KNOXVILLE, Iowa — Brady Bacon notched USAC win No. 61 on Friday, putting him just one shy of Dave Darland, who sits atop the all-time AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car list.
The victory came on night one of the Avanti Windows and Doors Corn Belt Clash at the Knoxville Raceway, and was worth $9,000.
Chase Stockon led early in the 25-lap USAC main event, ahead of Brady Bacon, Briggs Danner, Kevin Thomas Jr. and R.J. Johnson. Johnson and Thomas had the best early racing action, exchanging fourth place twice before lap seven was complete. Robert Ballou entered the top five on lap nine.
Up front, the lead trio stayed nose to tail for the majority of the race, entering lapped traffic at the halfway point. Slight miscues led to great racing. Danner shot around Bacon for second on lap 17 with a pass high in turn two, but Bacon came back on the low side of the same corner to recapture the spot two laps later.
Bacon stayed on the leader, and performed a slide job through turns three and four to pass Stockon for the point with six laps to go. The three cars stayed extremely close. Danner took advantage in lapped traffic with three to go to gain second from Stockon before a caution for debris on the frontstretch set up a green, white, checker finish.
Bacon led the rest of the way to win for the fifth time at this facility in the Dyson No. 20, ahead of Danner, Stockon, Ballou and Justin Grant.
Bacon will try to match Darland’s mark in the $15,000 to win finale here Saturday night.
“We were better than (Stockon) on the top,” said Bacon in Victory Lane. “But the bottom of two was really good, and he was a little bit better than us down there at the start of the race. It was about getting some momentum and getting a rhythm. We were getting a bit jammed up and getting up to lapped cars. I was just trying to go where he wasn’t, but Briggs was really good. He snuck by us a couple of times, and it was close on the backstretch a couple of times. This place is a chess match, and if you mess up, you pay dearly. I made a couple of mistakes, but we were able to get in the right place when it mattered. Once I was in front, I had a car to hold everyone off. We come here with a lot of confidence and with one goal…to win the race.”
“I felt more comfortable on top,” said Danner. “The bottom is hard to hit here, and we felt more comfortable on the top. We tried to keep the momentum going. I think we had a winning car, but it was the Cway things played out. Brady has won a couple races here. It’s our first time here, and we’re very happy. We’re looking forward to tomorrow.”
“We just had a couple incidences of lapped cars and judging them wrong and the wrong time,” said Stockon. “We missed the bottom in one and two. It was close (racing) you know. It sucks tasting victory there and not being able to pull it off for the guys, but we’re forever extending our notebook and we learned a lot tonight.”
Ryan Timms notched his first career win with the Randall Roofing 360 class. It followed two previous wins in the 410 class here this season.
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Knoxville Raceway, Knoxville, Iowa, May 30, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-18.442 (New Track Record); 2. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-18.523; 3. R.J. Johnson, 33p, Petty-18.719; 4. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-18.804; 5. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-18.850; 6. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-18.854; 7. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-18.918; 8. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-18.949; 9. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-18.966; 10. Ryan Bernal, 17x, Dunkel-19.005; 11. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-19.025; 12. A.J. Johnson, 93, Germar-19.041; 13. Kale Drake 2B, 2B Racing-19.124; 14. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-19.213; 15. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-19.293; 16. Logan Calderwood, 6, Ford-19.299; 17. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-19.311; 18. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-19.438; 19. Wyatt Burks, 11w, Burks-19.469; 20. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE-19.489; 21. Stevie Sussex, 2, Yeley-19.609; 22. Charles Davis Jr., 47, Davis-19.695; 23. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-19.758; 24. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-19.845; 25. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-19.854; 26. Braydon Cromwell, 4x, Boyd-19.866; 27. Glen Saville, 75, Grasmere-20.228; 28. Ben Woods, 11B, B & R-20.372; 29. Tyler Graves, T4, Graves-20.781; 30. Vinny Ward, 82, Ward-21.036; 31. Nick Marts, N3, Marts-23.286.
CAR IQ FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Justin Grant, 2. Kale Drake, 3. C.J. Leary, 4. Briggs Danner, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Gunnar Setser, 7. Stevie Sussex, 8. Tyler Graves. 2:42.677
K1 RACEGEAR SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Robert Ballou, 2. Brady Bacon, 3. Ryan Bernal, 4. Chase Stockon, 5. Charles Davis Jr., 6. Kobe Simpson, 7. Braydon Cromwell, 8. Vinny Ward. 2:44.083
USAC GEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kyle Cummins, 2. Jake Swanson, 3. R.J. Johnson, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Glen Saville, 6. Wyatt Burks, 7. Kayla Roell. NT
COOK OUT FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Carson Garrett, 2. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3. Mitchel Moles, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Logan Calderwood, 6. A.J. Johnson, 7. Ben Woods. 2:48.932
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (10 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Wyatt Burks, 2. Stevie Sussex, 3. Gunnar Setser, 4. Kobe Simpson, 5. Braydon Cromwell, 6. Tyler Graves, 7. Ben Woods, 8. Kayla Roell, 9. Vinny Ward, 10. A.J. Johnson. NT
FEATURE: (25 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (5), 2. Briggs Danner (2), 3. Chase Stockon (1), 4. Robert Ballou (8), 5. Justin Grant (7), 6. Kale Drake (15), 7. Kevin Thomas Jr. (3), 8. Kyle Cummins (9), 9. Ryan Bernal (13), 10. Jake Swanson (11), 11. C.J. Leary (6), 12. R.J. Johnson (4), 13. Mitchel Moles (12), 14. Logan Seavey (17), 15. Wyatt Burks (19), 16. Carson Garrett (10), 17. Gunnar Setser (23), 18. Stevie Sussex (20), 19. Charles Davis Jr. (21), 20. Kobe Simpson (18), 21. Hayden Reinbold (22), 22. Glen Saville (24), 23. Logan Calderwood (16), 24. Jadon Rogers (14).
