INDIANAPOLIS — Circle City Raceway is the homestead for USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship racing this Friday night, September 12, for round 37 of the season.
C.J. Leary’s lone victory of the USAC National Sprint Car season came at Circle City Raceway back on July 30 during Indiana Sprint Week. Leary wired all 30 laps while fending off a hard-charging Mitchel Moles for the win on the final lap.
It’s been a mixed bag of results for Leary in the sprint car of late. A particularly strong August was interrupted by a subdued past weekend in which he finished 13th and 10th in his two outings.
Leary is among the rare multi-time USAC National Sprint Car winners at Circle City, having also pocketed a victory there back in 2022. In 2023, the Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian Racing No. 21az he drives was victorious at Circle City with Jake Swanson at the wheel.
Speaking of Jake Swanson, last weekend, he came oh-so-close to picking off his first USAC Sprint Car win as a driver/owner, scoring a runner-up result at Lucas Oil Speedway behind Justin Grant.
Swanson was a winner with USAC at Circle City, and this past July, was a 6th place finisher there. He has never strayed too far from the front at CCR, also collecting a third in 2021 and a second in 2023.
Swanson is also one of just four drivers to start all 11 previous USAC National Sprint Car events at Circle City along with C.J. Leary, Chase Stockon and Robert Ballou.
Moles is due for a win.
He’s practically done everything there is to do this season except stand in victory lane. In fact, he’s finished 23 of his last 24 USAC National Sprint Car starts inside the top-10, a span which also includes 12 top-five results.
In July at Circle City, he came within a car length of notching his first win of the year. He also owns the Circle City USAC one-lap track record of 11.819 seconds, set in 2022. This Friday presents as good of a shot as any for a Moles breakthrough.
For Kyle Cummins and Logan Seavey, the similarities between the two are quite striking. This Friday, one or the other could become the winningest USAC National Sprint Car driver at Circle City.
Both drivers each own three career series victories over the years at Circle City. Between the two, they’ve also won each of the past two autumn USAC National Sprint Car races at Circle City with Seavey scoring in 2023 and Cummins in 2024.
Cummins is the current USAC National Sprint Car point leader. Seavey is the defending USAC National Sprint Car champion. Cummins and Seavey both own a single runner-up finish at Circle City. Both drivers’ Circle City résumees also include four top fives and six top 10s.
Justin Grant now has a view from the top. Last Saturday, he became the winningest driver in USAC National Sprint Car history, surpassing Dave Darland with his 63rd score.
In his past four series starts, Grant has finished third, first, fourth and first. He’s also doing all of this basically on one leg after breaking his left foot in a crash in late July.
Circle City hasn’t been all that kind to Grant over the years. In 10 career series starts there, he has an average finish of 12.1. In July, he was absent from the event due to the aforementioned injury.
The race for USAC National Sprint Car MPI Rookie of the Year honors has tightened considerably after last week’s pair of events.
Hayden Reinbold’s lead over Gunnar Setser in the rookie department has shrunk from 49 to 15 in the blink of an eye.
In a small sample size from July’s round at Circle City, Reinbold got the slight upper hand, finishing seventh while Setser was one spot behind in eighth.
