INDIANAPOLIS – Off days don’t particularly exist in the racing world at any level. The downtime is spent actively pondering, maintaining and generally getting prepared for the battles that lie ahead.
These ongoing two days between races lead straight to the pit gate of Indianapolis, Indiana’s Circle City Raceway on Wednesday night, June 8, for round four of USAC Indiana Midget Week (IMW) for the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship.
Storylines are aplenty leading into the second half of IMW with three races in the books and four on the road ahead Wednesday at Circle City, Thursday at Lincoln Park Speedway, Friday at Gas City I-69 Speedway and Saturday at Kokomo Speedway for the finale.
Number one is Indiana Midget Week point leader Buddy Kofoid and if he can continue an unmatched run of success in the event thus far with victories in the first two rounds at Bloomington Speedway and Lawrenceburg Speedway, followed by a 2nd place result in the most recent fight at Tri-State Speedway.
Kofoid was a contender on the cusp of the top-five in last year’s Circle City event before a rare mishap in which he spun and was relegated to the back before finishing a disappointing 19th, by far his least favorable result during his 2021 Indiana Midget Week title campaign.
Thomas Meseraull stopped Kofoid’s overall four-race USAC National Midget winning streak with a stirring drive to victory on Sunday at Tri-State. Meseraull was running 6th near the midway point of Circle City’s IMW show a year ago before an incident took him out of contention and back to a 12th place finish. Meseraull picked up a sprint car win at Circle City just over a month ago on May 1.
Justin Grant has been a contender all year long and is 2nd in both the USAC National Midget and Indiana Midget Week points. He was fuming during the latter stages of last Sunday’s event at Tri-State when a late-race incident while battling for second took him out of contention for the win. This Wednesday, he’ll try to rectify that along with his 21st place result at Circle City’s Indiana Midget Week feature last year.
Brady Bacon is running a part-time IMW schedule, but has checked the box for Circle City to be among his appearances this Wednesday night at Circle City. Bacon owns the one-lap track record for both the USAC National Midgets and USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Cars. His time of 12.869 in the midget is the mark they’ll be chasing. Among returning participants, he finished the best with a 3rd in the inaugural 2021 event, and he also claimed a victory at the quarter-mile dirt oval with the Midwest Sprint Car Series during IMW last year.
Brenham Crouch earned his first career top-five result and his best career series finish at Circle City in 2021 with a 5th after starting 12th. Kyle Cummins ran 5th at Circle City with the midget in 2021 and has been impressive in the first half of 2022 IMW with three top-nine finishes and two top-tens.
Logan Seavey overcame a cold start in last year’s race before charging from 22nd to 7th and earned hard charger honors for the evening. The 2018 USAC National Midget champion and 2019 Indiana Midget Week king is seeking a more favorable second leg of IMW as he now stands 18th in points for the mini-series.
Tanner Thorson put himself in victory lane at Circle City with the USAC National Sprint Cars in late 2021. The 2016 USAC National Midget champ zipped from 16th to 8th in IMW a year ago and has plans to compete in the final four IMW events this week in a second car for Tom Malloy as a teammate to Seavey.
Jerry Coons Jr. is in for the final four races of Indiana Midget Week as well aboard the Central Motorsports No. 85. The 2006-07 USAC National Midget champion and 2007 IMW top dog owns 63 career Indiana Midget Week starts and stands first all-time in that category. He scored a 10th place finish at Circle City in 2021.
Shane Cottle is one of four past USAC Indiana Midget Week champions in Circle City’s lineup. The 2005-06 champ will be joined by Coons, Seavey and Kofoid. Circle City will mark his first midget appearance at the track following a 6th place USAC National Sprint Car showing there in September of 2021.
Returning to the Circle City lineup after competing last year is Bryant Wiedeman, who started off the season with seven-straight top-10 USAC National Midget finishes and resided 5th place driver in the current IMW points. The 2021 POWRi Midget champ finished 15th a year ago.
Also on the list is Kaylee Bryson who continues her pursuit to become the first woman to win a USAC National Midget feature as is teammate Taylor Reimer. The two finished 17th and 18th, respectively, at Circle City in 2021.
Sam Johnson, Cannon McIntosh (23rd) and Jason McDougal (24th) are back for a bit of redemption after subpar finishes not to their liking during their last midget outings at Circle City.
Chance Crum nearly pulled off his first career USAC National Midget feature victory in last Friday’s IMW opener at Bloomington. He scored a USAC Regional Midget win in July of 2021 at Circle City.
The field is chock full of first-time Circle City midget racers, some of whom are eying first feature starts at the track after missing out on transfer spots in their last try last June: Ethan Mitchell, Hayden Reinbold, Blake Brannon and Travis Buckley.
Jacob Denney, a two-time USAC Midwest Thunder SpeeD2 Midget champ in 2020-21, snagged a victory with the series in August of 2021 and finished 3rd in September of that same season. He scored two top-eight finishes during the first half of IMW last week.
Top series rookie Mitchel Moles will make his first Circle City run as will CB Industries teammates Jade Avedisian, Jace Park and Dominic Gorden. Cade Lewis, Badger Midget champion Chase McDermand as well as BCRA Midget champs Maria Cofer and Robert Carson in a car owned by Don O’Keefe.
Multi-time POWRi champ and USAC National Midget winner Zach Daum is back on the trail for Circle City for what could be his milestone 50th career Indiana Midget Week start (2nd all-time) along with Bryan Stanfill, who was 4th in a USAC Midwest Regional Midget feature last July and is joined by his Australian teammate Mike Griffiths. Fellow countryman and Australian Speedcar champ Kaidon Brown will resume action with Keith Kunz/Curb-Agajanian Motorsports, who will also field an entry for series full-time and rookie Mariah Ede.
Rylan Gray, who made his first career USAC National Midget feature start last Friday, at Bloomington will make his IMW return to Circle City. Meanwhile, Alex Nalon, great grandson of 1938 East Coast AAA Sprint car champion and 1949 & 1951 Indianapolis 500 pole sitter Duke Nalon, will make his USAC National Midget debut at Circle City.
Wednesday’s Indiana Midget Week events features the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship as well as Jonathan Byrd’s 410 Sprint Cars.