KOKOMO, Ind. — The time has come for Chili’s Sprint Car Smackdown XV at Indiana’s Kokomo Speedway this Thursday, Friday and Saturday night.
Since Smackdown’s inaugural edition in 2012, it’s been a staple of the racing calendar, one which delivers the goods with more than 50 USAC AMSOIL National Sprint Car drivers entered for the event from all over the country and around the globe, all chasing the glory of a $30,000-plus payday on championship night and the title belt along with numerous bonuses across three-straight nights at Indiana’s baddest bullring.
Smackdown is a bucket list item for fans to attend. It’s a bucket list item for drivers and teams to win. The ever-brewing excitement is palpable, and the storylines are in abundance. Let’s hit with you some of the things to watch for the 15th installment of Sprint Car Smackdown 2026 right now.
SMACKDOWN SUCCESSES
Past final night Smackdown winners in this weekend’s field include five-time event champion Justin Grant, as well as one-time winners Kevin Thomas Jr., and Kyle Cummins, all of whom are also past Kokomo Speedway track champions.
Grant is the winningest driver in Smackdown history with 10 total wins (5 prelims and 5 final nights) and is also the winningest driver of all-time in USAC National Sprint Car competition at Kokomo with 12 victories. His miraculous drive with a broken left foot in the 2025 race gave him his third consecutive Smackdown title, and his fifth overall (2018, 2021, 2023, 2024 and 2025).
Thomas Jr. is the most recent USAC National Sprint Car winner at Kokomo, taking the Indiana Sprint Week round in July. He possesses six overall Smackdown victories, five on prelim nights, plus the 2016 finale. Interestingly, he has won the Friday prelim in four of the past five years in 2021, 2022, 2024, and 2025.
Cummins enters with a commanding 124-point lead in the season long USAC National Sprint Car standings. The defending series champion has won a pair of Smackdown prelims in 2020, then collected a dominant final night victory in 2022.
FINDING THE NEXT STEP
Six other drivers in this year’s Smackdown field have won a prelim or two but are still vying for their first career Smackdown final night triumph: two-time winner C.J. Leary (2016 and 2017), plus one-time winners Robert Ballou (2015), Chase Stockon (2015), Thomas Meseraull (2019), Logan Seavey (2019), and Briggs Danner (2025).
Leary, Ballou, and Stockon have all been close to getting that coveted final night victory. Leary finished as the runner-up in 2022. Ballou took second in 2014. Stockon performed likewise in 2015.
Seavey notched a third in the Saturday finale in both 2023 and 2025. Danner scored a sixth in 2023. Meseraull took eighth in 2020.
KNOCKIN’ ON SMACKDOWN’S DOOR
The list of potential first-time Smackdown winners – prelim or final night – is star-studded with two drivers currently residing inside the top five of the USAC National Sprint Car standings vying for a first Smackdown triumph, along with 11 of the top 20 in points.
Count Mitchel Moles and Jake Swanson in that group. Both are multi-time winners on the USAC National Sprint Car trail in 2026. Moles has garnered six wins and Swanson two. Both drivers have also previously finished as the runner-up during a Smackdown prelim. Swanson did it in 2022 and Moles followed suit in 2024. Swanson will drive a car sporting a USAC RaceAid logo, with the goal of raising awareness and funds for RaceAid throughout the weekend.
Four-time USAC National Sprint Car champion Brady Bacon has, incredibly, never won a USAC National Sprint Car race at Kokomo Speedway. On five occasions, he finished as the runner-up on his Smackdown prelim night.
Add to the mix past USAC National Sprint Car winners Trey Osborne and Jadon Rogers, plus 2025 Smackdown Rookie of the Year Cale Coons, plus a handful of drivers seeking their first USAC National Sprint Car triumph: Hayden Reinbold, Ricky Lewis, Harley Burns, Gunnar Setser, and Gavin Miller, just to name a few. Miller ran third at Kokomo in July.
POTENTIAL $50,000 PAYDAY
This weekend’s Smackdown finale will continue with Smackdown Saturday night not only being the richest USAC Sprint Car race of the year, but also the richest in the state of Indiana.
A pair of $6,000-to-win preliminary night features set the stage on Thursday and Friday, followed by the $30,000 finale on Saturday night. With $20,000 in lap leader money up for grabs, leading all 40 laps on Saturday would net a driver a $50,000 payday.
The base pay of $30,000 for winning the feature is supplemented by adding a cool $500 per each lap led throughout the course of the feature thanks to a number of sponsors who’ve made it possible. The take home pay for the winners over the past four years has been $35,000, $44,500, $35,000, and $31,000 in 2022, 2023, 2024, and 2025, respectively.
Just six years ago, the final night of Smackdown paid $10,000-to-win. By 2021, it hit $15,000. In 2022, the $15,000 winner’s share was boosted even further by an extra $20,000 in lap money.
Additionally, Smackdown XV Saturday night will pay $1,500 to start, which is the largest payout for start money on the USAC National Sprint Car calendar this season.
SMACKDOWN ROOKIES
This year’s Smackdown Rookie class looks to feature at least 13 drivers making their first ever appearance in the event.
Among the first timers for 2026 are Jacob Denney, Gavin Miller, and Jakeb Boxell, each of whom have been stalwarts of the USAC National Midget division in recent years but are relatively new to the sprint car world. In fact, Denney is a three-time USAC NOS Energy Drink National Midget feature winner at Kokomo.
Furthermore, there’s also Eli Wilhelmus, Colin Parker, Beau Brandon, Cody Trammell, Tony Helton, and Kole Kirkman, who all possess USAC National Sprint Car experience. Caleb Sheitze and Landon Butler will be making their USAC debuts. Butler is latest in the famed lineage of racers from Florida, following in the footsteps of grandfather Stan Butler, uncle Keith Butler, and father Shane Butler.
All Rookies will be shooting for the Smackdown Rookie of the Year award, which will present $1,000 to the highest finisher from this group on Saturday night courtesy of Crume-Evans Insurance.
