OCALA, Fla. — Brady Bacon was back in victory lane Thursday night at the conclusion of the 30-lap USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship event at Ocala Speedway.
But he was in a ride unfamiliar to the fans, the Concord American Flagpole No. 20.
With Bacon running a mixed schedule of USAC and winged sprint races this season, he parked his own car and jumped into the Pennsylvania based car owned by Trans-Am road racing kingpin Chris Dyson and wrenched by former racer Sean Michael. He struggled in the opener but was the class of the field in round two of the Winter Dirt Games.
Just like the night before, Daison Pursley blasted to the lead off the outside of the front row with the polesitter, in this case Bacon, dropping in behind him. Wednesday winner Justin Grant lined up sixth but got a great start and was fourth on lap one and a distant third when the lap counter hit five.
By lap 11 Pursley and Bacon were in lapped traffic, with Bacon turning up the wick and a couple laps later was right on Pursley’s mount exiting turn two. He hit turn three hard, was even down the frontstretch and had the lead coming off turn two again.
“I gave another one away in traffic,” offered Pursley, who suffered the same fate at Grant’s hands 24 hours earlier. “I’m just not good enough in traffic yet. The track widened out and was great but Brady was better where it counted.”
The first caution came on lap 25, with Englishman Tom Harris coasting to a stop, and at that point the finish was pretty well set with Grant, Mitchel Moles and Kyle Cummins third through fifth.
With Harris retrieved, green returned and while Pursley rode the high side in the first turn, he could not carry enough momentum to break Bacon’s stride and dropped in behind again.
Ricky Lewis then drew another yellow with a flat with three to go, setting the stage for the evening’s most spectacular crash. On the first lap after the restart, Kale Drake got too high and rode out a vicious flip off the turn one concrete. That made three flips on the night, with Kayla Roell going over in her heat and Kyle Jones taking another hard ride in the semi.
With order restored, Bacon again withstood Pursley’s outside move on the restart and led Pursley and Grant to the checkers.
Moles was fourth ahead of Cummins, 12th-starting Jake Swanson, third-starting Logan Seavey, C.J. Leary, Carson Garrett and Kevin Thomas Jr.
“I’ve had a lot of laps here at Ocala,” offered Bacon. “It was just like when Justin got him last night in traffic. One and two are fast and three and four are tricky, so you have to know how to set someone up.
“The track was slicker tonight, which makes it easier to get to the front. Hopefully it will keep going that way tomorrow and Saturday.”
Grant turned the two fastest laps of the night, earning fast time with a lap of 13.911 seconds. As for the feature, he tipped that he “wasn’t as happy running third instead of first. We paced those guys but need to get better when it’s slick.”
USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship, Ocala Speedway, Ocala, Fla., Feb. 13, 2025
HONEST ABE ROOFING QUALIFYING: 1. Justin Grant, 4, TOPP-13.911, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3p, Petty-14.096, 3. Mitchel Moles, 19AZ, Reinbold/Underwood-14.138, 4. C.J. Leary, 21AZ, Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian-14.151, 5. Logan Seavey, 57, Abacus-14.211, 6. Daison Pursley, 86, CBI-14.226, 7. Brady Bacon, 20, Dyson-14.245, 8. Jake Swanson, 5T, Daming/Swanson-14.284, 9. Chase Stockon, 92, Sertich-14.308, 10. Carson Garrett, 15, BGE-14.340, 11. Gunnar Setser, 5G, KO-14.363, 12. Hayden Reinbold, 19, Reinbold/Underwood-14.364, 13. Kale Drake 2B, 2B Racing-14.384, 14. Kevin Thomas Jr., 3R, Rock Steady-14.472, 15. Robert Ballou, 12, Ballou-14.545, 16. Harley Burns, 16, Britt Aero-14.567, 17. Joey Amantea, 88J, JPA-14.611, 18. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 51T, Tafoya-14.631, 19. Kobe Simpson, 21K, Simpson-14.702, 20. Stevie Sussex, 5, Baldwin/Fox-14.735, 21. Mark Smith, M1, Smith-14.737, 22. Matt Goodnight, 39G, Goodnight-14.745, 23. Tom Harris, 84, Harris-14.756, 24. Ricky Lewis, 74B, Lewis-14.759, 25. Nic Harris, N2, Harris-14.809, 26. Jadon Rogers, 66, Amati-14.839, 27. Briggs Danner, 39, Hogue-15.065, 28. Kayla Roell, 4K, Roell-15.154, 29. Troy Carey, 45N, Carey-15.228, 30. Kyle Jones, 79, Hall-15.695, 31. Eddie Vancil, 7v, Vancil-16.200, 32. Oliver Akard, 32, Rase-NT.
ROD END SUPPLY FIRST HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Joey Amantea, 2. Kale Drake, 3. Mark Smith, 4. Justin Grant, 5. Logan Seavey, 6. Troy Carey, 7. Nic Harris, 8. Chase Stockon. 1:56.629
CAR IQ SECOND HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Carson Garrett, 2. Kyle Cummins, 3. Daison Pursley, 4. Eddie Tafoya Jr., 5. Kevin Thomas Jr., 6. Jadon Rogers, 7. Matt Goodnight, 8. Kyle Jones. 1:57.567
K1 RACEGEAR THIRD HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Kobe Simpson, 2. Tom Harris, 3. Brady Bacon, 4. Mitchel Moles, 5. Briggs Danner, 6. Gunnar Setser, 7. Eddie Vancil, 8. Robert Ballou. 1:58.787
HOOSIER TIRE FOURTH HEAT: (8 laps, top-5 transfer to the feature) 1. Stevie Sussex, 2. Ricky Lewis, 3. Harley Burns, 4. Hayden Reinbold, 5. Jake Swanson, 6. C.J. Leary, 7. Kayla Roell. NT
ELLIOTT’S CUSTOM TRAILERS & CARTS SEMI: (12 laps, top-4 transfer to the feature) 1. Gunnar Setser, 2. C.J. Leary, 3. Robert Ballou, 4. Jadon Rogers, 5. Chase Stockon, 6. Nic Harris, 7. Matt Goodnight, 8. Troy Carey, 9. Eddie Vancil, 10. Kyle Jones, 11. Oliver Akard. NT
FEATURE: (30 laps, starting positions in parentheses) 1. Brady Bacon (1), 2. Daison Pursley (2), 3. Justin Grant (6), 4. Mitchel Moles (4), 5. Kyle Cummins (5), 6. Jake Swanson (12), 7. Logan Seavey (3), 8. C.J. Leary (11), 9. Carson Garrett (7), 10. Kevin Thomas Jr. (16), 11. Briggs Danner (24), 12. Robert Ballou (17), 13. Joey Amantea (8), 14. Hayden Reinbold (14), 15. Jadon Rogers (23), 16. Stevie Sussex (10), 17. Harley Burns (18), 18. Gunnar Setser (13), 19. Eddie Tafoya Jr. (19), 20. Tom Harris (21), 21. Kobe Simpson (9), 22. Kale Drake (15), 23. Ricky Lewis (22), 24. Mark Smith (20). NT
