It’s time for our weekly Friday tour around the racing world. From hot laps to the main event, here’s what’s on our mind this week.
Hot Laps: Trickle Down
It hasn’t been spoken about a lot, but with High Limit Racing and the World of Outlaws going head-to-head on the national level, it has created somewhat of a trickle-down effect that has benefitted local racers who’ve had more opportunity to win high-paying regional purses.
Qualifying: Runoffs
The 60th running of the SCCA National Championship Runoffs is just around the corner. Featuring 26 classes of sports car competition, the annual amateur national championship event that was first run at California’s Riverside Int’l Raceway in 1964, will take place Oct. 4-6 at the four-mile Road America circuit in Elkhart Lake, Wis.
First Heat: Fizzle & Sizzle
While the NTT IndyCar Series championship came to a fizzling conclusion last Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway, the series ended its campaign with a sizzling race on the 1.33-mile concrete race track.
While the event drew more than 160,000 fans over three days, the race saw six drivers trade the lead on eight occasions and Colton Herta lead the final five laps for Andretti Global’s first oval victory since 2018. According to IndyCar, there were 653 on-track passes and 237 for position.
Second Heat: Where Did He Come From?
Antron Brown has flown somewhat under the radar in NHRA’s Top Fuel division this season. This writer was surprised that his victory last week at Pennsylvania’s Maple Grove Raceway was his fourth of the season. Brown, already a three-time Top Fuel champion, enters this weekend’s Countdown to the Championship event at North Carolina’s zMAX Dragway, one point behind Justin Ashley in the title race.
Third Heat: Playoff Chaos
NASCAR officials may have had a hunch crazy things would happen when they scheduled events at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Watkins Glen Int’l and Bristol Motor Speedway as the three races during the round of 16 of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
And that’s certainly what has happened through the first two rounds, with several front runners, including Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson having problems, while others such as Austin Cindric and Chase Briscoe made strides toward the front of the playoff grid in those two races.
What will happen at Bristol on Saturday night? More chaos, heated words, bruised egos and several top contenders already looking ahead to 2025.
Fourth Heat: Lou Blaney Memorial
Rained out earlier this season, the 16th annual Lou Blaney Memorial is scheduled for Saturday night at Sharon Speedway.
Headlined by 410 winged sprint cars, the event will pay $12,000 to win and $1,200 to start, giving Ohio and Pennsylvania racers another shot at a hefty payday before the end of the season.
The race honors racing legend Lou Blaney, who won more than 600 races in his dirt-track career. Blaney died of Alzheimer’s in 2009. He is the father of sprint car racing Hall of Famers Dave and Dale Blaney and the grandfather of NASCAR Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney.
Dash: Investigation
The FBI raided Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing’s Zionsville, Ind., headquarters on Wednesday as part of an “ongoing investigation.”
“We are cooperating fully with investigators,” the team said in a statement to the IndyStar. “Given that this is an ongoing investigation, we are limited in what information we can share right now. But we intend to provide additional information as soon as we can.”
Rahal Letterman Racing fields cars in the NTT IndyCar Series and the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship.
We’re all waiting to learn more.
B Main: What A Year
California sprint car driver Corey Day has had quite a year.
The 18-year-old second-generation racer has traveled the country with a national series for the first time and won 13 features along the way, racing primarily with High Limit Racing.
In July, he saw Ohio’s Eldora Speedway for the first time. Last night he got his first laps at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, doing double duty in ARCA Menards Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series competition.
With HendrickCars.com supporting his venture into stock car racing, the son of Ronnie Day appears headed for a career on pavement. Day will make three more Truck Series starts this season and likely be a full-time stock car racer in 2025.
Day finished 18th in Thursday’s Truck Series race and seventh in the ARCA main event. Day now heads back to Eldora for a pair of High Limit events during the 4-Crown Nationals
Feature: Quest For Four
Last September, Logan Seavey won all three USAC races during the 4-Crown Nationals at Ohio’s Eldora Speedway, joining Jack Hewitt (1998) and Kyle Larson (2011) as the only drivers to accomplish the feat. Hewitt, of course, won all four races, also winning that night’s UMP modified feature.
Seavey will attempt to win all four races during Saturday’s 42nd running of the event. He’ll drive the Landon Simon Racing winged sprint car in High Limit Racing action, while piloting his familiar Abacus Racing mounts in the Silver Crown, sprint car and midget classes.
Only seven previous drivers have started all four 4-Crown features in a single night. Jack Hewitt did it eight times. Dave Darland ran all four three times. Brady Bacon, Tracy Hines and Tyler Courtney did it twice. Tony Stewart (1995) started all four divisions’ main events as did Seavey (2022).