PUTNAMVILLE, Ind. – Sometimes it pays to be in the right place at the right time, and that was the case for Jake Swanson Thursday night at Lincoln Park Speedway.
Swanson took the sprint car victory during night six of USAC Indiana Midget Week by capitalizing on misfortune for early race leader and Wednesday night winner Brady Bacon.
Bacon, who stood on top of the podium one night earlier at Circle City Raceway, slowed with mechanical problems with six laps complete – eventually necessitating a caution flag as he was trapped on the bottom lane of the race track.
From there, the three-time USAC National Sprint Car Series champion exited the racing surface, leaving the field in Swanson’s hands with 19 laps to run in the 25-lap feature.
Swanson never looked back after that, leading the rest of the way and taking the win by .744 seconds over Tye Mihocko, who closed the gap in the closing stages but couldn’t get close enough to make a move.
“I was better running the cushion tonight than I have been here, but I still think I could be a lot better,” Swanson tipped in victory lane. “I don’t know if we had anything for Brady; we kind of had that one gifted to us. It may have worked out later in the race for us, but I don’t feel like my car ever really came in the way I wanted it to. If anything, I was just trying to figure out where to run off (turn) two.
“Luckily, we had enough grip to run just below (the curb) leaving the corner, and I could hit it pretty hard to where the car would take it. We’re really trying to get better for when we run here with USAC.”
Brayden Fox crossed the finish line third, followed by veterans Shane Cockrum and Zach Daum.
After a rash of cautions in the first half of the race, the final 14 laps went uninterrupted at the five-sixteenths-mile dirt oval.
The finish:
1. 5s-Jake Swanson, 2. 5t-Tye Mihocko, 3. 53-Brayden Fox, 4. 24p-Shane Cockrum, 5. 31-Zach Daum, 6. 4-Braydon Cromwell, 7. 34-Sterling Cling, 8. 47-Charles Davis Jr., 9. 33-Jake Scott, 10. 38-Chet Williams, 11. 44-Geoff Ensign, 12. 0g-Kyle Shipley, 13. 99-Alec Sipes, 14. 19c-Daniel Clodfelter, 15. 11L-Ricky Lewis, 16. 34c-Robert Carrington, 17. 16b-Harley Burns, 18. 98-Brady Bacon, 19. 27-Evan Mosley (DNS), 20. 04-A.J. Hopkins (DNS).