LAWRENCEBURG, Ind. — Justin Owen, who has been a competitor in the sprint car ranks for more than a decade, succumbed to injuries sustained in a qualifying crash during Saturday night’s USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship event at Indiana’s Lawrenceburg Speedway.
The remainder of the event was canceled following the incident.
The 26-year-old Harrison, Ohio, native after his car made contact with the outside wall and flipped multiple times in turn three.
Owen was the reigning track champion at Lawrenceburg Speedway, scoring two feature wins and the title last year. It was Owen’s first crown at the three-eighths-mile dirt oval in southeastern Indiana where he’d long been a regular competitor in the sprint car division for the past several seasons.
Among his greatest achievements were a victory in the season-closing Dick Gaines Memorial during his Lawrenceburg championship season last year.
Back in 2019, Owen collected three victories, one with the Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series at Pennsylvania’s Lernerville Speedway, once at Indiana’s Paragon Speedway and again at Lawrenceburg’s Night of Champions event. In 2016, he was victorious with BOSS at Lernerville.
With USAC, Owen made two feature starts, both at Lawrenceburg in 2019 and 2021.