Windom & Then Some! Big Daddy & CBI Win Again at Eldora

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Rossburg, Ohio (September 22, 2023)………Death, taxes and Chris Windom/CB Industries winning USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget races at Rossburg, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway.

That is the itemized list of life’s seemingly inevitabilities that have been certain in recent years, and nobody has proven it more often of late at the 1/2-mile dirt oval than the Canton, Ill. driver and the Mooresville, N.C. based team.

During Friday night’s BeFour The Crowns 25-lap feature event, Windom checked out on the field from his front row starting position and kept himself and his right rear tire firmly planted within inches of the outside wall en route to a wire-to-wire victory in his CB Industries/NOS Energy Drink – PristineAuction.com – K & C Drywall/Spike/Speedway Toyota.

It was Windom’s third Eldora midget win in his last four starts at The Big E dating back to 2021. His 15th overall USAC National Midget feature triumph also moved him inside the top-50 all-time alongside USAC Hall of Fame inductees Don Branson and Larry Rice.

Furthermore, CB Industries’ prowess on the high banks was once again on full display as the team became the first entrant to earn four consecutive Eldora feature wins – three with Windom in 2021-22-23 and another with Mitchel Moles on the opening night of the 2022 4-Crown Nationals weekend.

The outfits who had previously earned three-straight at Eldora are synonymous with the sport: Steve Lewis (2001-02), Keith Kunz Motorsports (2011-13 & 2015-17) and Clauson Marshall Racing (2018-21). However, one team now stands alone in uncharted territory – CB Industries.

Windom’s sixth overall 4-Crown Nationals feature win (3 Midget, 2 Silver Crown, 1 Sprint) ranks fourth all-time behind only Jack Hewitt (19), Tyler Courtney (7) and Dave Darland (7). In all those wins, nothing compares to the moment when everything clicks from the track to the car to the individaul behind the wheel. All of it worked in perfect synchronicity for Windom and CBI on this night. Their night.

“It’s just such a fun racetrack when it’s like this, up on the fence,” Windom, the 2020 USAC National Midget champion, explained. “You’ve got a lot of room and midgets are so fun to run when it’s like that. I’ve had a decent amount of experience here doing it too. I always enjoy coming back and racing for (team owner) Chad (Boat) every chance I can; we have a lot of fun together. It’s so much fun and it’s one I look forward to doing every season.”

Windom’s initial starting spot was slated to be the outside of the front row. However, original pole starter Jade Avedisian was ruled to have jumped the initial start and was subsequently penalized, dropping her back to the second row for a complete restart. That moved Windom to the pole, yet still, the outside line is where he preferred as he immediately slid right up to the high line in turn one right after the 21-car field took the green flag.

By halfway, Windom had stretched his lead to more than a full second over Bryant Wiedeman and Avedisian who utilized two distinctly differing approaches in their pursuit of Windom. Wiedeman stuck his CB Industries machine to the bottom wall while Jade stayed true against the outside wall lap after lap.

Avedisian raced her way back into the second spot on lap 16 as she dug in on the high line to beat Wiedeman to the stripe, then began to track down Windom little-by-little to within a half second. However, with Windom occupying the same top side path, Avedisian followed his tracks up top, a location Windom had no intention of straying from.

“Early on throughout the night, guys were able to run the middle and the bottom, and there’s enough juice on exit to where you can do that,” Windom detailed. “Once it cleans off and the sprint cars run, it’s hard to beat momentum here. If you can get up top and hit your marks and not make a mistake, it’s really tough to beat a guy up there.  I knew that’s where I needed to be, and I wasn’t going to move until I saw anybody else.”

Under five laps to go, traffic began to loom for the front runners with Avedisian feeling she just might have a shot to pounce for the win. However, Windom navigated with extreme precision, refusing to cave to the pressurized situation that lay ahead, and instead, never wavered off his line.

With that said, Avedisian remained well withing striking distance to the tune of about a half second behind Windom. Nonetheless, with three laps remaining, Avedisian stumbled against the turn three cushion/wall, which cost her another half second along with a shot at stealing one away from Windom late in the going.

In the end, Windom was 2.149 seconds ahead of the field when he crossed under the checkered flag in front of Jade Avedisian, Rico Abreu, Bryant Wiedeman and Logan Seavey, the series point leader who recorded his 13th consecutive top-five result.

For Avedisian (Clovis, Calif.), it was a fine first-time run as she rode the high line in spectacular fashion to finish as the runner-up in her Eldora Speedway debut aboard her Keith Kunz-Curb-Agajanian Motorsports/Mobil 1 – TRD – JBL Audio/Lynk/Speedway Toyota. Eldora is a venue she considers a bucket list track, and to her, it lived up to hype, as she equaled her best career series finish once again for the third time this year.

“This is awesome,” I’ve always dreamed of coming to Eldora and it lived up to the moment,” Avedisian exclaimed. “I was going hard from the start, and I just really want to win one of these races. If we keep finishing up front, our time will come. From the start, I got put back, which kind of set us back, but during the last 10 laps, we were closing the gap on him, and I made a mistake in three and lost the gap again.”

For Rico Abreu (St. Helena, Calif.), it was a solid reemergence in midget racing for the two-time 4-Crown Midget race winner. Abreu made his first series start since 2020 a good one, finishing third in his Tanner Thorson Racing/Maestro’s Classic - Eddie Gilstrap Motors - Smith Titanium/Spike/Stanton SR-11x. After jumping out of the midget, he promptly strapped in for a World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car feature and proceeded to win it about a half-hour later.

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USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 22, 2023 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – BeFour The Crowns

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-16.637; 2. Bryant Wiedeman, 81, CBI-16.743; 3. Rico Abreu, 24, Thorson-16.782; 4. Daison Pursley, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-16.845; 5. Chris Windom, 89, CBI-16.846; 6. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.905; 7. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-16.978; 8. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-16.987; 9. Daniel Whitley, 58, Abacus-17.005; 10. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.008; 11. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-17.071; 12. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-17.093; 13. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-17.207; 14. Jake Andreotti, 25m, Malloy-17.248; 15. Mitchel Moles, 19T, Reinbold/Underwood-17.274; 16. Clinton Boyles, 98x, RMS-17.299; 17. Briggs Danner, 98, Schneider-17.351; 18. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-17.364; 19. Holly Jones, 4, Bundy Built-17.528; 20. Kyle Simon, 23, Simon-17.757; 21. Ian Creager, 36, Creager-17.944.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Ryan Timms, 2. Logan Seavey, 3. Justin Grant, 4. Thomas Meseraull, 5. Daison Pursley, 6. Clinton Boyles, 7. Holly Jones. 2:18.90

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Bryant Wiedeman, 2. Jake Andreotti, 3. Chris Windom, 4. Gavin Miller, 5. Taylor Reimer, 6. Briggs Danner, 7. Kyle Simon. 2:20.94

T.J. FORGED/CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Hayden Reinbold, 3. Rico Abreu, 4. Jade Avedisian, 5. Jacob Denney, 6. Daniel Whitley, 7. Ian Creager. 2:20.78

FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Chris Windom (2), 2. Jade Avedisian (1), 3. Rico Abreu (4), 4. Bryant Wiedeman (5), 5. Logan Seavey (6), 6. Daison Pursley (3), 7. Justin Grant (9), 8. Gavin Miller (10), 9. Thomas Meseraull (14), 10. Ryan Timms (7), 11. Jacob Denney (13), 12. Mitchel Moles (8), 13. Daniel Whitley (11), 14. Jake Andreotti (15), 15. Hayden Reinbold (18), 16. Taylor Reimer (12), 17. Clinton Boyles (16), 18. Briggs Danner (17), 19. Holly Jones (19), 20. Kyle Simon (20), 21. Ian Creager (21). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-25 Chris Windom.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-1227, 2-Justin Grant-1031, 3-Bryant Wiedeman-1021, 4-Jade Avedisian-1000, 5-Ryan Timms-992, 6-Daison Pursley-982, 7-Jacob Denney-907, 8-Gavin Miller-884, 9-Cannon McIntosh-868, 10-Thomas Meseraull-785.

4-CROWN NATIONALS PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Bryant Wiedeman-6, 2-Logan Seavey-5, 3-Thomas Meseraull-5, 4-Rico Abreu-4, 5-Kyle Steffens-4, 6-Trey Burke-4, 7-Chris Windom-3, 8-Justin Grant-3, 9-Hayden Reinbold-3, 10-Dave Berkheimer-3.

OVERALL USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-171, 2-Logan Seavey-125, 3-Emerson Axsom-108, 4-Shane Cottle-106, 5-Justin Grant-103, 6-Matt Westfall-101, 7-Robert Ballou-98, 8-Brady Bacon-92, 9-Chase Stockon-90, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-71.

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 23, 2023 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – 41st 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Ryan Timms (16.735)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Logan Seavey (16.637)

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Ryan Timms

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Bryant Wiedeman

T.J. Forged / Car IQ Third Heat Winner: Mitchel Moles

Green APU Green Flag Challenge First Lap Leader: Chris Windom

Hard Charger: Thomas Meseraull (14th to 9th)

GRANT SCORES USAC SILVER CROWN POLE FOR SATURDAY'S 4-CROWN AT ELDORA

Ryan Sellers

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Rossburg, Ohio (September 22, 2023)………Justin Grant scored the pole position for Saturday night’s USAC Silver Crown main event at Rossburg, Ohio’s Eldora Speedway, part of the 41st running of the 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO.

Grant (Ione, Calif.) made the Honest Abe Qualifying run during Friday night’s preliminary program with a time of 17.076 seconds around the half-mile dirt oval in his Hemelgarn Racing/NOS Energy Drink – Super Fitness – Nick Bohanon LLC/DRC/Foxco Chevy.

It’s Grant’s second consecutive pole position with the series after also starting from the number one spot for the Ted Horn 100 at the Du Quoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds on September 2. Grant’s ninth career Silver Crown pole position tied past series champions Chuck Gurney (1989) and Jason Leffler (1998) for ninth all-time.

The top-20 qualifiers were locked in through time trials with Dallas Hewitt (Troy, Ohio) making the final cut for Saturday’s event.

A subsequent 12-lap Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Qualifying race was held with the top-six transferring their way into Saturday's feature. Jerry Coons Jr. (Tucson, Ariz.) captured the victory, thus making the cut for his 20th career Eldora 4-Crown Nationals USAC Silver Crown start. Wayne Johnson (Tuttle, Okla.) secured the final transfer spot by a car length over Joss Moffatt (Columbus, Ind.).

USAC Silver Crown National Championship point leader Logan Seavey (Sutter, Calif.) will start sixth in Saturday’s field while Kody Swanson (Sutter, Calif.) will roll off eighth. Seavey leads Swanson in the standings by one single point entering Saturday, which serves as the penultimate race of the series’ season. Seavey has also won the past two Eldora Silver Crown features in 2021 and 2022.

Furthermore, Russ Gamester’s fifth place finish in the Qualifying Race secured his spot in Saturday’s feature lineup. It will be a milestone run for the Peru, Ind. native as he gets set to make his 212th career Silver Crown start, which will tie him with Brian Tyler for first place all-time.

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USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 22, 2023 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 41st 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: (Top-20 locked into the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 91, Hemelgarn-17.076; 2. C.J. Leary, 6, Klatt-17.145; 3. Brady Bacon, 9, Dyson-17.264; 4. Jake Swanson, 10, DMW-17.336; 5. Chase Dietz, 86, Lee-17.444; 6. Logan Seavey, 22, Rice/Abacus-17.497; 7. Matt Westfall, 54, Westfall-17.516; 8. Kody Swanson, 77, Doran/Binks-17.534; 9. Mario Clouser, 92, Kazmark-17.696; 10. Carmen Perigo, 52, Stehman-17.735; 11. Chase Stockon, 69, Pink 69-17.764; 12. Kevin Thomas Jr., 24, Haggenbottom-17.813; 13. Emerson Axsom, 20, Nolen-17.926; 14. Trey Osborne, 81, BCR-17.943; 15. Brian Ruhlman, 49, Ruhlman-17.974; 16. Mitchel Moles, 97, Lein-18.023; 17. Kyle Robbins, 7, KR-18.032; 18. Kaylee Bryson, 26, Pierce-18.043; 19. Matt Mitchell, 5, DMW-18.045; 20. Dallas Hewitt, 57, Hewitt-18.117; 21. Russ Gamester, 51, Gamester-18.171; 22. Travis Welpott, 18, Welpott-18.227; 23. Sterling Cling, 07, Tosti-18.240; 24. Jerry Coons Jr., 55, Bateman-18.334; 25. Zach Hampton, 99, Armstrong-18.347; 26. Joss Moffatt, 37, Felker-18.361; 27. Wayne Johnson, 12, Two C-18.434; 28. Kyle Steffens, 08, Steffens-18.558; 29. Chris Fetter, 15, Fetter-18.572; 30. Trey Burke, 11, Hamilton/SRG-18.655; 31. Taylor Ferns, 555, Ferns-18.738; 32. Mark Bitner, 4, Yeska-18.803; 33. Dave Berkheimer, 31, Berkheimer-18.854; 34. Danny Long, 44, Long-18.866; 35. Tim Simmons, 3, Simmons-19.590; 36. Gary Dunkle, 34, Dunkle-20.704.

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS QUALIFYING RACE: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Jerry Coons Jr., 2. Kyle Steffens, 3. Zach Hampton, 4. Trey Burke, 5. Russ Gamester, 6. Wayne Johnson, 7. Joss Moffatt, 8. Chris Fetter, 9. Taylor Ferns, 10. Dave Berkheimer, 11. Danny Long, 12. Tim Simmons, 13. Gary Dunkle, 14. Sterling Cling, 15. Mark Bitner. NT

FEATURE STARTING LINEUP: (50 laps)

ROW 1: 91 Justin Grant – 6 C.J. Leary

ROW 2: 9 Brady Bacon – 10 Jake Swanson

ROW 3: 86 Chase Dietz – 22-Logan Seavey

ROW 4: 54 Matt Westfall – 77-Kody Swanson

ROW 5: 92 Mario Clouser – 52 Carmen Perigo

ROW 6: 69 Chase Stockon – 24 Kevin Thomas Jr.

ROW 7: 20 Emerson Axsom – 81 Trey Osborne

ROW 8: 49 Brian Ruhlman – 97 Mitchel Moles

ROW 9: 7 Kyle Robbins – 26 Kaylee Bryson

ROW 10: 5 Matt Mitchell – 57 Dallas Hewitt

ROW 11: 55 Jerry Coons Jr. – 08 Kyle Steffens

ROW 12: 99 Zach Hampton – 11 Trey Burke

ROW 13: 51 Russ Gamester – 12 Wayne Johnson

USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-548, 2-Kody Swanson-547, 3-Justin Grant-439, 4-Mario Clouser-380, 5-Taylor Ferns-366, 6-Kaylee Bryson-364, 7-C.J. Leary-358, 8-Bobby Santos-315, 9-Matt Westfall-315, 10-Trey Burke-278.

OVERALL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-152, 2-Logan Seavey-104, 3-Shane Cottle-102, 4-Robert Ballou-87, 5-Matt Westfall-86, 6-Justin Grant-85, 7-Brady Bacon-85, 8-Emerson Axsom-81, 9-Chase Stockon-69, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-54.

NEXT USAC SILVER CROWN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 23, 2023 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Oval – 41st 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Practice Fastest Driver: C.J. Leary (16.498)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Justin Grant (17.076)

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Qualifying Race Winner: Jerry Coons Jr.

Straight to the Point: Grant Sprints to James Dean Classic Win at Gas City

David Nearpass

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Gas City, Indiana (September 21, 2023)………Throughout Thursday night’s James Dean Classic at Indiana’s Gas City I-69 Speedway, Justin Grant experienced the fluctuating feeling of a season-long USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship battle swaying in the balance.

During the heat races, his point lead vanished for a brief moment when Brady Bacon scored a victory. Shortly thereafter, Grant regained a grip on the lead when he answered with his very own heat race win.

With all that said, there was absolutely no fluctuation whatsoever in the feature from the eighth lap onward. As soon as Grant assumed the point, he gained total command of the race at hand and control of the big picture in terms of the series point lead by scoring his 10th series win of the season aboard his TOPP Motorsports/NOS Energy Drink – Bow Foundation – TOPP Industries/Maxim/Kistler Chevy.

The performance turned in by Grant was one for the record books as he became just the 11th driver in the series’ 68-year history to reach double-digit feature victories in a single USAC National Sprint Car season, joining Tom Bigelow (14 in 1977), Robert Ballou (13 in 2015), J.J. Yeley (13 in 2003), Larry Dickson (12 in 1968), Pancho Carter (12 in 1976), Bubby Jones (11 in 1979), Tyler Courtney (11 in 2018), Larry Dickson (10 in 1970), Pancho Carter (10 in 1977) and Jay Drake (10 in 2000).

Grant officially owns the bragging rights for USAC National Sprint Car racing at Gas City in 2023, already staking claim as the winner of the Indiana Sprint Week round in July. Furthermore, Grant posted his second career James Dean Classic victory, previously doing so in 2020.

The 44th USAC National Sprint Car win of Grant’s career now moves him to within one of 1968-70-75 series champion Larry Dickson (45 wins) for sixth place on the all-time list.

Starting seventh in the 22-car field, Grant had some strenuous work to perform in the 30-lap span. Initially, Shane Cottle bolted to the lead from his outside front row starting position on lap one. However, Cottle’s lay of the land was short-lived as third-starting Robert Ballou split between Cottle and pole starter Emerson Axsom in turn one on lap two to position himself at the forefront of the field.

Following a yellow flag for a spin by 22nd running Rylan Gray between turns one and two on lap six, Bacon was the newest riser through the pack as he flashed around the outside of Emerson Axsom for second place on the restart.

Quickly, though, it became readily apparent that Grant came to play. First, he hit the alley between Axsom and Bacon in turn four on lap seven to escape from fourth to second. Less than a lap later, Grant was in the lead as he blazed by Ballou midway down the back straight to surge into the lead on lap eight.

Immediately, Grant launched away to a near full-straightaway lead as the race neared the halfway mark, more than three seconds ahead with 15 laps remaining as Ballou, Axsom and Bacon fought like bulldogs on a porkchop for the second spot.

In traffic, Grant was unattainable as his lead ballooned to five seconds with 10 laps to go. But funny enough, as his lead continuously expanded lap after lap, Grant truly believed that more and more pressure was mounting from the second-place car of Axsom. As it turned out, it was just a mirage in the form of another lapped car.

“While I was working lapped traffic, I kept seeing a black and white car kind of poking down there; I thought it was Axsom,” Grant revealed. “I thought I had mega pressure in lapped traffic the whole time, so I had no idea we were that good. It was so slick around here, but I knew our car was really, really good. I was kind of worried about somebody getting the bottom rolling.”

Meanwhile, behind him, Matt Westfall was crawling the bottom with perfection to edge his way up to the third spot past Ballou on lap 24 after beginning his race from mid-pack in the 22-car starting field.

However, Grant’s lead was erased on lap 25 when Daison Pursley (14th) performed a 360-degree spin in turn four which necessitated a caution. Nonetheless, it wasn’t enough to deter Grant who stepped away from the pack over the final six laps while riding the rim as the trailing Axsom and Westfall rolled the bottom in their pursuit.

In the end, Grant was too much to handle as he earned a 1.408 second margin of victory over Emerson Axsom, Matt Westfall, Robert Ballou and Brady Bacon. With Bacon finishing fifth and Grant first, Grant’s series point lead increased to 15 markers with four races remaining. But in this pressure cooker, the night sweats never cease when thinking about the championship.

“With Brady, the pressure is never off,” Grant acknowledged. “He’s a really good racecar driver; he always finds a way; and he keeps his cool. He’s just so, so hard to beat. It’s an honor to compete with him in this deal. I’ve had to become a lot better of a racecar driver because of him. It’s fun to go toe-to-toe with him and he’s as good as it gets. When we can come out on top, it feels really, really good and really rewarding.”

Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.) had gone seven consecutive USAC National Sprint Car starts without a top-five result in his Clauson Marshall Newman Racing/Driven2SaveLives – ZMax Race Lubricants/Spike/Kistler Chevy. On this night, he ended that streak with a runner-up result.

Patience is a virtue and Matt Westfall (Pleasant Hill, Ohio) possesses that in droves. At Gas City, he took to the low side and picked his way from his 12th starting spot to a third-place result in his Ray Marshall Motorsports/Buckeye Machine – Hempy Water/DRC/Gressman Chevy. His plus-nine performance earned him hard charger honors for the evening.

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 21, 2023 – Gas City I-69 Speedway – Gas City, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – James Dean Classic

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-11.712; 2. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-11.792; 3. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-11.829; 4. Max Adams, 5x, Adams-11.841; 5. Jack Hoyer, 11, Hoyer-11.906; 6. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-11.944; 7. Shane Cottle, 2E, Epperson-11.959; 8. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-11.962; 9. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-11.965; 10. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-11.991; 11. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-11.992; 12. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-12.010; 13. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.050; 14. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-12.089; 15. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-12.114; 16. Jadon Rogers, 17GP, Dutcher-12.121; 17. Harley Burns, 16B, Burns-12.134; 18. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-12.135; 19. Isaac Chapple, 6, Chapple/Hall-12.146; 20. Zack Pretorius, 9z, Pretorius-12.146; 21. Saban Bibent, 98, Wedgewood-12.168; 22. Colten Cottle, 57, Hazen-12.202; 23. Rylan Gray, 06, Gray-12.209; 24. Jackson Slone, 16, Borzio/Slone-12.236; 25. Sterling Cling, 34, SCR-12.250; 26. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-12.288; 27. Thomas Meseraull, 23, NIKSTE-12.314; 28. Geoff Ensign, 3F, Ensign-12.360; 29. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-12.481; 30. Matt Mitchell, 37, Mitchell-12.488; 31. Wes Pinkerton, 21, Hajduk-12.548; 32. Dustin Ingle, 2DI, Ingle-12.556.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Emerson Axsom, 3. Harley Burns, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Jack Hoyer, 6. Matt Mitchell, 7. Saban Bibent, 8. Brandon Mattox. 2:06.47

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Matt Westfall, 4. C.J. Leary, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Thomas Meseraull, 7. Colten Cottle, 8. Wes Pinkerton. NT

T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. Rylan Gray, 4. Shane Cottle, 5. Isaac Chapple, 6. Dustin Ingle, 7. Chance Crum, 8. Geoff Ensign. NT

CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Zack Pretorius, 2. Max Adams, 3. Carson Garrett, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Jadon Rogers, 6. Sterling Cling, 7. Daison Pursley. NT

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Daison Pursley, 3. Chance Crum, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Thomas Meseraull, 6. Isaac Chapple, 7. Dustin Ingle, 8. Jack Hoyer, 9. Brandon Mattox, 10. Geoff Ensign, 11. Saban Bibent, 12. Colten Cottle, 13. Matt Mitchell, 14. Wes Pinkerton. 2:44.36

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Justin Grant (7), 2. Emerson Axsom (1), 3. Matt Westfall (12), 4. Robert Ballou (3), 5. Brady Bacon (6), 6. Max Adams (4), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (8), 8. Logan Seavey (10), 9. Jadon Rogers (17), 10. C.J. Leary (15), 11. Mitchel Moles (14), 12. Carson Garrett (13), 13. Jake Swanson (5), 14. Harley Burns (18), 15. Daison Pursley (11), 16. Chance Crum (16), 17. Isaac Chapple (19), 18. Chase Stockon (22), 19. Zack Pretorius (9), 20. Rylan Gray (20), 21. Shane Cottle (2), 22. Thomas Meseraull (21). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Lap 1 Shane Cottle, Laps 2-7 Robert Ballou, Laps 8-30 Justin Grant.

**Jackson Slone flipped during qualifying. Sterling Cling & Daison Pursley flipped during the fourth heat.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-2171, 2-Brady Bacon-2156, 3-Emerson Axsom-2035, 4-Jake Swanson-1974, 5-Kyle Cummins-1966, 6-C.J. Leary-1901, 7-Robert Ballou-1840, 8-Chase Stockon-1665, 9-Mitchel Moles-1640, 10-Logan Seavey-1602.

OVERALL USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-171, 2-Logan Seavey-124, 3-Emerson Axsom-108, 4-Shane Cottle-106, 5-Justin Grant-101, 6-Matt Westfall-101, 7-Robert Ballou-98, 8-Brady Bacon-92, 9-Chase Stockon-90, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-71.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 23, 2023 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – 41st 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Fastest Hot Laps Driver: Jake Swanson (11.911)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Brady Bacon (11.712)

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Brady Bacon

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Kevin Thomas Jr.

T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Justin Grant

Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Zack Pretorius

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Logan Seavey

Green APU Green Flag Challenge First Lap Leader: Shane Cottle

Hard Charger: Matt Westfall (12th to 3rd)

Indy Racing Images

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Gas City, Indiana (September 21, 2023)………Back in June, Gas City I-69 Speedway served as the turning point of the 2023 USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship season for Logan Seavey.

On Thursday night during the fifth running of the James Dean Classic, the Sutter, Calif. native cemented the case that his quest for a second career season championship shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

Seavey racked up his second straight series win at the Gas City, Ind. 1/4-mile dirt oval this season, doing so with even more late-race heroics in his Abacus Racing/Honest Abe Roofing – Indy Custom Stone – Laura Kopetsky Tri-Ax/Spike/Stanton SR-11x.

Three months earlier, Seavey took over the lead just two laps from the finish line en route to victory at Gas City during USAC Indiana Midget Week, but on Thursday, he got a bit of a head start on his pursuit, swiping the lead from Jacob Denney six laps from the checkered flag in the 30-lap affair.

In the end, Seavey bested Denney to the stripe by a 0.728 second margin to earn his fifth victory of the season and the 13th of his career with the series. That elevated him to 56th on the all-time list alongside Steve Knepper, Don Meacham, Ryan Newman and Stevie Reeves.

Entering the Gas City round in June, Seavey was mired an astonishing 110 points out of the championship lead and stood sixth overall in the standings. In the 12 races since, he’s reeled off 12 consecutive top-five results and now leads the series standings by a staggering 183 points.

Seavey started his feature run on Thursday from the eighth position and had already surged into the second spot by lap three. Up front, outside front row starter Justin Grant nipped pole sitter Hayden Reinbold by about a foot or two to lead lap one, but soon had to contend with a surging Seavey.

However, on lap six, defending James Dean Classic winner Buddy Kofoid found himself in an unsavory position when he cracked the turn one cushion with his right rear tire, causing him to helicopter several times before landing upside down. By that point, the 2021-22 USAC National Midget champ had already advanced from 12th to 5th. After his car spent time in the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area, Kofoid restarted at the tail and worked his way back up to a seventh place finish.

The night’s Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier, Cannon McIntosh, scooted to third by lap seven, but soon after, clipped an infield tire, which knocked his left front suspension a little wonky and askew, forcing him to a stop in between turns one and two on lap 12. He too returned to action after time in the work area, ultimately finishing 11th.

Nearing halfway, Grant worked high in turns one and two with Seavey operating the low line, but on lap 16, Seavey attempted to slide Grant in turn two, and instead, swung wide, thus matadoring Denney right by him into second.

Denney drove past Grant for the lead on the bottom of turn four on lap 18, and a half lap later, lightning struck Grant twice as he slid sideways in turn two, allowing Seavey to fly around the outside of him and slot into second.

Seavey stayed with the game as he chased down Denney, drawing nearer and nearer with each passing lap until, six laps later, he zipped past into the lead on lap 25. Seavey revealed that the seas sort of parted due to the pressure from Denney on Grant, which forced Grant to search around on the track’s surface.

“I knew the track was slowing down and I knew the bottom was just going to keep getting trickier,” Seavey explained. “I knew Grant would have to do something different for me to pass him. I was trying to show my nose on the bottom, and I got him to go down there once but I wasn’t close enough. It’s cat and mouse when you’re running against somebody that good.”

However, it was a chain of successive events that brought Seavey to the forefront, seemingly all occurring within a split second of each other amid high speed and high stakes.

“Denney was a lifesaver, really,” Seavey revealed. “He got Grant searching for me, which got Grant kind of messed up and I was finally able to go by him. I was just a hair too free to cut the bottom like that, and Grant knew that as long as he didn’t screw up, he was probably okay, then Denney came by.”

If this scenario sounds oddly familiar, perhaps you saw last Friday night’s USAC National Sprint Car feature when a much similar scenario played out during Seavey’s victorious last lap performance at Indiana’s Circle City Raceway.

“It felt a lot like Circle City when (Shane) Cottle pulled Kyle (Cummins) off my back bumper and I was able to get clean track again, make some good laps and run him back down,” Seavey documented. “Denney and I were wheel-to-wheel over in turns three and four for like five or six laps. I was on the chip for the whole straightaway, but the SR-11 ran great all day and Denney ran a great race too.”

Seavey had a few fisticuffs with traffic to avoid in order to navigate his way home during the final six voyages, but not a single misstep was detected as Seavey became just the second driver, along with Shane Cottle, to earn multiple USAC National Sprint Car and USAC National Midget feature victories in a career at Gas City.

Jacob Denney collected a second-place result with Bryant Wiedeman third, Daison Pursley fourth and Justin Grant fifth.

Denney (Galloway, Ohio) felt the bottom of the track going away quite abruptly late in the race and practically knew it was a matter of time before the sand in the hourglass would run out on the bottom in his Tom Malloy/Trench Shoring – Rodela Specialty Fabrication/King/Ed Pink Toyota. However, it was quite the homecoming for Denney who missed the last two series races due to a crash in an Xtreme Outlaw series event at Paragon (Ind.) Speedway that forced him to take some time off.  In his Gas City return, Denney raced all the way from 10th to finish second, earning hard charger honors for the evening.

After getting upside down in the James Dean Classic at Gas City a year ago this weekend, Bryant Wiedeman (Colby, Kan.) scored a third-place finish in his CB Industries/Nutrien Ag Solutions – PristineAuction.com – K & C Drywall/Spike/Speedway Toyota at Gas City. In USAC competition, it was Wiedeman’s first podium result since his July victory at the Mitchell County Fairgrounds in his home state of Kansas.

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USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 21, 2023 – Gas City I-69 Speedway – Gas City, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – James Dean Classic

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Cannon McIntosh, 08, Dave Mac Dalby-12.170; 2. Gavin Miller, 97, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.211; 3. Daison Pursley, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-12.215; 4. Jacob Denney, 25, Malloy-12.216; 5. Ethan Mitchell, 19m, Bundy Built-12.242; 6. Bryant Wiedeman, 81, CBI-12.242; 7. Justin Grant, 2, RMS-12.269; 8. Hayden Reinbold, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.304; 9. Thomas Meseraull, 7x, RMS-12.331; 10. Buddy Kofoid, 67K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.345; 11. Briggs Danner, 98, Schneider-12.365; 12. Ryan Timms, 67, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.370; 13. Daniel Whitley, 58, Abacus-12.371; 14. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-12.402; 15. Jade Avedisian, 71, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.443; 16. Jake Andreotti, 25m, Malloy-12.486; 17. Kaylee Bryson, 89, CBI-12.513; 18. Holly Jones, 4, Bundy Built-12.537; 19. Weston Gorham, 18N, Gorham-12.611; 20. Taylor Reimer, 25K, Kunz/Curb-Agajanian-12.639; 21. Clinton Boyles, 98x, RMS-12.739; 22. Justin Dickerson, 21D, Dickerson-12.790; 23. Devon Dobie, 23DD, Dobie-12.902.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Buddy Kofoid, 3. Jake Andreotti, 4. Cannon McIntosh, 5. Daniel Whitley, 6. Jacob Denney, 7. Justin Dickerson, 8. Weston Gorham. 2:08.18

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Briggs Danner, 3. Hayden Reinbold, 4. Ethan Mitchell, 5. Taylor Reimer, 6. Gavin Miller, 7. Kaylee Bryson, 8. Devon Dobie. 2:09.51

T.J. FORGED/CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, all transfer to the feature) 1. Ryan Timms, 2. Thomas Meseraull, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Jade Avedisian, 5. Bryant Wiedeman, 6. Holly Jones, 7. Clinton Boyles. 2:10.41

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (8), 2. Jacob Denney (10), 3. Bryant Wiedeman (3), 4. Daison Pursley (5), 5. Justin Grant (2), 6. Thomas Meseraull (11), 7. Buddy Kofoid (12), 8. Ryan Timms (7), 9. Daniel Whitley (14), 10. Jake Andreotti (16), 11. Cannon McIntosh (6), 12. Kaylee Bryson (17), 13. Clinton Boyles (21), 14. Gavin Miller (9), 15. Hayden Reinbold (1), 16. Jade Avedisian (15), 17. Taylor Reimer (20), 18. Holly Jones (18), 19. Weston Gorham (19), 20. Justin Dickerson (22), 21. Ethan Mitchell (4), 22. Briggs Danner (13), 23. Devon Dobie (23). NT

**Buddy Kofoid flipped on lap 6 of the feature.

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-17 Justin Grant, Laps 18-24 Jacob Denney, Laps 25-30 Logan Seavey.

USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Logan Seavey-1156, 2-Justin Grant-973, 3-Bryant Wiedeman-947, 4-Ryan Timms-941, 5-Jade Avedisian-927, 6-Daison Pursley-920, 7-Cannon McIntosh-868, 8-Jacob Denney-862, 9-Gavin Miller-830, 10-Taylor Reimer-750.

OVERALL USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-171, 2-Logan Seavey-122, 3-Emerson Axsom-108, 4-Shane Cottle-106, 5-Robert Ballou-98, 6-Justin Grant-95, 7-Matt Westfall-92, 8-Brady Bacon-91, 9-Chase Stockon-86, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-70.

NEXT USAC NOS ENERGY DRINK MIDGET NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: September 22-23, 2023 – Eldora Speedway – Rossburg, Ohio – 1/2-Mile Dirt Track – 41st 4-Crown Nationals Presented By NKTELCO

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Hot Laps Fastest Driver: Bryant Wiedeman (12.327)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Cannon McIntosh (12.170)

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Justin Grant

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Logan Seavey

T.J. Forged / Car IQ Third Heat Winner: Ryan Timms

Green APU Green Flag Challenge First Lap Leader: Justin Grant

Hard Charger: Jacob Denney (10th to 2nd)

$20 Grand Macho Man! Bacon Hurries to Haubstadt Hustler Win

David Nearpass

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Haubstadt, Indiana (September 16, 2023)………Tri-State Speedway has been very, very good to Brady Bacon in 2023.

In April, the Broken Arrow, Okla. native earned his first World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car win at the track, and on Saturday night, he raced to a first career Haubstadt Hustler victory in the richest event ever held at the Haubstadt, Indiana dirt oval worth $20,000.

The 16th running of the event, co-sanctioned by the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship and the Midwest Sprint Car Series, came down to a duel between Bacon and four-time Haubstadt Hustler victor Kevin Thomas Jr. en route to Bacon’s 40-lap triumph at a track he’s admittedly struggled at in the past and hadn’t won a USAC race at since the spring of 2015.

Wheeling his Dynamics, Inc./4-Wide Salute Podcast – Tel-Star Technologies – DriveWFX.com/Triple X/Rider Chevy, Bacon’s victory was a major milestone, providing him with his 53rd career USAC National Sprint Car feature win and giving him sole possession of second place on the all-time list ahead of 1978 series champion Tom Bigelow. Now, Bacon trails only Dave Darland’s record of 62 series wins, which sits number one all-time.

Utilizing the MSCS format of group qualifying, a four-car heat race invert and a redraw for position to set the feature lineup, the USAC National Sprint Car points race was on hiatus for the evening with every licensed driver and entrant with the series receiving 50 appearance points across the board regardless of finishing position. For four-time USAC champion Bacon, it was a nice change of pace amidst the pressurized title race of which he trails Justin Grant by nine with only five events left to go.

“It was kind of nice,” Bacon admitted. “It’s been pretty stressful I’m sure for him and I both to get through each night, but tonight, I finally got to try something different, and obviously, it paid off. It’s the biggest race here and at a place where we have admittedly struggled in the past. It was good to me earlier this year with my first World of Outlaws win and this is a pretty special one tonight. It’s been a lot of years since I’ve last won here in a non-wing sprint car.”

Bacon started from the pole position and immediately engaged in a tumultuous opening lap scuffle with outside front row starter Robert Ballou. As Bacon worked the middle line and Ballou the outside, the two came together at the exit of turn four, smacking wheels together as they crossed the stripe to complete lap one. To begin lap two, chrome-to-chrome contact was on the docket between Ballou’s front bumper and Bacon’s rear bumper which sent Bacon sideways in turn one. However, Bacon mashed the gas and was able to escape unscathed after the early race attack from Ballou.

By lap 10, Bacon had entered lapped traffic with a full second lead over Ballou. However, on lap 13, Ballou’s car suddenly lost power, knocking him out of the race and relegating him to watching the rest of the race from the infield with an unsavory 22nd place result.

Dustin Beck was the beneficiary of Ballou’s misfortune with the former modified standout and Tri-State Speedway regular moving up to second in only his fourth career USAC feature start. He split through traffic and kept pace with Bacon for the lead, albeit about five car lengths back as the race neared the midway point.

Trouble hit fourth running Justin Grant on the 20th lap when he suddenly slowed with a broken tie-rod. He was able to make it back to the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area for repairs and returned to the tail of the field for the restart before going on to race his way back to an eighth-place result.

On the race’s resumption, ninth starting Kevin Thomas Jr. darted into the second position when Beck slid high in turn two on the 22nd lap. Now down a half-straightaway to Bacon for the lead, it was “game on” for the stalwarts of the sport who own a whopping 92 USAC National Sprint Car features between the two.

The gap was closed even further at the front of the field on lap 24 when the caution flag was displayed after Carson Short and Jadon Rogers found calamity in the corner amid a tussle for the seventh spot. The two drivers connected wheels in turn two with Short nearly getting upside before landing on all fours and stopping with extensive damage to his car, ending his fantastic charge from the 17th starting position. Three laps later, Rogers slowed to bring out the caution, prematurely ending the defending Haubstadt Hustler champion’s reign.

Down the stretch, the unflappable Bacon kept Thomas Jr. at arm’s length. For the most part. With five laps remaining, Bacon had his rhythm disrupted when he went low off turn four to overtake the lapped car of Andy Bradley. In doing so, Bacon’s car slipped completely sideways. Second running Thomas Jr. closed in and made slight contact with the rear of Bacon’s machine, but both managed to continue without harm or foul.

With three laps to go, third-running Beck was in the camera frame, running just a few car lengths from the tail tank of Thomas Jr. However, he soon skated up the track in turn two and caught the outside wall, resulting in the loss of a full-straightaway of ground.

Moments later, 16th running Kayla Roell walked away from a wild flip in turn one, ending her first Haubstadt Hustler run on lap 38.  For the feature, she was behind the wheel of KO Motorsports teammate Daison Pursley's backup car after earlier trouble in her primary ride.

At the front of the field, Bacon had a bit of anxiousness, but at this point in his career, he’d seen it all and was prepared for the final stretch run at a major payday.

“I was a little concerned because I was actually tight,” Bacon remembered. “Sitting under the red, I was worried that my tire was going to go down a little bit. I just drove it as hard as I could, and I knew if I could get a couple laps in, the bottom gets slower, and you can get your momentum going on the top.”

On Bacon’s rear bumper for the late-race restart was Kevin Thomas Jr., one of the best in the business and a driver who’s tied for the all-time lead in USAC National Sprint Car victories (6) at the venue known as The Class Track.

“On the green-white-checker, he’s one of the best here, and I just tried to not make any mistakes,” Bacon explained. “I was getting kind of sloppy there catching a lapped car and about spun out.  Once we could get rolling on the top, I felt really good. I’ve never been that good on the top here like that.  I was struggling a little bit in lapped traffic, which is usually where I’m good at on the bottom. I just had a lot of speed on the top.”

That’s where Bacon stayed for the remaining two laps, never straying from the high line. Thomas Jr. was able to pull even with Bacon for a fleeting moment in turn four on the final lap, but Bacon’s momentum propelled him ahead to the win by a 0.289 second margin.

Thomas Jr. ran second ahead of Dustin Beck in third with Mitchel Moles fourth and Kyle Cummins fifth, who earned hard charger honors after officially starting 15th, but dropped to as far back as 22nd after an opening lap skirmish into the infield sent him nearly all the way back to the tail.

Kevin Thomas Jr. (Cullman, Ala.) made his first USAC run in Kevin Newton’s No. 16 a successful one as he turned in his best finish of the USAC season to finish second, his sixth career top-two Haubstadt Hustler finish aboard the Honest Abe Roofing – Benic Enterprises/DRC/Claxton Chevy.

“I felt like we were pretty equal there,” Thomas Jr. said of he and Bacon’s late-race battle. “On the long runs, I could search around. He was leading, so it’s hard to move around. He was running the top there and it was a little lippy on the edge of wanting to push. The way you run this track is very inconsistent as a driver. But he’s one of the best at being consistent. I gave it everything I’ve got, but I think I maybe needed a little bit of lapped traffic and some more laps. I mean, they gave us 40, so how much more can you ask for?”

Dustin Beck (Petersburg, Ind.) recorded his best career USAC National Sprint Car result in a fine drive in the seat of his Hensen-Rupp/Royal Express Car Wash – Clark’s Commercial Services/Maxim/SPEC Chevy. The finish came on the heels of his best performance in a sprint car just two weeks earlier with a similar third place run in MSCS competition at Tri-State.

“I actually podiumed for the first time here two weeks ago and that really hasn’t sunk in yet either,” Beck revealed. “This is definitely a confidence builder. I think we can run with these guys, and we’ve hit on something lately that’s working, so I’m confident now running here.”

In Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying, Mitchel Moles (Raisin City, Calif.) posted his 10th career fast time in USAC National Sprint Car competition. That moved him to 50th place all-time alongside Sonny Ates, Jim Hurtubise, Thomas Meseraull and Jake Swanson.

Tenth place finishing driver C.J. Leary reached a milestone with his 400th career USAC National Sprint Car feature start, becoming just the ninth driver to reach the mark. Dave Darland holds the all-time record of 797 starts ahead of Tracy Hines (484), Brady Bacon (473), Robert Ballou (470), Chris Windom (470), Jon Stanbrough (448), Tom Bigelow (447) and Chase Stockon (440).

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 16, 2023 – Tri-State Speedway – Haubstadt, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Haubstadt Hustler – Co-Sanctioned by the Midwest Sprint Car Series

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-13.123; 2. Adyn Schmidt, 12s, Schmidt-13.201; 3. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-13.209; 4. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-13.250; 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 16, Newton-13.288; 6. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-13.309; 7. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-13.320; 8. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-13.345; 9. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-13.353; 10. Dustin Beck, 75, Hensen/Rupp-13.360; 11. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.381; 12. Stephen Schnapf, 39, Hoosier Speed/Fortune-13.414; 13. Kendall Ruble, 17, Ruble-13.445; 14. J.J. Hughes, 76, Hughes-13.463; 15. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-13.478; 16. Andy Bradley, 86, Hoosier Speed/Fortune-13.539; 17. Kayla Roell, 5K, KO-13.581; 18. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-13.658; 19. Brady Short, 61m, Edwards-13.688; 20. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-13.754; 21. Sam Scott, 7s, Scott-13.755; 22. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-13.772; 23. Donny Brackett, 4B, Brackett-13.886; 24. Carson Short, 84, Beadles-13.900; 25. Jadon Rogers, 17GP, Dutcher-13.971; 26. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-13.985; 27. Michael Daugherty, 3.14, Daugherty-14.050; 28. Aric Gentry, 10, Gentry-14.077; 29. Jeff Pritchett, 2J, Nine-One-One-14.170; 30. Johnny Ivers, 55, Ivers/Thomas-14.198; 31. Allen Howard Jr., 4u, AJR-14.230; 32. Kevin Newton, 16TH, Newton-14.552; 33. Raymond Holden, 2R, Holden-14.934.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kendall Ruble, 2. Mitchel Moles, 3. Kevin Thomas Jr., 4. Emerson Axsom, 5. Jadon Rogers, 6. Sam Scott, 7. Kayla Roell, 8. Jeff Pritchett, 9. Raymond Holden. NT

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Dustin Beck, 2. J.J. Hughes, 3. Carson Garrett, 4. Adyn Schmidt, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Logan Seavey, 7. Matt Westfall, 8. Johnny Ivers. NT

T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Brady Bacon, 2. Justin Grant, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Kyle Cummins, 5. Brady Short, 6. Michael Daugherty, 7. Allen Howard Jr., 8. Donny Brackett. NT

CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Stephen Schnapf, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Andy Bradley, 5. Carson Short, 6. Aric Gentry, 7. Jake Swanson, 8. Kevin Newton. NT

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Carson Short, 2. Jadon Rogers, 3. Brady Short, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Matt Westfall, 7. Jake Swanson, 8. Sam Scott, 9. Jeff Pritchett, 10. Allen Howard Jr., 11. Johnny Ivers, 12. Aric Gentry, 13. Raymond Holden, 14. Michael Daugherty. NT

FEATURE: (40 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (1), 2. Kevin Thomas Jr. (9), 3. Dustin Beck (3), 4. Mitchel Moles (5), 5. Kyle Cummins (15), 6. J.J. Hughes (6), 7. Kendall Ruble (4), 8. Justin Grant (7), 9. Carson Garrett (10), 10. C.J. Leary (11), 11. Logan Seavey (20), 12. Chase Stockon (21), 13. Daison Pursley (12), 14. Emerson Axsom (13), 15. Brady Short (19), 16. Adyn Schmidt (14), 17. Kayla Roell (23-P), 18. Andy Bradley (16), 19. Jadon Rogers (18), 20. Carson Short (17), 21. Matt Westfall (22), 22. Robert Ballou (2), 23. Stephen Schnapf (8). NT

**(P) represents an MSCS provisional starter

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-40 Brady Bacon.

**Aric Gentry flipped during the semi. Kayla Roell flipped on lap 38 of the feature.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-2093, 2-Brady Bacon-2084, 3-Kyle Cummins-1966, 4-Emerson Axsom-1961, 5-Jake Swanson-1926, 6-C.J. Leary-1853, 7-Robert Ballou-1771, 8-Chase Stockon-1633, 9-Mitchel Moles-1594, 10-Logan Seavey-1544.

OVERALL USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-170, 2-Logan Seavey-115, 3-Emerson Axsom-108, 4-Shane Cottle-106, 5-Robert Ballou-98, 6-Justin Grant-95, 7-Matt Westfall-92, 8-Brady Bacon-91, 9-Chase Stockon-86, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-70.

BUBBY JONES MASTER OF GOIN’ FASTER PRESENTED BY SPIRE SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT POINTS: 1-Emerson Axsom-574, 2-C.J. Leary-569, 3-Brady Bacon-560, 4-Mitchel Moles-541, 5-Jake Swanson-508, 6-Kyle Cummins-495, 7-Justin Grant-490, 8-Chase Stockon-485, 9-Daison Pursley-452, 10-Matt Westfall-398.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 21, 2023 – Gas City I-69 Speedway – Gas City, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – James Dean Classic

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Fastest Hot Laps Driver: Mitchel Moles (13.123)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Mitchel Moles (13.123)

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Kendall Ruble

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Dustin Beck

T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Robert Ballou

Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Brady Bacon

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Carson Short

Green APU Green Flag Challenge First Lap Leader: Brady Bacon

Hard Charger: Kyle Cummins (15th to 5th)

Last Turn Hero: Seavey Scores Photo Finish USAC Sprint Win at Circle City

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Indianapolis, Indiana (September 15, 2023)………Throughout the first 31 races of the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship season, Logan Seavey had led just one single, solitary lap.

During Friday night’s feature at Indianapolis, Indiana’s Circle City Raceway, all the Sutter, Calif. native led was about 10 feet or so to pull off his first series victory of the year in his 2B Racing/Honest Abe Roofing – Benic Enterprises – Goodnight Racing/DRC/Claxton Chevy.

Shane Cottle, who had taken over the lead on lap 19 of the 30-lap main event, appeared to have the race in his grasp until roughly four laps to go. That’s when Seavey began to make some headway on Cottle who had pegged himself to the bottom groove.

Lap after lap, Seavey got a little bit closer, until he found himself trailing Cottle by a single car length at the line on the white flag lap. Seavey dug in, and at the exit of turn four on the 30th and final lap, finally emerged ahead of Cottle, just moments before the two crossed the finish line with Seavey out front.

Seavey’s one car length margin of victory was calculated at a 0.142 second interval over Cottle, the second closest finish of the series season behind only Mitchel Moles’ 0.093 second score over Carson Garrett in July at Macon (Ill.) Speedway.

Already a four-time NOS Energy Drink National Midget winner and twice a Silver Crown victor in 2023, Seavey’s National Sprint Car win made him the first driver this season to earn victories in all three of USAC’s national divisions.

Furthermore, Seavey provided his 2B Racing team with its first USAC National Sprint Car feature triumph since a May 18, 2012, win by driver Bobby East at Bloomington (Ind.) Speedway more than 11 years ago.

Overall, it was Seavey’s ninth career USAC National Sprint Car win, moving him to 57th on the all-time list and into a tie with Mario Andretti, Pat O'Connor, Hunter Schuerenberg and Robbie Stanley. But this one at Circle City was certainly among the most satisfying.

“I was just watching the laps click down with seven or eight to go and I really wasn’t gaining on him,” Seavey recalled. “I knew that the harder I ran, the slower I’d go. I just talked to myself a little bit and made sure I hit my marks rather than overdrive it. There were a few laps where I was turning down off four and it was okay, but I knew that in order to run him down earlier, I had to get up there and pound it.”

Prior to this night, Seavey’s best performance of the USAC National Sprint Car season came via a runner-up result in July at the very same place – Circle City Raceway. Although it had been his best run to this point in the year, Seavey felt he left one on the table. He was determined not to let that happen this time around.

“The last time I was here, I got myself a little bit out of balance in the middle of the race and I felt like I gave one away,” Seavey admitted. “This time, I wanted to make sure my car was going to stay good against the cushion so I could run it as hard as I could, but man, it was tough.”

To boot, Seavey’s car was one he had not driven before. The chassis is a nine-year-old DRC built in 2014 that has been driven occasionally by Scotty Weir on the local level at Gas City (Ind.) I-69 Speedway. It was originally owned by Baldwin Brothers Racing but was later sold to Lou Gagliardi’s team and driven by Dustin Smith. When Gagliardi sold his equipment a couple years ago, 2B Racing team owner Scott Benic purchased the car. But that’s only where the story begins.

Benic had the car powder coated and sold it to Australian driver Travis Millar, who raced it during this summer’s USAC Indiana Sprint Week series. At the conclusion of ISW, Millar sold the car back to Benic and the 2B Racing team made the machine their backup car. After not running up to their expectations last weekend, the car with a long, winding history was upgraded to the primary ride for Seavey at Circle City. Thanks to the car affectionately nicknamed “Barney,” the old dinosaur put Seavey and 2B Racing back in victory lane.

Carson Garrett started first and ran first for the initial six laps of the feature until outside front row starting Seavey made a flourish into the lead with a full head of steam as he charged around the outside of Garrett to lead lap seven by a foot with Cummins, winner of the last two USAC Sprint Car races this season at Circle City, right on their heels back in third.

Seventh running Jadon Rogers spun to a stop in turn three on lap eight to bring out the yellow. Sixth starting Cottle had held steady in sixth until the caution, but the emperor soon found his new groove along the bottom of the 1/4-mile dirt oval as he marched his way up to fourth three laps later.

After clipping the turn four infield tire on lap 14, Cottle lost substantial ground in his quest. However, he soon received a reprieve due to the misfortune of those just in front of him. On lap 17, Garrett (2nd) and Cummins (3rd) headed for the same piece of real estate entering turn one. Cummins climbed Garrett's left side wheels, resulting in Garrett spinning to a stop as Cummins continued onward.

Seavey's 1.154 second lead was eradicated with the stoppage, and the beneficiary soon after was Cottle. In one fell swoop, Cottle drove under both Cummins and Seavey to advance from third to first on lap 19. With five to go, Cottle’s seemingly healthy lead stood at more than a full second until Seavey tracked him down to earn his first series win since June of 2022 at Port Royal (Pa.) Speedway.

The confidence and swagger for Seavey and the 2B Racing team has rekindled of late after what has been a trying season that has had the team outside of the top-10 in the series point standings all year long. But the team stuck with it, and finally, good fortune was theirs in the end.

“These guys are doing everything they can to make this car good for us,” Seavey praised. “We’ve had some good runs and we’ve also struggled a lot too. Scott (Benic), Derek (Claxton), Matt (Meeks), Kevin Newton and everyone who works on this thing has put in the time and effort and has not given up. There have been a lot of nights where we were all just looking at each other not knowing what we were doing wrong. They brought in a new car this week and it drove really good all day. Hopefully we can keep this speed up for the rest of the year.”

For Shane Cottle (Kansas, Ill.), it was a frustrating end to what was a spectacular performance which saw him nearly win his first USAC feature of the season. But just like the end of his USAC Silver Crown run at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in August, his winning expedition was ripped away in the waning laps by Seavey. Nonetheless, Cottle earned Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying honors to open the night, then drove his Epperson Racing/Epperson Painting – PPG Paints/DRC/Claxton Chevy to a season-best second place result.

“I don’t know what I could’ve done differently,” Cottle lamented. “I was good around the bottom, and I kept hearing him for about two or three laps. All I could do was just keep hitting my marks. He was just better than I was. It’s just one of them deals.”

Mired back in the 14th starting spot, Robert Ballou (Rocklin, Calif.) had a long road to hoe on his way to a third-place result in his Ballou Motorsports/The Boss Builder’s Outlet Super Store – Dragonfly Aviation/Twister-X/Ott Chevy. That effort of 11 positions gained earned Ballou hard charger honors for the evening.

“You’ve just got to go where they’re not, so I picked the middle land,” Ballou explained. “At the beginning, they were kind of dicing around the bottom. I went a lane above them and got by some guys that are normally really difficult to pass. I think I must’ve caught them by surprise. The seas kind of parted, so I moved to the middle, and we were okay until about 10 to go and I just kind of lost a little drive. These top-five to 10 guys are extremely tough and they’ve got really good crews and they’ve got really good engines and they’ve got their package together. I’ve been just a tick off all season and we’re finally starting to creep around to where I think we’re almost in a stride.”

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 15, 2023 – Circle City Raceway – Indianapolis, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Shane Cottle, 2E, Epperson-12.133; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-12.159; 3. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-12.176; 4. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-12.183; 5. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-12.184; 6. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE Dougherty-12.234; 7. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-12.260; 8. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-12.321; 9. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-12.367; 10. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-12.392; 11. Trey Osborne, 6T, Osborne-12.414; 12. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-12.465; 13. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-12.470; 14. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-12.481; 15. Jadon Rogers, 17GP, Dutcher-12.503; 16. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-12.515; 17. Brent Beauchamp, 11, Beauchamp-12.616; 18. Kody Swanson, 77, Wedgewood-12.626; 19. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-12.659; 20. Frankie Guerrini, 63, F & F-12.752; 21. Thomas Meseraull, 23, NIKSTE-12.839; 22. Jack Hoyer, 5, Baldwin/Fox-12.849; 23. Hunter Maddox, 24m, Maddox-12.870; 24. John Sluss, 4R, RayPro-12.958; 25. Scott Hampton, 51, Slinkard-12.963; 26. Devan Myers, 75, Myers-12.987; 27. Chance Crum, 26, Rudeen-12.999; 28. Bryar Schroeter, 21s, Schroeter-13.156; 29. Gabriel Gilbert, 10G, Gilbert-13.293; 30. Wes Pinkerton, 21, Hajduk-13.545.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Matt Westfall, 2. Shane Cottle, 3. Jake Swanson, 4. C.J. Leary, 5. Emerson Axsom, 6. Mitchel Moles, 7. Bryar Schroeter, 8. Scott Hampton, 9. Jack Hoyer, 10. Chase Stockon. 2:10.14

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Brent Beauchamp, 2. Justin Grant, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Brandon Mattox, 6. Frankie Guerrini, 7. Gabriel Gilbert, 8. Hunter Maddox, 9. Trey Osborne, 10. Devan Myers. 2:11.70

T.J. FORGED / CAR IQ THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Jadon Rogers, 2. Robert Ballou, 3. Kyle Cummins, 4. Carson Garrett, 5. Kody Swanson, 6. Thomas Meseraull, 7. Daison Pursley, 8. Chance Crum, 9. John Sluss. 2:11.46

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-7 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2.  Daison Pursley, 3. Thomas Meseraull, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Trey Osborne, 6. Chance Crum, 7. Jack Hoyer, 8. Frankie Guerrini, 9. Hunter Maddox, 10. Bryar Schroeter, 11. John Sluss, 12. Gabriel Gilbert, 13. Devan Myers, 14. Scott Hampton. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Logan Seavey (2), 2. Shane Cottle (6), 3. Robert Ballou (14), 4. Kyle Cummins (4), 5. Brady Bacon (11), 6. Matt Westfall (7), 7. Justin Grant (5), 8. Mitchel Moles (15), 9. Emerson Axsom (19), 10. C.J. Leary (3), 11. Thomas Meseraull (20), 12. Brent Beauchamp (9), 13. Chance Crum (22), 14. Jake Swanson (10), 15. Daison Pursley (12), 16. Chase Stockon (17), 17. Brandon Mattox (16), 18. Jack Hoyer (21), 19. Kody Swanson (18), 20. Trey Osborne (13), 21. Jadon Rogers (8), 22. Carson Garrett (1). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-6 Carson Garrett, Laps 7-18 Logan Seavey, Laps 19-29 Shane Cottle, Lap 30 Logan Seavey.

**Scott Hampton flipped during the semi.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-2043, 2-Brady Bacon-2034, 3-Kyle Cummins-1916, 4-Emerson Axsom-1911, 5-Jake Swanson-1876, 6-C.J. Leary-1803, 7-Robert Ballou-1721, 8-Chase Stockon-1583, 9-Mitchel Moles-1544, 10-Logan Seavey-1494.

OVERALL USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-170, 2-Emerson Axsom-108, 3-Logan Seavey-106, 4-Shane Cottle-106, 5-Robert Ballou-98, 6-Justin Grant-95, 7-Brady Bacon-91, 8-Matt Westfall-91, 9-Chase Stockon-77, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-63.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 16, 2023 – Tri-State Speedway – Haubstadt, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – 16th Haubstadt Hustler – Co-Sanctioned by the Midwest Sprint Car Series

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Fastest Hot Laps Driver: Brady Bacon (12.351)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Shane Cottle (12.133)

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Matt Westfall

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Brent Beauchamp

T.J. Forged / Car IQ Third Heat Winner: Jadon Rogers

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Mitchel Moles

Kenny Baldwin Hard Work Award: Chance Crum

Green APU Green Flag Challenge First Lap Leader: Carson Garrett

Hard Charger: Robert Ballou (14th to 3rd)

17 Years in The Making! Westfall is a USAC Sprint Car Winner Again at Texarkana

Rich Forman

Seventeen years, two months and twenty-three days. That was the wait Matt Westfall endured between his first and second career USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature victories.

The dash in the years between his 2006 triumph at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway and Saturday night’s score at Arkansas’ Texarkana 67 Speedway was filled with countless hours of traveling the country chasing everything from sprint cars to midgets to Silver Crown cars to late models to modifieds to SpeedSTRs and nearly everything else in between.

However, the feeling of joy he experienced to finally put a cap on the gap between USAC win number one and two was both satisfying and gratifying for the 46-year-old Pleasant Hill, Ohio native who led all 30 laps in his Ray Marshall Motorsports/Buckeye Machine – Hempy Water/DRC/Gressman Chevy.

“It’s unbelievable,” Westfall exclaimed. “When I won my first one back in ‘06, I told my dad I could retire. We’ve been going up and down the road the last couple years with USAC and we got going really good at the end of last year. Then they came out with a new tire this year and I’ve struggled ever since. We went back to the main gameplan, and it worked out tonight.”

Not only did Westfall pocket a $10,000 Wingless Short Track Nationals payday, but it also came in the series debut at the 1/4-mile dirt oval as well as the first USAC race in The Natural State in a decade. Westfall also provided fellow Ohioan Ray Marshall, who has fielded cars in the series since 2010, his first USAC victory as a car owner.

In the process, Westfall also set a new USAC record for years between national feature victories. Westfall broke the USAC National Sprint record of 12 years, 11 months and 4 days between wins by Doug Wolfgang from 1978-1991. The previous longest interval between USAC National victories of any kind was a record owned by Arnie Knepper in the midgets, as he picked up wins 13 years, 2 months and 8 days apart from one another in a span lasting from 1970-1983.

Starting third, Westfall wasted no time leapfrogging the front row of Robert Ballou and Brody Roa on the initial lap. Both Ballou and Roa went topside while Westfall stuck his wheels as far on the bottom of the racing surface as humanly possible.

Westfall nailed it, driving by Roa immediately before surpassing pole sitter Ballou at the exit of turn four to beat him to the line by a car-length-and-a-half ahead at the end of lap one. By lap five, Westfall was a full two seconds ahead of the field with an equation of car, driver and track working in unison with perfect three-part harmony.

C.J. Leary slotted into second after driving underneath Ballou for the runner-up spot on lap three after starting fifth on the grid. A handful of laps later, Ballou had to contend with Brady Bacon for third, the same pair which went toe-to-toe for the win in the latter stages of the feature two nights earlier at Devil’s Bowl Speedway in Texas.

This time around, Bacon slid Ballou on the ninth go-around for third before Ballou returned to the spot a half-lap later in turn three with a similar maneuver of his own. On lap 10, Bacon stuck the landing when he went topside around Ballou on the back straight before hitting the bottom to take away Ballou’s line in turn three. As Bacon headed back to the outside off the turn four exit, so too did Ballou, clipping his right rear tire against Bacon’s left front. Two laps later, Bacon kept the topside momentum up and surpassed Ballou on the back stretch to take over the position on lap 13.

By then, Westfall's lead was beginning to become more and more insurmountable with each arriving moment. Westfall’s four second advantage put him a full straightaway ahead of Leary in the second position nearing the halfway point and up to five seconds with just eight laps remaining with no one in the proximity of his area code or even his zip code for that matter.

Suddenly, the dynamics changed on lap 23 when third running Bacon caught the cushion between turns one and two, popping his car up into the air before making a 90-degree right hand turn which nosed him into the outside wall before completing a 360 twirl and coming to a stop.

An attempt was made to push Bacon away to refire, but instead, veered him straight left into the infield due to a disconnected draglink. Bacon was escorted back to the Indy Metal Finishing Work Area for repairs, making it back on track just in time before, ultimately, finishing 15th. The unsightly finish for Bacon took him off the top line of the season long USAC National Sprint Car championship standings where he now sits second behind Justin Grant.

The erasure of Westfall’s big lead was only temporary, as once the race restarted, he picked up right where he left off, in trouncing mode, spurting away from Leary et al as he perused the bottom directly into victory lane by a 1.576 second margin over C.J. Leary, Chase Stockon, Justin Grant and Mitchel Moles.

Westfall knew right what he wanted to do from the get-go, going straight to the low side of the racetrack and never once abandoning it throughout the 30-lap distance. While Westfall is accustomed to taking this particular path, on this night, it’s an avenue he saw as early as his heat race, and then made that his home for the main event.

“In the heat race, we went down there on the bottom,” Westfall recalled. “You keep watching all these young kids who just blow through it, and they can’t stick the bottom. I was pretty happy with how the car was for us and I’ve got to thank Ray Marshall for everything he does for me. This is really cool.”

Following an early race issue which knocked him out of Thursday’s series race and relegated him to a last place finish, C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.) returned to form at Texarkana, finishing second in his BGE Dougherty Motorsports/Altoz – Hornbeck Concrete - Highsmith Guns - Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts/DRC/1-Way Chevy.

Chase Stockon (Fort Branch, Ind.) began his quest from the 10th position. He steadily moved up through the pack, and by the end, he had netted himself a third-place result in his KO Motorsports/Banded Ag – Superior Tank & Trailer – Dewig Meats – AMSOIL/Triple X/Fisher Chevy. The finish equaled his best USAC performance of the season.

Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.) finished sixth in the feature and retained his lead of the Bubby Jones Master of Goin’ Faster Presented By Spire Sports + Entertainment standings by 13 points over Leary with two races remaining in the 10-race miniseries.

Sixteenth starting Kyle Cummins (Princeton, Ind.) advanced six positions in the feature to finish 10th, providing him a surge to the top of the ProSource Passing Master standings for the Texas/Arkansas swing weekend, which encompassed Thursday’s race at Devil’s Bowl Speedway and Saturday’s round at Texarkana 67 Speedway. Cummins passed a total of 19 cars throughout the entirety of the two programs.

Kyle Jones (Kennedale, Texas), making just his second career USAC National Sprint Car start, earned hard charger honors for the night by advancing from 21st to 13th. Meanwhile, fellow Texan, Justin Zimmerman (Athens, Texas), was the recipient of the ProSource Hard Work Award as the slowest qualifying driver to transfer into the feature.

Jake Swanson (Anaheim, Calif.) recorded the 10th Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifying time of his USAC National Sprint Car career, moving him into the top-50 all-time alongside Sonny Ates, Jim Hurtubise and Thomas Meseraull.

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 9, 2023 – Texarkana 67 Speedway – Texarkana, Arkansas – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Wingless Short Track Nationals

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-14.311 (New Track Record); 2. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-14.397; 3. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-14.493; 4. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-14.708; 5. Jack Hoyer, 5, Baldwin/Fox-14.741; 6. Brody Roa, 17R, Dunkel/BR-14.744; 7. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.757; 8. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-14.758; 9. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-14.793; 10. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-14.809; 11. Cody Gardner, G6, Gaines-14.924; 12. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-15.016; 13. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2J, Yeley-15.060; 14. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-15.076; 15. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-15.089; 16. Paul White, 1, Wade-15.124; 17. Jason Howell, 44, Sturgeon-15.165; 18. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-15.196; 19. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-15.213; 20. Jadon Rogers, 17GP, Dutcher-15.262; 21. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-15.306; 22. Kyle Jones, 11, Melton-15.323; 23. A.J. Bender, 21, Bender-15.334; 24. Chase Parson, 57, Parson-15.476; 25. Bryan Debrick, 10, Debrick-15.494; 26. Justin Zimmerman, #1, D-Up-15.495; 27. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-15.515; 28. Dalton Stevens, 99x, Stevens-15.529; 29. Christian Moore, 6, Moore-15.707; 30. Chase Howard, 13, Howard-15.771; 31. Gary Floyd, 72, Sturgeon-15.814.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Chase Stockon, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Jake Swanson, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Jason Howell, 6. Jack Hoyer, 7. Bryan Debrick, 8. Christian Moore. NT

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Brody Roa, 4. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 5. Justin Zimmerman, 6. Kyle Jones, 7. Chase Howard, 8. Charles Davis Jr. NT

T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Emerson Axsom, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Robert Ballou, 4. Brady Bacon, 5. Cody Gardner, 6. A.J. Bender, 7. Brandon Mattox, 8. Gary Floyd. 2:35.06 (New Track Record)

CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Matt Westfall, 3. Jadon Rogers, 4. Paul White, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Chase Parson, 7. Dalton Stevens. 2:40.09

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Logan Seavey, 2. Jack Hoyer, 3. Cody Gardner, 4. Justin Zimmerman, 5. Jason Howell, 6. Kyle Jones, 7. A.J. Bender, 8. Brandon Mattox, 9. Chase Parson, 10. Christian Moore, 11. Gary Floyd, 12. Chase Howard, 13. Bryan Debrick, 14. Dalton Stevens. 3:08.44 (New Track Record)

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Matt Westfall (3), 2. C.J. Leary (5), 3. Chase Stockon (10), 4. Justin Grant (7), 5. Mitchel Moles (8), 6. Emerson Axsom (9), 7. Jake Swanson (6), 8. Robert Ballou (1), 9. Cody Gardner (14), 10. Kyle Cummins (16), 11. Paul White (17), 12. Daison Pursley (13), 13. Kyle Jones (21), 14. Brody Roa (2), 15. Brady Bacon (4), 16. Logan Seavey (12), 17. Jason Howell (18), 18. Jack Hoyer (11), 19. Jadon Rogers (20), 20. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (19), 21. Kevin Thomas Jr. (15), 22. Justin Zimmerman (22). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Matt Westfall.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Justin Grant-1979, 2-Brady Bacon-1970, 3-Emerson Axsom-1861, 4-Kyle Cummins-1845, 5-Jake Swanson-1835, 6-C.J. Leary-1752, 7-Robert Ballou-1650, 8-Chase Stockon-1551, 9-Mitchel Moles-1491, 10-Daison Pursley-1455.

OVERALL USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-170, 2-Logan Seavey-105, 3-Shane Cottle-102, 4-Emerson Axsom-98, 5-Justin Grant-95, 6-Matt Westfall-90, 7-Robert Ballou-87, 8-Brady Bacon-85, 9-Chase Stockon-76, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-63.

BUBBY JONES MASTER OF GOIN’ FASTER PRESENTED BY SPIRE SPORTS + ENTERTAINMENT POINTS: 1-Emerson Axsom-539, 2-C.J. Leary-526, 3-Jake Swanson-498, 4-Brady Bacon-490, 5-Mitchel Moles-480, 6-Chase Stockon-446, 7-Justin Grant-441, 8-Kyle Cummins-437, 9-Daison Pursley-415, 10-Matt Westfall-375.

FINAL TEXAS & ARKANSAS SWING PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Kyle Cummins-19, 2-Emerson Axsom-17, 3-Brody Roa-12, 4-Kevin Thomas Jr.-11, 5-C.J. Leary-10, 6-Justin Zimmerman-10, 7-Chase Stockon-9, 8-Kyle Jones-9, 9-Matt Westfall-8, 10-Justin Grant-8.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE: September 15, 2023 – Circle City Raceway – Indianapolis, Indiana – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Fastest Hot Laps Driver: Robert Ballou (14.447)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: Jake Swanson (14.311)

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Chase Stockon

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Justin Grant

T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Emerson Axsom

Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Mitchel Moles

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Logan Seavey

ProSource Hard Work Award: Justin Zimmerman

Green APU Green Flag Challenge First Lap Leader: Matt Westfall

Hard Charger: Kyle Jones (21st to 13th)

Lone Star Milestone! Bacon Moves to 2nd All-Time with USAC Sprint Win #52 at Devil’s Bowl

David Campbell

By: Richie Murray – USAC Media

Mesquite, Texas (September 7, 2023)………For Brady Bacon, Devil’s Bowl Speedway was sort of like a Kokomo of the south. Both are tracks he’d competed at extensively but had long come up empty handed in the win column after an extensive number of runner-up finishes.

Not anymore.

The Broken Arrow, Okla. driver led all 30 laps on Thursday night at the 4/10-mile in Mesquite, Texas, prevailing following a late-race duel with Robert Ballou to earn a milestone victory in the first USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship feature held in the Lone Star State since 1985 – 38 years ago.

The triumph was the 52nd of Bacon’s USAC National Sprint Car career, tying him for second all-time with 1978 series champion Tom Bigelow. Now only Dave Darland stands ahead of Bacon with 62 career victories.

With Bacon sharing the spot with Bigelow, it’s also interesting to note that both currently reside in the same city even though both originally hail from other states – Wisconsin for Bigelow and Oklahoma for Bacon.

“It means a lot; Tom’s a friend of mine and lives in Winchester (Indiana) as well,” Bacon noted after piloting his Dynamics, Inc./Smiley’s Racing Products – Hobson Family – Tel-Star Technologies/Triple X/Rider Chevy to a sixth USAC National Sprint Car win of the season.

A win at Devil’s Bowl’s famed fast dirt oval is especially special to Bacon as well. More than a decade ago, Bacon competed regularly with the American Sprint Car Series (ASCS) and the Sprint Bandits Tour ‘N Topless series, finishing second place on numerous occasions before his breakthrough all those years later.

“Winning at Devil’s Bowl is pretty big for me,” Bacon exclaimed. “This place was a little bit like Kokomo for me earlier in my career. I ran second a bunch to a lot of really good guys like Jason Johnson, Gary Wright, Shane Stewart and Brian Brown. We could never quite get the job done with the wing here, so I’m glad to finally get it done with the non-wing car. I actually ran second in a non-wing car here about 13 years ago too and I haven’t been back since. I’m glad to get it done.”

Bacon established the point early from his pole starting position, leading the opening lap before 18th starting Dalton Stevens slipped over the turn one banking and coasted to a stop on lap two to bring out the first yellow.

Once again establishing the lead on the restart using the bottom side of the racetrack, the race was halted again on lap four when eighth running Charles Davis Jr. flipped violently down the back straightaway in a wicked tumble after clipping a turn two infield tire. The veteran Arizonian was able to climb out and walk away.

Under yellow, sixth running C.J. Leary's car refused to refire for the lap four restart, making laps around the track connected to the front bumper of a push vehicle, but wasn’t able to power on its own, signaling an unexpected and disappointing conclusion to the race for the 2019 series champ.

On the restart, the major mover was Robert Ballou as he slid past Jake Swanson in turn one for the second position on lap five as Justin Grant also followed en route to third. Meanwhile, Bacon had opened up a 1.359 second gap over Ballou as the race leader before heat race winner and 12th running Justin Zimmerman experienced a flat left rear tire in the middle of the pack on lap 13 as the field scrambled high and low to successfully avoid contact.

The first driver to really make headway somewhere other than the bottom of the racetrack was USAC CRA Sprint Car point leader who took to the high side on the lap 13 restart and proceeded to drive all the way up to third. As Roa made a bid for second on the outside of Ballou between turns three and four on lap 17, Ballou caught wind of Roa’s notion and decided to move to the top as well.

The high side suited Ballou well over the next several laps as he seemingly slashed a tenth of a second from the bottom-rolling Bacon’s lead with each ensuing lap.  Closing in on the stripe with two laps to go, Ballou pulled even on the outside of Bacon in turns three and four. Out of the corner of his eye, Bacon saw Ballou’s nose, and in a split-second, said sayonara to the bottom and slid to the top of the front straightaway to steal Ballou’s line away.

Moments later, entering turn one nose-to-tail, Ballou spun off the edge of turn one, ending his run his run at a first USAC National Sprint Car victory of the season. Ballou restarted at the tail thereafter and drove from 18th to 14th in the final two laps.

Bacon had an inkling somebody behind him was going to make a run toward him up top, and just as soon he spotted it, he was prepared to make his move.

“I knew the bottom was going to be tough to beat in turns one and two,” Bacon explained. “It was getting pretty slow, but we were getting close to the end of the race, so I thought, ‘well, somebody’s going to have to beat me on the top.’ He poked his nose out there and I saw it and I knew it was time to move up. I got a good enough run to get in front of him and he kind of gave me a little tap getting down the front straightaway. I don’t know if he wasn’t expecting me to go to the top in front of him – probably not. I was ready for that move if I needed to do it.”

The final two laps were a bit less hectic for Bacon as he cruised to a 1.151 second victory. Meanwhile, a hardscrabble scramble for second on back was sorting itself out with Jake Swanson and Kyle Cummins making valiant late race runs to position themselves second and third at the line, respectively. Jadon Rogers equaled his best finish of the USAC season with a fourth while Justin Grant rounded out the top-five with a solid fifth, but also saw his three-race winning streak with the series come to an end.

On paper, Jake Swanson started second and finished second in his Team AZ Racing/Apache Transport – Stratis Construction – USW Cat Construction/DRC/1-Way Chevy. But it wasn't anywhere near that easy.  No sir. The Anaheim, Calif. native fell back to seventh as late as with only seven laps to go but managed to charge back up through the pack to score a second-place result.

For much of the feature, Kyle Cummins (Princeton, Ind.) ran either just outside the top-10 or just inside the top-10. The last 10 laps were a different story, however, as he picked the field off one-by-one to break into the top-five late, then on the lap 28 restart, he went fifth to third to grab a podium finish in his Rock Steady Racing/Avanti Windows & Doors – Tim Mason ReMax/Mach-1/Stanton Chevy.

Mired back in the 21st starting spot, the only way to go was forward for Emerson Axsom (Franklin, Ind.), and he did that aplenty by advancing 13 spots to finish eighth and earn hard charger honors for the evening.

C.J. Leary (Greenfield, Ind.) was the best of the bunch in a tumultuous Honest Abe Roofing Qualifying session. His lap of 16.237 seconds broke the one-lap USAC track record at Devil’s Bowl of 16.626 held by Richard Summers since May of 1985. Qualifying, however, was marred by four separate ugly and violent incidents which sent drivers Anthony Nicholson, Kobe Simpson, Josh Hanna and J.J. Yeley flipping several times on their time trial runs. All four drivers’ nights were ended due to the crashes, but all four were able to walk away.

Thursday’s race at Devil’s Bowl was just the fifth USAC National Sprint Car event held in the state of Texas. A.J. Foyt (1959), Don Branson (1960) and Parnelli Jones (1960) all scored USAC Midwest Sprint Car victories at Meyer Speedway in Houston. Rick Hood (1985) captured a win at Devil’s Bowl. All four drivers are both USAC National Sprint Car champions and members of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, a club that Bacon is certainly on his way to belonging to as well.

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USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACE RESULTS: September 7, 2023 – Devil’s Bowl Speedway – Mesquite, Texas – 4/10-Mile Dirt Track – Co-Sanctioned by the ASCS Elite Non-Wing Sprint Car Series

HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 15x, BGE Dougherty-16.237; 2. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-16.289; 3. Logan Seavey, 2B, 2B Racing-16.305; 4. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-16.309; 5. Jake Swanson, 21AZ, Team AZ-16.314; 6. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-16.319; 7. Brady Bacon, 69, Dynamics-16.372; 8. Chase Stockon, 5s, KO-16.385; 9. J.J. Yeley, 2, Yeley-16.414; 10. Kyle Cummins, 3R, Rock Steady-16.420; 11. Brody Roa, 17R, Dunkel-16.468; 12. Matt Westfall, 33m, Marshall-16.527; 13. Anthony Nicholson, 16, Nicholson-16.536; 14. Justin Zimmerman, #1, D-Up-16.549; 15. Kevin Thomas Jr., 2J, Yeley-16.565; 16. Daison Pursley, 5p, KO-16.588; 17. Jadon Rogers, 17GP, Dutcher-16.632; 18. Dalton Stevens, 99x, Stevens-16.659; 19. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-16.686; 20. Kyle Jones, 11, Melton-16.752; 21. Brandon Mattox, 28, Mattox-16.853; 22. A.J. Bender, 21, Bender-16.866; 23. Paul White, 1, Wade-16.920; 24. Jack Hoyer, 5, Baldwin/Fox-16.922; 25. Emerson Axsom, 47BC, Clauson Marshall Newman-16.931; 26. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-16.957; 27. Jason Howell, 44, Sturgeon-17.324; 28. Josh Hanna, 82, Hanna-17.686; 29. Bryan Debrick, 10, Debrick-17.717; 30. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-NT; 31. Chase Parson, 57, Parson-NT.

SIMPSON RACE PRODUCTS FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Charles Davis Jr., 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Jake Swanson, 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. Paul White, 7. Jason Howell.

ROD END SUPPLY SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Jones, 2. Brody Roa, 3. Jack Hoyer, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Mitchel Moles, 6. Daison Pursley, 7. Bryan Debrick. NT

T.J. FORGED THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Jadon Rogers, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Emerson Axsom, 4. Logan Seavey, 5. Matt Westfall, 6. Brandon Mattox, 7. Chase Parson.

CAR IQ FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Zimmerman, 2. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 3. Chase Stockon, 4. Robert Ballou, 5. A.J. Bender, 6. Dalton Stevens. NT

ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-6 transfer to the feature) 1. Mitchel Moles, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Matt Westfall, 4. Daison Pursley, 5. Dalton Stevens, 6. Brandon Mattox, 7. Jason Howell, 8. A.J. Bender, 9. Paul White, 10. Bryan Debrick, 11. Chase Parson. NT

FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (1), 2. Jake Swanson (2), 3. Kyle Cummins (13), 4. Jadon Rogers (8), 5. Justin Grant (5), 6. Brody Roa (14), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (16), 8. Emerson Axsom (21), 9. Mitchel Moles (11), 10. Kyle Jones (10), 11. Logan Seavey (4), 12. Chase Stockon (12), 13. Matt Westfall (15), 14. Robert Ballou (3), 15. Daison Pursley (17), 16. Jack Hoyer (20), 17. Brandon Mattox (19), 18. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (22), 19. Dalton Stevens (18), 20. Justin Zimmerman (7), 21. C.J. Leary (6), 22. Charles Davis Jr. (9). NT

FEATURE LAP LEADERS: Laps 1-30 Brady Bacon.

**Anthony Nicholson flipped during qualifying. Kobe Simpson flipped during qualifying. Josh Hanna flipped during qualifying. J.J. Yeley flipped during qualifying. Charles Davis Jr. flipped on lap 4 of the feature.

USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP POINTS: 1-Brady Bacon-1928, 2-Justin Grant-1910, 3-Emerson Axsom-1798, 4-Kyle Cummins-1795, 5-Jake Swanson-1771, 6-C.J. Leary-1673, 7-Robert Ballou-1595, 8-Chase Stockon-1479, 9-Mitchel Moles-1425, 10-Daison Pursley-1411.

OVERALL USAC NATIONAL PROSOURCE PASSING MASTER POINTS: 1-Daison Pursley-169, 2-Logan Seavey-105, 3-Shane Cottle-102, 4-Emerson Axsom-95, 5-Justin Grant-92, 6-Matt Westfall-88, 7-Robert Ballou-87, 8-Brady Bacon-85, 9-Chase Stockon-69, 10-Kevin Thomas Jr.-63.

NEXT USAC AMSOIL SPRINT CAR NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP RACES: September 8-9, 2023 – Texarkana 67 Speedway – Texarkana, Arkansas – 1/4-Mile Dirt Track – Wingless Short Track Nationals

CONTINGENCY AWARD WINNERS:

Dirt Draft Fastest Hot Laps Driver: Robert Ballou (16.285)

Honest Abe Roofing Fast Qualifier: C.J. Leary (16.237)

Simpson Race Products First Heat Winner: Charles Davis Jr.

Rod End Supply Second Heat Winner: Kyle Jones

T.J. Forged Third Heat Winner: Jadon Rogers

Car IQ Fourth Heat Winner: Justin Zimmerman

Elliott’s Custom Trailers & Carts Semi Winner: Mitchel Moles

ProSource Hard Work Award: Eddie Tafoya Jr.

Green APU Green Flag Challenge First Lap Leader: Brady Bacon

Hard Charger: Emerson Axsom (21st to 8th)

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