. The next thing you know, Justin and I are down there stuck in the middle of the racetrack. Seavey goes blowing by us, then I made a few bad decisions and I let Brady get back by me. I just had to do a few little things there in the cockpit, mainly getting my crap together. I knew I had a good racecar; I just had to do what I needed to do.”
Brady Bacon then entered the fray, taking third from Grant on lap 13, then second from Thomas on lap 14 with a dazzling flick of the steering wheel that cut him from the top of four to the bottom of one and into the runner-up spot at the halfway point.
With six to go and running third, Thomas took note of a couple of slight slip-ups that worked to his advantage. Race leader Seavey got a tad tight on the cushion and tapped the wall, forcing second-running Bacon to chock up ever so slightly just behind Seavey. Thomas, meanwhile, had already committed to the bottom and went unfettered past Bacon and into the second position.
When 10 th running Emerson Axsom spun a stop in turn two on lap 26, that closed the slight gap that existed between Seavey and Thomas and put them back into a restart scenario. Seavey’s car lifted the left rear on the entry to turn one, sending his car skating across the cushion. With Seavey’s tap of the wall and resulting scrubbed speed, Thomas had gone by and become the new leader.
From that point onward, four trips around the quarter-mile dirt oval were all safe and sound for Thomas who notched his 33 rd career USAC National Sprint Car feature win, elevating his total above that of USAC and National Sprint Car Hall of Famer Rollie Beale for sole possession of 13 th all-time.
For Seavey, it was oh-so-close after leading a race-high 15 laps in his Baldwin-Fox Racing/Fox Paving – Claxton Engines/DRC/Claxton Chevy. The Sutter, California driver had to settle for second, 1.723 seconds behind Thomas, and readily admitted he could’ve done without the yellows.
“The track got cleaner and cleaner and was gripping up, actually,” Seavey explained. “I think I just got myself a little too tight. I was just trying not to make too big of adjustments, but I knew the track was getting slicker and slower. I just couldn’t get off the corners as good as I needed to and made a little bit of an adjustment, but I just didn’t run hard enough there on those last couple laps. I just really didn’t need the yellows. KTJ just found a little bit better line in one and two. It was so treacherous, and then the top at exit got really slick and it just lost everything that made it good in the beginning of the race and I just didn’t move with the racetrack. To be leading and knowing the track’s changing, you just don’t know where to go. He figured it out and I just need to be a little bit better.”
Brady Bacon became a major player in his bid for victory late in the going in his Dynamics, Inc./Fatheadz Eyewear – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts – TelStar/Triple X/Rider Chevy, ultimately finishing third to remain up front with a healthy lead of the standings in pursuit of his fourth career series crown.
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 28, 2021 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Smackdown X – (Daytime Event)
FLIGHT ONE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 5, Baldwin-12.863; 2. Tanner Thorson, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.971; 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9K, KT-13.149; 4. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-13.163; 5. Shane Cottle, 74x, Hodges-13.288; 6. Alex Bright, 20, Hummer-13.293; 7. Max Guilford, 79BT, Goodnight-13.351; 8. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-13.404; 9. C.J. Leary, 77m, Michael-13.492; 10. Sterling Cling, 34, Cling-13.509; 11. Koby Barksdale, 16K, Knight-13.516; 12. Cole Bodine, 57x, DCT-13.519; 13. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.631; 14. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.856; 15. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-13.866; 16. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-14.141; 17. Anthony D'Alessio, 01, D'Alessio-14.180; 18. Jack James, 99, James-14.262; 19. Ted Kirkpatrick, 63LK, Sturgeon-14.267; 20. Brandon Long, 12, Ballou-14.371; 21. Ryan Barr, 21B, Barr-14.717.
FLIGHT TWO FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-13.102; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.122; 3. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-13.187; 4. Thomas Meseraull, 2, Yeley-13.200; 5. Scotty Weir, 4p, Pedersen-13.246; 6. Emerson Axsom, 39BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-13.356; 7. Stevie Sussex, 77, Wingo-13.468; 8. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.486; 9. Chris Windom, 19, Hayward-13.493; 10. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.504; 11. Mario Clouser, 6, EZR-13.532; 12. Brent Beauchamp, 29, LB-13.544; 13. Chase Johnson, 22, Goodnight-13.563; 14. Jason McDougal, 5m, KO-13.778; 15. Max Adams, 57, Hazen-13.856; 16. Tye Mihocko, 2E, Epperson-13.908; 17. Ryan Thomas, 77FR, Wingo-14.003; 18. Steven Drevicki, 19s, DeGre-14.517; 19. Brayden Clark, 42, Jackson/Clark-14.719; 20. David Hair, 44, Hair-14.773.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. C.J. Leary, 2. Shane Cottle, 3. Logan Seavey, 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 5. Max Guilford, 6. Koby Barksdale, 7. Matt Goodnight, 8. Zack Pretorius, 9. Anthony D’Alessio, 10. Ryan Barr, 11. Ted Kirkpatrick.
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Cole Bodine, 2. Chase Stockon, 3. Matt Westfall, 4. Tanner Thorson, 5. Alex Bright, 6. Brandon Long, 7. Sterling Cling, 8. Jack James, 9. Brandon Mattox, 10. Eddie Tafoya Jr. NT
INDY METAL FINISHING THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Max Adams, 3. Mario Clouser, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Scotty Weir, 6. Stevie Sussex, 7. Jake Swanson, 8. Chase Johnson, 9. Ryan Thomas, 10. Brayden Clark.
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Jason McDougal, 6. Brent Beauchamp, 7. Steven Drevicki, 8. Tye Mihocko, 9. Thomas Meseraull, 10. David Hair.
THE FROLIC BAR & GRILL C-MAIN: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the semi) 1. Ryan Thomas, 2. Anthony D’Alessio, 3. Tye Mihocko, 4. Steven Drevicki, 5. Jack James, 6. David Hair, 7. Brayden Clark, 8. Ryan Barr, 9. Ted Kirkpatrick, 10. Brandon Long. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Jake Swanson, 2. Thomas Meseraull, 3. Scotty Weir, 4. Alex Bright, 5. Stevie Sussex, 6. Chase Johnson, 7. Koby Barksdale, 8. Max Guilford, 9. Sterling Cling, 10. Brandon Mattox, 11. Matt Goodnight, 12. Jason McDougal, 13. Tye Mihocko, 14. Brent Beauchamp, 15. Anthony D’Alessio, 16. Steven Drevicki, 17. Ryan Thomas, 18. Zack Pretorius. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 2. Logan Seavey (6), 3. Brady Bacon (7), 4. Justin Grant (4), 5. C.J. Leary (8), 6. Tanner Thorson (5), 7. Jake Swanson (11), 8. Shane Cottle (12), 9. Chris Windom (9), 10. Chase Stockon (18), 11. Cole Bodine (10), 12. Kyle Cummins (19), 13. Jadon Rogers (2), 14. Matt Westfall (1), 15. Stevie Sussex (17), 16. Thomas Meseraull (16), 17. Emerson Axsom (15), 18. Scotty Weir (13), 19. Mario Clouser (20), 20. Max Adams (22), 21. Alex Bright (14), 22. Chase Johnson (21), 23. Brandon Long (23-P). NT
(P) represents a provisional starter
**Eddie Tafoya flipped during the second heat.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-10 Justin Grant, Laps 11-25 Logan Seavey, Laps 26-30 Kevin Thomas Jr.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-2024, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1977, 3-Justin Grant-1964, 4-C.J. Leary-1801, 5-Tanner Thorson-1754, 6-Chris Windom-1698, 7-Jake Swanson-1647, 8-Robert Ballou-1618, 9-Chase Stockon-1283, 10-Kyle Cummins-1126.
SMACKDOWN X POINTS: (Top-8 Locked Into Saturday Night Feature) 1-Justin Grant-678, 2-Logan Seavey-659, 3-C.J. Leary-659, 4-Tanner Thorson-658, 5-Brady Bacon-654, 6-Kevin Thomas Jr.-646, 7-Chris Windom-641, 8-Kyle Cummins-627.
SMACKDOWN X PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Cole Bodine-23, 2. Steven Drevicki-16, 3-Max Adams-14, 4-Brady Bacon-12, 5-Logan Seavey-12, 6-Shane Cottle-12, 7-Chase Stockon-12, 8-Kyle Cummins-10, 9-Jake Swanson-10, 10-Justin Grant-9.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-136, 2-Brady Bacon-128, 3-Justin Grant-121, 4-Tanner Thorson-118, 5-Robert Ballou-109, 6-Thomas Meseraull-103, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-101, 8-Logan Seavey-100, 9-Kyle Cummins-79, 10-Buddy Kofoid-71.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: August 28, 2021 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Smackdown X
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Chase Johnson
Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Logan Seavey
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: C.J. Leary
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Cole Bodine
Indy Metal Finishing Third Heat Winner: Chris Windom
Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner: Brady Bacon
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Jake Swanson
KSE Racing Products / Irvin King Hard Charger: Chase Stockon (18 th to 10 th)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Jadon Rogers
Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Koby Barksdale
ProSource Hard Work Winner: Max Adams |
Grant's Late Flurry Nets Friday Smackdown Win
Jack Reitz By: Richie Murray – USAC Media\
Kokomo, Indiana (August 27, 2021)………Justin Grant had kind of won everything in the record book as far as USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car competition at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway goes.
In 2018, the Ione, California native won the 40-lap Sprint Car Smackdown finale, just after he had been victorious in the three-lap King of the Hill championship round. Just one month ago, Grant added an 18-lap, rain-shortened feature win to his Kokomo USAC resume.
One thing that was missing – a standard 30-lap USAC feature at Kokomo.
That item was finally crossed off the list during Friday night’s Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Sprint Car Smackdown X opener at the quarter-mile dirt oval in a 30-lap feature that was anything but standard.
After setting Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifying time earlier in the evening, Grant charged his way through the field, engaging in a no holds barred duel which witnessed he and Kyle Cummins repeatedly swapping the lead for three laps straight until Grant took over for good and secured his series-leading sixth victory of the season in his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – MPV Express – TOPP Industries/Maxim/Kistler Chevy.
The triumph was the 27 th of Grant’s USAC National Sprint Car career, moving him ahead of Tony Elliott and Dave Steele for sole possession of 21 st all-time in the series record book.
As opposed to July’s abbreviated finish that was not all that unwelcome in Grant’s pursuit of victory, in Friday night’s showdown, Grant needed virtually every lap offered, and every ounce of racing acumen he could muster, to get the job done.
“We needed that one to go to the end, for sure,” Grant said with a grin. “Man, tonight was like prime Kokomo. Just pound the fence and try not to make mistakes. I just kept working, trying to figure out how to get off four. Early in the race, I couldn’t get off four very good, so I kept working, kept working, and we finally got to where we could.”
Pole sitter C.J. Leary opened up the festivities by possessing the lead in the early going, but quickly, a challenge was put forth by the driver who had swept both Smackdown prelims one year earlier, Kyle Cummins. Blasting from his fourth starting position, Cummins dug in and surged past Leary off turn four to nip Leary by a wheel at the line at the completion of lap three. Moments later, ninth-running Brady Bacon was stopped in turn four following a tangle. With the lap completed and scored, Cummins assumed his role as the new race leader. However, at Kokomo, many times it seems the leader is not in total and outright control and, more like, under constant attack.
Following the yellow, Tanner Thorson was rolling, zipping by Leary for second at the exit of turn four on the fifth lap. A little blip above the turn three cushion for Cummins on lap nine allowed the gap between he and Thorson to shrink, and put Thorson, a 2020 Kokomo USAC National Midget winner, in prime position to throttle past Cummins at the exit of turn four on lap 12, pointing his front wheels to the sky as he took ownership of the number one spot.
Entering the second half of the affair meant entering the back half of the field as Thorson and Cummins became engulfed in a high-speed game of warfare. With cars stacked two and three-wide, Thorson had to choose the right door, switching high and low when needed until he and Cummins nearly got caught up in Stevie Sussex’s collision with the turn one wall. All narrowly avoided catastrophe, except for 17 th running Sussex, who saw an early dismissal from the race with heavy damage to his machine.
For better or worse, that provided a wide open space for the leaders to maneuver in front of them without the aid, or disruption, of traffic down the stretch. As it turned out, the advantage went to Cummins who glided the cushion crisply on lap 22 between turns one and two, which rocketed him around Thorson and into the lead with just eight laps remaining.
One lap later, big trouble hit Wednesday’s Bob Darland Memorial Kokomo winner Robert Ballou, who snap-rolled with force into the turn one catchfence. Ballou had been running fifth at the time but was eliminated from the competition with a 22 nd place result. Ballou was uninjured.
Grant was in hot pursuit of Thorson just prior to the yellow as he followed Cummins’ path on the top side while Thorson worked the bottom around the infield tires. On the 25 th lap, Thorson made a bid to get back to the top in turn four but washed up the track just enough to open an alley underneath for Grant to slide through and into the second position.
Thomas Meseraull, running 19 th, slowed and stopped on the back straightway on lap 27 to bring out the yellow and reset the itinerary once again for a four-lap shootout. Second-running Grant fired the first shot, sliding past Cummins in turn one. Cummins crossed back under Grant, forcing Grant to reload and try once more in turn three. Cummins retaliated with another cross over in response, beating Grant to the stripe by inches.
Now, it was Cummins’ turn to be the slider and Grant the slidee on lap 28 with Cummins successful in his endeavor. Grant turned back and slid Cummins into the third turn. Cummins cranked the wheel, got the car turned down hill and beat Grant to the line to complete lap 28 a car length ahead. Grant took the bull by the horns and made the next one stick in turn one as he forced Cummins to ‘whoa up’ as he drifted up in front of Cummins’ front bumper, causing him to lose precious momentum.
“On the restart there, Kyle got kind of tight and lost the nose,” Grant recalled. “I slid him into one and I felt like I could wear him down on the cushion and at least break his momentum, and we were able to. Fortunately, nobody rolled by us while we were racing each other. That was a heck of a lot of fun. I sure had a heck of a good time too.”
Grant instantly took off and it was “curtains” from there. Cummins got all four wheels above the cushion in turns three and four on his way to take the white flag, which cost him even more time, and gave an opening for Chris Windom to sneak by on the bottom of turn four for second after starting 10 th.
The victory went to Grant with Windom taking second, Cummins third, Leary fourth and Thorson rounding out the top-five.
Chris Windom (Canton, Ill.) collected KSE Racing Products/Irvin King Hard Charger honors after starting 10 th and clawing all the way up to a runner-up finish where he made a run at the win during the final laps of the feature aboard his Hayward Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – Byrd – B & H Contractors – AMSOIL/DRC/Claxton Mopar.
“It feels good coming from 10 th there to run second,” Windom acknowledged. “I knew Justin was going to be running the top and I knew he’d be sliding Kyle there. I thought maybe we could sneak one out on the bottom as they were sliding each other back-and-forth. I just lost a little bit of time at the end, but we made it close.”
Kyle Cummins (Princeton, Ind.) led a race-high 16 laps and came up just two laps short of reeling off a third-straight Smackdown prelim feature win dating back to 2020. However, Cummins did continue his impressive streak of consecutive top-three finishes during Smackdown, which now stands at five, after finishing third in his Rock Steady Racing/Mid-America Safety Solutions – Project Oversight/Mach-1/Cummins Chevy.
“On the restart, I got a little bit of a push and just kind of let Justin play the slider game,” Cummins explained. “We kept going back-and-forth, back-and-forth. Going into one and two, right at the end, I was going to stay in it, but I decided to let off and it didn’t let me turn down good enough to get a good run down the back stretch. I wish I could’ve had another shot at him because he could’ve played the ‘let off’ game. But it’s fine. It’s just racing.”
Meanwhile, Grant’s 28 th career Fast Qualifying time with the USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars moved him past Dave Steele and into a tie with Chase Stockon for 14 th in series history.
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: August 27, 2021 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Smackdown X
FLIGHT ONE FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.579; 2. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-12.789; 3. Brent Beauchamp, 29, LB-12.805; 4. Stevie Sussex, 77, Wingo-12.844; 5. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.882; 6. Kevin Thomas Jr., 9K, KT-12.985; 7. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-13.001; 8. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-13.030; 9. Alex Bright, 20, Hummer-13.093; 10. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-13.124; 11. Thomas Meseraull, 2, Yeley-13.165; 12. Chris Windom, 19, Hayward-13.210; 13. Matt Goodnight, 39, Goodnight-13.233; 14. Andrew Prather, P8, Prather-13.345; 15. Koby Barksdale, 16K, Knight-13.370; 16. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Cromwell-13.402; 17. Tye Mihocko, 2E, Epperson-13.425; 18. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-13.462; 19. Cole Bodine, 57x, DCT-13.598; 20. Danny Faria Jr., 17GP, Dutcher-13.618; 21. Tyler Hewitt, 97, Hewitt-13.948; 22. Parker Frederickson, 34F, Frederickson-14.040; 23. Jack James, 99, James-14.536.
FLIGHT TWO FATHEADZ EYEWEAR QUALIFYING: 1. Tanner Thorson, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.668; 2. Emerson Axsom, 39BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-12.766; 3. Shane Cottle, 74x, Hodges-12.811; 4. C.J. Leary, 77m, Michael-12.822; 5. Logan Seavey, 5, Baldwin-12.853; 6. Jadon Rogers, 14, Rogers-12.883; 7. Mario Clouser, 6, EZR-12.991; 8. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-13.019; 9. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.187; 10. Scotty Weir, 4p, Pedersen-13.193; 11. Jason McDougal, 5m, KO-13.216; 12. Ryan Thomas, 77FR, Wingo-13.224; 13. Chase Johnson, 22, Goodnight-13.324; 14. Max Adams, 57, Hazen-13.396; 15. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-13.504; 16. Anthony D'Alessio, 01, D'Alessio-13.576; 17. Max Guilford, 79BT, Goodnight-13.599; 18. Sterling Cling, 34, Cling-13.646; 19. Brayden Clark, 42, Jackson/Clark-13.708; 20. Brandon Long, 02, Long-13.791; 21. Steven Drevicki, 19s, DeGre-13.992; 22. Ted Kirkpatrick, 63LK, Sturgeon-14.947; 23. Alex Banales, 5x, Baldwin/Fox-NT.
SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Thomas Meseraull, 2. Brent Beauchamp, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Cole Bodine, 7. Tye Mihocko, 8. Matt Goodnight, 9. Koby Barksdale, 10. Jack James, 11. Tyler Hewitt, 12. Alex Bright. NT
COMPETITION SUSPENSION (CSI) SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Chris Windom, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Kyle Cummins, 5. Brandon Mattox, 6. Stevie Sussex, 7. Andrew Prather, 8. Zack Pretorius, 9. Parker Frederickson, 10. Braydon Cromwell, 11. Danny Faria Jr. NT
INDY METAL FINISHING THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Tanner Thorson, 3. Jason McDougal, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Shane Cottle, 6. Mario Clouser, 7. Chase Johnson, 8. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 9. Max Guilford, 10. Steven Drevicki, 11. Brayden Clark. 2:14.81
INDY RACE PARTS FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Matt Westfall, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Jadon Rogers, 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Max Adams, 6. Scotty Weir, 7. Ryan Thomas, 8. Ted Kirkpatrick, 9. Anthony D’Alessio, 10. Sterling Cling, 11. Brandon Long. NT
THE FROLIC BAR & GRILL C-MAIN: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the semi) 1. Cole Bodine, 2. Tye Mihocko, 3. Max Guilford, 4. Steven Drevicki, 5. Brayden Clark, 6. Zack Pretorius, 7. Ted Kirkpatrick, 8. Jack James, 9. Tyler Hewitt, 10. Parker Frederickson. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Shane Cottle, 2. Stevie Sussex, 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Mario Clouser, 5. Alex Bright, 6. Cole Bodine, 7. Scotty Weir, 8. Max Adams, 9. Ryan Thomas, 10. Andrew Prather, 11. Steven Drevicki, 12. Matt Goodnight, 13. Tye Mihocko, 14. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 15. Max Guilford, 16. Koby Barksdale, 17. Brandon Mattox, 18. Chase Johnson. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (6), 2. Chris Windom (10), 3. Kyle Cummins (4), 4. C.J. Leary (1), 5. Tanner Thorson (5), 6. Brady Bacon (11), 7. Logan Seavey (12), 8. Shane Cottle (14), 9. Jadon Rogers (16), 10. Matt Westfall (7), 11. Kevin Thomas Jr. (13), 12. Jake Swanson (18), 13. Emerson Axsom (3), 14. Chase Stockon (17), 15. Cole Bodine (23), 16. Mario Clouser (20), 17. Alex Bright (22), 18. Brent Beauchamp (2), 19. Steven Drevicki (21-P), 20. Jason McDougal (19), 21. Thomas Meseraull (9), 22. Robert Ballou (8), 23. Stevie Sussex (15). NT
(P) represents a provisional starter
**Danny Faria Jr. flipped during the second heat. Brandon Mattox & Chase flipped during the semi. Robert Ballou flipped on lap 23 of the feature.
FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-2 C.J. Leary, Laps 3-11 Kyle Cummins, Laps 12-21 Tanner Thorson, Laps 22-28 Kyle Cummins, Laps 29-30 Justin Grant.
USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-1952, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-1900, 3-Justin Grant-1895, 4-C.J. Leary-1735, 5-Tanner Thorson-1689, 6-Chris Windom-1644, 7-Robert Ballou-1618, 8-Jake Swanson-1587, 9-Chase Stockon-1233, 10-Kyle Cummins-1080.
OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Chris Windom-136, 2-Brady Bacon-124, 3-Justin Grant-121, 4-Tanner Thorson-118, 5-Robert Ballou-109, 6-Thomas Meseraull-103, 7-Kevin Thomas Jr.-99, 8-Logan Seavey-96, 9-Kyle Cummins-72, 10-Buddy Kofoid-71.
NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: August 28, 2021 – Kokomo Speedway – Kokomo, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Smackdown X
CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:
GSP Driving Performance of the Night: Cole Bodine
Fatheadz Eyewear Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant
Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Thomas Meseraull
Competition Suspension, Inc. Second Heat Winner: Chris Windom
Indy Metal Finishing Third Heat Winner: Robert Ballou
Indy Race Parts Fourth Heat Winner: Matt Westfall
Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Shane Cottle
KSE Racing Products Hard Charger: Chris Windom (10 th to 2 nd)
Wilwood Brakes 13th Place Finisher: Emerson Axsom
Saldana Racing Products First Non-Transfer: Scotty Weir
ProSource Hard Work Winner: Cole Bodine | GIANT JAMES DEAN CLASSIC AWAITS USAC SPRINTS THURSDAY AT GAS CITY |
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Gas City, Indiana (September 21, 2021)………”Racing is the only time I feel whole.”
Those words uttered by James Dean speak for many of us. Most certainly is it true for those who’ll experience the racing firsthand this Thursday night, September 23, at Indiana’s Gas City I-69 Speedway, which is located about 15 minutes northeast of Dean’s hometown of Fairmount, and about 25 minutes East of Eden.
The fourth annual James Dean Classic provides a chance to feel “whole” with a full assortment of both USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars and USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midgets, a Giant of a night with a USAC doubleheader that comes around quite rarely.
All three past James Dean Classic winners are set to compete in the Sprint Cars this Thursday at the quarter-mile dirt oval, which will host its 37 th USAC National Sprint Car event.
Justin Grant (Ione, Calif.) chimes in as the most recent James Dean Classic winner in 2020 and was also 3 rd in 2019 and 8 th in 2018. Chris Windom (Canton, Ill.) is one of two drivers to finish all three features inside the top-five, wining in 2019 and finishing 4 th in both 2018 and 2020, and was also quick time in 2018. Kevin Thomas Jr. (Cullman, Ala.) scored the inaugural “James Dean” win in 2018 and was 4 th in 2019.
Shane Cottle (Kansas, Ill.) has won three career USAC National Sprint Car features at Gas City dating to 2006. He won twice more in 2008 and 2019 while also adding two track championships along the way in 2004 and 2009. At the 2020 James Dean Classic, Cottle charged from 15 th to finish 5 th.
Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) has won two of the past three USAC National Sprint Car features at Gas City, but he finished 21 st in his only James Dean appearance in 2020. The 2018 USAC National Midget champ captured Indiana Sprint Week feature wins at Gas City in both 2020 and 2021.
Three-time champ and current USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car point leader Brady Bacon (Broken Arrow, Okla.) won with USAC at Gas City in 2015 and has been a top-10 finisher at the James Dean Classic two years running – 7 th in 2019 and 2 nd in 2020. The 10-lap track record holder set quick time during qualifying at the 2020 event.
Tyler Courtney (Indianapolis, Ind.) makes his return to Gas City where he scored his first career USAC National Sprint Car victory in 2016 after spinning out on the opening lap, restarting on the tail, then driving by everyone. He finished as the runner-up at the James Dean Classic in a sprint car in 2019.
Chase Stockon (Fort Branch, Ind.) can count himself as a winner at Gas City, taking the opening round of Indiana Sprint Week in 2015. Along with Windom, he’s the only driver to finish inside the top-five of all three James Dean Classics with a 3 rd in 2020 and a 5 th in both 2018 and 2019.
Same for C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.), a winner of ISW at Gas City in 2017. The 2019 series champion scored a best of 2 nd at the first James Dean Classic in 2018, then was 6 th in 2019, the same year in which he also recorded fast time during qualifying.
Track champions Scotty Weir, Thomas Meseraull and Max Adams have all had their share of successes at Gas City. Marion, Indiana’s Weir, the 2013 and newly crowned 2021 titlist, captured his only career USAC National Sprint Car win at the track in 2016. He was a best of 11 th at the James Dean Classic in 2019.
One-lap track record holder Meseraull (San Jose, Calif.), the track champ in 2010 and 2019, took 21 st at the 2019 “James Dean.” The Gas City king in 2020 was Max Adams (Loomis, Calif.), a 10 th place James Dean Classic finisher in 2019.
Davey Ray (Davenport, Iowa) returns to USAC National Sprint Car competition for the first time since May. Ray makes his first James Dean Classic appearance after being victorious in the inaugural Indiana Midget Week series race at Gas City in 2005.
Similarly, Tanner Thorson (Minden, Nev.) was a USAC National Midget winner at Gas City back in 2015, which was his first USAC National victory of any kind. He was 4 th in a midget at the 2020 James Dean Classic and was 6 th in his USAC Sprint Car debut at GC in July of 2021.
James Dean Classic experience runs rampant throughout the field with Isaac Chapple (Willow Branch, Ind.) collecting his best career finish of 3 rd in 2018, a race in which he led 25 of the 30 laps. The 2016 series Rookie of the Year was also 9 th in 2019.
USAC National Sprint Car winners Robert Ballou, Jason McDougal and Matt Westfall return to the fold at Gas City. The 2015 USAC champion, Ballou (Rocklin, Calif.) went 18 th to 8 th in 2020. Jason McDougal (Broken Arrow, Okla.) tallied an 8 th in the 2019 Dean Classic and was 5 th during Indiana Sprint Week this past July. Matt Westfall (Pleasant Hill, Ohio) garnered 12 th place results in back-to-back James Dean’s in 2018 and 2019.
Back in the James Dean Classic lineup this Thursday are Worthington, Indiana’s Jadon Rogers (7 th in 2020); Auburn, Illinois’ Mario Clouser (23 rd to 9 th in 2020); Terre Haute, Indiana’s Brandon Mattox (11 th in 2020); Penngrove, California’s Chase Johnson (13 th in 2020); Winchester, Indiana’s Matt Goodnight (14 th in 2019); Lapel, Indiana’s Evan Mosley (19 th in 2020); and Troy, Ohio’s Dallas Hewitt (20 th in in 18).
Jake Swanson (Anaheim, Calif.) won his heat, then led a feature lap and finished 4 th in his most recent Gas City run with the USAC National Sprint Cars. Cole Bodine (Rossville, Ind.) has James Dean Classic Midget experience, finishing 17 th in 2020.
Aiming for a first James Dean Classic feature start is two-time Lawrenceburg Speedway track champion Nick Bilbee (Indianapolis, Ind.) and four-time Paragon Speedway champ Jake Scott (Morgantown, Ind.), along with USAC East Coast and Sportsman ace Carmen Perigo (Stoystown, Pa.), Chris Phillips (Plainfield, Ind.), Ryan Barr (Piqua, Ohio), Braxton Cummings (Bedford, Ind.), Max Guilford (Auckland, N.Z.), Paul Dues (Minster, Ohio), Jack James (Harlan, Ind.) and more.
In a doubleheader with the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship at Gas City on Thursday, Sept. 23, adult general admission tickets are $30. Kids 12 and under are free. Pit passes are $30 for members and $35 for non-members. Pit gates open at 3pm ET with the grandstands opening at 5pm, drivers meeting at 5:45pm and hot laps at 6:30pm with qualifying and racing immediately following.
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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-2392, 2-Kevin Thomas Jr.-2324, 3-Justin Grant-2275, 4-Tanner Thorson-2145, 5-C.J. Leary-2140, 6-Chris Windom-2034, 7-Jake Swanson-1964, 8-Robert Ballou-1842, 9-Chase Stockon-1559, 10-Logan Seavey-1213.
TRACK RECORDS FOR USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CARS AT GAS CITY I-69 SPEEDWAY:
1 Lap - 4/26/2013 - Thomas Meseraull - 11.441 - 78.665 mph
6 Laps - 7/18/2003 - Bud Kaeding - 1:18.03 - 69.204 mph
8 Laps - 7/11/2008 - A.J. Anderson - 1:41.67 - 71.266 mph
10 Laps - 7/10/2015 - Brady Bacon - 2:01.65 - 73.983 mph
12 Laps - 9/26/2019 - Chad Boespflug - 2:28.28 - 72.835 mph
30 Laps - 7/8/2011 - Dave Darland - 6:25.08 - 70.115 mph
JAMES DEAN CLASSIC USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR WINS AT GAS CITY I-69 SPEEDWAY:
1-Justin Grant, Kevin Thomas Jr. & Chris Windom
JAMES DEAN CLASSIC USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR WINNERS AT GAS CITY I-69 SPEEDWAY:
2018: Kevin Thomas, Jr. (9/28)
2019: Chris Windom (9/26)
2020: Justin Grant (9/25)
USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR WINS AT GAS CITY I-69 SPEEDWAY:
6-Jon Stanbrough
3-Shane Cottle & Tracy Hines
2-Cory Kruseman, Dave Darland, Hunter Schuerenberg, Logan Seavey, J.J. Yeley & Kevin Thomas Jr.
1-Brady Bacon, Bryan Clauson, Tyler Courtney, Daron Clayton, Jay Drake, Justin Grant, Levi Jones, C.J. Leary, Chase Stockon, Scotty Weir, Cole Whitt & Chris Windom
USAC NATIONAL SPRINT CAR WINNERS AT GAS CITY I-69 SPEEDWAY:
2002: Cory Kruseman (7/19)
2003: J.J. Yeley (5/30) & J.J. Yeley (7/18)
2004: Tracy Hines (4/30)
2005: Jay Drake (6/3) & Cory Kruseman (7/20)
2006: Shane Cottle & Jon Stanbrough (7/19)
2007: Jon Stanbrough (6/14), Daron Clayton (7/13) & Jon Stanbrough (7/14)
2008: Shane Cottle (4/18) & Cole Whitt (7/11)
2009: Dave Darland (4/17) & Levi Jones (7/11)
2010: Tracy Hines (4/16) & Jon Stanbrough (7/10)
2011: Hunter Schuerenberg (4/29) & Dave Darland (7/8)
2012: Hunter Schuerenberg (4/27) & Bryan Clauson (7/13)
2013: Kevin Thomas, Jr. (4/26) & Jon Stanbrough (7/12)
2014: Tracy Hines (4/25) & Jon Stanbrough (7/11)
2015: Brady Bacon (5/15) & Chase Stockon (7/10)
2016: Scotty Weir (5/20) & Tyler Courtney (7/8)
2017: C.J. Leary (7/10)
2018: Kevin Thomas, Jr. (9/28)
2019: Shane Cottle (7/18) & Chris Windom (9/26)
2020: Logan Seavey (7/24) & Justin Grant (9/25)
2021: Logan Seavey (7/26)
PAST JAMES DEAN CLASSIC USAC SPRINT CAR RESULTS:
2018 FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (4), 2. C.J. Leary (5), 3. Isaac Chapple (2), 4. Chris Windom (6), 5. Chase Stockon (3), 6. Dave Darland (12), 7. Kyle Cummins (18), 8. Justin Grant (7), 9. Tyler Thomas (8), 10. Clinton Boyles (20), 11. Shane Cottle (9), 12. Matt Westfall (13), 13. Brady Bacon (14), 14. Carson Short (16), 15. Tyler Hewitt (22), 16. Tony DiMattia (15), 17. Tyler Courtney (17), 18. Jason McDougal (1), 19. Josh Hodges (11), 20. Dallas Hewitt (21), 21. Dustin Ingle (19), 22. Thomas Meseraull (10). NT
2019 FEATURE: (30 laps, starting position in parentheses) 1. Chris Windom (1), 2. Tyler Courtney (7), 3. Justin Grant (3), 4. Kevin Thomas, Jr. (2), 5. Chase Stockon (8), 6. C.J. Leary (6), 7. Brady Bacon (4), 8. Jason McDougal (17), 9. Isaac Chapple (9), 10. Max Adams (15), 11. Scotty Weir (14), 12. Matt Westfall (20), 13. Tye Mihocko (18), 14. Matt Goodnight (10), 15. Harley Burns (12), 16. Cody White (16), 17. Cole Ketcham (13), 18. Dustin Ingle (19), 19. Dave Darland (21), 20. Chad Boespflug (11), 21. Thomas Meseraull (5), 22. Dustin Clark (23), 23. Shane Cottle (22). NT
2020 FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (8), 2. Brady Bacon (5), 3. Chase Stockon (3), 4. Chris Windom (22), 5. Shane Cottle (15), 6. Dave Darland (2), 7. Jadon Rogers (4), 8. Robert Ballou (18), 9. Mario Clouser (23*), 10. Carson Short (17), 11. Brandon Mattox (10), 12. Kevin Thomas Jr. (12), 13. Chase Johnson (16), 14. Scotty Weir (19), 15. Kyle Cummins (7), 16. Brandon Long (11), 17. Clinton Boyles (9), 18. Ricky Lewis (14), 19. Evan Mosley (21), 20. Kendall Ruble (20), 21. Logan Seavey (6), 22. Anton Hernandez (13). (Feature winner C.J. Leary (1) was disqualified for a tire violation.) NT |
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