INDIANAPOLIS — There’s nothing finer than Indy in the month of May.
But while the NTT IndyCar Series competitors prepare for 500 miles on the other side of the city at IMS, a different breed of open wheel racing will be slinging dirt at Circle City Raceway, located on the southeast side of Indy.
The USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship takes on the quarter-mile CCR bullring for 40 laps this Thursday night, May 21, for $10,000-to-win at the Circle City Salute Presented by Desnuda Organic Tequila.
SALUTE TO THE WINNERS
Four Circle City Salute races have produced four different winners.
While Mother Nature officially won the 2025 round, it was Jake Swanson and Kyle Cummins who raced to victory on back-to-back nights back in 2023. In the Spring of 2024, it was Brady Bacon and Logan Seavey who traded turns by winning each of the two nights.
Of that group, Swanson, Cummins and Seavey are expected to compete on Thursday.
As far as Seavey and Cummins, the past two USAC National Sprint Car champions are both tied as the winningest USAC National Sprint Car drivers of all-time at Circle City. Each driver possesses three CCR USAC wins apiece.
SENSATIONS
Last weekend, C.J. Leary became the new Ironman of USAC National Sprint Car racing after making his 328th consecutive feature start dating back to the 2017 season.
Over the years, Circle City has been very kind to C.J. He’s been the winner of a pair of USAC National Sprint Car features at the track in 2022 and 2025, both during Indiana Sprint Week.
Justin Grant scored his first Circle City USAC National Sprint Car win last September in a 30-lap race that featured five different lead changes. Grant led the last half of the bunch, leading the final 15 laps en route to victory.
Kevin Thomas Jr. was one of the early winners in the history of Circle City Raceway, scoring the September USAC National Sprint Car round there in 2022.
RUM SUCCESS
Reinbold-Underwood Motorsports won the very first Circle City USAC National Sprint Car feature back in 2021 with Tanner Thorson at the helm.
Since 2022, Mitchel Moles has been the pilot off the team’s No. 19az, and has reeled off four career fast qualifying awards at Circle City, including a one-lap USAC track record run of 11.819 seconds in 2022, which still stands today.
This Thursday, Moles and RUM are vying for their first Circle City USAC win together after finishing as the runner-up in both of their series starts there in 2025.
DENNEY’S DEBUT
Jacob Denney’s first start in a sprint car resulted in a feature victory, and it came right at Circle City this past April as he led the final seven laps to gain the win in Midwest Thunder 410 Sprint Car competition.
Now, Denney will make his first USAC National Sprint Car appearance at the very same track this Thursday night with the very same team – the Team AZ/Curb-Agajanian Racing No. 21az – a car which has won twice with USAC at Circle City with Jake Swanson in 2023 and C.J. Leary in 2025.
Of note, the last driver to win in his first USAC National Sprint Car start was Tanner Swanson at Indiana’s Anderson Speedway in 2008. The last driver to accomplish the feat on dirt was Tony Jones at Indiana’s Terre Haute Action Track in 1999.
Denney is one of the premier drivers on the USAC NOS Energy Drink Midget National Championship tour, and currently ranks as the series point leader after winning in April at the Kokomo Grand Prix.
HEY TONIGHT!
Cale Coons made his USAC National Sprint Car debut at Circle City in 2024, but in September 2025, he returned to win a Midwest Thunder 410 Sprint Car main event at Circle City. This Thursday, USAC’s leading National Sprint Car Rooke aims for his first series win.
Over the past two seasons, Jadon Rogers has won three Midwest Thunder 410 Sprint Car features at Circle City. Ricky Lewis has picked up four scores of his own at Circle City in 2024-2025 between local, Midwest Thunder 410 and BOSS competition. Robert Ballou got one at CCR in early 2024 as did Shane Cottle in 2025.
Zack Pretorius performed likewise, winning twice at Circle City in 2024-2025, once each with BOSS and the Midwest Thunder 410 Sprint Cars.
