Bergman also began mentoring Garet Williamson, helping the Missouri driver get pointed in the right direction. Teamed with Bryant Paver Motorsports this year, Bergman enters the season eighth in all-time feature starts with 337 to his credit. That‘s the most of all current full-time National Tour drivers. Bergman has earned 14 wins, 95 top-five efforts and 195 top-10 finishes.
Williamson, meanwhile, will continue his partnership with Bergman and Bryant Paver Motorsports. Williamson qualified for 13 features last year and finished in the top 10 three times.
Increasing his consistency with nearly every outing the past two years, South Dakota‘s Ryan Bickett made his presence known last season. Making the cut in 32 of the 41 features, using very few provisionals and scoring 13 top-10 finishes last season, Bickett returns to the familiar No. 17b sprint car this year.
Having to take time away near the midpoint of the season after suffering a back injury, Scott Bogucki will return to the series, but he‘ll move out of the No. 28 and back into his own No. 84 sprint car. He has primarily run the No. 84, which was his grandfather‘s car number, since he was a child.
The most successful Australian to compete full time with the National Tour, the McLaren Vale shoe has 120 features starts, eight wins, 34 top-five finishes and 64 top-10 efforts to his credit.
One of the largest field of drivers to chase the Brodix National Rookie of the Year, will see six drivers contest the ASCS National Tour for the first time.
While far from a rookie sprint car driver, Kansas racer Jason Martin will tackle the National Tour for the first time. Racing whenever possible since 2001, Martin has been a top runner nearly every time he‘s rolled into the track. Wheeling the BM Racing No. 36, Martin has made 79 starts with the series, winning three times and collecting 40 top-10 finishes.
A graduate of the NOW600 ranks, Brandon Anderson made quick strides in sprint cars over the past season. Having contended for National Tour victories and won the ASCS Sooner Region title, Anderson will contest the full aboard the family-owned No. 55b.
Another driver moving up from micro sprints is Missouri‘s Chase Porter, who will put his Porter Steel Buildings No. 2 on the road for the first time. Working on his 12th year of racing, this year will mark his full season wheeling a sprint car.
A third-generation driver out of Kansas, 18-year-old Kyler Johnson was already going to run most of the schedule, but after looking at the layout, the team decided to go ahead and contest the full circuit.
The son of six-time NCRA champion C.J. Johnson and grandson of sprint car racers Jon Johnson and Dennis Park, Kyler Johnson driving the No. 45x has been successful in United Rebel Sprint Series and midget competition over the past several seasons, while competing in ASCS events here and there.
Racing with the United Sprint Car Series last season, Landon Britt moves to the Lucas Oil American Sprint Car Series this year. Scoring two wins with the southeastern tour last year, his 18 starts included 10 top-five finishes and 15 top-10 results. A go-kart graduate, Britt, who is an HVAC Technician, began racing sprint cars in 2018 with the Panchos 305 Winged Sprints at Riverside International Speedway in Arkansas. He graduated to 360 sprint cars the following season.
Behind the wheel of a sprint car 32 times last year, with a mix of National Tour, OCRS and ASCS Regional races, Oklahoma‘s Dylan Postier is gearing up to make a run at the rookie-of-the-year title. Another driver who has picked up a lot of speed over the past season, Postier will bring his own No. 10 sprinter on the road.
With 13 drivers set to chase the full tour schedule and another handful who will run a part-time schedule, the series will embark on 57 races throughout the Central and Mountain time zones, with the champion taking home a $50,000 check.
It‘s a return to what was once the normal schedule for the American Sprint Car Series and while there will be bumps in the road and some growing pains that come with a new owner/director, the plan for the American Sprint Car Series remains the same — to grow and preserve sprint car racing.
That much will never change.