SPEEDWAY, Ind. —Two of USAC’s most oft-visited dirt tracks are on the USAC AMSOIL Sprint Car National Championship slate this weekend.
Both of which present some of the fastest and most exhilarating racing action of the season.
Lawrenceburg Speedway’s three-eighths-mile oval presents the third annual Justin Owen Memorial on Saturday, April 11. The Terre Haute Action Track’s half-mile oval showcases the series for the 23rd running of the Jim Hurtubise Classic on Sunday, April 12.
ONE-TWO-GRANT
Eleven of Justin Grant’s 67 USAC National Sprint Car victories have come at the two tracks on this weekend’s docket – Lawrenceburg (7) and Terre Haute (4).
The Ione, California, native is the defending winner of the Justin Owen Memorial. Furthermore, he’s the most recent USAC National Sprint Car winner at Terre Haute last Fall.
Additionally, he’s also the winner of the two most recent series races, scoring at Florida’s Ocala Speedway in February and again at Illinois’ Red Hill Raceway last weekend.
His seven career USAC National Sprint Car wins at Lawrenceburg are tied with Dave Darland for the most all-time of any driver. He also owns four USAC National Sprint Car wins at Terre Haute, including the Hurtubise Classic in 2019.
DOWN BUT NOT OUT
Last week, Robert Ballou experienced an accident with a grinder that sliced open one of his wrists that required stitches. During last weekend’s feature at Red Hill, he felt the pain but still led 12 laps and finished fourth for his best result of the year thus far.
With another week of healing, the Rocklin, California, racer is geared up to take on a pair of tracks in which he was won USAC races at.
Ballou has won three USAC National Sprint Car features in his career at Terre Haute, including the 2015 Hurtubise Classic. He reigned triumphant at Lawrenceburg back in 2011.
OWNING BOTH PLACES
Speaking of winning USAC National Sprint Car main events at both Lawrenceburg and Terre Haute, there are six drivers in this weekend’s field who meet that criteria: Justin Grant, Kevin Thomas Jr., Logan Seavey, Chase Stockon, Robert Ballou and C.J. Leary.
Grant owns 11 series wins between the two places (7 at Terre Haute & 4 at Lawrenceburg). Thomas Jr. possesses eight (6 at Lawrenceburg & 2 at Terre Haute). Seavey has seven (5 at Lawrenceburg & 2 at Terre Haute).
Stockon’s first two USAC National Sprint Car wins came at these two tracks. He has five victories between the two joints (4 at Terre Haute & 1 at Lawrenceburg). For Ballou, it’s four (1 at Lawrenceburg & 3 at Terre Haute). It’s three for Leary (2 at Lawrenceburg & 1 at Terre Haute).
BURG, BUT NO HAUTE
On the flip side, there are two more drivers who’ve experienced USAC National Sprint Car victory lane at Lawrenceburg, but a win at Terre Haute has eluded them thus far: Kyle Cummins and Briggs Danner.
Cummins has won twice with USAC at Lawrenceburg in his career, including last Fall. Meanwhile, Danner has one from late in the 2024 season.
At Terre Haute, Cummins has twice finished as the runner-up with USAC in 2021 and 2023, and has finished on the podium on another two occasions in 2024 and 2025. He did win at Terre Haute with the Midwest Sprint Car Series in 2021.
Thus far, Danner’s best Terre Haute performance has come with the USAC Silver Crown in a fourth-place run in 2025. His best USAC Sprint Car run so far at T.H.A.T. was an eighth in 2024.
Cummins and Danner are vying for their first USAC National Sprint Car wins of the year this coming weekend. Cummins enters on a streak of five consecutive top-five finishes while Danner had his best run of the year, a third, last Friday at Red Hill.
HONORING OWEN
Saturday’s third annual Justin Owen Memorial is a special one, honoring the life and memory of the driver who died in a qualifying crash during the April 2023 USAC event at Lawrenceburg.
The 26-year-old Owen was the 2022 sprint car track champion at Lawrenceburg, scoring two feature wins en route to the title at the three-eighths-mile dirt oval in southeastern Indiana where he’d long been a regular competitor for several seasons.
Among his greatest achievements were a victory in the season-closing Dick Gaines Memorial at Lawrenceburg in 2022. With USAC, Owen made two feature starts, both at Lawrenceburg in 2019 and 2021.
For Saturday, $8,004 will be up for grabs to the feature winner and $804 to start. Bonus money has also been added to the purse courtesy of friends, family, sponsors, donations and T-shirt sales.
Shawn Westerfeld will be on hand to compete in the event as the driver of the Fischesser-Owen Racing No. 4j, the same team with which Owen drove for.
THE INCREDIBLE HERK
It’s been five years since the last Jim Hurtubise Classic was held. Between 1990-2021, it was an annual occurrence at the Terre Haute Action Track.
The race honors the late, great Hurtubise, the 1993 National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and 2015 USAC Hall of Fame inductee who achieved what seemed nearly impossible, winning five consecutive USAC National Sprint Car feature events at Terre Haute between 1960 and 1962.
Hurtubise, of North Tonawanda, N.Y., stood the racing world on its ears in 1960 when he flirted with the 150-mph barrier at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway where he was that year’s Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year.
Hurtubise was the last driver to wheel a front-engine car at the Indianapolis 500 in 1968. A spectacular sprint car racer, he won 14 USAC features and was also an accomplished stock car racer, having won the 1966 Atlanta 500 NASCAR Cup race.
Rusty McClure, who captured his one and only career USAC National Sprint Car victory during the 1992 Jim Hurtubise Classic at the Terre Haute Action Track, will serve as the grand marshal.
