The nearly unanimous fear is faltering right out of the box. Courtney, capturing this sentiment, said, “When you start out bad, you are probably going to run bad the whole week unless you can figure something out quickly. You hope you are on a hot streak and can take advantage of it. It’s a long and grueling week, and even longer this year. It’s tough mentally and it is tough physically because it comes at a time of year when it is super hot in Indiana.”
A perfect example of what can go awry occurred during the 2017 season. Justin Grant entered Sprint Week with a reasonably comfortable lead in the USAC standings. Then things went south in a hurry.
“We had a heck of a year two seasons ago,” Grant recalled. “But we had a bad Sprint Week and came up short at the end.”
It isn’t difficult for Grant to remember how frustrating it was.
“During regular weeks of racing, you get a few days to reset and think about what is going wrong, what you are going to fix and how you are going to improve,” Grant explained. “During Sprint Week, you don’t get that time to reset. On the other hand, if it is going good, it’s really good and you don’t want to stop and lose that momentum.”
While it can be a trying time, some, like Windom, always seem to thrive on USAC’s longer tours.
“We seem to jell when we have several races in a row,” Windom said. “I don’t get caught up in points racing to be honest. I just try to be smart and not put myself in bad positions, especially if you’re on those four- and five-day stints. As long as you can roll it into the trailer and get a top three or four every night, you’re doing all right.”
Not lost on the competitors is the prestige that comes with being a Sprint Week champion and claiming one of the now iconic custom-made rocking chairs at the finale. Thomas Jr. has enjoyed that moment and he doesn’t hide his desire to repeat the accomplishment.
“It does matter to me,” he said. “I won it in 2017 and when you come here to race with USAC you want to win it. Not many people have done it more than one time and I want to be one of those guys. It’s tough, but I think we have a good game plan, but things have to go your way. Just one bad night or one part failure can ruin it.”
Underscoring just how much is at stake, Thomas admitted, “I’m not the most pleasant to be around during Sprint Week. I take it real seriously. It’s my job and it is what I do every day. You bundle that up in seven or eight nights, and I’m not that chipper. It is so hard to run consistently for that long, but there is always someone who is going to do it among the top three guys, so you have to be prepared.”
If today’s drivers are looking for the proper approach to this eight-race grind, they can easily turn to Levi Jones, USAC’s racing director. Jones, a four-time Sprint Week champion, offers what may seem like counterintuitive advice.
“First, you can’t treat it like Sprint Week,” Jones said. “You can’t get all amped up. You have to think of it as a handful of races that are run consecutively. You don’t worry about the second free throw if you don’t make the first one.”
Nonetheless, Jones understands why so many of those under his watch grip so tight and harbor a burning desire to come out on top.
“It’s when the lights are the brightest. There are lots of people in the stands from many places, so you want to perform your best when the stage is the biggest,” Jones explained. “It is such a neat week, because all you are thinking about is racing. Everyone is focused on the same goal, so if you win it you feel like you accomplished a lot. It is a points championship within a points championship, and here you compete against a lot of guys. Everybody is there. Because of that, for me, it was a pretty big feather in my cap to be able to win it.”
When Evans was at the helm of Kokomo Speedway, nothing gave him a greater sense of satisfaction than seeing his parking lot full of campers and hosting visitors from afar. As Indiana Sprint Week has grown, a veritable village of nomads wanders from track to track in hopes of seeing a little magic.
For many of the venues that are a part of the tour, this is the biggest date of the year. For the men and women who lay it all on the line night after night, championship hopes may rise and fall, and at hand is the chance to add an item to their racing résumé in bold relief.
Summing it all up for his peers, Courtney gets right to the heart of the matter when he admits, “We all want that rocking chair.”