DUQUOIN, Ill. – The latest batch of cars competing in Saturday’s Shamrock Classic has pushed the entry list to 40 for the fifth annual NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series event at the Southern Illinois Center.
Among the latest group are Shamrock Classic veterans Thomas Chandler, Mark Chisholm, Jake Neuman, David Budres, Robert Bell and Tyler Robbins, as well as newcomer Sean Robbins.
Reigning Shamrock victor Cannon McIntosh will compete as one of four entries from the Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports team, alongside five-time series winner Zeb Wise and standout rookie-of-the-year contenders Buddy Kofoid and Daison Pursley.
Justin Grant, the 2017 Shamrock winner, will pilot a car for RAMS Racing. He captured victory one year ago with the Rick Young-owned operation during the Indiana Midget Week round at Gas City I-69 Speedway.
Reigning series champion Tyler Courtney, a seventh-place finisher in last year’s event after starting 21st, is entered.
Courtney is also a past victor in USAC midget competition at the sixth-mile indoor dirt oval, capturing the non-points special event Junior Knepper 55 in December of 2016.
Hayward Motorsports will field drivers Tanner Thorson and Gage Rucker. Thorson, the 2016 USAC National Midget champion, was victorious in the USAC season opener at Bubba Raceway Park in Ocala, Fla., in early February.
Chris Windom leads the NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series standings entering the event following a victory on the second night of the Winter Dirt Games in Ocala.
The 2016 USAC Silver Crown and 2017 National Sprint Car champion was ninth in his first career Shamrock Classic start a year ago.
Petry Motorsports has filed Shamrock Classic entries for Kevin Thomas Jr., who scored the team’s first two triumphs with the series last year at Kokomo (Ind.) Speedway and Arizona Speedway, and 2017 USAC National Midget Series Rookie of the Year Tanner Carrick.
Brady Bacon, the 2014 and 2016 USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car champion, is undefeated thus far in USAC national features in 2020, sweeping both nights of an AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car Series doubleheader at Bubba Raceway Park in in mid-February.
Bacon is one of just two drivers to have started in the feature event of all four previous editions of the Shamrock Classic, with fourth place finishes in both 2016 and 2017 serving as his best. He also took 14th in 2018 and 18th in his most recent start in 2019.
Oklahoma’s Tyler Thomas, a winner in both AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car and NOS Energy Drink National Midget competition during his career, will drive his familiar No. 91T, entered by Brian Thomas.
Among the other early Shamrock Classic midget entries is reigning NOS Energy Drink USAC National Midget Series Rookie of the Year Andrew Layser, who comes into the event off his best series result of third in Ocala. He finished eighth in his Shamrock debut in 2019.
Tyler Nelson, a USAC regional midget winner at Gas City (Ind.) I-69 Speedway in 2019 and a Shamrock Classic starter in 2018, is entered as well.
He will be joined by last year’s USAC Western States Midget titlist Robert Dalby, five-time USAC Western States Midget champion Ronnie Gardner and 2017 USAC Gulf Coast Midget champ Kyle Jones, all of whom are vying for their first Shamrock Classic starts.
To view the complete entry list, advance to the next page.